Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Saturday 2 November 1946, page 5


AUSTRAJJAN BUILT LANDING CRAFT

yT&kxMW CAIRNS .

^ V"

LAKOBfT1 OPERATED BY

ABMY.

The. largest* craft operated by the Australian Army, and the only ono of Ita type Ul the Southern Hemisphere, arrived at Cairns on Wednesday night.

It is the 2000-ton A.V.2767, an AustraUan,buitt and designed tank carry-ing landing craft, which was com-pleted one year ago at the Williams-town shipyards, Victoria,

The vessel is of unusual dimensions, having a beam ot 60. feet and a length of 2QQ feet. In spite of its compara-tively heavy tonnage, the craft draws only about 10 feet of water when

loaded and. has no keel, jt has six] derricks, each of which can lift 30

tons.

The most unusual feature of the A,V.2757 is the fact that it has six propellers, each driven by a separate engine. The width of the vessel en-ables these engines, also made, in Aus-tralia, to be placed side by side across the tngineroom.

The ship's engineer, Lieutenant Ç. Palmer, of Sydney, said that the en-" gines compared favourably with any imported ones and had proved them-selves in powering the craft, which , ofter; carried enormous loads.

The commander of the A.V.2767 ia Major R. J. Chestnut, a former Sydney ferry captain, who also does the necessary navigation.. All of the crew are anny men. ~

The snip has come from Torakina and Wewak, and is taking army stores from there to Sydney. On board are the only 15 Australian tanks which took part in the Solomons campaign. The craft has also been engaged in transferring the remains of A.LF. men killed in the Solomons to the war [graves cemetery at Port Moresby.

JEEPS FOR £10.

Also being shipped to Sydney are a number of jeeps and Staff cars which members of the crew bought at Tora-kina. The jeeps cost £10 and the staff cars £30. Landing duty will be de-termined by th« Customs Department at Sydney, but the owners of the vehicles are hopeful that there will be no duty to pay, and expect that, if a landing fee has to he paid, it will he a very small amount, much less than what they paid for the vehicles.

Lieutenant Palmer explained that the Jeeps and ears had cost so little because there was practically no way of getting them away from Torakina. In Moresby and other of the more central Pacific ports, vehicles would cost 10 times as much. Major Chest-nut had received permission to bring the vehicles to Sydney by his vessel for which the owners paid freight

"The A.V.2767 will leave Cairns tomorrow evening.