Historical Specifics:

Together with gun 398 this gun, 407, was a gate gun at Gallipoli Barracks, Holsworthy. The barrel was refurbished by 8/12 Medium Regiment Light Aid Detachment in 1976 before it was moved to Canberra. The carriage was found to be beyond repair and construction of a new one was undertaken by the Chief Engineer, ACT at Royal Military College, Duntroon. Original metal work, except for badly corroded long bolts, was incorporated in the reconstruction. New long bolts were made by a blacksmith from ACT Electricity Authority. The guns flank the plinth in the Royal Australian Artillery National Memorial on Mount Pleasant, Canberra. The Memorial was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Captain-General, The Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery on 9 March 1977. Maintenance of the barrels and carriages has been an ongoing issue but thanks to the endeavours of Chris Jobson they are now regularly maintained by the National Capital Authority.

Sixteen of these guns are recorded as being in the Sydney Ordnance Store in the 1901 Report but no record indicates they were mounted in defence of NSW. Although included in the 1904 list of obsolete smooth bore guns for disposal these rifled breech loading guns were not allocated to any particular locality and may have been retained for display at defence establishments.

The RML gun is a step in the evolution of artillery. In 1859 William Armstrong introduced the rifled breech loading gun. This gun was a major breakthrough from the smooth bore guns which it was designed to replace. Loading from the breech (rear) was safer for the gunners and cylindrical shell and rifling in the barrel produced a more accurate gun firing to a greater range. The Armstrong guns were far from popular with the gunner community and a number of incidents resulted in it being superseded with the older muzzle loading guns but the rifling and cylindrical shell being retained. New guns were produced but as there were a large number of smooth bore muzzle loading guns still available, Sir William Pallister devised a method of converting these guns by boring out the cast iron guns to form a casing, and then inserting a coiled wrought iron barrel, kept in position by an iron collar and screw plug. The successful system was adopted in 1863. To differentiate between the guns the converted guns were classified as RML (Rifled muzzle loading) and the new guns as MLR (Muzzle Loading Rifled). The term RML is now the commonly used name to identify all these guns.

Over 2000 converted guns were made. There were two patterns of 64 pounder converted guns. The 64 pounder of 71 cwt which were converted from the 8 inch shell gun, and the 64 pounder of 58 cwt converted from the SBML 32 pounder.

It is highly probable the guns were off HMS Wolverine. HMS Wolverine. The Age (Melbourne) reported on 7 November 1877 Wolverine was built at Woolwich in 1860, a three mast first class screw corvette of 2431 tons, carrying seventeen [more likely 16] sixty-four pounder guns, four small field pieces, two of which are on the Armstrong principle. After serving on the North American and West Indies Station in the 1860s she was commissioned as the flagship of the Australia Station on 7 September 1875. She was paid off in Sydney in 1882 and, fully armed, presented to the Colony of New South Wales on 16 January 1882 as a training ship for the New South Wales Naval Brigade and New South Wales Naval Artillery Volunteers. The ship was decommissioned in 1892 and sold in August 1893 for £2,200 ($4,400).