Engineers IETs stretch after completing a run up 1555 steps inside Centrepoint Tower in Sydney. Photo by Bill Cunneen

It’s a long way to the top just to get fit

By Pte John Wellfare
“The best way to see Sydney” is how Spr Glenn Power described the recent Centrepoint Tower ‘Run-up’ conducted by Engineer IETs in Sydney recently.

At 43, Spr Power was the oldest of the 38 trainees involved in the run, during which he recalled the daunting sight of “Steps, after steps, after steps.”

Standing 350 metres high, consisting of 94 flights and about 1555 steps, Centrepoint Tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere.

Ascending the tower was the final PT session for the trainee engineers undertaking initial employment training at Steele Barracks in Sydney and had been kept a secret until they reached the base of the tower.

“A rumour went around that they were going to the beach,” says one PTI.

“Some of them showed up with surfboards.”

Following the innovative PT session, the IETs jogged to the naval base at Garden Island where transport was waiting to ship them back to Steele Barracks to begin rehearsals for their march out parade the next day.