Speculation about how a German-looking World War II tank ended up in O’Malley has been rampant since Tuesday. Photo: David Grimshaw.
When David Grimshaw purchased a replica German World War II tank from the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, he didn’t know how others would receive it.
A longtime German military memorabilia collector, Mr Grimshaw’s first thought was to call the local police station when the tank was on its way from Cairns.
“I didn’t want them to be surprised,” he said.
“I’m in O’Malley, which is a diplomatic suburb, so we get Protective Services driving the streets all the time, and I reckon within 20 minutes of the tank’s arrival, I would have had ACT Police there.”
And how did the police officer respond to what would have to be one of the more peculiar phone calls of his career? A simple, “thanks for telling us”.
While potential issues with the police had been handled, the tank, now parked on the nature strip in front of his house, began to catch the eye of passers-by.
One member of the community posted a picture of the tank online, and soon its presence on an O’Malley street went viral in the ACT and Mr Grimshaw felt the need to address speculation about how it got there.
“A mate of mine had a friend who works there [at the museum], and so he told my mate that the Cairns tank museum had this one. They wanted to get rid of it because they had an original one and this is a replica,” Mr Grimshaw said.
“It’s actually a British Armoured Personnel carrier that’s been converted to look like a World War II German tank, so it’s a real military fighting vehicle. It’s just not what it looks like now, which is a German one because the German ones are worth a lot of money.
“I suspect that he would’ve paid over $1 million for his one.”
As for what one might do with a tank in the nation’s capital, Mr Grimshaw said it was a purchase he made for his own personal enjoyment. He did, however, have some ideas about how it could be of use to the wider community.
“I will make it available to the movie studios and that sort of thing if they want to use it in a movie because tanks rent out for a lot of money,” he said.
“Once I’ve got a property to put it on, I will probably have driving days where people can come and have a ride in it.”
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