Australian bayonet/machete?

[badger51]

This one has me stumped. Handle says Slaz so I presume Australian?
What model is this?
Came from a large older collection

[AIF]

Hi mate, Nice pick up congrats!

What you have there is a MK1 Australian parachutist bayonet also known as a machete bayonet. And as you can gather by the name they were designed to be issued to and used by Aussie paras as both a machete and bayonet as well as a digging tool if need be. They are quite scarce, the scabbard even more so. From memory there were around 3000 - 3500 bayonets made and about 2000 or so scabbards. They started making them sometime in 1944. As far as I know they saw very little to no service apart from some frontline trials with the infantry but by then the war was over so there was no need for them. I am not even sure how many (if any) were actually issued to our parachutists. Our para battalion spent the duration of the war training in Australia and never saw any action so if they were issued they wouldn't have had a chance to use them.

I reckon I have seen more of these in the US over the years than I have in Australia, they seem to be pretty popular with the bayonet and blade collectors over there

Cheers
Luke.