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Grovely Army Camp
1st Australian Motor Transport Training Depot
By February 1943, the 1st Australian Motor Transport Training Depot at the Grovely Camp, in what is now the Brisbane suburb of Keperra, was the largest of its kind in the Commonwealth. The training facility offered courses to military drivers, both men and women, and was churning out more than 120 trained drivers per week.
The camp and depot straddled the rail line at Grovely and bordered the Keperra Golf Course. Consisting of instructional huts and facilities, there were also workshops, and YMCA and Salvation Army huts, servicing the troops.
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Training facility
History
Training courses included motor cycles, trucks and Bren-gun carriers. Courses equipped the graduate with both theoretical and practical knowledge and experience to handle most vehicles.
In addition to the practical driving component, thorough instruction was provided in mechanisation and maintenance. Proficiency was essential and not all participants made the grade. Those who failed to meet the requirements were sent back to their units.
Commanded by a Middle East veteran, Captain Duncan Russell, a pre-war car sales manager, the unit had a single duty to produce qualified technicians. The studnets were lectured in discipline maintenance, map reading and full mechanics. Captain Russell, in...
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