THURSDAY, 1 JA N UARY 2026
Curtin’s Cowboys – Australia’s Secret Bush Commandos Richard Walker and Helen Walker
Curtin’s Cowboys – Australia’s Secret Bush Commandos The detailed history of the North Australian Observer Unit (‘The Nackeroos’). The 2/1st North Australia Observer Unit (2/1 NAOU) was an Australian Army reconnaissance unit of World War II. 2/1 NAOU was formed in May 1942 to patrol remote areas of northern Australia and provide warning to the Northern Territory Force of any Japanese landings. As the threat of Japanese landings declined 2/1 NAOU patrols were reduced in July 1943 and the unit was disbanded in March 1945.
Engineering Heritage Australia Vol.3 No.2 May 2019
Lithgow SAF— Australia's first high precision mass production facility. Lithgow Small Arms Factory & Museum a microcosm of Australian values, ingenuity and history. by Renzo Benedet , President & Secretary of the SAF Museum.
It was the 7th April 1908 when the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs placed an advertisement in the Commonwealth Gazette advising of the purchase of lands for defence purposes at Lithgow, NSW for a sum of £2776-17s-6d (valued at A$602,000 in 2019 dollars). That land purchase subsequently led to the design and construction of the Lithgow Small Arms Factory (the Factory), an industrial icon of massive proportions in Australia’s history. Lithgow became the birthplace for precision manufacturing in defence applications in Australia. It introduced mass production with world class production techniques. It developed and sustained the Lithgow region for 70 years, economically and socially. In 1942 it was leading the way in equality of working conditions and pay for women and men. It gave Australian troops firearms suited to varying operating conditions in various war zones. At its opening in 1912, the Factory was a smallish complex but it ‘grew and grew’ with production facilities being added in short bursts over a 20 year period. This story traces some of the essential features of the Factory: the decision for choosing Lithgow; the engineering challenges and triumphs experienced in WW1 and WW2; the key figures in the making of the Factory; and the rising of the Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum (the Museum) and its development. Federation was a mere 6 years old when the Australian Government began to seriously think about self- reliance in terms of military effort. It had 113 years of English rule prior to 1901 – its customs and traditions were very much geared to the ‘mother country’. It seemed ‘the colonies’ were just that, an offshoot of England that would never cease. The experience of Australians in the Boer War planted a seed in
Maggie Marriott's nom de guerre
Maggie Marriott
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