Compiling "a history" for centenary celebrations on February 14 has been an enormous undertaking, Mr Kilgour said.

"There is so much to distract the eye in old newspapers. I've had to turn away from amazing stories of murder and the highly unusual to concentrate on the task at hand."

When Mr Kilgour took on the project he headed for old copies of the Narromine News and Trangie Advocate.

"I found all the old records were lost when the newspaper office burned down in 1924," he said.

"I started to search through the Dubbo Liberal and that was difficult with eight columns on every page, very small type and stories of different lengths."

A search through records led Mr Kilgour to the story of the NSW Minister for Mines riding through northern NSW in 1866.

He was dismayed to find people on "awful" blocks of land trying to eke out a living and not really knowing what they were doing.

"The minister decided it was important to set up a system of agricultural colleges to educate people into farming methods and research stations to look at the best ways of doing things," Mr Kilgour said.

In 1890 the Department of Agriculture was established as a sub-department of the mines portfolio.

A series of experimental farms were set up around NSW.

"Dubbo, Narromine, Trangie, even Nevertire, wanted to get the facility in this area," Mr Kilgour said.

"The government wanted a farm with red and black soils (the two most common in the region) right on the margins of wheat growing where Merino sheep and prime lambs could be produced.

"Trangie was declared the right location.

"Government reserve number 44298 was notified in 1909. This formed the original block of 816 hectares. An additional 3700 hectares from the Mullah Scrub Lease was added in 1916.

"Robert Ament was appointed farm manager in 1914. He advertised for men to come to Trangie to help start clearing the country.

"The labour exchange in Trangie was the Imperial Hotel and that is where the blokes signed on.

"The Dubbo Liberal reported the experimental farm looked like a tent city. The only 'structure' on the place was the manager's dwelling - big square hay bales with a canvas roof over the top.

"Robert Ament was from the United Kingdom and had worked for the Duke of Argyll. He came to the colonies because of his asthma.

"He contracted tetanus after injuring his foot while demonstrating how to drive a tractor on the experimental farm. He died in Trangie hospital. A few years ago I found his grave at the Bathurst cemetery."

Mr Kilgour said government minister WG Ashford wanted a wheat crop planted as soon as scrub was cleared.

The minister had a dream of members of the public seeing fields of golden grain from the railway line.

"Sowing wheat into virgin country that was something agriculture department policy was dead against," Mr Kilgour said.

"The idea was to clear the scrub and let the land lie fallow so that any rainfall remained in the soil with no vegetation to suck it up. The following year you could sow into soil with good moisture content.

"Despite misgivings the wheat was planted and it turned out to be a terrific season. The minister got his dream."

In later days people working at the experimental farm rode bicycles 10km into Trangie and back.

Mr Kilgour said they needed a piece a chain dangling from the handlebars to knock the catheads off the tyres before they hit the ground and caused a puncture.

"The farm started off with cropping research and not too long after programs involving sheep came along," he said.

"From the beginning work on the farm made a significant contribution to understanding of how to manage sheep and grow wheat."

Mr Kilgour said veterinarian Geoff Belschner played a major role in the development of research at Trangie during the 1940s.

Famous for writing the livestock "bible" Sheep Management and Diseases , Mr Belschner paid particular attention when Premier James McGirr announced 20,000 pounds would be set aside for the building of a wool research laboratory.

"The promise was made in the lead-up to an election," Mr Kilgour said

"The premier was duly re-elected but there was no action on the wool lab. Mr Belschner reminded the premier about the election promise.

"The money was provided and enabled Mr Belschner to secure a laboratory with an air conditioned room at the Trangie farm.

"Air conditioning at that time was not a common thing but Mr Belschner wanted the wool kept at the same temperature and humidity.

"Wool absorbs moisture and when stored under ambient conditions its characteristics can change.

"Mr Belschner got enough money to have a second dynamo at Trangie to get power to the research centre.

"He was also able to build a set of yards, called the Mothering Yards, which allowed precise sheep pedigree information to be collected.

"When the air conditioned room was completed (and not being used for experiments) it was 'booked' by research staff as a place to go when they had a ripping hangover."

Mr Kilgour said another memorable scientific development occurred after the farm imported cattle from Scotland and started an Angus herd at Trangie.

"Scientists started to work on ways of selecting superior sires to replace the usual practice of 'eyeballing' bulls.

"Researchers decided to measure the growth rate from weaning until 12 months to assess what happened over a three or four month period.

"They selected high line animals with a superior growth rate and compared them with a control line. In order to make maximum use of the information they also had a down line of animals with the lowest growth rate.

"The work eventually led to establishment of the Lowline Angus breed. This resulted in quite a deal of controversy when some people objected to what they regarded as dwarf cattle.

"The work put Trangie in the international spotlight for cattle research. The farm had previously generated a lot of interest in projects on flystrike in sheep."

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Mr Kilgour said the construction of Burrendong Dam and the introduction of the Trangie-Nevertire irrigation scheme brought great change in the early 1970s.

"There was new cropping and vegetable research," he said.

Mr Kilgour said the Trangie farm had experienced fire and flooding and the impact of war.

"In 1950 the research centre went under several times due to big rains," he said.

"There was major flooding again in 1955 when the Bogan and Macquarie rivers met and spilled over into a large area.

"During World War II a plan was formulated to protect aircraft. Australia had RAAF bases along the coast and concern was expressed about what the Japanese could do.

"The government decided to establish airports inland at places like Narromine, Tamworth and Tocumwal.

"Trangie was an important part of what was regarded as a back up plan. The Department of Defence took over a couple of research centre paddocks near the airport. The idea was that if an attack was impending aircraft could be flown to Trangie and dragged into the surrounding bush with camouflage nets thrown over them.

"Mounds of earth were formed in case of flooding to protect aircraft from water damage. Steel cables were installed to hold camouflage netting.

"You can still see remnants of the work today - the mounds of dirt and lengths of steel cable."

Mr Kilgour moved to Trangie in 1972 to continue research into sheep reproduction.

He left the research centre in May 2013 and lives with his wife Anmaree on an acreage near Dubbo.

"The workforce at the Trangie farm was at its peak during my time and hit 120 somewhere in the 1990s," Mr Kilgour said.

"It has declined over the years and is now around the mid 30s.

"The centre has played an important role in the Trangie district and throughout the state, nation and globe.

"Locally it has been a significant employer providing expertise and training. Workshops, field days and courses have provided education opportunities.

"The centre has also been the main feeder for rugby and cricket teams."

Mr Kilgour said his definition of science was reliable knowledge.

Throughout his working life he strived to make his data as reliable as possible.

"With historical research you can't do experiments but it is interesting to get hold of something and then look for corroborating information from different directions.

"When you find the right historical information it is real goosebumpy stuff."