Impressed? Not very!

[motto]

My father was with a signals outfit at Albert Park Barracks (Melbourne) in the early part of the war. He was a Despatch Rider or Don R as they were known. Part of his job was preparing impressed motor cycles for military service, or at least they were riding and maintaining impressed bikes.
IIRC he said that the civilian owners were given the choice of having the motorcycle returned when war ended or taking a ten pound payment and relinquishing all claim. He also said that those who elected to have their cycle returned usually received a new replacement. I guess the army had plenty of them at wars end.
Dad bought a WLA Harley Davidson after the war from Miledge Brothers in Melbourne. The price was 182 pounds ten shillings. He had the choice of taking one in the crate or buying one they had assembled as a demonstrator. They had a large stack of crated ones out the back.
I bought a WLA direct from government disposals (Tottenham) in 1970 for $65 I rode it for years and still have it. I got sick of hearing how you could buy them in crates for ten dollars but had to buy ten. Everyone seemed to know about it but no one could tell me exactly where.

David