Across the sea in ships....
There were various routes, and their dominance depended upon enemy submarine and surface ship activity to a certain extent.
From Canada, freight destined for Australia such as Blitz trucks went mostly down the US east coast, across the Carib. and through the Panama Canal, then across the Pacific to NZ and Australia. When losses mounted to an unacceptable degree in the Carib., significant proportions of the trucks, etc were shipped by train to the US and CDN west coast, and loaded there for transit across the Pacific. All these were mostly free running voyages.
Aust and NZ products headed for Canada, USA and Britain went either across the Pacific, through the canal, across the Carib. and up the east coast, often 'free running' (not in convoy, not escorted) to US and CDN east coast ports. There, ships for GB would be allocated to a convoy for the cross-Atlantic run. Same in reverse.
Or the other route (to Britain) was west across the Great Australia Bight, then north west across the Indian Ocean to Kenya or west direct to Capetown then up the African west coast.
Losses of Blitz trucks headed for Australia were in the thousands, along with smaller numbers of aircraft. Also rifles, web equipment and other military items. Likewise, Australian goods headed for the UK, Canada and the USA had a loss rate, mostly on the Carib. and Atlantic legs of the voyages. The Pacific was not immune, but the Japanese submarine warfare was not as wide ranging/intensive as that waged by the Germans in the Atlantic and the ocean was a hell of a lot bigger. (So the Japanese tended to concentrate on choke points rather than chance encounters on the open ocean, as to a certain extent, did the Germans in the Carib.)
The CMP was made by Ford and Chev - the two dominant vehicle types on Aust roads before WW2. Both Ford Canada and GM Canada had 'parented' Australian operations in the 1920s, and had the infrastructure in place to support the assembly and rebuilding of Blitz trucks.
Mike C
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