Bundaberg cane farmer's 1968 Holden Monaro sells for $200,000 at auction

For 50 years, the car belonged to Darryl Scherer, a local second generation cane farmer, who died in late 2021.

Bill Young of the Bundaberg Auction Centre sold the car at a live auction back in late May.

The 327 Monaro was the first Monaro to ever win Bathurst and one of only two to cross the line first at the historic event.

Mr Young said after Darryl's wife died in 2006, he moved to a small farm on the edge of Bundaberg.

"He bought this car in 1968 when it was made and at that time it was just treated as a family car," Mr Young said.

"His wife used it to drive the kids to school and people have pictures of it towing irrigation pipes around the cane paddock.

"After his wife passed, he backed the car into his shed, with the plan to restore it but sadly he never got around to it.

"After he died, his family approached us to auction off the contents in his shed and we found the Monaro covered in old corn bags with a vinyl cool liner over the top of it."

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Mr Young said Mr Scherer's family knew the car was in the shed, but had no idea how valuable it was.

"This model was the one that won the Bathurst race," he said.

"The paint was faded, there was minor rust.

"But another feature about the car was you didn't have to go buy anything.

"It wasn't missing a headlight, everything was there to be stripped and put back.

"It still had the original Holden Monaro manual that it was issued with in pristine condition."

Mr Young estimated the restoration costs could be around $100,000 to $150,000 to bring it back to show room condition.

"Once fully restored, this Monaro could have a market value of $600,000 to $1 million, depending on how strong the market is," he said.

"I used this line in the auction, 'if you don't buy this one today, where do you get the next one?'

"That's what was so special about the car."

Believed to be only 1000 left in the world, the Monaro attracted up to 400 enquiries from all major cities in Australia and even as far afield as Bangkok.

In the end, the car sold to Scott Tumbridge of the Sunshine Coast.