[Lynn Eades]

Tony, I suspect the Aust pattern carriers built in N.Z used Aust steel. -This is just a guess and I have no basis for it. Does Jeff Plowmans book say where it came from. I remember seeing photos of piles of finished cut steel plate at G.M. but nothing of it being rolled here in N.Z
David, I understand the Aussies had a lot of trouble with welding armour plate and it stopped production for a while, while it was sorted out. The English O.P. carriers were welded with stainless electrodes. I realize that we are probably talking a different sort of armour plate, but technology has moved along a lot and I think you will find stainless to be your least troublesome direction to take. I,m a dummy on this subject, but I replaced a section of my hull division plate, replaced the rear panel from the guards up, replaced the sides from the guards up. All the welds to armour plate was stainless, all the rest was done with the mig. (my replacement steel is all mild steel) You would need to do some test runs, taking some advice from a good welder, as there is a range of different stainless rods for different applications.
You will have to be careful as I know the LP2/2a (N.Z.) steel is prone to cracking as Tony says. Lastly us Kiwi,s were issued with the Aussie mechanization pamphlets( manuals/partsbooks) in which they went into hull repairs, via welding. I have not seen one of these books in N.Z. with any extra notes in them saying to repair N.Z. carriers any differently.