Rec Lazarus from Kalkaringi takes part in the Norforce Centre Sqn induction training at Alice Springs recently. Photo by WO2 Geoff Fox.

More than 700km away from home and taking on a job nobody from this remote part of Australia had ventured into before was going to be a big ask for a new group of Norforce soldiers.

In mid-October, 10 recruits from the Aboriginal communities of Kalkarindji and Lajamanu, north-west of Alice Springs in the Tanami Region of the Northern Territory, were put through the Centre Sqn Norforce Induction Course at Alice Springs.

It was the first time recruits had been brought in from the Tanami, a sparsely populated area dominated by the Tanami Desert. The course provided basic training for the new recruits to become part-time soldiers in the surveillance and reconnaissance unit.

Centre Sqn OC Maj Craig Jeffery said it was an area that the unit didn't get into as often as it would like but was extremely keen to recruit soldiers from the Tanami.

"By having blokes on the ground there, we'll have a 365-day-a-year reporting network established and a wider range of fellows to call on for bigger patrols," Maj Jeffery said.

Centre Sqn is one of the six squadrons that make up Norforce.

The squadron has an area of operation of 900,000 sq km, covering the southern and central areas of the Northern Territory and into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The course was the third intake of soldiers for Centre Sqn this year and covered some of the basic soldiering skills, including weapon handling, first aid, navigation and drill.

Maj Jeffery said the induction course was one of the most difficult courses for any soldier and certainly was not plain sailing for the new recruits.

"For some it's a culture shock - it's the first time away from the community."

"The training is made harder, given that English is not the first language for some recruits - however, the commitment from the training staff and the soldiers means most of the privates make it through."

Despite the difficulty, most recruits enjoyed the challenge.

Pte Wayne Farquarson, from Kalkarindji, who works in the community parks as part of the CDEP program, said he really enjoyed it.

"It makes me feel like I'm really in the Army - makes me feel proud," he said.

Like a lot of the Aboriginal soldiers in Norforce, these new recruits will mainly operate in their own country.

They will undertake further training including the patrolman's course where they will be introduced to new skills and weapons.

The new batch of recruits mean Aboriginal soldiers now account for around 55 per cent of Centre Sqn numbers, reflecting the strong makeup of Aboriginal soldiers across the whole of Norforce in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley Region of Western Australia.

This year, Norforce celebrates 20 years of operation and increasingly more effort is being made to recruit Aboriginal soldiers, given they call some of the most remote parts of the world - home.