Australian Regular Army

I had the pleasure of serving with the Australian Army in the 70's and very early '80's (out by 1981). I just had a Google for a lot of the units I spent time with, at the same time I served, and it seems none of us owned a camera or we were all too pissed to bother. It's like 1RTB never existed, 8/9 is on the net (should be, big enough ), 11 FD AMD apparently dropped off the planet sometime during 1916, 139 SigSqn never existed at all, and The Land Warfare Center! I would have thought a million photos existed of that bloody place, if nothing else, on dartboards ;-) I have a few dozen photos stored away in Perth so when my younger Siblings get around to sending me a truck full of kit, I'll get them onto the web go Google can gather them.

My last unit was the (L)and (W)arfare (Centre), Canungra QLD. It was also know as the Battle Wing Canungra. The full time grunt presencewhen I served at the LWC was 10 IRC Independant Rifle Company. I served as a member of the RAAMC within the unit. I nearly made it to Lance Jack until a number of beers snuck up on me and ambushed my big mouth ;-)! The unit kep changing its name over the years. During 1979 - 1980 this emblem was being flogged. T-Shirts were green on white, and the Hydra made it onto the dinky little wooden shields weused to collect. A Land Headquarters Training Centre (Jungle Warfare) was first established at Canungra in 1942 to provide training for Australian troops before their departure for combat in the Asia-Pacific theatre of World War II. Canungra was chosen because it best replicated the environment of the Pacific Region and was accessible by an existing railway that enabled the easy movement of troops between Brisbane and Canungra. The Jungle Training Centre, as it became known, closed shortly after the end of the war. The site reopened in 1954 in response to perceived threats emerging in South-East Asia and was expanded to cover the range of environments found in that locality. Between 1955 and 1966, some 9,500 troops were trained at Canungra for active service in the Malayan Emergency and the Borneo Conflict. Every unit that went to South Vietnam between 1962 and 1972 completed a period of rigorous and realistic Battle Efficiency training at Canungra before departure overseas. The former School of Tactics and War Administration relocated to Canungra in 1960 and eventually became the Command, Staff, and Operations Wing in 1997. A Warrant Officer Wing, raised in Canungra in 1976, became the Warrant Officer and Non-Commissioned Officer Wing in 1978. The two wings amalgamated as the Army Promotion Training Centre in 1998. Over the years, the focus of their training had evolved in response to an expanding training role and an emphasis on career development training. The Army Promotion Training Centre became Headquarters Regional Training Centres in December 2000 with responsibility also for regional training centres.

The military area at Canungra comprises about 6,000 hectares and consists of the Cantonment, where Kokoda Barracks is situated on about 100 hectares, and the Close Training Area where field-training activities are carried out. Canungra continues to be a significant Defence training establishment and the Strategic Plan for the Defence Estate provides for its retention. Army Strategic Planning Guidance for Kokoda Barracks and the Canungra Military area sets out long-term planning for the development of the area, with its principle role as the base for Army Career Development, Defence intelligence training, and sub-unit battle training.
http://wopared.aph.gov.au/house/committee/pwc/kokoda/subs/sub1.pdf

P.S. If "Blue" Cole, "Slim" Miller, "Hanksy", "Gazza" Young, "Den Den" Floyyd are still alive, drop me some mail!