The History of REMLR -REMLR

I've attempted to include as much history about the establishment and development of REMLR as possible on this page, but if there is something missing or has been left out, please email me at greeny@isage.net.au

Ten years ago, the thought of an Ex-Army Land-Rover group had barely even been considered. The closest anybody came was some of the state based military vehicle clubs. Ross Carswell with the help of Kevin Hicks began communicating via the telephone and exchanging information, and photocopies of parts lists. To this point in time so much information and history of Land-Rovers in Australian Military service was disapearing through the cracks... until one particular event.

That event was the 50th Anniversary of Land-Rover celebrations held at Cooma NSW in 1998. The event was organised by the Land-Rover Owners Club of Victoria with the assistance of The Land-Rover Club of Australia (Sydney) Inc and The Range Rover Club of Australia (Sydney) Inc. Land-Rover owners from all walks of life, and from all around the country flocked to Cooma for the event. This was the event that really kicked things off. Through contacts that Ross had made he handed out membership forms, and got about two thirds of them back, and the Registry of Ex Military Land Rovers was born. Photos from the event can be found on this page.

Word of the Registry slowly spread through word of mouth, and through the various military vehicle clubs, culminating in the construciotn of a small website for the Registry. However as with many things that start small, they become large quickly and the Registry continued to expand its library of information and its list of members.

Over the years REMLR became a combination of encyclopedia and military vehicle club, researching significant information about the Australian Army Land Rover fleets as well as holding regular events uncluding R&R weekends away, ANZAC Day Parade participation, and the Tons of Land-Rovers events. Photos from some of these events can be found on the Events and Meetings page.

Some significant milestones have included:

The appearance of some PR photos from Land Rover showing some Army Series 2 vehicles fresh from the factory
The completion of the huge job of transcribing the Australian Army Land Rover Registration records from the Australian War Memorials Records
The aquisition of factory records of the Series 3 production including chassis and body numbers allowing us to cross reference that information with the listing of registration numbers and corresponding body numbers for the Series 3 fleet
The beginning of a REMLR online forum
The aquisition of Australian Design Establishment and RAEME photographs of various Series 2 workshop vehicles
the publication of Bob Moseley's photographs from his time serving in the Vietnam war.

In late 2006 Richard Green took over the webmaster and administrator roles within REMLR and the realisation that we have more webspace than we can use has led to some expansions to what information and member sheds REMLR has online.

In August of 2007 a member suggested that REMLR would benefit from having a patron. Within a month of that initial suggestion, and some questioning of a few members as to what they thought of the idea, James Taylor accepted the position of the REMLR Patron. For more information about James Taylor, look here.

2007 also saw REMLR branch out to includea small chapter about the International No.1, commonly known as the ACCO. So the ACCO Chapter was born.

In 2008 REMLR continues to expand. In January the ACCO Chapter was renamed to the Army Inter Chapter both to avoid confusion with covilian international trucks, and encompas some of the other International trucks used in small numbers by the Army.