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It was mounted on a disappearing carriage, which is what the arm is for that you see attached to the trunnion.

Alternatively it could be a RGF (Royal Gun Factory) 6" 26 calibre gun, which was very similar to the Armstrong model. Both guns were of the old, powder charge guns that were state of the art before the cordite firing quick firing guns were introduced. Two things to note: the breach is an early interupted screw type, in which the breach screw itself seperated completely from the gun, i.e. it did not swing on a bolt attached to the gun. Second, on the last pic you can see above the left trunnion the protrusions to which the iron sight would have been attached.

A gun like this would have fired a 100 lb shell at about 1900 f/s, and had a range of about 8000 yards at normal elevation (15 degrees or less).

Cheers,
Wijnand

Tony,

Thanks for the reference. I was checking the other early BL guns on your site and found the following note for the 5"/25 (http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_5-25_mk1.htm):

2) The propellant charge listed above is from "British Naval Guns No 14" but I believe it to be too small. This may have been an error for 14.45 lbs. (6.55 kg). "British Battleships: 1860 - 1950" says that the charge was 16 lbs. (7.26 kg) Small Pebble (S.P.) which seems more reasonable.

The 4.45 lb charge is for cordite, which required a much lighter charge than the earlier gunpowder based propellants, which is the original 16 lb small pebble charge. The cordite charge (esp. the earlier, hotter burning types which were lighter than later MD types) of 4.45 lbs could be right from this perspective.

When I compare the 5" gun on your site (on the Vavasseur mount) with the one above, they seem of comparable size. So maybe the gun in Oz is a 5" too.

Cheers,
Wijnand