WWII Aust & USA in Far North Queensland Australia ~

Dave

The big furore at the moment in Brisbane is the closing down of the Camp Cable site as it has been sold of to ^%*^& developers and they are threatening the MD fraternity with tearing of limbs and even $600 fines for trespass ~

Which is of course all short of historical sacrilege ~ But hey the ALL mighty dollar over rules all things ~

Even JC, himself showed that pursuit of the sheckle has been with us ever since men starting trading goats for a bag of grain ! ~ or a wife ~

:biggrin:

 

Wednesday saw a real early start ~ up at 04.45 and off by 5.45 ~ over to Ed's place and off ~ on site by 06.50 ~

Perfect weather and slight breeze up ~


We even back to the camp for Smoko by 10.00 and then off again!

The morning collections ~





I am getting very used to the new Blue tooth conversion but it is amazing.. The dongle picks up even the smallest signal the Garrett emits even those so short that the screen does not register ~!

I also noticed that the MD actually appears to lodge a memory of the signal and will often continue to emit the same signal as I put the MD down to dig a target~ Often I simply have to clear the MD before resuming ~

It is often to the point of frustration that the signals are so frequent ~ but on 'big' targets there is NO mistake!

So a huge day of some 9-10 hours ~ Some very nice scores although as we short on time at the end of the day I did not photo Ed's final collection ~

My take home lot ~ trash items not included ~



BUT ~ more mystery rounds ~ ??? NO idea~ appear again to be around 8 mm projectiles ~ By the simple non-stamped head stamp and the simple tri-crimp on the primer I think they are Japanese round cases~ but no rim ?

 

Some of the recent items renovated via Electrolysis

 

I made an inquiry to the Curators of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra ~ regarding my "Blue" Rising Sun ~

The reply came back today ~

 

I made an inquiry to the Curators of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra ~ regarding my "Blue" Rising Sun ~

The reply came back today ~

Thank you for your enquiry.


I passed it onto our Conservation staff who made the following comment:



“I would say the blue is copper/sulphur corrosion products. The collar and hat Rising Sun hat badges were typically patinated using sulphur compounds to give the dark brown colour. In the right environmental conditions the brown copper sulphides can change to bright blue copper sulphides or sulphates.”



Additionally, we do not note any raised enclosures around the apparent “enamelled” section. Enamelled uses heated glass powder which flows, when super-heated, into the design and is corralled by a raised border to stop it escaping into areas not to be enamelled. It would appear too, that, once cleaned, this blue has disappeared – this would not happen with enamelling.



Overall, then, we suggest you have standard collar badges which were chemically darkened during manufacturing (most badges designed for operational use were darkened), and that this process, combined with time and climate, has been proved responsible for the blue copper sulphate colour evident on the badges.



I hope this is of assistance



Best regards


Chris Goddard

Assistant Curator

Military Heraldry & Technology




I can confidently say ~ "Dave you were ~ perhaps~ right first time around ~

Hats off to you mate ~

 

Weeeelll~ Been a Great Friday ~

First my latest badge addition parcel appeared ~

It includes various Modern era Australian Armed forces badges including a 1991 edition Rising Sun ~ Officers pips and misc badges ~

Plus a Modern German Armoured Corp badge ~ all verified by Thernatos ~

Then another parcel arrived after a MD relic hunter mate donated several items to my collection ~

A Browning 1918 BAR magazine relic ~ just to keep company with my Owen SMG magazine

And finally purely as a Good luck Talisman ~ ( to reciprocate the Rising Sun i gave him for the same reason ~ ) ~ a US Army Officers badge ~

 

So a couple of mid week hunts ~

Seems the compatriot Hunters are busier than ever in retirement than when they were working !

Both seem bogged down by family on most weekends~ and weekdays are the easiest and common for us ~ Fortunately I have most Wednesdays off or every three weeks I get an early finish on Friday mornings depending on my roster ~

The first saw three of us ~ producing an array of goodies ~ lots of coins including silvers ~ I scored a heap of fifty cal projectiles and a Ariska (Japanese) slipper clip ~ plus a cool trench art Australia ~ plus an Officer's cap AMF button!

We each scored at least one Australia shoulder badge and Ed scored two Rising Suns!

My total does not include all the trash !

Ironically I scored yet another coat belt buckle ~ that's two in a week ~ plus more M1 carbine and Arisaka shells

My undoing was that I spent some 2 hours hunting and then suddenly realised that my Sensitivity scale was turned down to < 30%> !! ?? WT ~ Start again ~

And 'Far Nth' There is another coat buckle !!! Thats three so far ~ I doubt if they are pre WWII ?? Your thoughts ?

Anyway ~ a good again ~ other relics included a Arisaka Slipper clip ~ more fifty cals projectiles ~ variety of cases ~ AMF badges, coins and buttons ~

 

A second weekday Hunt
A little different after my colleague dug up a two pounder shell ~ a rare find for sure ~

He was more than a little concerned at first ~ until I had as second look and discovered it was empty of main charge , the primer had been fired and the solid shot projectile had been fitted after ~

Still he insisted I deal with it ~ or take it home ~

A long day which started at Dawn ~

Some more good finds ~ I dug a few bottles and a very nice jar ~ all with embossed print ~

First Ed's lot at the top and then mine ~

 

"plus a cool trench art Australia"

Looks like someone had put a fair bit of effort into getting the piece of brass into the required shape before losing it - they must have been filthy with themselves......

 

"I dug a few bottles and a very nice jar ~"


What maker's details are on the beer bottles - any from the Richmond Brewery in Victoria or are they all from QLD based brewers?

 

Hey Dave

The details are ~

The NSW Bottle company Pty Ltd (* two)

The Brisbane Bottle Exchange Pty Ltd

and the jar
~

This Jar remains the Property of John Sutherland Pty Ltd

I do know where there are extensive beer bottles among hordes of other misc ~ in particular ~ the Beer bottles with the (card) Spade symbol which I believe is associated with Victorian brewery bottles

 

A second weekday Hunt
A little different after my colleague dug up a two pounder shell ~ a rare find for sure ~

He was more than a little concerned at first ~ until I had as second look and discovered it was empty of main charge , the primer had been fired and the solid shot projectile had been fitted after ~







Still he insisted I deal with it ~ or take it home ~

A long day which started at Dawn ~

I have dug this "fire pit four times now ~




Some more good finds ~ I dug a few bottles and a very nice jar ~ all with embossed print ~

First Ed's lot at the top and then mine ~

 

Another a saga that is living proof with the cliché ~ "Never discard till you know for sure what it is !"

I found this spike several months back and though t little of it ~ Ed felt it was associated with a Radio tower ~



Meanwhile my new Dutch MD contact also found a similar item and it was not identified until he went to a Militaria show last week . There a Russian vendor was selling the same item with pouch for 155 Euros !!







So as result his identification has rippled onto mine and I have now forwarded a photo to the AWM for formal ID!

And finally a snap shot of an EXTREMELY dangerous item ~ Panzerfaust~ Robert recently found on the Netherlands German border ~




AND NO ~ he did not take it home ~

Apart from the fact that under Dutch law one could end up in prison for minimum of 6 years for having such an item ~

 

Well ~ Friday ~ finished work at 06.00 ~ and headed for a Nanno nap ~ and in true A about Z ~ two us rendezvous for an afternoon hunt at " the Cane farm" for an afternoon hunt!

Yep ~ hottest time of day!!

Fortunately there was a brisk NE breeze blowing from the coast ~ but still that FNQ Tropical Sunshine is pretty harsh. First up we had to do a job for the Cane Cocky ! He wanted us to track a phone line from his house across a tree root system which he wants to clean up~

Unfortunately the phone line runs straight through the tree roots. The challenge came when the area was riddled with targets!!

Targets of definite quality and iron~ The catch here is that site had a two story Queenslander on the site ~ and the property and the house/s were commandeered by the military from 1942 - 1946 !

But the Ground is rock hard ! I mean it was so hard Terry could not even get his medium Miners pick into it ~ But still we estimated the cable and we agreed to come back after the first rains ~

I did a quick fan around the area in front of the now long gone homestead~ The boss cocky was more interested in what I was doing than his phone cable ~ and he was impressed when I pulled a Goldie Kangaroo~

So once again we have a standing invitation to come back ANY time ~

So we headed out to the cane fields and BOY ! It was hot ~ especially out of the breeze ~ So we covered up with good hats and full covering, Block out and lots of water ~

The temp at extreme was around 35 plus deg and in FNQ that is harsh !!

Things were pretty sad ~ and finds scarce. The reason this site is so scant of targets is that the farm has been ripped and ploughed and levelled then graded so many times and ALL the excess top soil has been pushed into the local creek ~ which FLOODS EVERY wet season!!

Terry found a spill of 45 ACPs which were pretty well gone ~ I picked up a 1/2 penny KGV turned out to be a 1938.

Plus a mystery item ~ a small disc , very close to a 1/2 penny but with a small square hole in the centre ~ Plus a few mystery smalls ~

And finally what I believe is a .30 US projectile ~

But once again the ground is ROCK HARD ~ even under the 400 mm the we told the field was ploughed to ~ Lots of targets including iron .. maybe a Bren gun mag~ or even US BAR magazines !! ?? Too hard ! The ground was Just too hard!

So we wait till after the first rains come ~ The ploughed fields are scheduled to be replanted in MAY 15!

Still a great outing as always with fantastic hosts that welcome those invited onto the property~ Reckon at this rate we have a new pundit in the MD World ~ LOL


First the old homestead site and 'the tree' ~









The small disc was resolved yesterday when I was panning through EBay Militaria and I found "it"!

The disc with the small hole is a backing plate for a US Army collar or Beret badge

 

I never cease to be amazed at how keen you are - down here in Brissie with similar weather all I did was lie on the couch and make decisions on which setting to use on the aircon........

 

LOL

Dave ~ We don't have that problem ~ No AC here ~ we have ala naturale sea breeze which 97% of the time drifts from Innisfail in the SE, and Mount Bartle Frer~ through the rain forest of the South Johnstone ~ giving us perfect natural constant air flow ! Plus it is a whole lot cheaper ~ in fact Free to consumers !

The last hunt was undoubtedly the most stressful hunt we have put in~ and competing with the Montalbion site which is an extremely ~ extremely big call by comparison ~ Plus we went at 14.00 ~ the hottest part of the day !

And another early hunt on for tomorrow ~ Wednesday is always a handy day for us as the other two blokes are retired, and I generally do not work on Wednesday ~ so it is all dependent on my shifts ~

 

Wednesday ~ yet another Mid week hunt..

Ed, my Hunt mate prefers the mid week hunts as his weekends are generally always taken up with family and community commitments ~

As he says ~ retirement is Bloody hard Work! and he has the four * four ~ LOL


So I finished work at 00.00 Tuesday and straight to bed around 00.15.

No beers so any sleep, so as the previous night was solid constructive sleep ~ I set the alarm clock for 05.50! \\I woke at 05.00 ! Got up at 05,30!

Still took an hour to get organized and arrive at Ed’s pace at 06.30 !

A quick cuppa and we hit the road !

Then it rained ~ we hunkered down for some 20 minutes rather than start with a wet butt ~ So it was around 07.45 before we got on the new site ~ and rigged up~

The targets started up pretty quick and I had to dig "to Taiwan" for an early King George V Three pence~ Eithe rsoins were so small or the pockets of the day were so weak ~ there always seems a prolific suppy of these puppies ~

After several hours hunting to and fro we hit a hot spot with lots of targets ~ and a new hunt ground I even scored several same relic badges as "Sun Bakers" ~ that is they were laying on the surface !!!



And after a succession of Aust Militiary Forces buttons I found this one and it was in amazing condition after 70 years laying in the dirt ~



We then worked the new site ~ with amazing results ~ and kept at it till aprox midday when we broke of "smokO' ~

We then kept on till 15.00 hours and decided to call it a day ~ but a great day ~


Ed's booty



He scored an unusual "oiler' which I think was is a LE Jungle Carbine oiler as it is much shorter than the usual LE 303 unit!

And my tally ~ a good day for me ~









I wonder if this was a trench art piece or a an Instructor's tool piece !





A rare event~ to find a utensil with engraving ~ plus an unusaul twisted handle ~

 

Wednesday ~ another early start ~ up with the birds and on site by 06.15hrs.

Very hot out of the breeze ~ as Summer bears down on us in Australia ~

I started otu wel with another Rising Sun badge early ~ I appeared to be doing much better than my partner as he was stuck in 303 projectiles.

We agreed that it was not wise to right off the same signals as I had proven on the previous trip with even a Rising Sun badge giving off the same signal as the projectiles~

I scored a 20mm Hispano case which has been tampered with in a failed attempt at Trench Art ~ but still a nice score! Plus a front number plate from a as I assume a Dispatch riders motorcycle ~


We broke for smoko around 08.30

My tally to then ~




After smoko I headed east to check out an area which offers some hope ~ while Ed plugged along at the current site ~ While he did retrieve a hat Rising Sun and a cigarette lighter among the 303 projectiles ~

IMO the site was used as a firing range perhaps from 1942 and later became a camp site as most fo the beer bottles are dated 1944-45.

Another break around midday before we moved camp to a rubbish dump site which we call "The Beer Garden" as there are thousands of smashed beer bottles ~

I headed off to retrieve the radio earth spike I had previously left behind ~ I also scored a Sun baker 1913 shilling KGV ~ and a 1980s mag lite torch ~




But then without realising I crossed what may be best described as a Two -up School site and my WiFi had gone flat after some 6 hours! And Ed benefited as he picked up on a host of coins ~



A group of soldiers play a game of two-up at a two-up school in a Hotel yard.






I went on to find a host of webbing buckles and misc items ~ evena DOg tag blank !

We called it a day around 14.00 and headed home

Our joint relics ~ Ed's at the top

The head stamp 20mm



A mystery round ~ either a Webby .455 or a Colt 45 US service revolve ~ *Thanks Sean/ "Torch" for the input~!





The spike after one session in the electrolysis vat

​

 

Cheers Stuart - I wonder if all the coins found in one area (Two -up School site) represent an area near a wet canteen. Coins lost jostling near the bar, or outside in a two-up ring and nearby there is a beer bottle dump.

 

Cheers Dave

I tend to agree with your thoughts completely ~ as there sure is a bottle dump for sure ~