DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY
Named model · Series II · 1959 pilot models; production deliveries 1961–1967

Series II Ambulance

The Australian Army's four-stretcher "Bloodbox" — a 109-inch Land Rover carrying a tall, insulated aluminium medical body designed by the Army Design Establishment and built by Pressed Metal Corporation in Sydney. 184 were delivered between 1959 and 1967 on Series 2 and Series 2A chassis, and the type served from 1961 until the mid-1990s.

Special · AmbulancesMilitary · Australia
Series II Ambulance — front three-quarter render

Factory colours

Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.

History

Australia's post-war tactical ambulances were wartime Canadian Military Pattern trucks, and by 1956 the fleet was worn out. A new specification drafted late that year called for a lighter 1-ton 4x4 suited to South East Asian deployments. The Army Design Establishment at Maribyrnong first worked up an International Harvester-based design (project V150), but after an Australian officer was shown the new ¾-ton 109-inch Series 2 in Britain in June 1958, a comparative study led to a meeting on 12 August 1958 agreeing that a Land Rover-based ambulance was the better proposition on size, weight and cost. A full-size mock-up was viewed on 27 February 1959 and enthusiastically endorsed by the Director General of Medical Services, and all further work concentrated on the 109-inch chassis. Mike Cecil, then Head of Military Heraldry and Technology at the Australian War Memorial, established from the ADE files that the ambulance design actually preceded the Army's decision to adopt the long-wheelbase Land Rover as its ¾-ton GS truck, correcting the common belief that it followed on from it.

Two pilot models were built to ADE specification by the Pressed Metal Corporation of Enfield, Sydney — the firm that assembled Rover's CKD kits in Australia — during the second half of 1959, and were shown at ADE on 18 December. One had a fully insulated, lined aluminium body with 'Coolite' insulation between the skins and full-height rear doors; the other, the "Indian Pattern", had an uninsulated body and a nylon-fabric rear flap. Both were sent on a 5,000-mile hot-wet and hot-dry route reconnaissance from Maribyrnong to Innisfail, Alice Springs and back between January and April 1960. The trials condemned the ventilation and the vehicles' performance on grades, and produced the cut-away front mudguard that became standard on all Australian Army Land Rovers; they also produced one memorable experiment when the reworked prototype was sent out in 1961 with its rear body painted gloss white, which recorded far lower surface temperatures than Deep Bronze Green but was rejected as untactical. The insulated body was accepted, and an interim order for 31 vehicles on Series 2 chassis (Contract C107028) was delivered to 2 BOD, Moorebank, by June 1961.

Five further orders followed on the improved Series 2A chassis, the last delivered late in 1967, giving 151 Series 2A vehicles and a total fleet of 184 including the two pilots and the 31 Series 2s. The registry model is dated 1963, which sits on the boundary between the two chassis lines: REMLR's ARN/chassis data list for census 6362 dates every 1963 delivery to the Series 2A batches (ARN 108-640 to 108-650 and 112-209 to 112-242), while the Series 2 cars are all recorded as 1959 or 1961 — so a Bloodbox in service from 1963 is either an early Series 2A or a 1961-built Series 2 taken on charge two years later. Both are commonly described simply as "Series 2 ambulances" in Australia, and the registry's reference vehicle at cars.jo.je is identified by its owner as a 1963 Series 2 that served until 1993; this record is filed under the Series 2 line while covering the whole type. Mechanically the ambulance was standard Australian military specification: the 2,286 cc four-cylinder petrol engine with twin fan belts, four-speed gearbox with two-speed transfer case, twin fuel tanks, brushguard, bonnet-mounted spare, cut front guards and 7.50-16 bar-tread crossplies, with a Land Rover capstan winch on many vehicles and 11-leaf front springs to carry the body. Extras included a Smiths cabin heater, demister, heavy-duty alternator, roof skylight and vents, over-cab and side lockers, and a revolving red roof beacon — vulnerable enough that some vehicles gained a wire cage over it. The rear door seals were notoriously poor and let exhaust fumes into the patient compartment, which did nothing for the nickname.

Named the "Blood Box" by the soldiers who rode in it, the type served the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps around Australia and in South Vietnam, where Land Rover ambulances worked with 2 Field Ambulance at Vung Tau and later units, running casualty transfers and village and orphanage clinics. Early vehicles wore gloss Deep Bronze Green with red crosses in white discs on the body sides and roof; from April 1967 the fleet followed the Army's change to lustreless Olive Drab. Disposals began in 1971-74 with three batches transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs for the aid programme and two sold to New Zealand, but the fleet was long-lived: a few were converted to interim Electrical Repair Vehicles in the late 1980s, and by 1993 only two Series 2 and seven Series 2A ambulances remained before the Perentie 6x6 ambulance replaced them. Survivors are well represented in museums: the Army Museum Bandiana in Victoria displays ARN 112-227 in bronze green and ARN 112-238 in the white UN scheme it wore with the Australian contingent in Cambodia in the early 1990s, the Australian War Memorial holds a Series 2A four-berth ambulance bought on charge in 1963 and disposed of by 21 Supply Battalion in December 1983 (REL/10136), and others are in private preservation.

Imagery

Preserved 109-inch "Bloodbox" ambulance ARN 112-227, a 1963 Series 2A, in bronze green with red crosses on white discs at the Army Museum Bandiana, Victoria
Preserved 109-inch "Bloodbox" ambulance ARN 112-227, a 1963 Series 2A, in bronze green with red crosses on white discs at the Army Museum Bandiana, Victoria sv1ambo (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY 2.0 ↗
ARN 112-238, a 1963 Series 2A Bloodbox in the white United Nations scheme it wore on peacekeeping service, at the Army Museum Bandiana
ARN 112-238, a 1963 Series 2A Bloodbox in the white United Nations scheme it wore on peacekeeping service, at the Army Museum Bandiana sv1ambo (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY 2.0 ↗

Registry record

Manufacturer
The Rover Company (109-inch Series 2/2A chassis)
Manufactured
1959 pilot models; production deliveries 1961–1967
Modifier / coachbuilder
Pressed Metal Corporation, Enfield, Sydney (body built to Army Design Establishment design) ↗
Engine type
2.25 L (2,286 cc) petrol inline-four, Australian military specification with twin fan belts
Production run
184 vehicles (2 pilot models, 31 on Series 2 chassis, 151 on Series 2A chassis)
Country of origin
Australia
Status
retired by the mid-1990s; preserved at the Army Museum Bandiana, the Australian War Memorial and in private hands

Catalogue data

Record kind
Named model
Model line
Series II
Wheels
4

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

Development reference notes

Drive it

This vehicle is playable in the Difflocked racing game.

RACE THE SERIES II AMBULANCE ↗

Registry record updated 2026-09-10T02:19:59.445Z · status: researched