Our People in NSW
Michael Elliott - Wilcannia
It’s a long way from growing up on a station just outside Wilcannia to laying cable for Australia’s military communications systems in the Middle East … but that’s just what happened for local man Michael Elliott, 35.
“I did my primary schooling in Cobar; senior years at St Johns Dubbo, and years 11 and 12 at boarding school at the Red Bend Catholic College at Forbes,” said Michael.
“I’d thought about the military since I was 16 but I didn’t follow through until about 10 years later. I just woke up one morning, saw the commercial, and said to my fiancée, ‘You know, I’ve always wanted to join the Army’ and she said, ‘Well, why don’t you?’ so I went down and enrolled that day!”
These days Michael’s usually based at Robertson Barracks, Darwin but he is currently deployed to the communications unit at Australia’s Middle East headquarters.
“We go around Afghanistan, and in the United Arab Emirates, installing cabling in all the new buildings,” he said.
“We put in everything from conduit to the cable services required for all the computer systems in an office environment.”
With daughters Gabrielle (aged nine) and Charlotte (seven) from his previous marriage, Michael will be heading home on leave soon to see his girls and, “my new girlfriend, Joelle Coad, as well”.
“She was my high school sweetheart when I was at Red Bend College and when we met up again it had been 18 years since we’d last seen each other,” he said. “She has two boys Alex (6) and Patrick (4) so, between us, we’ve got a mini “Brady Bunch”.
“The Middle East has been a great experience and a real eye-opener for me,” said Michael. “The only difficult thing is being away from my girls and I’m really looking forward to seeing them when I’m home on leave.”