I've just seen the reference to Ordnance Factory, Bendigo in some of the posts in this thread.

I am the "Bruce" that is mentioned in the link to the picture in RayG's post of 1st May 2011. I worked at the factory as a Professional Mechanical Engineer for 34 years until my retirement in 2005.

The factory is far from closed, although it has shrunk a bit since I first set foot there in 1971 (about 650 employees then, versus about 200-odd today)

During the 60's, 70's and 80's the factory was very reliant on commercial work, as successive federal governments cut back support for a local defence industry.

As a result, you can find Bendigo-built equipment in most areas of Australia's infrastructure - Mining, Oil and Gas, Water Resources and Power Generation (Hydro, Coal and Wind Turbine).

Unfortunately a lot of the unique capabilities of the factory have been sold off, (ironically, in just the sort of auctions being discussed in this thread) by successive private owners of the facility.

Around 1995, the factory underwent a rebirth when it won the contract for the Australian Army's Project Bushranger - a Wheeled Armoured Personnel Carrier, which was aptly named Bushmaster.

I was privileged to be part of the design team for Bushmaster, and if anyone is interested in further info on the factory's contribution to Australia, send me a message.

Bruce