In 1958 more vehicles were built from CKD in Australia on 88-inch chassis. The Australian-built vehicles differ from the UK-built 86s in a number of ways, notably that they have no sill panels (that's a useful tip for recognising them in photos where you can't tell whether the vehicle is an 86 or an 88), as well as a flat bumper bar.

These vehicles appear to have been built for the Queen Mother's visit in 1958. Two of them are chassis number 1138-00056 and 1138-00058. In all Six of these vehicles were built by Land Rover Australia from kits. The identities of the other four are not known, but they seem to have been painted in Royal Claret originally, like the two known ones.

The Australian Army has 2 vehicles which bear more than a passing similarity to these Royal Review vehicles. The chassis numbers of these vehicles are 1138-00031 and 1138-00059. This puts them so close to the known Royal Review vehicles that we can Presume that they were originally built for the Royal Review, only leaving two chassis numbers of the Australian vehicles as unknown.

A big thankyou to James Taylor for the above information.

The below photographs were sent to REMLR by Land Rover Australia in 2009. They appear to show the 6 vehicles prepared for the 1958 Royal Tour. 58 can be seen painted on their windscreen glass, and it also confirms there was 6 built. These photographs are copyright to Land Rover Australia and used with permission. It also seems likely that the 2 that ended up in service with the Australian Army came from this batch of 6.

The Australian Army has 2 Series 1 Review or Ceremonial Land Rovers in it's fleet. Both vehicles are now a part of the Army Museum Bandiana's collection. Photos of this collection can be seen on the REMLR listing of Museums

These 2 vehicles were registered by the Army in around 1969, some time after they were built in 1958. The Royal Review vehicles for the Australian leg of The Queen's Commonwealth tour were part of the Commonwealth vehicle fleet. Wearing plates prefixed with a red 'Z'. Given the chassis numbers of these vehicles it seems likely that they were purchased by the Army or Department of Defence some time after the Queen's tour concluded. Previously it had been thought that they had been converted from a general service vehicle, but as the army did not purchase any Series 1 Land Rovers it is extremely unlikely that this is the case, they are also 88 inch, not 80 inch chassis as earlier thought as well.

For more information on these 2, and other Ceremonial Land Rovers, visit the Ceremonial Land Rovers page.

Review Rover rear

D. Royal Review big pic on REMLR CD-ROM