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Far-flung
travels to Townsville
By
Cpl Belinda Mepham
Go walkabout from the tip of Thursday Island, past Weipa to Mt
Isa, and then stop on the way to pick up the Cairns contingent
of 51FNQR.
Each
step of the journey brings the battalion together.
With
one of the largest AOs and members who come from the most remote
regions of it, planning a water-tight movements operation to have
everybody collected and arriving in Townsville safety is an exercise
in itself.
Charlie
Coy, which consists of patrols from the Torres Strait Islands,
including Thursday and Horne, are brought by boat to the main
island.
The
soldiers are then flown, by C130J Hercules or Caribou (if available),
to Cairns for the rendezvous at HQ .
Bravo
Coy, based in Cape York, might fly or convoy depending on time
constraints, picking up the stragglers on the way.
Mt
Isa’s Delta Coy takes the long and dry road trip to the sea,
which the soldiers have not seen in a while.
That’s
many miles on the dial to get the battalion into location for
a one-week training and familiarisation exercise.
From
about 500 personnel, 118 members were all that could make the
timings.
Rations,
medical supplies for the worst-case risks, goffers and gumpys,
stretchers and bed rolls, sunscreen and the latest equipment,
barely fitted in the mogs bound for the transit lines at RTC-NQ
and HRTA at Townsville.
Nevertheless,
the soldiers did arrive and depart this month back to their remote
locations ready for next year’s biennial field exercise in
October when 51FNQR will deploy all assets over the AO simultaneously
with their new skills learnt from one week in Townsville.
