Perentie vehicles in the RAAF have registration numbers in the ranges of 230xxx, 231xxx & 232xxx.

Taken from Publication EDE 2/90, Project Perentie Profile, Vehicle Information Brochure. Engineering Developemnt Establishment, Australian Army.

The Army Staff requirement for the army's range of light field vehicles was approved in February 1981. From this EDE prepared a Requirement Study and draft Design and Development (DD(X)) Specifications which were issued in June 1981.

The approved specifications were used as a basis for the calling of tenders in June 1982 for a Truck, Utility, Lightweight, MC2 with payload between 0.7 and 1 tonne and a Truck, Cargo, Light, MC2 with payload between 1.5 and 2 tonne.

From the seven tenders recieved for each vehicle type, a short list of three of the 1 tonne class, vehicles and two of the 2 tonne class vehicles was arrived at. Orders for three exsamples of each contender for evaluation trials were announced in May 1983.

Defence Trial 8/484 for Light Vehicles was notified in September 1983 together with the establishment of a special trials unit, the Light Truck Trials Team. This unit was based at Puckapunyal and perated two of the three vehicles of each type to evaluate them in typical operational roles. The third vehicle of each type underwent initial examination, specification check and automotive relability assessment by EDE at it's proving grount, Monegeetta, Victoria.

Following revalidation of tenders for production quantities of vehicles, contracts were signed with Jaguar Rover Australia in October 1986 for 2500 Land Rover 110 4x4 vehicles, and 400 Land Rover 110 6x6 vehicles.

The Truck, Utility, Lightweight, MC2 was to be developed into a total of six variants, and the Truck, Cargo, Light, MC2, which was to have only a basic cargo body version, was also ultimately developed to produce six variants.

The first production Land Rover 110 4x4s were acepted into service in August 1987 and the first Land Rover 110 6x6 in March 1989.

(B)...A small news piece in the May 1994 issue of Overlander magazine tells us "The Australian Army has ordered another 270 Land Rovers to supplement its present fleet of 3700 6WD and 4WD Project Perentie models. The additional Landys, which were ordered under the terms of "follow-on buy" options in the original contract, will be used as basic infantry carriers, mainly in Australia's far north. [Norforce?] The original Perentie Project was named after the desert-dwelling perentie lizard and was aimed at finding vehicles with the perentie's legendary agility in trackless terrain, its endurance, and its adaptability. Project Perentie director Lt. Col. Lee Osborne said, "It made sense to us to continue with Land Rovers because of their advantageous life-cycle costs. Over the life of the vehicle in Army service -up to 20 years or more- the Land Rovers prove to be very economical." The photos accompanying the piece are of two GS units, ARN 48-014 & ARN 48-016. No mention of R.A.A.F. units.

Project Bushranger (Phase 1)

Some time after the original order of Land Rover 110 and 6x6 vehicles the Australian Army required more vehicles to add to it's fleet. Because it had been some time since the original vehicles had been built some components had been improved and others were not available.

Additional Perentie design and new design vehicles were built under Project Bushranger (Phase 1) by British Aerospace Australia (BAeA)(Land Rover's parent company at that time) at Wingfield in South Australia.

Vehicles that were built under this project had registration numbers in the 202-XXX range making them easily identifiable by their ARN at least. Vehicles Converted under the bushranger project have arns of the 203-XXX range

The vehicles were built between 1994 and 1998. The last coming off the line in September 1998. These vehicles contained significant mechanical differences to warrant the issuance of separate RPS.

Bushranger was an additional contract which by the time it came to fruition discovered that not all original componentry was available. They have significantly different wiring harnesses, different handbrake systems, different front guards, different headlights, etc, etc. A myriad of differences sufficient to cause problems in supportability.

Perentie Design, Bushranger Built vehicles included:

• Additional 4x4 FFR
• Additional 6x6 GS
• Additional 6x6 Ambulance
• Additional 6x6 GMV (General Maintenance Vehicle)
• Additional 6x6 ERV (Electronic Repair Vehicle)
• Additional 6x6 Parakeet (Satellite Communications)

Bushranger Design, Bushranger Built vehicles include:

• 6x6 Interim Infantry Mobility Vehicle (IIMV) - the true Infantry Mobility Vehicle is the Bushmaster, built by ADI/Thales in Bendigo, for which the Bushranger Project was always envisaged to produce. This interim was used until the armoured bushranger vehicles were available.
• 6x6 Mortar Carrier
• 6x6 Assault Pioneer
• 4x4 Surveillance Reconnaissance Vehicle (SRV) - Similar to the RFSV (3.6 Tonne (Std 4x4 3.2 Tonne)) but with certified ROPS, crew of 4 and gun ring for MAG 58.

Towards the end of the contract BAeA sold their Land Systems Division to Tenix who completed the build and undertook some conversions of Perentie build 6x6 Cargo to additional IIMV, Assault Pioneer, Mortar and the creation of another derivative based on an IIMV known as a Direct Fire Weapons Vehicle (DFWV). Additionally a number of RFSV were converted to SRV.

Bushranger Land Rovers are referred to by LRA and Defence as Bushrangers or as BR1 (Bushranger Phase 1).

The additional Bushranger vehicles takes the totals to circa 4,000 comprising approximately 3,000 4x4 and 1,000 6x6.