The Queensland Transport Museum is a small but impressive collection of military transport vehicles, located in the Lockyer Valley Cultural Centre at Lake Apex in Gatton, Queensland.
Tickets to enter the museum are purchased at the visitor centre, and accessed by walking through the cafe. The cafe itself does not sell tickets to enter the museum but is handy for a caffeine hit and a bite to eat afterwards.
We initially stopped here following the brown sign for Lake Apex and found the museum at the Lockyer Valley Visitor Information Centre. After visiting the Lights on the Hill monument at Lake Apex 
, I had expected the museum to be more general transport trucks, but it was very focused on military transport vehicles.
Some of the vehicles are more or less what you would expect to see as a normal heavy transport vehicle, such as the 1985 International S2600, others are distinctly military focused, such as the 1958 Saladin Armoured Car.
Transport Vehicles
1940 Blitz 6×6
Like the early Jeeps, the Blitz was manufactured by multiple manufactures, Ford, General Motors, and Dodge. Many Blitz were shipped to Australia in kit form and assembled and fitted by Holden, the General Motors Australian subsidiary. As a result, Blitz trucks had a few minor body differences, depending on where they were built and assembled. Throughout WWII, there were thousands of Blitz trucks in various configurations in Australia, only a few where in the C60 6×6 configuration.
1941 GMC 6×6
The US Army Truck I remember when watching Rambo First Blood, the GMC 6×6 served as a combat vehicle and transporter. One in four had a machine gun mounting ring above the co-driver’s seat, armed with a .50 calibre machine fun. It shared the same chassis as the GMC 6×6 Prime Mover with a different configuration for its different role.
1967 International Harvester Mark 5 AACO
Heavy Wrecker vehicles were used to recover vehicles that were stuck, broken down, or wrecked in challenging environments, such as the dense jungles of Vietnam. After WWII, the Australian Army needed to find a replacement for its aging fleet of Blitzes and GMCs. International Harvester, originally formed from five American agricultural machinery manufactures, had an Australian subsidiary established in 1912. International Harvester Victoria offered AACO 6×6 Mark 5 trucks, more rugged than trucks on offer from England at the time. They were also made as tipper trucks, used for transporting troops, supplies and equipment. The International Harvester AACO brand stood for Australian A-Line Cab Over, and later ACCO with the newer C-Line trucks. In its heyday, two assembly lines worked in tandem, producing army vehicles on one line, and commercial use trucks on the other.
1985 International Harvester S2600
The S-Line was a popular truck in Australia from International Harvester from 1979 until 1999 when it ceased production. The Australian S2600 was torn apart and reassembled with local modifications at International Harvester’s Dandenong plant. Powered with a high-torque diesel engine, this 1985 example was a tank hauler for efficient movement of critical assets, such as battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and self-propelled artillery.
Military Vehicles
1942 M3 American White Half Track
The half-track was an innovation during WWII, combining the strengths of wheeled and tracked vehicles. The tracked rear provided greatly improved traction and stability over rough and uneven terrain, while the front wheels allowed for higher speeds and better steering when on roads.
1956 Saracen Armoured Personnel Carrier 6×6
Designed and produced by Alvis, the Saracen Armoured Car is a true 6×6 vehicle with dedicated drive axle and independent torsion bars for each pair of wheels. Not as long as a modern ute, this 4.8 metre vehicle weighs a heftier 11 tonnes. The massive Rolls-Royce B80 petrol engine, with eight inline cylinders, moved the heavily armoured car to 72 kilometres per hour. It is armed with a .30 calibre Browning machine gun in its turret, and a 7.62mm Bren Gun mounted on a turntable at the rear, serving primarily for self-defence while moving personnel.
1958 Saladin Armoured Car 6×6
At first, it looks similar to the Saracen Armoured Car, developed by Crossley Motors and later made by Alvis. There are a lot of similarities, using a 6×6 dedicated drive axles powered by a Rolls-5.7 litre (346ci) Rolls-Royce B80 petrol engine, and 32mm armour, but the Saladin had a much larger forward gun, a 76mm low-pressure gun. The larger turret and gun added another half tonne and extended the length to nearly 5.3 metres. It had a maximum 3-person capacity for commander, driver, and gunner, operating as fire support and reconnaissance, rather than a personnel carrier.
1996 Bushranger Infantry Carrier
I thought I was looking at the relatively common Land Rover 6×6, called the Land Rover Perentie 6×6, with 400-500 built from the 1980s through to mid-1990s. Land Rover Bushranger Infantry Carrier vehicles were built as an interim infantry mobility solution before the arrival of the Bushmaster Personnel Mobility Vehicle. Part of the Interim Infantry Mobility Vehicle project (IIMB), 148 were made with another 8 converted into the Bushranger. They share a lot of the same mechanical modifications that separate the Land Rover 110 and the army-built version, including the Izuzu 3.9L 4-cyclinder turbo diesel, full-time 6×4 with central difflock, and third axle powered by PTO on the transfer case for true 6×6 when needed. They also use heavier Salisbury 9.75″ diffs with larger axles and lockers instead of the standard 8.25″ open diffs on the 110.
