SMLE Bayonet - is this a service number

[Chasemuseum]

The Owens had been burned many years before. Quantities of F1s were also disposed of in 1988 but I don't think that many went to the UK. Large quantities of 3-inch and 4.2-inch mortars were also disposed of. In the mid90s policy changed and all surplus weapons including bayonets had to be destroyed, even the knife out of KFS set.

[peregrinvs]

I think I remember reading somewhere that the Owens in the Australian war reserve had been scrapped in the 1970’s. Hence they are now rare as few made it out of Australia beforehand.

I don’t ever remember seeing an F1 for sale in the UK. British policy is to scrap surplus firearms, but bayonets (for the time being...) can be sold off.

[Chasemuseum]

16 hours ago, peregrinvs said:

Owens in the Australian war reserve had been scrapped in the 1970’

I have also heard this but cannot confirm it. I know that in the 1980s that the Papua New Guinea government asked to be supplied Owen magazines to display with some guns at their national museum and that the Australian government was unable to assist.

The big cull of 1988 also saw all our centurion tanks sold off. Previously the policy was usually to auction armoured vehicles individually. The Ferrets were sold in about 1974. For the centurions the decision went back and forth and they ultimately sold them with all the spares as a single lot. A condition of the sale that the 80 vehicles sold with several hundreds of tons of spares all had to be removed from the Bandiana base within 30 days. About 50 vehicles were retained for government museums, decorations at army bases and as range targets.

With the M113, as these are cleared from war reserve they will mostly be destroyed as their disposal out of service is governed by the USA end use contract conditions. The same way the F111 fighter-bombers were buried at the garbage dump at Ipswich and run over with a bulldozer first. One is on loan to a private museum, but still officially on the books as a RAAF asset as a work around to the USA contract provisions.

[ufo8mydog]

On 24/06/2022 at 14:32, Chasemuseum said:

Australia cleared out the war reserves of .303 weapons back in 1988. Tens of thousands of rifles and several thousand Brens & Vickers. Most were bought by UK dealers and shipped first to the UK. A lot was demilled and sold in the UK/european market and a lot was demilled and shipped to USA. So there is a huge amount of the old "Australian Army Cadet"material in the UK market.

Cheers

Ross

I am pretty sure at the same time 100,000 303's were sold to India for virtually nothing

[Chasemuseum]

3 hours ago, ufo8mydog said:

I am pretty sure at the same time 100,000 303's were sold to India for virtually nothing

Would not be surprised. In 88 the weapons sold within Australia had target prices that had to be achieved. What was sold by tender for export was sold for very much lower prices.

 

A WW1 Vickers gun sold in Australia, de-milled purchased direct from the Australian Government cost more than the price that the UK dealers were retailing the same guns for, except the guns that went to the UK also had the tripods. Importing the guns back from the UK was prohibited.

[ufo8mydog]

26 minutes ago, Chasemuseum said:

Would not be surprised. In 88 the weapons sold within Australia had target prices that had to be achieved. What was sold by tender for export was sold for very much lower prices.

 

A WW1 Vickers gun sold in Australia, de-milled purchased direct from the Australian Government cost more than the price that the UK dealers were retailing the same guns for, except the guns that went to the UK also had the tripods. Importing the guns back from the UK was prohibited.

It would not surprise me at all if that was the case re the cost in Australia v overseas. It's a bit like the case now, we sell our gas etc overseas cheaper than we can get it here.

I was only 13 at the time I read about the shipment to India and could not believe they virtually gave them away.

[Chasemuseum]

In 1988, sales to authorized buyers were at various fixed prices in Australia. A vickers gun, in the chest, without the tripod was AUD$1,000  For that you got a random selection, it could be WW1 or WW2.  At the time the exchange rate to the British pound was roughly 3 to 1. 

 

In the UK, the Australian* Vickers were being retailed for about GBP 250 with the tripod.  * When I say Australian I mean sourced from Australian War Reserve. Most of the guns had been manufactured in the UK, very few were made at Lithgow.

 

In Australia at the time the Government was selling the No 1 SMLE for $40 each. I have no idea what price they were sold for at the export tenders, but I very much doubt that it would have been as much as $4 each.