(Australian) ARN listing

[Douglas Greville]

Mike

That was a nice cosy arrangement for the big end of town.....

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Douglas Greville

Mike

That was a nice cosy arrangement for the big end of town.....

Yes it was !

The Willys MBs were mostly bought by the pre-war Willys dealerships i.e. Stokoe Motors in Melbourne or Dominion Motors in QLD. Carpenter Co. is one often seen buyer of jeeps in the ARN books. Who or what was Carpenter Co. ? Pre-war, Willys didn't have a large central assembly factory in Australia like Ford or GM-H did, it appears the pre-war Willys sales were handled by smaller individual firms. GM-H were making Willys car bodies but they were not distributing Willys products.

Getting back to disposals: Did these Willys dealerships/buyers (or Ford) send their representatives out to pick out the best jeeps or were they allocated individual jeeps by the CDC ? Who decided what the fate of the individual jeeps was ?

The description of jeeps is interesting: 'TOURER' is one seen.

There was a long list of jeep recipients: Some jeeps went to the NEI forces, some were transferred to the RAN during the war . What became of those ?

This Australian newspaper advert is dated August 1942 which is quite early, Dominion motors ( Sydney branch ) were looking ahead at Willys jeep sales post war.

[Mike K]

A jeep for you Doug: at Broken Hill

Some jeeps were sold to individuals. the ARN ledger does confirm this. Maybe a relative of a politician !

125772 was purchased by a Major B Cook

125792 went to Mr. Cooper

[Douglas Greville]

Mike

Excellent find Mike.

Of all the coincidences, about 30 years ago I got the last dregs of jeep parts from that station.
Highly likely that the parts I got are from this very same jeep as it would have been the one
scavenged with the unwanted bits thrown in the dirt, which is where I picked them up from.
Absolutely nothing left at that point.

From stories I was told, he had either 3 or 4 over the years. But I had missed out on the complete ones by 5 to 10 years.

How do you know the ledge confirms it, could you point me to it please?

Besides that, how the heck did you find that newspaper clipping?

Regards
Doug

[Mike K]

hi Doug

Sorry you missed the jeeps at that station !

The archived newspaper articles are available on TROVE . You can search TROVE using your own reference points. Use terms like "jeep disposals "

The individuals I found in the ARN books that had purchased a jeep, may have been representatives of organizations. We will never know the whole story I guess, it is a somewhat complicated story , how the vehicles were sold in each and every case , and the ARN books just give a little information, not enough information to fill in all of the gaps.

THE more remote locations did have CDC SALES WHERE anybody could buy a truck , places from where it wasn't economically worth it to transport the vehicles to the more populated areas.

[Douglas Greville]

Heck you are on a roll Mike. Well done.

First ad location is still a mechanic's workshop to this day!

2nd location is now incorporated into a Furniture store.

To the best of my knowledge, there were usually "major" dealers who then sold
to the little guys in towns etc who then sold to the public. The major dealer for Adelaide was "Chas F Smith",
he didn't just limit himself to jeeps however. Every armoured vehicle that came
to my area came directly from him. I have tracked the fate of every one of them,
all gone. Sigh.

Down your way, the Saxton and Heywood families purchased between them 700 tanks
and then on sold to the farmers. Years ago I visited one of the Heywoods and he told
me lots of stories about the tanks, getting them at auction, convoying them down
to Gippsland (every 2nd one was being towed) and so on.
He also had photos, no idea where they would be now.

Thanks.

Regards
Doug

[Mike K]

9

Originally Posted by Douglas Greville

Heck you are on a roll Mike. Well done.

First ad location is still a mechanic's workshop to this day!

2nd location is now incorporated into a Furniture store.

To the best of my knowledge, there were usually "major" dealers who then sold
to the little guys in towns etc who then sold to the public. The major dealer for Adelaide was "Chas F Smith",
he didn't just limit himself to jeeps however. Every armoured vehicle that came
to my area came directly from him. I have tracked the fate of every one of them,
all gone. Sigh.

Down your way, the Saxton and Heywood families purchased between them 700 tanks
and then on sold to the farmers. Years ago I visited one of the Heywoods and he told
me lots of stories about the tanks, getting them at auction, convoying them down
to Gippsland (every 2nd one was being towed) and so on.
He also had photos, no idea where they would be now.

Thanks.

Regards
Doug

A local , Les Christian , who died recently was involved with the driving of the surplus tanks to West Gippsland
A book was published on Les Christian's life, he gave a talk at the mens shed describing the epic effort of driving the tanks down from Northern Victoria.
https://www.pressreader.com/australi...81659666502514

Yes, one example of a specific make of surplus vehicles is Morris, some of which were purchased from the CDC by the respective dealer Lanes Motors, Lanes were the official Morris distributors in Vic . Lanes purchased some CS8 , PU and C8 A/T 4x4 trucks through CDC sales, Lanes then distributed these army trucks to their sub dealers in rural Victoria. My PU 8 cwt is a ex Lanes Motors truck, Lanes applied a cheap grey paint onto their CDC purchases , the grey is still visible on parts of my PU.