Hi Ken,
I have no doubt your man was telling the truth. To answer your questions:
Did the army auction stuff to the public from local areas? It would make sense to have the people that bought the stuff carry it away rather than have to pack it up transport it to a depot and then auction it. Yes, but it was the CDC who did the actual disposal after the equipment was written off by the Army, RAAF, etc.
Would/could these local areas have been called sub parks for the purpose of a name? Yes
Did the manufacturers send buyers along to lines of trucks and bid on them, or did they send buyers along to lines of trucks check them over then offer a price to the government for a batch, or did the government say, we have say 300 trucks in Brisbane do you want them? or you will purchase them. The middle answer is correct: the CDC's second stage of the disposals policy was to offer trucks back to the original manufacturer/supplier. The buyer would assess each vehicle and either make an offer per lot, or break the lots into sub-lots based on condition and offer on each sub-lot. Any vehicles rejected/mot purchased by the manufacturer/supplier, then auctioned direct to the public.
My 3 cab 12 F60Ls were all purchased by Ford Motor Co from sub parks. Quite normal disposal process operated by the CDC.
What I am getting at is could the previous owner have bought the truck from a Ford rep after a auction? I just remembered he told me all the wooden rails in his undercover pig pens, which he showed me came from the Cecil Plains auction. Yes: saved the Ford dealer moving them if he could sell them quickly direct from the Army lot within the specified contract time for them to be removed by Ford.
Last question what would an army truck have been doing on a RAAF base anyway? Redundant (even operating), RAAF bases and any other military bases of convenience were used to accumulate equipment for disposal, so there is every possibility that an Army sub-park (ie a base area away from the unit's normal operating base) was established there for the purpose of disposal by the Commonwealth Disposals Commission. Army accumulated the gear & wrote it off, turning it over to the CDC for the actual disposal process. CDC then disposed of it according to the three stage policy: (1) offer to other govt depts (2) offer to the original manufacturer and (3) offer to the public by direct auction.
Clear as mud!
Mike
