The  camp ovens from Alexandria Station NT were ordered during the time Bill Young “ the Rager “ was the manager in the 1950s. The common story of how they came to be that size is that one of the stockcamp cooks put in an order in for some new camp ovens but forgot to say what size. The bookkeeper kept humbugging old Bill to find out what size the cook wanted when he was next out there checking on the  Stockcamp. On returning to the station one day after being out to the camp the bookkeeper again asked the Rager about the camp oven sizes and being in a bad mood Bill threw his arms in the air and said “ about that bloody big” . The bookkeeper thought to himself Bills arms were about 3ft apart so went on to  get the campovens made and the rest is history!  Apparently they were never used for their desired purpose but made great feed troughs in the pig pens at Alexandria. There is one displayed on the lawn at the Avon Downs police station and another at Alexandria station amongst other historic gear.

The story I was told was the told, the bookkeeper was told to measure them and instead of the diameter he measured the circumference.