It’s a jungle out there

Corporal Nathan Best and Flight Sergeants Colin Richards, Cary Suckling and Sandy Matheson amid mountainous rainforest during their attempt to reach an historic crash site as part of Exercise Northern Explorer.

A FLEA plague, leeches and hammering rain confronted No. 27 (City of Townsville) Squadron members on the recent Exercise Northern Explorer.

The Ground Electronics Section (GES) planned and conducted the combined communications and search and rescue exercise. Six members – Flight Lieutenant Robert Palmer, Warrant Officer Noel Hartigan, Corporal Nathan Best and Flight Sergeants Cary Suckling, Sandy Matheson and Colin Richards – deployed to Mareeba, Mossman and Cooktown before returning to RAAF Base Townsville.

The core of the exercise was to familiarise personnel with field communications.

Some members were brought up to an advanced level of expertise in field radio communications and the testing of various radio equipment.

At Mareeba, Warrant Officer Bruce Hurst (ret’d) met with the GES members to discuss the location of a C-47 that crashed during World War II and that he had identified in 1989. With this information, it was decided to devote more time to the Search and Rescue (SAR) component.

Archer Point, south of Cooktown, was the site of the most arduous conditions experienced by the members for the field communications component. The combination of wind, rain and driving sand made the erection of HF radio masts and equipment trying. After an uncomfortable night covered in sand and wet through, GES redeployed to Mossman for the SAR component.

The showgrounds were selected as an appropriate campsite as there was enough space for the erection of HF and VHF masts and antennae and the site was close to the aircraft crash site. Unknown to the members, Mossman was in the grip of a flea plague and the showgrounds were thick with them.

The terrain that had to be traversed to complete the SAR exercise was mountainous rainforest with the aircraft resting 1300m above sea level.

Four GES members attempted the climb but after three hours and at 1100m, it was deemed unsafe to continue.

Cold, wet and fighting off the leeches that crawled over their bodies, they turned back. They had come within 3km of their objective and the hardest section was behind them, but the rain continued to hammer down and the mountains disappeared into a solid cloudbank.

Although the SAR component was unsuccessful, it is hoped to make another bid to reach the historic crash site where it is planned to erect a memorial.

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