Landships II

ColinS · Private

Restoration at Beaconsfield Tasmania

CharlieC · Legend

Looks good now. At least they started with a fairly complete gun. Getting new wooden wheels built for these guns is fairly expensive.

I notice that the barrel is blocked off now. The gun before it was restored had signs that water was pooling in front of the breech.

Is the serial no. on the gun #1544?

Regards,

Charlie

Rectalgia · Legend

Indeed, a lovely job Colin - the volunteers are to be congratulated and it is good to see the West Tamar Council having some involvement as well. They are the custodians and are, no doubt, suitably appreciative of the efforts of the volunteers in what are very difficult times for the area.

Actually, as a "template" for guiding Council involvement in this "Historic and/or Trophy Guns" aspect of their responsibilities, it is hard to go past another example from Tasmania, this Northern Midlands paper - http://www.northernmidlands.tas.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/13_December_2010_Council_Agenda_Attachments_ECD2_.pdf.

It is great to see the interest and the effort on the part of the people and the local authories exemplified by these cases. If only all the others, nation-wide, were up to the standard.

ColinS · Private

More on the� restoration of the Howitzer at Beaconsfield Tas.I have located the photo of the�right �hand wheel before restoration and I have included the�left �hand after restoration both wheels were as bad the spokes full of dry rot

ColinS · Private

Charlie,
Yes the serial no on the gun is 1544
Colin

ColinS · Private

This articial has been placed in the West Tamar Council's "Beacon" and the Tasmanian RSL paper "On Service" credit to all who had a hand in the restoration of the Howitzer.

Beaconsfield RSL Sub-Branch thank and congratulate Mr Jim Gillies, volunteer at the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre and Mr Hans Thogersen, maintenance carpenter for West Tamar Council, for the restoration work carried out by them on the 15cm Lang s.F.H.13� Howitzer.

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The Howitzer was presented to the then Beaconsfield Municipal Council (now West Tamar Council) forty years ago. The weapon was in a very tired and run down state with the spokes of the wheels full of rot.

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The Howitzer is approx. 97 years old. Jim and Hans got stuck into the job on hand, and Jim spent quite a few hours chipping away the old paint and releasing rusted up parts. Jim freed the wheels from the concrete surrounding them, and removed them from the Howitzer. New timber spokes for the wheels have been made, cut to profile by Tony Mohr of Woodturners of Tasmania, Exeter and painstakingly shaped and fitted by Jim to replicate the remaining original spokes. Steel components have been replaced or repaired by Colin & Guy Best of Blackwater Steel & Glass, Kelso.

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The restoration work that these gentlemen carried out is a credit to them.

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On behalf of Beaconsfield RSL Sub Branch and the residents of the West Tamar I thank all involved for a job well done. The Howitzer looks like it will last another 100 years.

CharlieC · Legend

The next step to ensure the howitzer lasts another 100 years is to get it under cover.

The guns which have been restored and are now under cover are doing very well. A few
examples are:

15cm sFH 13 lg at Wandoan
21cm Morser at Childers
2 x 7.7cm FK 96 n.As at Charters Towers

All of these are on the AMMS Brisbane website (www.ammsbrisbane.com). Some of the
SA guns are under cover such as:

15cm howitzer at Jamestown
10cm lFH 16 at Moonta
10cm lFH 16 at Mt Gambier

These are on the Tributes of Honour website (www.tributesofhonour.info).

Regards,

Charlie

sandy1000 · Lieutenant

Another gun under presumably under cover is the War Trophy gun from Ararat, bought by me from the council and onsold to The Tank Museum in Melbourne and which was later sold when the contents of the museum were sold off. It had been restored by the museum and one would think that the new private owner would look after it.