2008 GPA Swim in and Military Vehicle Rally This report and photos are from Richard G(member 129) who travelled up to Corowa in his Series 3 from Tasmania for the 2008 event. If anybody else has photos that they would like to send in to add to this page, please send them to REMLR. Tuesday was D day, Departure day. After a 1/2 day at work I kissed my wife and son goodbye for a week and headed to devonport to get on the boat. I met with some others from my military vehicle club along the way, Geoff and Greg. Geoff was not taking a vehicle, and Greg's tank had arrived too late to be able to get it to corowa this year, something that he was very disapointed with because this year's theme year was year of the Tracked Vehicle. Wednesday was the long haul day. The morning proved overcast which kept things cool while we got out of melbourne. We encountered a lot less traffic this year than last year. But it will be harder in future as they are building MORE roads . As we neared puckapunyal the sun finally made an appearance from the gloom and soon made things rather hot. I pulled out the camera and started snapping, but my almost new $3000 worth of camera didn't sound right, and the pics were just black. Oh F$%# . Pulled the lens off and tried, and the mirror was sticking. A light touch and it was free again and working normally. It must have taken a knock the weekend before when I bumped it's bag off a chair. But all was good again. I managed to find the 106mm RCL from the museums gunbuggy in one of the sheds, near what appears to be another two. We also saw some last minute preperations being put into their israeli 1/2 track and 2 M113's ready to head to the swim in. So after a good look around, and a peek at a new Abrams starting up through the fence we were on our way. We arrived at corowa by about 4pm that day. We had just long enough to check out what was at the park already, and head out to the airport to see what was waiting out there as well. Thursday we had planned to go for a drive with the armoured vehicles, and head to Tooles and bandiana the day after. However Tooles was opening their aladins cave, err, I mean warehouse to GPA swim in visitors tues, wed and thurs. So we decided to tag along for the drive for a bit, and then head off to see the cave of wonders as well as their shop. The tanks it seemed were just slowly taking in the back blocks so we headed off. We arived at the shop and asked for the directions to the warehouse's secret location. Upon arrival we were amazed to see just how much stuff was there. If i'd had more $$ and more space I expect I would have brought back a lot more equipment. Camp stretchers, korean war hospital fold up beds, clothes, webbing, boots, tarps. You name it, it was there in qualtity. Even new ww2 webbing and so on. A very dangerous place for the militaria collector. The number of ammo tins alone would have easily run into the thousands with pallets of them stacked three high!!! After finally getting through the shed we headed back to the store. Much of the stuff there was the same, but there was more and in better condition at the warehouse. Friday was the day I had organised to visit bandiana. And we quickly had breakfast and headed off. I knew that Ian Pullan and Graham Docksey wouldn't be there, but I had organised that I would be coming in to examine some documents as well as have a look around again. So we arrived, paid the entry fee, and I disapeared into a room to go through docuemnts for some hours. After going through the ledgers and wondering if I would find any real usefull information amongst the volumes I struck the census codes book. Score number one!! Next book (well, next three) were the ARN books with the series 3 and early perentie vehicles in it. I nearly fell off my chair. We thought these books had been destroyed!! It seems not fortunatly. So I photographed any and all land rover entries, some inter and trailer entries, but there are a lot more trailers on the books that I didn't have time to do. Next was a look around the workshop and storage sheds. I got their 101's chassis number and took some photos in the workshop. They have one heck of a lot of work in documents as well as film. They have some 800 films of varying formats. And they would love some help if somebody is able to convert them to DVD. They can do VHS, but not beta and the other formats there. Project perentie videos of stability trials was one that stood out. So finally a look around the museum. I never seem to have enough time just to enjoy the museum! they have at least 6 ceremonial vehicles more than when I last was there. A number of land rovers stood out. One which has been on the books 46 years or so (S2 CR) which had a heavily modified bulkhead and driver compartment. The other series 1 ceremonial vehicle (sequential ARN's), some more dodge ceremonial vehicles (one on loan from the awm). and all of the inters grouped outside. Some interesting Inters included their 2 Mk.1 inters (I couldn't easily find chassis numbers on any inters). Their prototype Mk.5 inter. A tipper with dual rear wheels and an inter in deep bronze green. A rarity these days. We were also lucky enough to be in the right place to see them loading up their T34/85 tank to go to corowa. They also had 2 M113's hrading to corowa along with the tank and Tim Vibert's Tracked Rapier Carrier (which he was taking home from corowa). Friday evening I think was the day that I met Peter with his Israeli 1/2 track still with GM engine (love that roar) and a trayback. He had brought me a near new RHS guard from Dennis M to replace mine (thankyou very much) and we had a chat and a look at his vehicle. Saturday was the big day, the parade and swap meet at the airport. John belfield showed up with a rare lynn halftrack. So we had 4 M113's, 2 Stuarts, 3 1/2 tracks, a number of bren gun carriers and I think 23 land rovers in the end, invluding a prototype 101. The swap meet was good fun, and a few things to buy. NOS land rover mirrors always seem to be there!! The Jet powered blitz was also interesting to see. Sunday was the long haul back home. We headed off after Geoff had attended part of the KVE meeting. It was ruddy hot, Friday and Saturday had been 39 and 38 !! I think Sunday reached 36. Too hot for this taswegian in his hot land rover. Fortunately Grover performed flawlessly in the heat. We thought we'd kill some time and see if the liberator shed was open at werribee. No luck, we missed it by 1 1/2 hours. But it was a nice rest stop. From there we headed off to the beach beside the Spirit of Tasmania terminal for a rest while we waited. However it was soon time to get on the boat and head home.
|