Land Rovers during the Snowy Scheme

Ref; Landrover Specials

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd...est.smhea1.jpg

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This picture comes from the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority archive. It is not known if this was a "proper" Forest-Rover or a locally built special [-LA].

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Ref; Landycam -REMLR

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/01/201.jpg

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Here's a pic from Cooma's Landy graveyard. Both chassis have a few front-end mods, one has coil springs, both have homemade radiator panels. SMHEA custom jobs? Spotted any other clues?

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https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/01/207.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/01/208.jpg
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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Mostly from Toyota, but they may have a basis in fact, however slim.
Rover was unable to meet demand for Landrovers until well into Series 3 production, if not later. Hence, despite increasing numbers being shipped to Australia (as elsewhere), ...

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While I cant absolutely refute some of this information, I can state that throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s the vehicles in almost every batch* took two to three months to be dispatched between the first vehicle dispatched and the last. In fact SIIa vehicles were still being sold in 1973 a year after the SIII was first produced.

If there were shortages of supply and back orders the vehicles would have all been dispatched within days of each other.

However I will accept that there may have been delays in getting some variants because of the batch system where they only produced a single variant and then changed to a different variant.

I didn't look at the series one dispatch books but I believe there would be similar patterns in dispatch.

* Batches vary from 6 to 24 or more vehicles but most are batches of 12 vehicles

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Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

Ref; Landycam -REMLR

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/01/201.jpg

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What motor is in that one closest to the camera? It looks too curvy on top for a Holden and 'wrong sided' for a Falcon, and too early for a Hemi.

Jeff

:rocket:

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Originally Posted by Jeff

What motor is in that one closest to the camera? It looks too curvy on top for a Holden and 'wrong sided' for a Falcon, and too early for a Hemi.

Jeff

:rocket:

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Is it a grey Holden?

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Is it a grey Holden?

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Pretty sure it isn't a grey, they have a cap with breather in the centre on the rocker cover. It could be a red with a bashed about rocker cover maybe to clear the firewall. Looks to be leaning over too, but given the condition it might not have run that way.

Jeff

:rocket:

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Originally Posted by Jeff

What motor is in that one closest to the camera? It looks too curvy on top for a Holden and 'wrong sided' for a Falcon, and too early for a Hemi.

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Edit it's not a Chevy ! More likely a lent over red Holden, there is a PCV and the rubber grommet that it fit's into, the same position as a Holden engine.

Hi Jeff

I think it's a fifties Chevrolet Blue flame six cylinder, given the modification to the front of the chassis for the length.
The colour of the rocker cover is another clue , it's loose and laying towards the carby, that carby looks like the type fitted to the Chevy engines.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...015/01/194.jpg
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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Where do these myths come from?

The records show that SMHEA purchased in batches but there were plenty of capacity to supply SMHEA, numerous other government departments as well as private buyers. If there were shortages in supply Rover Co wouldn't have expanded its distribution base to towns an cities across the country including many small rural towns such as Braidwood and Grenfell. They would have conserved the supply for the major government customers.

As I stated before SMHEA were still buying Land Rovers at the end of the scheme construction phase in the 1970s and as John has said SMHEA Land Cruiser were few and far between, particularly before the LC received the 4 speed gearbox.

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I was told this about 20 years from my Subi mechanic who used to do some work on an old Brumby I had in the early 90s. He was a bit of an automotive historian so I didn't question it. He also stated that he used to work for Land Rover. I was quite young and probably naive to such things and I must admit that when I was told I thought that Land Rover missed a massive opportunity (assuming he was right of course).

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

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If there were shortages of supply and back orders the vehicles would have all been dispatched within days of each other.

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Not necessarily - vehicles may well have been allocated to dealers well ahead of time but not actually dispatched for quite some time after they were actually ready, for all sorts of reasons. These could include transport, slow paperwork, customer agreements etc. But as they were already allocated, they could not be sold to new customers.

(An extreme example of this sort of thing is Minerva's experience with CKD kits - 80" were still being dispatched to Minerva long after the 86 was in production, much to Minerva's concern, because they had been manufactured and stockpiled to meet the entire Minerva order back in 1950?.)

Today there is a tendency to forget how business was carried out fifty or sixty years ago, when nearly all communications were by surface mail, vehicles were mostly dispatched by rail (remember state regulations forbade the use of road transport where a rail service existed until about 1960) and "just in time" had never been heard of, and having to order vehicles years ahead was normal in the post-war car shortage situation..

John