When Sapper Jacob Wills visited Enoggera Barracks for work experience as a 16-year-old student, he could not have guessed it would lead him to a job site in Timor-Leste just a few years later. 

“I was a little kid running around playing soldier for a week. I thought it was really cool,” Sapper Wills said. 

“There was a brotherhood, like everyone was good mates – I was like, ‘this is sick’.”

Fast forward five years and the now 21-year-old apprentice from Tamborine Mountain has finished his first overseas deployment on Exercise Hari’i Hamutuk in Timor-Leste.

The annual exercise is a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief-focused deployment, which includes tasks such as engineering and construction, medical support, cooking for underprivileged children and water purification activities. 

For about a month, Sapper Wills worked with the Timor-Leste Defence Force to put the finishing touches on new barracks-style accommodation at Port Hera, just outside Dili. 

'We get treated with a lot of respect because we’re Army.'

The second-year apprentice worked under the guidance of a qualified Army electrician from the Darwin-based 1st Combat Engineer Regiment, helping to install wiring and electrical fittings, and assist Timor-Leste personnel. 

“The Timor-Leste lads are very friendly and welcoming, they are lovely,” Sapper Wills said. 

“They give me handshakes all the time, saying, ‘Hey, how's it going?’ – brother this and brother that. I'm loving it over here.” 

The opportunity to learn a trade in a different country is not the usual career path for a qualified electrician. 

Sapper Wills applied to join Army after finishing at Tamborine Mountain State High School and completed the first part of his trade in Victoria. 

Then he moved to Sydney to work as an apprentice for civilian companies on commercial and residential sites as part of his training at the School of Military Engineering. 

“We get treated with a lot of respect because we’re Army,” Sapper Wills said. 

“We've already done our TAFE – book-wise we're ticked off.

“Now it's just getting hours on the tools.” 

Even though he is apprenticed to a civilian electrician company, Sapper Wills must answer the call if Army needs his skills at home or abroad. 

“Green life still comes first no matter what,” he said.