SNAPSHOTS AND CLIPPINGS: The motorcycle carrier. HMAS SYDNEY [III] loads CPO 'Gordie' Evans's BSA 350 for Australia, one of many - Gordon C. Evans Collection.

1862. In fact, Gordon Evans says, HMAS SYDNEY [III} brought back 13 motorcycles owned by crew from Britain in 1949, along with a number of officers cars, and the Chief Air Officer's private Tiger Moth aircraft.

 

A lot of it was stored down in C. hangar, the repair shop, but a lot also came as deck cargo as the carriers were not flying on the delivery voyages.

 

And all this time - having seen those photos of SYDNEY, VENGEANCE and MELBOURNE arriving with cars and crates lined up on their flight decks - we thought they had been saving taxpayers money by shifting government cargo. "It would never have happened in the Royal Navy," Gordon told us, still amazed at this Down Under largesse, even decades later.

 

Photo: Courtesy ex-CPO Gordon Curtis Evans, Air Artificer RN, ex-HMAS SYDNEY. With kind permission for the Unofficial RAN Centenary 1911-2011 Photostream.

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