The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
The development of these all-welded steel landing barges was the work of the Ford Motor Company in Brisbane in conjunction with naval and military engineers. The first barge to be built measured only 32' in length. When two of these were tied together in order to transport a bull-dozer across Moreton Bay, army engineers saw the possibility of uniting this type of craft for larger and heavier loading and promoted the idea of welding four 32' barges together to make a craft 64' long by 19' 6" wide. Many hundreds of these were built in Brisbane and traveled north under their own power, later to go into action in New Britain, New Guinea and Bougainville.
Seven of the eighteen employees in this yard are apprentices learning the trade and continuing with their studies at night school. In this small yard Crowley has built sailing craft, power boats, repa
Scene of two partially destroyed Japanese landing barges listing in the water, with trees and a low mountain range in the background. Dargie noted, "These barges were strafed by Australian Kittyhawks
This trip is in the nature of an epic voyage, as these barges are intended for coastal use, not for trans-ocean work. The craft consisted of 19 ALC 40s, 1 ALC 120 and motor launches. Their function in
Two refuelling launches emerge from the shadows of an old boatyard. A new Royal Australian Air Force rescue craft lies alongside, gleaming in fresh paint. Little peacetime boats rub shoulders against
Launching by means of a mobile crane, a vessel built by Slazenger's, on the outbreak of war, converted from a tennis racquet makers to the builders of small ships and the craft they built had to be tr
Section showing where the landing barges pulled in to unload their cargo. As the wharf was wrecked by bombing, the Liberty ships were unloaded onto these barges in the Bay. The 7th Australian Docks Op