Can anyone identify this RAAF crane

[JFL]

Originally Posted by lynx42

Take a trip to Wilson Cranes in Mildura, Australia, and you will see around 8 to 10 of these dinosaur cranes. Another fitted to a Aussie softcab GMC is just out of Ballarat still fitted with it's crane.1
Regards Rick

Actually Rick, the cranes in Wilsons junk yard are G-Well's They are different to the picture as they have a single hydraulic ram to lift the boom whereas the crane pictured is all cable operated.
As for the cranes near Ballarat I presume you are referring to the two at Rokewood Junction. The GMC there was owned for a period by Rickey bros Ballarat. I drove it many times in the late 70s. Prior to that it was owned by "Barney the wrecker" in Sebastopol.He used it in his wrecking yard and contracted with it. The Inter crane was previously owned by a tank maker in delecombe, It had a cab-over prime mover before the inter. It may have been a foden, but I'm not sure. I don't know who made the cranes as there was no makers plate that I know of, but I was told they were left behind by the Americans.Rickeys were big buyers of war surplus trucks and machinery and there was still a lot left in use until the early 80s.

[lynx42]

Thanks JFL for that info. I didn't realize that there was a difference between the cranes.
Welcome to the Forum. I see that this is your first posting.
Who is JFL? We would like to know more about you. You look like you have plenty of knowledge to share, and this is the place to share it.
Regards Rick

[JFL]

Thanks for the welcome Rick.
I worked for Rickeys in Ballarat over a period of 11 years,. Besides the CMG crane He had two fwd's ,one was a crane and the other carried a drill rig , a cletrac tug , a dukw, a Mack (e model I think)a k10 international and the pride of the fleet, a 604 federal.All of these were operational and there were many more trucks that were not in use. After the death of Huey Rickey everything was sold at auction , including sheds full of new spares brought from the post war auctions in Darwin. After that I worked for Bob Davies, also in Ballarat, who had a number of Ford blitz cranes. Some time later I was mining in north west NSW and part of my plant was an NH Mack, which is now located in Broken Hill .

[motto]

Back in the 70's there was one of those huge cable operated cranes in a yard out towards where Melbourne airport now is (Tullamarine). I was more interested in the truck it was attached to, a GMC 6x4 which is a rare vehicle in this country. It was originally a hard cab but had the roof cut off similar to the one in the photo. From memory it was all cut up and scrapped where it stood.
There is a similar crane attached laterly to a Studebaker US6 just south of Coober Pedy where a fellow intended quarrying red granite. He was lifting a rock with it that he estimated at about 20 tons when the 4 inch diameter solid steel axle broke off next to the wheel bearing. Strangely enough he had a spare axle assembly for it.
JFL, I have Hue Rickey's M2 Cletrac. He had two in fact. He broke a track on the one he was operating and bought another one with a broken track to get the remaining track from. John Bellfield got that one, I got the one he had been using.
David

[lynx42]

Its about time you joined MLU David.
Welcome, It's good to see your finally part of this great WWW forum. You have plenty to share I'm sure.
regards to Maggie
Rick

[motto]

Thanks Rick.
I'm still battling with the technology so enter with some trepidation. Besides, I've always held that your better to keep your mouth shut and look a fool than open your mouth and prove it. I'm better at listening.
Cheers

[motto]

Having read right through this thread again, it seems that not much is known about these larger airfield cranes be they atached to GMC, FWD or C60X.
I must confess that when I was looking at the one on the GMC 6x4 near Tullamarine I had no idea whether the crane was military or civilian. There was nothing to tell that from. Gradually over the years I became aware that it wasn't just a one off. It would also seem that they don't exist anywhere else on the planet so they must be a home grown product.
The questions remain:- Where were they built? Who built them? Was there more than one manufacturer? How many were built? Is anybody attempting to preserve one? And the fellows that knew these things are dying off fast.
That should be a tasty morsel for an archive excavator to chew on.
David