Some ABMM Bunker Hunter Photos

[abmm]

I'll post pics of individual finds here a little later, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling with some photos of some of our gear and some of the gorgeous locations we work in.


The basic Bunker Hunter kit:

Left to right:

• 2 x Draeger Self Contained Breathing Aparatus (SCBA) sets - allows us to continue surveys in bad air
• Sony Vaio laptop (for I-160) in pelican case
• Video camera and accessories and stil camera accessories in pelican case (Finepix S9000 camera used to take pic)
• Gas detector - detects high concentrations of methane, CO2, etc - bad air
• Chemical detector - detects explosives and war chemicals - ex-Customs unit
• Night Vision Goggles - not really practical, but we have heard that some of these sites may still have active tunnels. The NVGs allow us to beat a hasty retreat in case we accidentally end up somewhere we don't want to be.

Wild horses (we call em "Brumbies") just doing their thing on one of the remote roads of Cape York Peninsula.



The same road on Cape York. It's a beautiful place and even better at the start of the Wet (monsoon) when this photo was taken.


Yet another photo of the road taken through the windshield of "Bunker 1", our 100 Series Toyota Landcruiser. See all the junk on the bullbar? From left to right we have UHF CB radio aerial, CDMA cell phone antenna, HF Radio antenna mount and satellite antenna for the SAT phone.


Above ground signals bunker in Townsville, North Queensland. Stripped out and currently being used by vagrants - we want to fully restore this one and have it as the base for our museum collection.



Abortive dig on a suspected WWII military storage tunnel. We located it with I-160, but it appears that we misread the depth. It was MUCH deeper than the stated 5 metres and below the max depth of the backhoe. This site is on the backburner until we can somehow manouvre an excavator to the site.


Screen shot from the 3D Visualiser software for the I-160. You almost need a science degree to do a proper interp, but as a rule, green colour means virgin or compacted soil, yellow and red equal steel and blue equals void/cavity. The site in question was a suspected underground bunker at a place called Bundaberg. It was located 5.5 metres under the surface and was at least 100m long and 25m wide. We are currently working with the Aus Department of Defence and local authorities to survey and clear this site as it is suspected of containing stored aircraft bombs from WWII. You can read a bit more about it on our website (see my sig.)


Here is a mudmap drawn by an ex DoD worker describing what he states he saw inside the Bundaberg Bunker in 1997. This will be the find of the century.

I won't bore you all with anymore "Bunker Stuff". Pic of individual finds to follow.

Cheers.

[schoser]

can't wait to see what you dig up! cory

[SandSkimmer]

looking good... cant wait to see more

jT

[Dixieldy]

Wow... I definately love the pic with the rainbow. I'm awaiting to see your finds as well... sounds like some exciting hunts!

[Hank McMauser]

That's awesome, anxiously awaiting more
Hank

[EBCIII]

Oh man that is some serious hunting! A back hoe can not reach it! I guess my Lesche would be no help, Beale.

[ERnurse]

[bdahunter]

Depending on the condition of these WWII planes they're worth about $2M each I would think. That's a huge haul by any standards. Do you get to keep what you find or do you have to share with the Aussie DND? How reliable are the Draegars, I'd heard the older ones weren't something you'd want to bet your life on.

Cheers,

BDA

[PAPPY]

FANTASTIC STUFF !!!

[abmm]

Originally Posted by bdahunter

Depending on the condition of these WWII planes they're worth about $2M each I would think. That's a huge haul by any standards. Do you get to keep what you find or do you have to share with the Aussie DND? How reliable are the Draegars, I'd heard the older ones weren't something you'd want to bet your life on.

Cheers,

BDA

The japanese planes are exceedingly rare as they flew with USAAF markings until about 1944. They were captured by a joint US/Aus air intelligence unit, put back together in Australia and then comprehensively test flown. The TAIU tail numbers are XJ005 and XJ006. These tail numbers don't exist in the files, but we have wartime photos of them, so someone's fibbing. We plan on donating one of the aircraft (possibly the Zero) to the Australian War Memorial (see Australian War Memorial: One of the world's great museums) and the other as well as the contents of the site (once made safe) will stay where they are as a museum owned and operated by the people of Bundaberg. If we are lucky, we might get the P40, but that certainly won't be sold. In the immortal words of Indiana Jones "It belongs in a museum!". Any commercial gain we get from the site will be in the form of the documentary series "The Australian Bunker Theory" which is being written as the story progresses.
We are not cash cowboys, so the Aussie DoD shouldn't have an issue with the haul being displayed as a memorial to the Greatest Generation - both yours and ours.

The Draegers are fine they are early 90s manufacture and they get serviced once a year.