Australian Boots

[sandgroper]

This is a great thread, really interesting seeing such s great collection of Aussie boots.

[gbalke]

After spending over a year looking for a reasonably priced pair of war dated Australian Army boots, I finally scored a pair. On the plus side, they were here in the States so shipping is not prohibitive. Should have them in hand in several days.

These are NOS, the vendor code is S304. not sure what the codes on the soles indicate. Lovely boots but are lacking the shoe strings. So, to all of my collector friends down under, what type of shoe strings were issued/used with this type of boot? Photos would be helpful.

Cheers

[reneblacky]

The codes on the sole is the date, inspector & size, similar to this ankle placement and should have leather laces.

Adding an another pair issued -early/mid mfg.

[gbalke]

Thanks for that bit of information Rene.

[Ubique]

Looks like you found yourself a nice pair there gbalke.
The little G stamp is the inspectors stamp that Rene mentioned. And the S indicates a South Australian manufacturer. The soldiers would have been issued a pair of leather laces which they installed themselves.

Oz.

[gbalke]

Thanks Oz. Setting up a display showing an RAAF pilot in the N. Africa/Libya region and the only thing missing was some proper Aussie footwear. These will work great with the smooth soles. Found a pair last year but seller was in your neck of the woods and shipping to me was more than the boots. Needless to say I passed on those.

[Ubique]

Shipping to/from Australia is a p.i.t.a! There have been some weird things in the carry-on luggage at airports.

Oz.

[gbalke]

My Australian Army boots arrived today. I swear as I was opening the package I could smell the aroma of "new shoes"!

[reneblacky]

The unissued ones do have that smell, I think it's the original storage wax they have.

[Ubique]

Sometimes boots can feel dry and I rejuvenate them with a little colourless boot polish, but this pair look pretty good.

Oz.