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CAIRNS (Meeting: 2nd Thursday each month 1815 hours. Venue: Cairns RSL.)Cairns Members again supported Legacy this year by selling badges at Bunnings. Over that week we managed toraise $2,635. Several members attended the 51st Battalion annual dinner which was held at the Porton Barracks. OnSaturday 4th October, our three branches assembled at Innisfail to participate in the Dedication and Unveiling ofInnisfail and District's Memorial Wall. A large crowd attended and thirty National Servicemen were on parade.Addresses were given by the Hon. Bob Katter MP, Member for Kennedy, Mayor Bill Shannon, DVA representativeGlenda Mann, Innisfail's President Phil Pearce and SMC rep John Hardy. The dedication and blessing duties werecarried out by Father Frank Gordon. Afterwards a luncheon was enjoyed by all at the Crown Hotel. The tirelesseffort of SMC Minutes Secretary and Liaison Officer for our three Far Northern Branches, John Hardy has beenjustly awarded the Lowland Williams Memorial Shell. We are indeed very fortunate to have such a dedicated, loyaland hard working member to represent us here in the Far North. The extent of John's commitment to our associationsis appreciated by all. Congratulations John on a job well done. A good representation of members and friends fromall Northern branches converged on Cardwell on Sunday 26th October for our annual luncheon and get together.Seventeen members and supporters from our branch journeyed to that centre for a enjoyable days outing. Thanksagain to bus driver Stan. It is that time again - all here at the Cairns Branch take this opportunity to wish all fellowNASHOS, family and friends A Happy and Joyful Christmas and a Peaceful, and Healthy New Year. We hope tosee many new and old members around next year.CORAL COAST (Meeting: 2nd Sunday each month 0930 hours. Venue: Bowen Bowls Club.)Things have been a little quiet on the home front over the past couple of months. A highlight of the month ofSeptember was the State Conference held at Hervey Bay which was attended by three of our members and twosupporters and they reported back that it was a very good weekend At the last moment Andy and I had to cancel ourbookings to attend as he had just got out of hospital. This was the first time we had missed out on attending theConferences since they began and it was done with much regret. With Andy's continuing ill health, it was also withmuch regret that he tendered his resignation as President and Vice-President Rex Darwen is acting President untilthe AGM early next year. Our only outing since the last notes was the meeting in September which was held atMullers Lagoon and it was followed by a BBQ lunch. Due to the lack of interest, the Bowls evening for Octoberwas cancelled. Our Christmas Raffle is under way and will be drawn on 6th December. I would like to take thisopportunity to wish all members and supporters a Happy and Joyful Christmas and a great New Year.DALBY (Meeting: 1st Saturday Bi-Monthly 1030 hours, Venue: alternately Miles/Dalby/Chinchilla RSL's)On October 4th the members of our branch gathered at the Dalby RSLMemorial Club for our meeting and social lunch. There were a largenumber of apologies due to other important functions on that day.President Kev reported to the members on the delegates meeting andconference held at Hervey Bay. The members from our branch whoattended the conference weekend had an enjoyable time. The nextmeeting and Christmas party will be held at Chinchilla RSL MemorialClub at 1030 hours 6th December. All Welcome!GOLD COAST NORTH (Meeting: 1st Wednesday of each even month0930 hours. Venue: Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum)The Gold Coast North Branch has a new office and a new home. We have taken up residence at the MudgeerabaLight Horse Museum (adjacent to the Mudgeeraba Showgrounds). The reason for the move is that the old SouthportRSL Sub Branch building has been sold and will be demolished. Wemoved in on Monday 13th October and the Mudgeeraba Light HorseTroop has welcomed us with open arms. The precinct is owned by theGold Coast City Council (CGCC) and the local councillor, TedShepard, is the patron. A small Committee has been formed with tworepresentatives from each of the Nashos and the Light Horse Troop.This management Committee will work independently from the twogroups. We (Nashos) will have full access and use of the grounds andbuilding, etc. and being next to the Mudgeeraba Showgrounds, theNashos will be well placed for fund raising opportunities. Also we would like other Branches to visit for BBQlunches and to inspect the Museum - ladies the Robina shopping centre is only 10 minutes away. In the future, CadetUnits could be invited to become involved along with the primary schools that Gold Coast North Branch hasadopted and where memorials have been placed in the school groundsA GUN SHOWThe NSAA now has its own artillery piece for the National Service Heritage Precinct at Wacol.It’s a former Naval Bofors 40mm weapon originally from a patrol boat stationed at Cairns.Transporting it from Cairns to Wacol cost $2000 which was met by Metroplex.The gun was unloaded at Wacol by a crane which was donated by LCR Lindores Group of Darra, after anurgent request from Wacol Heritage Precinct Committee chairman, Ivan Davis. The Bofors is in goodcondition but will be refurbished ans stored until it can be mounted for display.THE BOFORS STORYDevelopment of the Bofors gun began in the 1930s in Sweden in the search for a mobile gun that couldbe used for a variety of purposes. After experiments, Bofors came up with a 40mm calibre gun mountedon its own carriage that could fire at up to 330 rounds per minute inthe best conditions. Mostly the rate of fire would have been about120 rounds a minute.Bofors 40mm/L60. This example includes the British-designedStiffkey Sight, being operated by the aimer standing to the rightof the loader (turner sideways). It operates the trapeze seenabove the sights, moving the sights to adjust for lead. Theproblem was to be able to aim the gun soo that the shell and thetarget arrived together! A variety os solutions were tried withoptical sights, mirror sights, sights controlled by an earlyversion of a computer and radr controlled sights.Many Nashos trained on this very versatile gun. The 11th LightAnti-Aircraft and Searchlight Battery trained on the Gold Coastuntil residential development forced it to move eventually to theSunshine Coast artillery range.PAGE 12 PAGE 5