Little is known of these machines other than that they were built in Sydney by two engineers, Mr. Brackenbury and Mr Austin from the mid 1940s until, perhaps, the late 1950s. The lathe, with a centre height of 43/16-inches and a between-centres' capacity of 17-inches, looked remarkably like a Drummond M Type and was also offered as the "New Gregco" or "Gregco 918" - Gregco being (almost certainly) the trade name of H. P. Gregory, a firm of Sydney machine-tool merchants. It may also have been marketed using a "Premo" badge.
The lathes could be bought direct from the makers and, in 1948, when the one shown immediately below was purchased, it cost £A115 - about the same an a Myford ML7. Numbered 1049 it was chosen as being superior to the Myford in swing, the size of the spindle bore and general heaviness of build. Although the bed-stamped serial number might indicate a series starting at 1001 the top slide was numbered 991, but over-stamped to 1049. Possibly a faulty slide was spotted on a lathe ready for dispatch and an alternative substituted.
The No. 3 Morse taper spindle, bored through 3/4" and with a 15/16-inch x 10 t.p.i. Whitworth nose thread ran in plain bronze bearings. 6 speeds were provided, 3 by direct flat-belt drive and 3 backgeared. The 8 t.p.i. Leadscrew was driven by a conventional changewheel set consisting of: 2 x 20t. 30t, 35t, 40t, 45t, 50t, 55t, 60t and 65t. Supplied with the lathe were an 8-inch faceplate, a plain threaded backplate and a countershaft pulley - but, unlike so many competition machines, no countershaft unit.
If any reader can help with further information, or photographs, the writer would be pleased to hear from them.