According to this plaque theQueensland town of Rockhampton exchanged with the Australian War Memorial museum a colonial cannon for a War Trophy German 105 mm howitzer in 1984. This howitzer has a works / serial number of 7785. It is on display in the City Botanical Gardens.
The unusual aspect of this affair is that Rockhampton already had a 105mm howitzer, number 14934. It also had two 150mm howitzers, nos.: 213 and 1090. The howitzer 1090 was on display in the Botanical Garden and was in reasonable condition. It is now in front of the local Army Reserve depot. The guns 213 and 14934 are in a deteriorating condition, their wheels in particular have disintergrated.
The howitzer no 7785 is not listed anywhere in Bill Billet's book "War Trophies".
Does anyone know the background to this arrangement? With the growing interest in colonial cannons it is curious as to why Rockhampton should relinquish a rare and significant historical weapon for another quite commonplace gun of which it already had an example.
No doubt thereis more to this than it appears or I've got it wrong somewhere but it is intriguing so far.
The other images are of the howitzer and in particular show how rust can devour such weapons - they really must be placed under cover.
V
-- Edited by sandy1000 on Tuesday 29th of December 2009 03:42:13 AM
-- Edited by sandy1000 on Tuesday 29th of December 2009 03:44:40 AM
-- Edited by sandy1000 on Tuesday 29th of December 2009 03:48:37 AM
-- Edited by sandy1000 on Tuesday 29th of December 2009 03:52:09 AM
Very strange - it will be in the council records but that's a lot of digging. It might have been a way for the council to avoid spending money on the colonial era gun.
Billett mixed up the serials of the Rockhampton guns - #213 and #14934 are the 15cm sFHs at the Swimming pool (by photo evidence) and #1090 is the 10.5cm lFH which used to be in the Botanic Gardens.
I agree with your comment about the deterioration of the guns out in the weather. Sometimes there are people who are prepared to look after them - there's an M2A2 howitzer in Inala which is looked after by a couple of old gunners - it's not in a good location but it's in really good condition - no rust and kept clean.
I've been looking at 25 pounders recently - I think we could lose many of these in the next few years through neglect. The 25 pounders were released from the Aust. Army in 1975 and many of them are badly rusted after 34 years. Putting a roof over the guns is part of the preservation effort - another part is regular maintenance - and another is the display itself. The lFh in your images has just been left to sit on its wheels without a crutch to take most of the weight of the gun off the wheels. I'll bet the council doesn't rotate the wheels regularly to even the stress loads on the wooden spokes out.
Regards,
Charlie
-- Edited by CharlieC on Tuesday 29th of December 2009 01:52:13 PM
-- Edited by CharlieC on Tuesday 29th of December 2009 02:04:52 PM
Putting a roof over the guns is part of the preservation effort - another part is regular maintenance - and another is the display itself. The lFh in your images has just been left to sit on its wheels without a crutch to take most of the weight of the gun off the wheels. I'll bet the council doesn't rotate the wheels regularly to even the stress loads on the wooden spokes out.
Regards,
Charlie
Perhaps what is needed is an approach by some organisation with a bit of clout, the RSL, National Trust, Heritage, AWM or similar to put together a Guide to the Preservation of War Trophy Guns in which it advises preservation needs. Additionally perhaps there be included a guide to allow Shire Councils to relinquish control over those guns that have deteriorated beyond acceptability and have these brought back to a place where they can be restored and re-allocated to sites where they can be appreciated.
I agree with the sentiment but I think the best preservation results seem to occur when communities are engaged in the effort which wouldn't be the case for a remote bureaucracy. It's noticeable with the Queensland guns that the best preserved guns are always the result of communities owning and maintaining the guns. The result is that there are some very well preserved guns in small, often remote places.
I think that the first step of recording and displaying on the Web all the guns in Australia is an important first step. So I'll put in a plug for Kevin Browning's project when it spreads outside NSW. Even just displaying the current state of the guns on the Web may be a motivator - which council or RSL wants to be known as "those guys who have the rusty, dirty 15cm sFH".
Quote: I agree with the sentiment but I think the best preservation results seem to occur when communities are engaged in the effort which wouldn't be the case for a remote bureaucracy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The local Shire Council , Mornington Peninsula Council has a very pro-active Memorial Garden activist group and the Memorial Gardens has a very high profile within the community.
On the other hand we have Rockhampton with 2 guns rotting away and another gun simply the duplicate of one on display in the Botanical Gardens.
There is cause for there to be an approach by Mornington council to acquire one of Rockhamptons guns, restore it and proudly put it on display in their Memorial Gardens.
