Lang,
I appreciate your reply and thanks for taking my comment sincerely. Earlier in this thread you said "I am working on a very rare Australian built vehicle. Should be nice and comfortable." for this trip, yet you've just said "A number of the vehicles are going to be sold (including mine). I don't really have a problem with common types such as these" and that it's not coming back. But I'm confused, it's gone from "very rare" to "common" in the same thread?
You mentioned at a club meeting some months ago as a counterargument to me that vehicles are coming into the country all the time, and you raise it again here in your reply. This doesn't sit as easily with me as perhaps others who look at their vehicles from a dollar value aspect, I even hesitate to say it's somewhat disingenuous. Why? Because these imported vehicles don't have an australian military history. They are just some other countries' vehicles, not our vehicles. Not our history.
One of the great pleasures of owning an australian historic military vehicle - to the distinct envy of HMV restorers in other countries - is that we are so very very lucky that we do have records of them, sometimes of their use, and often of their subsequent disposal. How many of us have visited the AWM and experienced the excitement and thrill of finding our vehicle listed in the well-thumbed journals, or detailed in a report? I have, and friends have done that for my other vehicles too. For example a four-page army report on the testing of the two australian army Weasels has recently emerged for the sole surviving example we are rebuilding. To me that's what makes these vehicles special. That's just not possible for any import. Or since you mentioned it from left-field, hotrods. If importing ten hotrods meant more to me than the export of one jeep then surely I would be hanging out on a Hotrod Board, not posting on this Board.
Before each Anzac Day the call goes out at club meetings to supply enough vehicles for the marches and there never seem to be enough to meet demand, the diggers have to wait in line while the jeeps or Blitzes go around and around. I'm lined up for three marches this Saturday myself. A few more jeeps would not go astray here, we don't have a surplus.
Now I will declare like you I've imported four vehicles myself from overseas so perhaps some may consider me hypocritical or even selfish, but for vehicles that have a tie to our military history and have left our shores, they're... gone. Never to grace our Canungras and Corowas, our historic displays, our swap meets, our Anzac Day marches ever again. So yes, I am saddened at such a mass export. We may own these pieces of rolling history in a financial sense, but we are all just temporary custodians as they pass through our hands for future generations of australian HMV enthusiasts to enjoy.
Anyway - I've got that off my chest as it's been bugging me for some time. Have a good trip and looking forward to your report at a club meeting.
Steve.
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