Keith, that first photo of yours has to be one of the greatest concentrations of ugly I have ever seen in one place, (and i've seen recent photos of Donatella Versace) so that's saying something.
Do these qualify? Mostly disintegrated now, but once these vehicles were operating as tour vehicles, on Fraser Island, in Queensland. likely retired in late 1970s, they would have carried up to a couple of dozen tourists each, in........er......comfort?? No comfort about it. If my memory serves me correctly, I recall seeing at least one of these at work, when my family visited the island in late 60s or early 70s. Constant exposure and driving through salt water & sand didn't bode well on them.
On the island, there was a location that we stopped at where WWII commandos were trained. Certain features were still visible then, including a rotting jetty, concrete pads for ???, and a pit which was supposed to be used for some training activity. Maybe they were training to climb out of a latrine! Wouldn't have been the biggest s__t pile they operated in, thats for sure.
I tried to slip away to snoop around, but was spotted. Guess there's virtually nothing left there now. Tour guide told us it was a secret commando base, and I remember thinking it wasn't much of a secret by then.
The owner and tour operator was a friend of mine, who passed away in October. I expect these vehicles and a number of other CMPs, will have been scrapped by now.
