Our People in QLD
Stewart Colborne - Bundaberg
Stewart Colborne has been an inspiration to his family. The 27-year-old Royal Australian Air Force officer, from Bundaberg is an aerospace engineer at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia. Stewart’s younger brother has now applied to Defence Force Recruiting to join as an RAAF pilot.
Stewart grew up in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, where his father was in the Rhodesian Army. He moved to Queensland in 2002 attending school in Bundaberg and university in Brisbane.
“During an engineering lecture at the University of Queensland a recruitment officer gave a presentation regarding the options of joining the Australian Defence Force. I followed up the lecture with a call to Defence Force Recruiting and within a month I had an interview,” Stewart said.
“This resulted in an offer to apply for entry into the Undergraduate Sponsorship Program. Initially the concept of not having a HECS debt when I finished my degree, being paid to study and the guarantee of a paid job after uni was what had me interested,” he said.
“I joined in 2005, signing a contract, as part of the Undergraduate Sponsorship Program, where I was paid to complete the remaining 3 years of my Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Mechatronics, at the University of Queensland,” Stewart added.
Stewart holds the rank of Flight Lieutenant and is the officer in charge of the 92 Wing Logistic Operations Maintenance Investigation Section at RAAF Base Edinburgh near Adelaide.
“My section and I have the responsibility of investigating solutions to difficult aircraft faults to assist in providing serviceable aircraft to meet 92 Wing’s flying program,” he said.
“I have a team of systems technicians that provide fault finding guidance to 10 and 11 Squadron who have the manpower required to make the aircraft serviceable,” Stewart stated. “As an engineer when fulfilling the role of duty maintenance officer, I have to make decisions to allow aircraft to fly. I need to liaise with my technical team to ascertain all the information regarding particular unserviceabilities to ensure I make an informed and safe decision,” he said.
When Stewart is not in uniform and working on aircraft he practices ballroom dancing with his competition partner.
“We compete at state and inter-state DanceSport competitions, mainly in Waltz, Quickstep, ChaCha and Samba. I also enjoy social Latin dancing styles such as Salsa, Bachata and Zouk. If I have the time, I enjoy the challenge of joining a performance team. I had the opportunity to perform at the Sydney Latin Festival earlier this year, great fun,” Stewart said.