Rod's excellent military vehicle spotting holiday

[Rod Diery]

Hi all, I have just returned from a five week driving holiday across Australia. I spotted plenty of interesting stuff which I thought I might share with you all over the next few days.

There is a mixture of CMPs, armour, guns and a bit of more obscure stuff. Some has been shown on these pages before but Enjoy anyway.

First is this CGT converted to a crane at the Milne Bay Military Museum in Toowoomba,Queensland. No serial numbers though.

[Rod Diery]

Also in Toowoomba is this C60L although it is fitted with Ford axles. It has a winch which has had the sides of the drum built right up to hold more cable.

There is a data plate but someone has fitted an oil pressure gauge bracket over it.

[Rod Diery]

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[Rod Diery]

152 445

[Rod Diery]

Still in Toowoomba

[Rod Diery]

I found this picture on the wall of the Wondai Timber Museum in Wondai, Queensland.

Tbe Blitz was the truck of choice in sawmills around Australia for many years. Don't you just love the creative elevated roof on the cab?

[Rod Diery]

Back about 1976, I was a young Craftsman posted to 1st Base Workshop Battalion at Bulimba in Brisbane. For about three months, the section I was in was tasked with rendering obsolete 25 pounder guns innocuous and then mounting them in parks and outside RSL clubs all over Queensland and northern New South Wales.

It was pretty good job, our target was about one gun per week. There were four of us in the crew, a Corporal and three Crafties. We would weld everything up in Brisbane except for the wheels, brakes and towing gear. We would rub the gun back and then respray it. Then we would hook the gun up to a International Mark 5 truck and tow it to where ever it was to be placed. We also took a workshop Landrover with a VW powered 350 amp welder on it.

The local RSL or Shire would have had to have prepared a mounting site for it. Sometimes the gun would be mounted on axle stands, sometimes it was mounted on it's traverse ring. We would use ramps, jacks and the truck winch to position the gun on it's mount. Then we would remove the wheels which were only use for towing bu us and fit a set of display wheels which were usually filled with sand. we used the Abbey crane on the truck for that.

Then we would fire up the welder and weld up the wheels, towing eyes, brakes and traverse ring if needed. Then we would youch up the gun paint and retire to the bar in the RSL where the grateful members would invariably ply us with enormous amounts of beer and tell many enormously entertaining war stories, the entertainment value of which were directly proportional to the amount of beer consumed by all concerned.

Then we would gingerly drive home the next day ready to do it all again.

Anyway this is one of the guns that I was involved in delivering although it has since been moved. It is at the Wondai RSL Club in Queensland

[Rod Diery]

For those gun lovers out there, here is it's plate.

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by Rod Diery
Hi all, I have just returned from a five week driving holiday across Australia. I spotted plenty of interesting stuff which I thought I might share with you all over the next few days.

There is a mixture of CMPs, armour, guns and a bit of more obscure stuff. Some has been shown on these pages before but Enjoy anyway.

First is this CGT converted to a crane at the Toowomba Military Museum in Queensland. No serial numbers though.

Excellent work, Rod

Did you take any other pics of the CGT? Did it have a 'glovebox'?

[Rod Diery]

This crane is parked beside a garage on the Bruce Highway at Tiaro, QLD. Quite sensibly, someone has removed the Ford engine and replaced it with a Holden red motor.

[Rod Diery]

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Excellent work, Rod

Did you take any other pics of the CGT? Did it have a 'glovebox'?

No Keith it doesn't have a "glovebox". I do have some more pics, I'll put them on my website soon.

[Rod Diery]

This truck and the one in the next post were well of the road in a yard that I suspect was guarded by large animals with fangs and with which, I do not wish to be their prey.

[Rod Diery]

Chev crane

[Rod Diery]

Esteemed and honourable moderator,

I couldn't help myself and just had to post a pic of this pic of a smelly old piece of American military junk now painted a very nice shade of pink.

I must also admit that I spent about 10 years of my military service working on the LARC 5 (Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo, 5 ton)

[Rod Diery]

This LARC is now used in the Port of Gladstone in Queensland as a workboat.

It is fitted with a Hiab 600 hydraulic crane similar to those fitted by the Australian Army to their LARCs used to support the ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) operations from about 1971 to 1996.

[Rod Diery]

This truck is displayed beside the Capricorn Highway at Ilfracombe, QLD. It is part of the Ilfracombe Machinery Mile lining the highway in this tiny town. It is one of the best free outdoor displays I have ever seen.

[Rod Diery]

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[Rod Diery]

This plate is attached to the C60L cab

[Rod Diery]

Close to the C60L I spotted this Southern Cross water drilling rig. Closer inspection proved it to be built on a Ford F15A chassis and axles. The rig is powered by a Southern Cross single cylinder diesel engine.

[Rod Diery]

Ilfracombe also had this dozer conversion of a Stuart tank on display. It's powerplant is also ex armoured vehicle, a Leyland diesel, half of a Matilda power pack.

This would have to be one of the best dozer conversions I have ever seen. Most of them are pretty rough.

[Rod Diery]

This C30 in fairly good condition is in the front yard of a house in Longreach, Queensland. The owner told me that it had been there for about five years, prior to that, it spent 20 years in a shed on a nearby farm.

This truck is for sale. If you are interested, PM me. It comes complete with the remains of the 1925 Ford TT truck on the back.

[Rod Diery]

Interesting serial number. Does anyone know what a WO28 body is?

[Rod Diery]

This Ford F60L 12 cab is parked at the entrance to Dhara Station west of Longreach on the road to Winton.

XXXX is a brand of beer in Queensland which comes in bottles with yellow and red labels. There are some unkind people who claim that this beer is called XXXX because Queenslanders can't spell beer.

[Rod Diery]

SERIAL 4656
MOTOR 2G26967F
MODEL F60L

[Rod Diery]

This truck is in the Stonehouse Museum at Boulia, QLD. It is a late model ex RAAF C60L built with heavy steering and canvas doors. There are no data plates

[Rod Diery]

The Road Transport Hall of Fame (RTHOF) at Alice Springs in the Northern Territory is a fine museum with lots of interesting trucks. One of those easy places to get lost in for the day if you like any kind of trucks.

This late build Ford F60L is stored just outside of the museum.

[Rod Diery]

RTHOF. Both of these Ford F60Ls have been repowered for their post war civilian lives with Perkins diesels. Note the altered nose profiles to suit the inline six cylinder engines.

One shows signs of someone having attempted to improve the cabs comfort level.

[Rod Diery]

RTHOF. This C60X cab is positioned at the entrance to the Road Transport Hall of Fame.

[Rod Diery]

The C60X cab's data plate

[Rod Diery]

Also at the RTHOF entrance is this home made forward control truck. I am not sure exactly what it is. I didn't get a chance to go back and check it out further.

However note the Blitz cab top.

You can't say we Aussies aren't an enterprising lot.