a couple of years ago i was walking around in the mangroves near my mums place and came across a Large concrete block with a hole in the centre and several rusted bolts, i thought nothing of it since Darwin is filled with relics of WWII (such as bunkers and machinegun nests), walked another couple of metres and came across around 30 Shels from a Bren Gun. I quickly made the link and realised that this was a Machine gun Position During WWII which obviously was operational when the japanese attacked Darwin. I had friends with me at the time so we distributed the Shells amung us. when i got home My Stepmum said that they were probably from a person who was hunting, which is unlikey since there is nothing to hunt in the mangroves but crabs and fish along with the occasional crocodile, but it is illegal to kill them. i am currently not in possesion of these shell, i lost them when i was moving to Queensland and my friends have discarded there shells long ago. i could probably find some more if i have another look but i have been unable to go back to the site due to the constant flow of activities with the AAFC. i hope to find more when i go to my mums in the next few week
Hey Gunney...A fellow Darwinian here...The shells are "casings" and being .303 could be from a Lee Enfield...They should be in pretty ordinary shape if they have been through 65 wets... Theres a pretty good chance they are the real deal...now were they practicing or trying to down a flying peice of crap? Where were the mangroves?
the mangroves around Nightcliff near the Planet bowling place, also when to tide goes out you can walk out and find a whole bunch of WW2 relics like pieces of Ships sunk during the attack on Darwin, fuel drums and a while bunch of other stuff
Walking around the old airfields...particulary about 100 meters out at the perimeter...you can still find helmets, .50cal bullets...peices of aircraft...Its great isn't it?
i know, Darwin is swimming with WW2 relics (especialy around the old arfields) like Bullets, bits and pieces of vehicles and other fancy items of interest, have you been upto the old WW2 RAAF munitions dump? lots of good stuff there that is too dangerouse to take home
its a gold mine of old munitions, most have been disarmed and taken away, but there are still some hidden ones lying in wait for some WW2 enthusiest to walk on by and find them, and a quick warning if you are around that area: look before you step
A bren cartride can be identified by the shape of the indentation on the primer. These are rectangular instead of round like those of a Lee enfield cartridge.
