19 January 2026
An 11-year-old watching YouTube might not be uncommon, but one using the platform to learn the mechanical skills to restore a half-century-old car is award-worthy.
Bruce Rock District High School student Harry Strange defied his 11 years of age to take out the People’s Choice Award at his district’s agricultural show, having turned a rock into a diamond by restoring a rusted-out 1970s Toyota FJ45 found at the local tip.
Harry working on his Toyota. Image: De-Anne Strange of Strange Images Photography.
The accolade came after years of enjoying a passion of tip-hunting for old motors to restore at the Strange farm in Bruce Rock, a small wheatbelt town 240km east of Perth.
But the restoration of a 50-year-old LandCruiser was a challenge Harry embraced.
"I went down the tip hunting for a little engine to restore and while I was hunting around I found a 1970s FJ45 Toyota LandCruiser and I thought, 'I gotta have that,'" Harry told ABC News.
The project took about three months to complete, with Harry working on the ute under the supervision of his dad, Leigh, for about four hours a day, every day, after school.
An 11-year-old working on a 50-year-old car was not the only generational juxtaposition of the project, with Harry teaching himself the skills required to restore the vehicle by watching mechanic videos on YouTube, a platform that launched more than three decades after the Toyota had hit the road.
"He's learned a lot off YouTube over the years, a lot of different channels there, mechanical channels,” dad Leigh told ABC News.
"He was doing up stationary motors and a couple of old chainsaws I thought weren't going to run again. He got them running.
Harry with his finished video. Image: De-Anne Strange of Strange Images Photography.
"He's picked up a lot there, and then I just help him with the finishing."
The restoration effort won Harry the People’s Choice Award at the Bruce Rock and Districts Agricultural Show last September, which was a point-of-pride for the family.
"The amount of work that he has put in, probably more the fact that he's stuck with it, he hasn't got bored with it," Leigh said.
"You've been pretty determined to finish it, see it through."