AN ICONIC World War II Australian tank has returned home - thanks to a video gaming company.

The Australian Cruiser (AC) “Sentinel” armoured fighting vehicle was the only tank designed and mass-produced in Australia during World War II. Armed with either a two, 17 or 25 pounder main gun and at least one .303 calibre machinegun.

There were 65 were built by the NSW Railway Company between 1942 and 1943.

Games company Wargaming, publisher of the popular World of Tanks and World of Warships games series, purchased an AC 1 tank — one of the fewer than six remaining Sentinel tanks — and donated it to the Australian Armour and Artillery museum in the tropical Queensland city of Cairns just before Easter.

The vehicle was previously part of late American tank historian Jacques Littlefield’s collection and acquired by Wargaming in 2014.

The donation to the Cairns museum coincides with the inclusion of the Sentinel tank in the company’s popular World of Tanks franchise, a massively multiplayer online game available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4 and mobile platforms.

Wargaming head of global marketing projects Alexander Bobko said the Australian World of Tanks community had been requesting an Australian tank in the game for many years.

“We are always looking at how we can add a local feel to our players around the world and with a growing number of Australians playing the game, we wanted to provide them with an Australian tank to control,” he said.

“This is also the first Australian tank ever in the game and we think it’s important to represent as many countries as possible so that players can also learn about their own country’s military history.”

In World of Tanks, the Sentinel is a premium vehicle which has joined the British tank tech tree in the PC version game as a Tier IV tank, with a high top speed and the armour to hold up well against other tanks, Mr Bobko said. It is also available in World of Tanks Blitz and there are plans to include it on other platforms in the future.

Wargaming is well known for being passionate about military history and Mr Bobko said it had taken a keen interest in restoring military vehicles and including them in its games so players could learn more about the vehicles while controlling them.

“We take great pride in ensuring our vehicles are as accurate as possible as their real life counterparts, right down to the sounds of the engine and turret,” he said.

Mr Bobko said the company wanted to provide its players with as much information about unique vehicles as possible and to date had produced more than 100 historical videos about various military vehicles, with a documentary on the AC 1 Sentinel being released in the coming months.

Although the Sentinel never saw combat — by the time they were built, British and American tanks such as the Sherman and Matilda were more readily available — they are still an important and rare part of Australia’s military history; particularly as most of the Sentinels were scrapped or turned into tractors after World War II.

Mr Bobko said although the donated tank was currently not drivable, with the engine and some other components needing some work, they hoped to return it to a fully drivable state in the future and had wanted to get it on public display as soon as possible.

He said the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum in Cairns was the largest private collection of military vehicles in the Southern Hemisphere and the perfect new home for the AC 1 Sentinel.

“This museum’s great track record of keeping World War II history alive and making it interesting for all generations is something we really admire,” he said.

“We hope millions of people will use this opportunity to see the AC 1 Sentinel tank here in Cairns for years to come.”

Australian Armour and Artillery Museum assistant manager Jason Belgrave said they were thrilled to have the AC 1 as part of the collection, which also included an AC 4 Sentinel.

“We will soon have the two tanks side-by-side to show the difference between them and allow the general public to see up close another piece of Australia’s military history,” he said.

“We’re very fortunate to have such an extensive collection from all over the world and adding more Australian vehicles will help us keep our military history alive for future generations.

“We are also the only museum in the world to house and display two AC Sentinel tanks so it’s a great addition to our collection and for Cairns.”

In addition to the two Sentinels in Cairns, there is an AC 3 variant at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, an AC 1 at the Australian Army Tank Museum in Puckapunyal, and an AC 1 at the Bovington Tank Museum in the UK.