The Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) Joint Task Force (JTF 629) was deployed to Gladstone in Queensland on July 3 to rehearse short-notice response to a domestic security threat as part of Exercise Austral Shield (AS26).

The task force was welcomed with a ceremony at Gladstone Regional Council chambers and will work side-by-side with state and local partners until July 19.

Commanding Officer JTF 629, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Perriman, thanked AS26 partners, highlighting their collaboration as essential to demonstrating domestic protection capabilities.

“We're very excited to be here. Defence can’t do it alone,” Lieutenant Colonel Perriman said.

“We will have soldiers conducting operations designed to test the ability to protect critical infrastructure and rehearse domestic threat responses with our interagency partners,” he said.

Gladstone Regional Council Mayor Matt Burnett said he was committed to growing a partnership with Defence.

“It's fantastic to have members of the Australian Defence Force here in Gladstone,” Mr Burnett said.

Inspector Brett Everest of the Queensland Police Service underlined the value of Exercise Austral Shield.

“It's a great learning experience for us to coordinate how we would respond on a local level and in collaboration with what's required from that ADF response,” Inspector Everest said.

The Gladstone community will see soldiers in boats and armoured vehicles conducting patrols, protection operations and reconnaissance near Gladstone Ports, in central Gladstone and across the region.

Lieutenant Colonel Perriman thanked the Gladstone locals for their outstanding welcome.

“We'd only been in Gladstone for about 10 minutes before a local business turned up with a massive box of hamburgers, saying ‘Welcome to Gladstone’,” Lieutenant Colonel Perriman said.

“It’s been really humbling to have such a positive response in this short time.”