I have a friend who is a newly minted US Marine. He is a very fine Lad and an avid muzzleloader/ general rifle crank. He and his unit will be deploying to Darwin this coming April. I've advised him to take plenty of trade goods. He knows to take smokes and chew as they are expensive Down there. What other items might he bring that may get him a home cooked meal, or a young ladies attention?

I have a long history doing business in Australia & living  there full time 3 years It’s a great country and he will be welcomed. You can buy anything you want and USD is strong against the Aussie dollar  Northern Territory is tropical and not real developed like the big cities .

I obtained an Australian Shooters license one of my trips & carried two silhouette rifles with me moving down. Ended up shooting small bore prone with a local club rifle & bringing it back home with me.

It’s going to be a good tour

Boats

Crack down came while I was there. All shooters license cancelled you had to re apply.

Local police issue the licenses. Went to the station with the cancelled license & proof of “legitimate use” gun club membership card and match reports showing attendance Officer issued a new one in 15 minutes.

On the negative side they determined club had too many club owned rifles. Mostly BSA martini .22’s  gave us a number allowed under the clubs license . Had to get rid of the excess, that’s how I ended up owning my club loaned Anschutz, transferred to me before the law went into effect. Most of the BSAs turned in for compensation from the government & scrapped. Amount paid more than I would have given. 

American friend in similar situation bought dozens of vintage Winchesters before the regulations went into effect. Mixed bag junker to mint. Even a few Henry’s 

Boats 

Your young marine will have a great time here in Oz. Plenty to see & do. Hopefully he won't spend all his time in Darwin or the Northern Territory .....we call it the "Deep North"! It's a wild place with endless tracts of bush & hot. That's where most of the military training areas are located. Great fishing & hunting up there but the rivers near the coast are full of crocs so swimming is a no-go  .

Suggest that he tries to get over to Queensland if he gets the opportunity. Great beaches lots of "friendly" scantily clad locals. He'll be right!

Down where I'm are located we have a Marine Lt. Col. (ARTY) that is based out here for a couple of years. He's a keen deer hunter & after jumping thru all the licensing hoops has got his firearms/hunting permits and has joined our local deer club.

Boats....we actually talked while you were out here. I was selling a Redfield 3200 20X scope & you phoned me up.

Pete

   

AHH, swimming with Crocks! That will be a new one for a kid from Alaska. We don't do much swimming around here. Water stays pretty hard most of the year.
Westerner and LRF have obviously not been in the military. Swapping is a time honored tradition among soldiers of different countries. We swap insignia, knives, rations, boogie hats etc. It is also customary to give gifts to your counterparts. When I went to Germany, cigarettes and used Levi jeans were the hot tip; Malaysia knives; everywhere; chocolate, booze and smokes are always in demand. It's always nice to know what the other guy is looking for, you get a better trade, and duffle bag space is limited.

Spud I think I remember our conversation. We went back on vacation (holiday in Australian) several times, and like to again. People still ask how we liked it. They never ask about the time in West Africa or South America ! 

Nice side trips out of Australia were Tahiti New Caledonia & South Africa. They were under Sydney’s  control. New Caledonia in particular very nice & short flight from Brisbane  Did regret never getting down to Tazzy. Ships did not call there no reason to go   

Boats