This section is to express my thanks
to
various donors
    My original intention was to restore the Centurion Main Battle Tank myself at no cost to the museum
My thoughts were that I could raise small amounts of money selling items on ebay and swapping items around the many contacts I had. I thought that it would take two years at least. There were a couple of items that were well out of my reach and one was the Infra Red Light at $2000. But when having a close look at the tank and items that were stored all over the place, I found that there was no rear turret basket. This was a must have item, and I was sure they were in very short supply, if available at all. I did locate one but the price was $400. I needed that before many other items could be installed.
  
  I did not have $400. But I needed this cage. As it was a case of swallow my pride,  I put out a request for a donation on my website. Within minutes I had four offers! I selected one and thanked the others. But when I checked my bank account later to see if it had arrived I found two! Brad Baker a friend that I had dealt with before just put the money into my account unknown to me! I contacted the other chap and offered to return his money. He replied, "Keep it, you will find a use for it." I did indeed and was able to obtain a lot of items for the tank immediately. This project was starting to leap ahead. In fact the time table dropped from 2 years to three months.
    Then Brad on his next visit to my home, dropped off a full set scopes for the tank, worth around $1000. I was indeed stunned.

 At this point I located a chap selling IR Spotlights for $975! Robert Moore Equipment at Campbellfield. He offered to sell one for $800 as a one off to the Museum. Again I did not have $800 but emailed a few guys that had made offers for the Turret basket and asked if they would like to donate towards the light. All replied yes and I had the money in 1 day.
  
  My next quest was a stick on sign for the Crew Commanders Call Sign plate. I was in Thornbury and saw a sign making business. I walked in and saw a nice young lass and explained what I required. She said she could do it straight away and there would be no charge! Very nice young girl!
    Brad decided that he would like to try and start the Centurion. I did not hold out a lot of hope but we decided to try and hope to do it next month, having obtained many items we consider we will need. Two fuel pump kits, another starter motor, overhaul the two magnetos a new booster coil and HT leads from Booster coil to Magneto's, for starters.
   
 Next on the agenda were some batteries, the 4 x 6 volt batteries were useless having been neglected and died. I contacted Boss Batteries in Bendigo asking for 2 x 12 volt batteries (the tank is 24 volts). Speaking to Wayne, the sales manager, he suggested some american "DEKA" batteries as he said they held more power and were more powerful than other truck batteries twice their size. The two were $600 and Boss Batteries donated them to me! Please remember that these people were hundreds of miles away from the museum and had never heard of me and most likely the museum either.

The two DEKA batteries awaiting my next trip to Phillip Island.
 
 I then contacted "Brown and Wilson International", who were agents for the range of PROJECTA battery chargers, that I had been told were the best on the market. I spoke with Robert Bettello, state sales manager, who supplied me with a top of the range AC1500 battery maintenance charger. This unit will charge the batteries to a fully charged state and then maintain them. They can be left connected and will not over charge, so the batteries if left for months at a time will always be in top condition. He asked for my address and had a unit delivered, again at no cost. This chap had never heard of me yet did not hesitate. As I said its top of the range and I would imagine not all that cheap. We are deeply indebted to these people!

These are just a few of many stories that I have connected with people and their generous help and donations. I have listed these, but there were many others, some large and some small, many asking that they be given no recognition at all. The size of some of the donations stunned me but there were also a few very small ones that in costs were quite small but they were items that without them my project would have more or less stopped. One such item was a radio antenna, not worth a large amount but very hard to find, and it came from a chap in NSW. Another item I needed was a .30 cal flex mount for the cupola lid. I had the base mount but the top main mount was worth, when I last inquired, $475. So I engaged a friend, John Schembri to make one for me. But we needed a sample for him. A request to Jan Thompson from the Corowa military show for anyone that could lend me one for a couple of weeks. I rang Ian Pullen at the Bandiana Army Museum and he said yep, no worries. This meant a return trip twice to Albury to pick it up and then return it. Expensive in fuel and time but still worth it. I then rang the Puckapunyal Tank Museum and asked Joe. Same answer, yes! As I live quite close to the army base I drove over and picked one up. Now my point is, this action by all these people did not involve any cost what so ever, but without their help I would not have been able to proceed with this project. So the donations no matter how small or large are all most welcome. So my humble thanks to each and every one.

 I wish to point out that every request I made was granted, without question. I did not receive any refuseals at all
Some great people out there!

There will be updates to this site over time and they will be added to page 9 when they are installed on the site

This site constructed and presented
by
Col Filtness
Curator of Armour
National Vietnam Veterans Museun
Phillip Island