Australian 5 spoke carrier wheels

[Jared Archibald]

G'day everyone,

I was recently reading a book on Australian and US involvment in the air war against Japanese forces over northern Australia and the Netherland East Indies.
I was suprised to find a image of a number of Australian carriers that were about to be loaded onto ships to be taken to Timor. This occured and the convoy set off in mid Feb 1942. It only got halfway when it came under air attack and returned to Darwin. The ships were subsequently sunk in Darwin harbour during the first enemy attack on Australian soil on the 19 Feb 1942.
In 1959-60, Japanese salvors returned and cut up the wrecks and shipped them back to Japan as scrap. There are apparently a couple of these carriers still on the bottom of the harbour which are regularly dived upon -the water is always murky so I have never seen a photo.
Anyway, if you look at the pic (although not very clear) it can be seen that this carrier has 5 spoke wheels on the bogies, but a six spoke type on the idler. This picture was taken in Jan or early Feb 1942 so the carrier couldn't be more than about a year old at the most (or much less). I always assumed that the 5 spokers were made by a later contractor and used as spares later in the war - this picture seems to refute that.
The hull on tracks I have has six of the eight road wheels as 5 spoke types also, with six spoke wheels being on the single bogies only. They seem to be fairly common in the Top End.
The book the image came from is called "Nor The Years Contemn" by J.D. Rorrison. For those interested in a really well researched and readable book on a little known facet of Australian wartime history - I recommend you obtain a copy.

Jared