Blasts From the Past, Oz style.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I found a few pix from an open day at Enoggera Barracks, Brisbane, 1974.

I couldn't resist the one of the Land Rover gun tractor.

My camera was a VERY basic "happy-snapper, but it did the job, mostly.

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

Nice to see one of those old 3 tonners again - were they 'whites' and an Oz built Land Rover. I was always being corrected for calling 3 tonners 'Bedfords' and 113's, 432's! Where was that taken in Enoggera....., looks like the edge of the sports field as I recall. Enoggerra looks nothing like it did then when I searched it out on Google Earth recently

[browningautorifle]

The whole area has changed. I looked at it on Google because I was there in '77, all built up and the whole camp area seems different. Couldn't find anything I knew. I didn't encounter the 113 with the gun...only the ones with two x .30 cal in them...I knew these existed though.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I did my driver's course on Series 2A Landrovers and the International "Mk 3" trucks. These trucks were "functional", but not exactly fun to drive. Big, noisy, petrol engine barely hidden under a flimsy cover in the cab. Not too bad off road. The "big brother" 6 x 6 variant was just as noisy but had remarkable off-road and hill-climbing capability if you took it carefully. The signals folk used them to put gear in places the Land Rovers couldn't go.

The old parade ground / sports field at Enoggera actually started out as the rifle range, way back when. The big ridge to the south-west, now adorned with a couple of antennae and a SEALED road, was the backstop, to prevent most strays landing in the farms that used to be on the other side of the hill.

[browningautorifle]

The big ridge to the south-west

I remember going for a road run up there one early Saturday morning...sort of forgot where I was until I saw a skinny brown snake tail slither off the trail into the ankle deep brush. About-TURN...Double-MARCH...back to the hard pack.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Australia was an enthusiastic adopter of the Cadillac designed T-50 turret for the M-113.

These usually came with a .50 and a .30 Browning and offered much better operator protection than some of the alternatives.

Probably due to the usual "budget restraints", the .50s were often replaced by a second .30 cal. Could also have been "the system" hinting broadly that these thing were NOT tanks. At one stage, red, plastic Norwegian? .30cal blanks were to be found in abundance.

When The Queensland Mounted Infantry(M-113 equipped), lived at Wacol, they used a local training area called "Pooh Corner", so named because it was adjacent to the local sewerage treatment plant.

[browningautorifle]

At one stage, red, plastic Norwegian? .30cal blanks were to be found in abundance.

Yes, I still have some(No live rounds or empty cases in my possession, SIR!)...some short neck and some long. I remember the M60s didn't like the 7.62 plastic blanks much. The SLRs seemed to mostly get along with them. Red body and aluminum base.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Re:" plastic blanks"

The only blanks I ever saw for the M-60 in Oz were the black plastic variety. The earliest of these had a BRASS heads with the primer staked in, attached to the main plastic body. These brass bits were headstamped "DAG"; German manufacture from memory. Later Oz production had the brass tail-end replaced by aluminium.

I was of the understanding that the M-60 manufacturer, Maremont, specifically warned against their use.

Two reasons:

1. Being plastic, they carried virtually no heat away from the chamber when extracted / ejected.

2. Being relatively soft, and thus quite compressible, they allowed the locking lugs to hammer into the front of the locking recesses in the barrel extension; chipped lugs were a regular occurrence, as was the practice of stoning the chips and cracks to "restore" the bolt.

[muffett.2008]

The turret on the M113A1/FSV in the 1st pic. is off a Saracen, these were later replaced by Scorpion turrets.
The red plastic was for the .30 brownings, there was also a red .50 blank, black was 7.62, white for 5.56 and 9mm.
The Caddilac gauge turrets were in two configurations, twin .30's and the .30/.50 combination, later a Mag58 was added as a flex.

[Peter Laidler]

The 113's and 432's have proved themselves to be long lived bits of kit. Maybe it's a testament to the hull or boat design. There are still some variants of the 432 doing the rounds here too. Thanks for the reminder about the 3 tonner. It was International and not Whites.