Bart Bear's Blog

If you have any interest at all in military history, you must visit the Australian Armor and Artillery Museum at Smithfield, just north of Cairns. This is a huge shed full of tanks, mobile artillery, personnel carriers and field guns from around the world. The vehicles are mostly from WW2 or later. Over 100 are on display and many others are being restored. I will not name all of ones in these pictures for you (because I don't know all of them). The second one is important for Australian history. It is the Sentinel, the first tank designed and built in Aus. Only a few were built because tanks from the US were soon available. There are many signs forbidding climbing on the exhibits but we all know that they only apply to people, not small bears.
 

Labels: army, Cairns, museum, tanks

Kapooka is an outer suburb of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Today it is home to Blamey Barracks, the training centre for Australian Army recruits. During World War 2 part of the Defence Force site was the Royal Australian Engineers Training Centre. On May 21, 1945, the worst accident in Australian military history happened here. 27 soldiers, most of them only 18 to 20 years old, were in a bunker being taught to prepare demolition charges. Something went horribly wrong and 26 of them were killed in an explosion. We visited the site on our last road trip and there is a simple, impressive memorial there. A rectangle of 26 trees and a series of explanatory signs surround the memorial site. Each tree has a small plaque at its base with the name, rank and age of a victim. A large rock has a memorial plaque on one side and on the other, rough, side the word UBIQUE. This is a Latin word meaning "everywhere", and is the motto of most Engineering Corps in British Commonwealth countries. Here is a larger image of the words on the plaque, I think they are sad, solemn and superb. We should never forget our history.

Labels: army, history, New South Wales

Here's a prime example of why you should always do your homework before visiting anywhere. One afternoon during our Tasmania trip we just headed off following the coast to see what we could find. Along the way we came to a great lookout point where we had good views of the lower Derwent river and the yachts that were sailing there. There was also a canon on a concrete base and a plaque saying that this was the site of the Alexandra Battery, built in 1804 to protect the entry to Hobart harbour. I don't think the canon is any use now as the only thing it would hit is the tree in front of it. We spent a bit of time watching the boats and then drove on. However, if the Oldies had done their usual checking up on what we could expect to see on the drive they would have known that just over the curve of the hill there is the remains of the battery fort. The last photo (from Google Earth) shows just how close we were. The white G is where the canon is, the X is where we sat, and lower down the hill you can see the old gun emplacements and remains of the fort. So the Oldies got no photos of this historical site at all, not even of the round control hut we sat near. I have had harsh words with them and threatened to demote them from official drivers, navigators and photographers on my future expeditions.

Labels: army, Tasmania

We went to the Royal Canberra Show today. Mum always goes there to see the cows (did I mention that Mum has this thing about cows?). Dad goes along to carry me and all the interesting things that sometimes get bought. I go along because there are lots of fascinating things to see and try out. This year the absolute best thing was this big field gun that the army people let me climb over and try the handles and things on. You can move the barrel up, down and across by spinning little wheels. The only hard part for small bears is loading the gun. The shells are bigger and much heavier than me. This would be the ultimate crab-buster. With this gun I could pick off crabs 11 kilometers away. If I could see the little pests at that distance, that is. I would need binoculars, and Dad to load the heavy shells into the gun for me. There was one moment when the oldies and my army friends got a bit excited. I climbed up the barrel and took a look down to see what it looked like inside. Evidently this is a no-no because Mum had me out of there like a shot (actually, I didn't intend to make that pun but it's not bad is it?).
Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Labels: army, Canberra, climbing, crabs