(Australian) ARN listing

[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.

[Mike K]

More Broken hill stuff

[Douglas Greville]

Hello Mike

Interesting. I have never heard before you discovered the newspaper ads that there was anyone in Broken Hill selling ex-army vehicles.
The only source I was aware of was "Commonwealth Motors" in Crystal Street, Broken Hill who sold jeep parts but not actual vehicles.

Argent Motors was in business for decades, I think the business changed hands, changed name and changed location and may actually now be the Ford/Mitsubishi etc dealer.

Well done.

Regards
Doug

[Mike K]

Hi Doug

Yes the plot thickens as they say !

Looking through Trove I found various references relating to Carpenter & Co or 'Carpenter coy' which appears in the ARN books as a purchaser of quite a few jeeps through the CDC sales . Carpenter Co. was a Sydney based business with large interests in Pacific Island plantations - copra and so on, they also had a small airline that operated in PNG and QLD, I can only assume that it was this business that purchased the jeeps through CDC sales. It seems that Carpenter were operating in many areas of commerce in the South Pacific , in both retail and primary forms of trading, they also owned ships.

[Mike K]

Many adverts for Smith but nothing related to ex army stuff. I think Chas. Smith had some interest in Argent motors, or maybe owned Argent Motors outright.

[Douglas Greville]

Hello Mike

I had noticed the Carpenter Co notations too and wondered who they were.

As for Chas F Smith, I did not know he had an outlet under his own name
in Broken Hill.

Thanks again.
Doug