UNTAG Workshop Land Rover (Namibia 1989)

History

Land Rover 113852 entered Australian Army service on 30 August 1966 as a Series 2A 109 fitted with the 'pie cart' workshop body, a square box whose side and rear panels fold up so a fitter can reach the tools and equipment racked inside. From 1979 it served with the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers workshop of 17 Construction Squadron, and when the squadron deployed to Namibia in 1989 with the UN Transition Assistance Group — the mission that supervised the elections and the withdrawal of South African forces ahead of Namibian independence — the workshop went with it, repainted UN white with black UN lettering.

It came home with the squadron and is now on display in the Australian War Memorial's peacekeeping galleries. The Memorial's photographs show the canvas-roofed cab, the tall white workshop body with UN on both sides and the rear, the bonnet spare and the Australian pattern bull bar; the registry model reproduces that layout on the Australian Series II 109.

Imagery

Registry record

Manufacturer

Land Rover (Series 2A 109, Australian assembly)

Manufactured

Entered service 30 August 1966

Modifier / coachbuilder

Australian Army (workshop body; UN repaint)

Engine type

Rover 2.25 L petrol

Production run

unknown

Country of origin

Australia

Operated in

Australia, Namibia, United Nations

Status

museum

Catalogue data

Record kind

Named model

Model line

Series IIA

Wheels

4

Nominal wheelbase

109″

Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

• UNTAG Land Rover ↗ — Australian War Memorial (Wartime magazine) (accessed 2026-09-12)

Catalogue references

• https://wm.awm.gov.au/read/untag-landrover https://wm.awm.gov.au/read/untag-landrover ↗