A mission

[Keith Webb]

OK, we have blue sky, a forecast top of 29C, the chainsaw is sharp and fueled, Euan is arriving soon and we're taking the tandem trailer on a mission.

The mission is to collect the cut up remains of a CGT No9 (AUST) body which Mike Kelly spotted recently in Ballarat. This came from a farm in the area around 25 years ago. The chainsaw is to remove a small hawthorn which is in the way.

These have an interesting history - some 45 or so complete bodies were built, but only two were accepted into the Army, only to be cut down into 5 ton cranes by Peter Brothers in Sydney during the war. The remainder were sold for scrap which seems to have been the fate of most.

Some have survived, four bodies were recovered from Hughes Trading in Melbourne in the 70s (although only 3 are still extant) and another two were rescued by Col Anderson from a sawmill around the same time. Both of these were rebuilt into trucks, one in Melbourne and the other in Brisbane. One of the Hughes bodies was restored in the 70s and is again undergoing restoration, another is unrestored, one was cut up and the other unaccounted for.

Rick Sheerman has the cut down remains of one in South Australia fitted to a C60L chassis.

What of the two original cranes? Euan McDonald owns one, and the other is at Albion Park, owned by HARS, the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, who still use it as a mobile crane.

Beneath this pile of scap is a treasure...