I have been actively collecting military items since 1964. I currently hold a Class 1 Dealer’s Licence which gives me the entitlement to deal with all fields of collectible militaria firearms, artillery and mortars.
My first ‘hands-on’ handling of a military item was a Nazi incendiary bomb. I was rolling this Nazi bomb through a fire to kill ants when I was caught by my dad. My mum quickly got upset with my dad for finding the bomb and bringing it home. My dad served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and as a young kid, I used to play with all his badges which I almost lost all these badges while playing with them.
Since then, every birthday I make my wish known for collectibles and at the age of 10, I got my dad to get himself a gun licence which I can tap on his licence to work to my advantage. My unusual birthday present from my parents supporting my interest was my first matching number (number 9412) German Karabiner 98k rifle. It is marked to premier German weapon maker bnz and year marked 41 and the gun was used in German Afrika Corps unit.
On trips to England, I would deliberately take out all my clothes from my luggage and leave such clothing behind in exchange for luggage space for military helmets and relics much to my parents angst and there was one pilot who saw a German air force helmet on my carry bag and said I should be flying Luftwaffe!
When I finished high school at the age of 18, I did an accounting degree. At that time, I was restoring antique furniture and trading surplus items to generate funds to grow my collection. I still trade surplus till these days.
My first tank (a late model Lee) was recovered in Gippsland from Keith Heywood and has recently been restored in UK. After I bought it, with the help of my good buddy, we rebuild all rotted links and stripped the clutch and engine to service them. After a few weeks, we finally got the engine running and drove it around the farm and put it onto a truck and sent it back to my home - where more work was done. I then moved it to my present property, together with the rest of my collection across state.
After graduating with an accounting degree, I went to work in credit field. My job has taught me how to deal with bad paymasters. Using the same set of acquired negotiation skills, I jousted with the various authorities regarding my wish for more variety of preserved military items with reasonable restrictions for collectors. I spent my spare time outside of work touring round islands, countries in search for tank parts and recovering tanks and guns / militaria and have saved many rare unique items and sourced much for museums like Australian Armour & Artillery Museum in Cairns to name one.
I am now in my 60’s and my collection is widely regarded as one of the world’s largest accumulation of military gear. The collection has been largely kept in private to preserve it from bad government policies.
I have a special passion for artillery and mortar related gear due to family history and proud of my role in getting artillery over 25mm to be exempted from law as should all pre 1950 weapons of military manufacture which I am still pushing for . Such passion and knowledge about the subject is second to none. I have given a helping hand on a number of articles, books and historical research works. (i.e. David B.Gordon’s allied military books entitled EQUIPMENT OF THE WWII TOMMY, WEAPONS OF THE WWII TOMMY, UNIFORMS OF THE WWII TOMMY, Dal McGuirk’s ROMMELS ARMY IN AFRICA - all passionate topics).
Besides assisting authors, I also have strong desire to save unique and important relics such as the Chuigney gun,Hamel gun which is the first German gun ever captured by Australian forces - first action under Australian command, deemed as super historic item, the complete uniform of one of the first casualties in the Boer war at Pink Hills 2/1900.
I am proud I was instrumental in the Police issuing more than three Class one dealers licences to cover such weapons preservation outside federal controls. As a result, I was number four of the now over 150 and proud we have permanent amnesty to recover and store weapons safely as we recover them.
Enough being said of myself, enjoy the information on this website and if you have any feedback, please feel free to contact me.