This gun was allocated to the Melbourne bayside suburb of St. Kilda. The St. Kilda council going through an anti-war phase sold it to a Sydney scrap merchant and it was stopped at the border by the proprietor of a large Melbourne commercial market, who bought it and had it returned to Caribbean Gardens where it is currently on display. It is a 150mm long range gun, one of two that came to Australia, the other bein at Northhead in Sydney. It looks as if this St. Kilda gun is physically the larger of the 2 150mm long range guns which makes it the second largest War Trophy gun in the country, the largest of course being the 12" railroad gun of which only the barrel remains, located outside the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
The St. Kilda gun is in good shape, with only some rusy being apparent, however if it could be put under cover so much the better. It is an awkward gun to photograph, being surrounded by bright orange fork lift pylons and glaring yellow rubbish tins.
Nevertheless it is a big gun and very impressive.
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... piece illustrated is a 15cm K16. It is indeed in decent shape; missing only the under recoil shroud. A near prestine example of the same gun resides in your museum at Canberra; complete with the gear shroud.
And to complete the information, this is indeed a 15cm M 16 Krupp (Rheinmetall manufactured slightly different guns having the same name, in smaller quantities).
The existence of this nice heavy gun is a good surprise. Up to now, I only knew about 4 surviving guns of that type :
this is the precedent version of the 15cm long range guns, improvised on the base of a naval gun and names 15cm SK L/40 i.R.L., where the 15cm K 16 Kp was entirely designed for the terrestrian use.
One such gun is in Northead, Sydney (you think this would be the same one ?), but there is another one in Canada, near Toronto :
Thanks Bernard. In Bill Billett's book "War Trophies" he lists a 150mm gun as being allocated to Bexley in Sydney with the number 4. I think that this must be the gun in the photo.