Monday, 8 August 2022
Maleny District Sport & Recreation Club Community Newsletter
The Travelling Artillery Piece
M
aleny's 5th Light Horse Regiment Members are often asked by curious visitors about the artillery piece that is proudly on display outside their Beersheba Museum. Of course, there is a good story about how it was discovered, restored, transported between two towns and back again, all thanks to a combined Light Horse, Army, Service Club, business and community group effort. The story began in 2002, when, after a ve-year search for a gun by Maleny’s rst 5th Light Horse Museum, then located upstairs at the Maleny RSL, found the WWII Howitzer 25 pound artillery piece. It was retrieved from a paddock at the Wallangarra Ammunition Depot in SW Queensland, where it had languished for 25 years. Made in Australia in 1941, the gun was the 5th gun in the 2nd battery of the 4th Field Regiment.
The 25-pounder was one of the most satisfactory eld guns used by British and Commonwealth armies during the Second World War. The 25-pounder remained the standard gun in Australian eld artillery regiments until replaced in the early 1960s by the American built M2A2 105mm Howitzer. The then curator of Maleny’s original 5th Light Horse Museum, Bob McMillan-Kay, and the RSL’s Chris Brooker, collected the gun from the paddock. The good community of Maleny then set about the restoration process with local businesses, service clubs and tradesmen offering their goods and labour for free. Photo Below Chris Brooke (L), Rob Werry and mounted troopers took delivery in Maleny on 1st October 2017
Continued on Page 3
fi
https://issuu.com/Maleny-Grapevine-Community-News
fi
fi
fi
Maleny District Sport & Recreation Club Community Newsletter
https://malenysportandrec.org.au/