State Engineering
The Perth firm named in a 1978 Overlander magazine feature as the contractor that rebuilt Australian Army Series IIA 109 Land Rovers to Special Air Service Regiment specification — the census code 6028K Long Range Patrol Vehicle. Nothing else about the company could be established.
History
Australia's Special Air Service Regiment, based at Swanbourne in Western Australia, needed a patrol vehicle that could cross the interior without resupply, and from the early 1970s it got one by having the Army's standard Series IIA 109-inch general service truck rebuilt to regimental specification. Jim McNamara's feature 'Australia's Forward Defence Land-Rovers' in Overlander (February/March 1978), reprinted by REMLR, states plainly: 'The Rovers were built to SAS specifications by State Engineering in Perth.' The same article reports that the Army would not reveal the cost of the modifications, but that one officer put it at about $15,000 per vehicle.
The conversion stripped doors, tailgate, windscreen, hood, canopy and mirrors, then added two oversize spares on a forward-moved bull bar, jerrycan racks needing lengthened front chassis rails, rifle carriers, sump and steering guards, side plates cut from pierced steel planking, three extra fuel tanks for a range beyond 1,500 km, about 160 litres of water, a PTO winch and a bonnet or rear pedestal machine-gun mount. The Army catalogued the result under census code 6028K, 'Truck, Utility, 3/4 Ton, GS, Cargo, Modified for SASR Use'; REMLR records them at work by 1973, and the totals are genuinely unsettled — published figures range from 20 to 37, while REMLR's own ARN register lists 41 vehicles under the census code. Unlike the British Pink Panthers, these were existing fleet trucks sent for conversion in ones and twos rather than a single contract batch.
Beyond that one credit nothing could be traced: no address, founding or closing date, ownership, or other work by a Perth firm of this name. The record is kept deliberately short rather than filled out by guesswork.
Vehicles in this registry (1)
Sources & citations
- Series 2A Long Range Patrol Vehicle — reprint of Jim McNamara, 'Australia's Forward Defence Land-Rovers', Overlander, Feb/Mar 1978 ('The Rovers were built to SAS specifications by State Engineering in Perth'; ~$15,000 per vehicle per one officer; stripped bodywork, extra fuel and water, PSP side plates, machine-gun mounts; in service by 1973; competing totals of 20/26/37) ↗ — Registry of Ex-Military Land Rovers (REMLR) (accessed 2026-09-10)
- Census 6028K — Long Range Patrol Vehicle (LRPV) ARN register (41 listed vehicles under the SASR census code) ↗ — Registry of Ex-Military Land Rovers (REMLR) (accessed 2026-09-10)
Maker record updated 2026-09-10T05:40:28.277Z · status: draft