Taken from this thread:
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=27754
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Kelly
The Ryde vehicle park would have been a sight to behold.
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The site was actually one of Sydney's oldest military landholdings, but by WW2 had been considerably reduced in size.
The land was selected in the early 1800's as a location well away from civilisation to exercise and train Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery units, and in honour of the ancient Roman establishment for the same purpose that was known as the "Field of Mars" (the God of War), the site in rural Sydney was called Marsfield.
The need to deploy troops on open fields had well and truly passed by the beginning of the 1900's, and most Corps in the newly established Australian Army had retreated to their own insular schools, so Marsfield was slowly subdivided into horticultural and cropping properties.
The Army still held approx 100ac, and it found use during WW2 as the Ryde Vehicle Ordnance Park (Ryde being the name of the area and the nearest township, some 2mi away. Today, this area is known as the suburb of Marsfield). Security would have been "in place", but not that secure that on any Sunday a 12yo boy with a slingshot and an apple in a brown paper bag couldn't have got in and wandered the rows and rows of vehicles. It's just a shame he didn't have a digital camera and notepad instead, as the vehicle types would have been amazing. And not just Dodges!