Small Arms Ammunition Factory

Women bundling ammunition in a Commonwealth Small Arms Ammunition Factory, c. 1944

The Small Arms Ammunition Factories were ammunition manufacturing plants run by the Australian government. Nearly all of their production was for domestic use by their military, the police forces, and government-appointed agents.

Founding (1888–1939)

In 1888 the Colonial Ammunition Company of New Zealand founded an ammunition factory in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. It was purchased by the Australian government in 1927.[1]

The Footscray plant's headstamp was originally CAC from 1888 to 1918 and ->CAC<- (the letters between two horizontal "Government Property" Arrowheads) from 1918 to 1921. The headstamp was changed to ->SAAF<- (for "Small Arms Ammunition Factory") from 1921 to 1924, A/|\F ("AF" for "Ammunition Factory", the letters flanking a vertical Arrowhead) from 1924 to 1926, and M/|\F ("MF" for "Military Factory") from 1926 to 1940.

World War Two production (1939–1945)

In August, 1939, a plan was created to expand native ordnance production in case a war cut Australia off from the rest of the Commonwealth. The antiquated ammunition plant at Footscray was to be abandoned as soon as a more modern and efficient factory was built nearby. To differentiate between them, in 1940 the old factory briefly received the designation of Munitions Factory No.1 (MF1) and the new factory was designated Munitions Factory No.2 (MF2). Demand forced the old factory (later redesignated SAAF No.1) to remain open until the war's end. The new factory (now designated SAAF No. 2) would be the only one to remain open after the war. The plans to make one factory at Hendon was expanded to two factories (designated SAAFs No. 3 & No. 4) that were built only a few hundred metres apart. Conversely, the original plans to make two small factories at Rocklea (originally designated SAAFs No. 5 & No. 6) was abandoned and one large facility was made instead (SAAF No. 5). The sixth and last factory at Welshpool (originally to be designated SAAF No. 7) received the designation of SAAF No. 6.

Note: The acronym in parentheses following the factory's name is the facility's contractor code and headstamp. For example, a rifle cartridge with the headstamp "MH" was made at SAAF No.3 at Hendon. A 25-pounder shell casing with an "MR" headstamp was made at GAF Rutherford.

Headstamp is the facility's code letters at 10 o'clock, the two-digit year of production at 2 o'clock, and the type and mark of cartridge at 6 o'clock.

Small Arms Ammunition Factories (SAAF)

Ammunition Factories

The small arms ammunition factories were fed by specialized facilities designed to supply their components.

Post-war production (1945–1994)

In 1945, the original old Footscray ammunition factory was finally closed, as were the facilities at Hendon, Rocklea, and Welshpool.

In 1989 the Australian government nationalized munitions manufacture under a government-owned company called Australian Defence Industries (Ltd.).[9] Its first round of business was to consolidate and regulate ordnance production.[9] Production at Ammunition Factory Footscray (AFF) was slowly wound down beginning in 1991 until it was closed in 1994.[10]

A new factory run by Australian Defense Industries was opened elsewhere at Benalla, Victoria. When ADI was bought out by Thales in 2006, ADI was renamed Thales Australia. Benalla used the ADI headstamp from 1994 to as recently as 2014.

References

Sources

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