When I was a kid, there was an “Antennae Farm” this was on about 100 acres and had multiple antennae erected on it, these were joined by tails blazed through the bush. The whole lot was bounded by a chain link fence topped by barbed wire and with signs warning of various offences and penalties for trespass. Naturally, my friend and I found a place where a tree had overgrown the fence so we could climb up one side and down the other. We would ride our bikes for the hour it took to get there, stash our bikes in the bush, then climb over the fence and explore. There was a good swimming creek. One day we found a “building”, it was surrounded by a dirt wall, the building was brick, as we went around it, there were small windows, with glass with wire embedded and bars. The door was steel and a bar and a huge lock. On one side we found a ventilator that was rusted out. Being kids, we could wiggle in via the ventilator. Inside were stacks of crates, 6 crates high, long and narrow. The building had a central corridor with rooms off the corridor, each with a steel door, in each room were crates of different sizes. At the end was a massive door, latched but not locked, inside were crates and crates of ammunition! Different calibres, mainly old .303, but we found some .45 and a lot of 9 mm and then right at the front 7.62 mm. No 5.56 mm though. Over the next months, my friend and I opened various crates and found they contained various firearms. Boys being boys, we regarded the building and contents as “ours”. Over time we souvenired various items from the building, only limited by what we could carry and still ride our bikes.
For foreign viewers, it is traditional in Aussie culture to send younger siblings into hazardous situations ahead of the family heir. In this environment, the guarantee of the continuance of the bloodline is paramount.
If you go to Merredin , not far from ardath there is numerous concrete bunkers around the area , out towards nungarin there’s is big concrete bunkers out in the paddocks still there , after the war they dug huge trench’s and threw ammo , grenades machine guns all sorts of stuff in and tipped in diesel and burnt it , although I’m pretty sure a lot went missing , my best friend bought in an old unloaded grenade to school to show me one day , they also had an old vickers machine gun they dug up
Theres plenty of Vickers on farms to this day. They were sold as surplus after the war. I fondly remember as a kid being able to buy practice grenades from Aussie Disposals, same but no explosive. Could buya replica anything gun, they were real guns just had to change the barrel and was a working gun. Anything from a 303 to a STG44 or Luger. Our war games featured those and cops and robbers 38s and 45s with shoulder holster and pork pie hats. We would pull an armed robbery on the milk bar every saturday then arrest ourselves.
I have driven past those bunkers. We also found the Hospital that was just outside Merredin. We had driven past that for years before stopping to have a look.
@@wa4wd yeh I use to store grain in those bunkers out of town so I’ve worked around them quite a bit , you could always find bits of busted equipment around them , also as u drive out of Merredin there is the big aircraft hangers there and in town there was huge underground fuel bunkers , still there today , a house is incorporated into one now
Great video. For any Americans watching this, that cave at the start looks like a drop bear cave. I hope you were looking up the trees as you were walking around, you don't want these bloody things dropping on top of you and tearing your skin open!!
The AIF used to do horse patrols around the whole WA coast during WW2. Fabulous way to endure the war years. Also plane patrols. I know of one air strip they used , its where Carcoola is now, outside Pinjarra.
I was a bit sceptical about the crimp-top drum lid, but it seems these have been around since 1914 as five-gallon pails. Pity the sawhorses didn’t make it, but odds are good that one of them is in the photo. Thanks for taking the time to share this. Great video! 👍🏻
Wow I explored that same area about 18months ago, i actually went a little further into the cave but yes something was living in there. I did do some metal detecting but didn’t find anything of interest just junk.
Geta Metal detector.. 👍definitely same saw horse's and ill go in that cave for ya... great finds stay safe watchvout for snakes mate. 👍 fellow AUSSIE youtuber the SURVIVOR RANCH 👍
Why did they dump the ammunition in the ocean. Would of made more sense to De commission the ammo an melt down all the brass, steel an lead. As for the powder I don't know make fire lighters or fireworks or something.
They did this everywhere. German submarines towed out from Northern Ireland and sunk. No thought about scrapping them. German ammunition and bombs detonated on a small island by the Americans, The island was "sculptured"
Sadly, I think that many 19 year olds are the one who serve. As they say wisdom comes with age. I know my views are very much different to when I was 19 wearing a jungle green uniform!
The concrete pad with steel post supports by its size and position on a rise would be the place of a water tank stand to supply water with low pressure ge eraly 20 psi to showers and kitchens
the square drum looks like an old flimsy fuel container. german ones were better n called jerry cans. That lid could also be from a flour tin. used hundreds of em on stock camps. Dingo flour mill in Freo made em
@paulorchard7960 I will have to look again too! Well spotted. The hand written numbers do identify the individuals. Their records are on line and make for some interesting reading, with some sad stories in there
They would have been Italian POWs as at the time Mussolini had joined forces with Germany so any Italians already here were considered a threat and rounded up and put into camps.
@BasilPunton Maybe not so much now, but 80 years ago. One definition is away from the coastal strip. But it is very vague, like the black stump. Just to add I have worked and lived in some pretty remote areas, including delivering mail between Norseman and Border Village in SA where the drive would take you through several European countries. Thanks for watching though.
@nigelnunn8336 When you see how the Perth metro area is built, anything east of the darling range is considered a foreign country. Once if you heard the STD tones on a phone call you were considered "in the bush"
When I was a kid, there was an “Antennae Farm” this was on about 100 acres and had multiple antennae erected on it, these were joined by tails blazed through the bush. The whole lot was bounded by a chain link fence topped by barbed wire and with signs warning of various offences and penalties for trespass. Naturally, my friend and I found a place where a tree had overgrown the fence so we could climb up one side and down the other. We would ride our bikes for the hour it took to get there, stash our bikes in the bush, then climb over the fence and explore. There was a good swimming creek. One day we found a “building”, it was surrounded by a dirt wall, the building was brick, as we went around it, there were small windows, with glass with wire embedded and bars. The door was steel and a bar and a huge lock. On one side we found a ventilator that was rusted out. Being kids, we could wiggle in via the ventilator. Inside were stacks of crates, 6 crates high, long and narrow. The building had a central corridor with rooms off the corridor, each with a steel door, in each room were crates of different sizes. At the end was a massive door, latched but not locked, inside were crates and crates of ammunition! Different calibres, mainly old .303, but we found some .45 and a lot of 9 mm and then right at the front 7.62 mm. No 5.56 mm though. Over the next months, my friend and I opened various crates and found they contained various firearms. Boys being boys, we regarded the building and contents as “ours”. Over time we souvenired various items from the building, only limited by what we could carry and still ride our bikes.
That's good
Good onya boys!
For foreign viewers, it is traditional in Aussie culture to send younger siblings into hazardous situations ahead of the family heir. In this environment, the guarantee of the continuance of the bloodline is paramount.
It sure is, poor old Steve was the butt of many wheelbarrow stunts when we were kids.
If you go to Merredin , not far from ardath there is numerous concrete bunkers around the area , out towards nungarin there’s is big concrete bunkers out in the paddocks still there , after the war they dug huge trench’s and threw ammo , grenades machine guns all sorts of stuff in and tipped in diesel and burnt it , although I’m pretty sure a lot went missing , my best friend bought in an old unloaded grenade to school to show me one day , they also had an old vickers machine gun they dug up
Theres plenty of Vickers on farms to this day. They were sold as surplus after the war. I fondly remember as a kid being able to buy practice grenades from Aussie Disposals, same but no explosive. Could buya replica anything gun, they were real guns just had to change the barrel and was a working gun. Anything from a 303 to a STG44 or Luger. Our war games featured those and cops and robbers 38s and 45s with shoulder holster and pork pie hats. We would pull an armed robbery on the milk bar every saturday then arrest ourselves.
I have driven past those bunkers. We also found the Hospital that was just outside Merredin. We had driven past that for years before stopping to have a look.
@@wa4wd yeh I use to store grain in those bunkers out of town so I’ve worked around them quite a bit , you could always find bits of busted equipment around them , also as u drive out of Merredin there is the big aircraft hangers there and in town there was huge underground fuel bunkers , still there today , a house is incorporated into one now
Great video. For any Americans watching this, that cave at the start looks like a drop bear cave. I hope you were looking up the trees as you were walking around, you don't want these bloody things dropping on top of you and tearing your skin open!!
The AIF used to do horse patrols around the whole WA coast during WW2. Fabulous way to endure the war years.
Also plane patrols.
I know of one air strip they used , its where Carcoola is now, outside Pinjarra.
I have tracked down a couple of WW2 radar station around Port Hedland. I think there was a 10th Light Horse regiment near Yanchep too
I was a bit sceptical about the crimp-top drum lid, but it seems these have been around since 1914 as five-gallon pails. Pity the sawhorses didn’t make it, but odds are good that one of them is in the photo. Thanks for taking the time to share this. Great video! 👍🏻
@@ThreenaddiesRexMegistus I’m the same view , I remember still getting grease tins with those lids in the 80s
Very well presented, thank you for making the effort.
Thank you
3.07 mark.. Grease drum lid..... Great Research and photos Mark!
@@kevinpenny8748 Hi Kev, I think I used to get lard in drums like that, but that's great from a different source.
Great vid, thanks again buddy.
Thank you
Great video mate thanks for sharing
Thank you
Cheers dude this is cool!
There are a few abounded military dumps lucky my aunt's were in the land army she told us where some old place were back in the 80s
@Noelzsazsa I wish I had started looking decade's ago!
Wow I explored that same area about 18months ago, i actually went a little further into the cave but yes something was living in there. I did do some metal detecting but didn’t find anything of interest just junk.
Sometimes the junk includes an interesting item. It also helps date the area too.
Great video! Thank you!
Thanks very much
Don't advertise this, the government has forgotten it exists. They don't need to know we have options
The Aussie government couldn’t even remember yesterday let alone years ago
Geta Metal detector.. 👍definitely same saw horse's and ill go in that cave for ya... great finds stay safe watchvout for snakes mate. 👍 fellow AUSSIE youtuber the SURVIVOR RANCH 👍
@@theSurvivorRanch I am too impatient with metal detectors. And my OCD makes me dig every sound.
@@theSurvivorRanch Always looking for snakes, that why I didn't go in
Id love some wildflower seeds over here on eastern Australia 🇦🇺
@@theSurvivorRanch I think the only legal way is to buy packets of them.
Border force restrictions wouldn’t allow it unfortunately
Thank you.
@@joefury8582 you are welcome
Why did they dump the ammunition in the ocean.
Would of made more sense to
De commission the ammo an melt down all the brass, steel an lead. As for the powder I don't know make fire lighters or fireworks or something.
They did this everywhere. German submarines towed out from Northern Ireland and sunk. No thought about scrapping them. German ammunition and bombs detonated on a small island by the Americans, The island was "sculptured"
It was safer to just toss it into the water. The oceans have been a dumping ground for eons. A lot of war equipment ended up in the water.
I wonder how many 19 year olds would do the same now if anything else like that happen in today's time.
Sadly, I think that many 19 year olds are the one who serve. As they say wisdom comes with age. I know my views are very much different to when I was 19 wearing a jungle green uniform!
The way the world is going at the moment, all these old War time places will be brought back and used again.
Let's hope not! Though I hear the yanks are rebuilding Trinian air base.
asbestos material laying around lol
Forgot 2 add new sub
Thanks for subbing!
@@wa4wd My pleasure.
The concrete pad with steel post supports by its size and position on a rise would be the place of a water tank stand to supply water with low pressure ge eraly 20 psi to showers and kitchens
The water tank was located on another rock closer to where the water storage dam is. I can't easily get to it because it is on private property now.
the square drum looks like an old flimsy fuel container. german ones were better n called jerry cans. That lid could also be from a flour tin. used hundreds of em on stock camps. Dingo flour mill in Freo made em
@noelshannon6788 yeah. Petrol was once motor spirit. Kerosene also came in similar tins. I agree will the flour possibility
The guys with the numbers on their shirts must have been German POWs ! A lot were captured by Australians in the western desert, Libya and Egypt!
I think you'll find that the numbers on the shirts were from a historian marking the photo to help identify the people.
@
Watch it again, the number was on the right chest pocket as well as left sleeve !
@paulorchard7960 I will have to look again too! Well spotted. The hand written numbers do identify the individuals. Their records are on line and make for some interesting reading, with some sad stories in there
They would have been Italian POWs as at the time Mussolini had joined forces with Germany so any Italians already here were considered a threat and rounded up and put into camps.
@@nigelnunn8336we had 2 Italian pows on our farm at Merredin during the war , when the war ended they didn’t want to leave
Bruce Rock is in an agricultural area. Definitely not outback. Stupid title by someone who has no idea of meaning of the word.
so how many Kms out of town is the outback? 100km? 200km? 300km?
@BasilPunton Maybe not so much now, but 80 years ago. One definition is away from the coastal strip. But it is very vague, like the black stump. Just to add I have worked and lived in some pretty remote areas, including delivering mail between Norseman and Border Village in SA where the drive would take you through several European countries. Thanks for watching though.
@Bristolcentaurus or is it a place where only 6 people live?
I was born in Bruce Rock and whilst it was agricultural area in the wheatbelt it might be considered the outback
@nigelnunn8336 When you see how the Perth metro area is built, anything east of the darling range is considered a foreign country. Once if you heard the STD tones on a phone call you were considered "in the bush"