Vickers MK VIB

[Richard Farrant]

Found a couple of photos of Platypus, rest are held hostage on a broken pc.
One is as completed in Mike Stallwood's yard in England and the other is of the instrument panel I restored, but still awaiting the temp guage to be returned.

[Mrs Vampire]

Very Nice

[Mrs Vampire]

Koala and platypus being rescued from a farm near Griffith. Lionel and his wife Jeanette driving their Clubman recently featured in a photo by Keith bring the FGT back from Sydney

The Truck belonged to Bert Barker. Bert got platypus . It was cut down to transport rice during the wet.

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they are photos of slides I will scan the slides one day and get better shots but back in the oldern days taking a photo of a slide wa about the only way to transfer them to prints. .

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Gina Vampire

Koala and platypus being rescued from a farm near Griffith.

The Truck belonged to Bert Barker. Bert got platypus . It was cut down to transport rice during the wet.

. .

Thanks for the photos, Gina. It fills in another gap in the history of Platypus.

regards, Richard

[colin jones]

Great photo's. The two vickers I have are "Bowerbird" and "Wombat" which thanks to a fellow MLU member reunited the complete set of bogies, return rollers and both Main cross axles to Bowerbird. It does go to show that you should never say "Never". I am hoping that there maybe a turret or 2 still out there.
Colin.

[Mrs Vampire]

Good luck with finding turrets Colin. I would love to see your Vickers one day.

I was told by the farmer who sold Platypus and Koala that scrap merchants regularly went around the farms and brought up stuff like the turrets. Both these tanks were within weeks of scrapping when rescued. there was a carrier and an old Willies Knight sedan there as well that most likely were scrapped.

The missing armor of Platypus went to make farm bits and pieces the front sprocket of Koala had been removed one winter by the boys to see how it worked...it ended up wired to a dingo trap out in the bush ...took a lot of finding ...

The farmer in question brought the Vickers because they were cheap and more powerful than a carrier. He said no one wanted the Vickers and so far as he knew they were all sold of to small buyers like himself. I recall he said they were purchased from Auction near Albury and driven on the road back to Griffith.

[Richard Farrant]

The original speedo, tacho and temp guage were still in Playpus, but had to be overhaulled. The mileage reading was around 15,000 if I recall. As they were used for training from about 1938 until mid way through the war until the Stuarts came along, this could be genuine ....

[Alan McGuinness]

Originally Posted by colin jones

I am hoping that there maybe a turret or 2 still out there.

Not quite a turret, but an interesting find nevertheless: http://www.livesteammodels.co.uk/dhmg/albask.html

[colin jones]

Hi all and here they are, sitting in one of the MK1VBs I have here awaiting quietly under cover to be restored back to driving condition. All sorts of thing have turned up over the years and I am hoping that there maybe a bit more might find it's way to Adelaide prior to their restoration. I normally take a lot of pics anyway but I will take pics of every detail of these 2 parts of our history.
Colin.
Oh and by the way, that half circle recess around the basket is there to allow the crank handle to pass through for hand starting. I am already getting familiar with these little tanks.