The close defence relations between Australia and New Zealand are enduring and deeply rooted in our shared military history. In 2018, our two Defence Ministers reaffirmed our mutual commitment to this alliance through a refreshed Joint Statement on Closer Defence Relations. We identified in the Statement three focus areas, which have guided our continued joint […]
February 2019
CA visits GMEO, Africa
Australian and Fijian soldiers of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) paraded in front of Australia’s Army Chief in a drill square in Egypt in February. Despite their distinctive terracotta-coloured headgear, the Australian MFO contingent is a little-known part of the ADF’s operations, which were being visited by the Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Rick […]
Kicking goals
A family dynamic where one sibling is a major and another is a captain sounds fairly routine to most military families. However, the Wood family, of Camperdown in south-west Victoria isn’t like many others. “My brother Easton is the captain of the Western Bulldogs,” said Major McLeod Wood of Task Group Taji 8. Major Wood […]
Melbourne nurse’s contribution
A small military hospital in Afghanistan is a long way from one of Australia’s busiest emergency departments. It’s where Australian Army Reserve soldier Captain Gerry McMahon exemplifies the mutually beneficial relationship between the full-time Australian Defence Force and its Reservists. As a full-time nurse in the emergency department at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Captain […]
RAAF Provides Urgent Fuel
The Royal Australian Air Force is providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief to isolated regions of flood-affected Queensland. Personnel from No. 35 Squadron have responded swiftly to deliver personnel and urgent fuel stocks to Mt Isa and western Queensland in C-27J Spartan aircraft. The first two flights to western Queensland on 9 February were the first flights of […]
Radji Beach Massacre
On 12 FEB 1942 the Sarawak royal yacht Vyner Brooke left Singapore just before the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army. The ship carried many injured service personnel and 65 nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service from the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, as well as civilian men, women and children. The ship was […]
The Fall of Singapore
15 FEB 1942: World War II and the fall of Singapore. Over 15,000 Australians were taken prisoner after the Japanese had bombed the city and captured Singapore’s reservoirs and pumping stations. The bombing, fighting and heavy shelling continued; many of the troops, separated from their units, wandered around aimlessly and the hospitals were crowded and […]
