Australian WWII - Far North Queensland Metal detecting and recovery

[4md]

The Kulara tag looks alot like the tags you find on Milk or cream cans

[4md]

stainless gizmo looks like a dog clutch for some sort of machinery in post 822

[satchiel]

There was a "Sapper" E. Halbert from Kulara, that enlisted for service on the 11th of June 1941 at Cairns, in the Fixed Defences & Fortress Engineers:

Edmund Halbert - Service Dossier


Townsville Daily Bulletin, 31st July 1941, p.2

He marched in to Lytton & the Fort down my way in Brisbane, before being sent up to the coastal defences in Moresby, not too long before my g-uncle's transfer to same from the Cowan/Bribie Batteries.

Same E. Halbert, maybe!?

[Ubique]

And a search of the WWII Nominal Roll by location shows 14 men were living at Kulara when they enlisted. Also 12 men and one woman who enlisted were born at Kulara.

Oz.

[AT P Sweep]

LOL

Gee Whiz ~ I go out for the day and you blokes run amuck ~

Thanks blokes ~ I been busy as a blue ^%^& fly on a warm day this weekend ~

That's great feed back ~

I found a Master builder 'Mike Halbert' in Tolga which is also not far from here ~ and I plan to ring and ask him ~

I will see if I can locate the second tag I found earlier in the same site ~ before I do ring him ~

( Had another intriguing/ excellent relic find/s today ~ report pending ~ )

[AT P Sweep]

stainless gizmo looks like a dog clutch for some sort of machinery in post 822

Yes I agree ~ certainly looks like a clutch of sorts ~ (??)

[AT P Sweep]

Well ~made a smart move in heading out yesterday as Sunday has been a swelter ~

Saturday was nice cool breeze as standard and a saviour ~

A two site hunt ~

Not much luck on the first as it was a mecahnical workshop Battalion ~ Al I found was detritus and some bronze bushings ~

Second site produced much more sucess ~ in fact a modern Orient watch wiht Spiedel band and a 2 " expended flare / star shell mortar ~

( Sorry the first photo is a bit patchy but it was late when I got back and light was fading ~ )

Cleaning in progress ~

Almost got the coding right ~ But yellow band and some of the lettering ~



Third one down ?





Australian mortar crew in action ~

Went to see a fellow collector on the way home ~ WHY did I get sucked into this lot ~



Well at least I got this freebie ~ COlt 45 WW

( Compared tthe .22 ~ )

[AT P Sweep]

The Star shell mortar partially cleaned up ~ inscription / print says 'WSSM 5/1942'

(plus the Orient Japan quartz watch and Spiedel watch band i found on the same hunt !)

9,582

[AT P Sweep]

Regarding a propeller which mate has & believes is from a B17 ~

Drongo ~ that was Roberts phone number ~

There were USAF B17s based in the area from 1942 - 1943 ~



I will endeavor to get more details and pictures ~

[AT P Sweep]

Thanks for the lead in on this issue blokes

I just talked to Robert about the propeller (Blade)

The story became far more intriguing as he told me how he scored the blade ~

The reference is 6353A-18 CHG

*The challenge now is that the Hamilton standard listing for a 6353 Blade is a PBY Catalina ~ There was also a PYB base at Cairns during the duration fo the Pacific war ~

But having said that the 6353 A was attributed to the B17 (?)


As for the locally B17 based incident ~

But the story is that this blade was a relic from a B17 which fully armed crashed on take off in Sept 14 1942 killing a complete crew


14 September 1942 - Crash of a B-17 at Mareeba

USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress #41-24391, nicknamed "Hoomalimali", of the 63rd Squadron of the 43rd Bomb Group