Australia — North Queensland Readies for Exercise Hamel

The wider Townsville region will play host to more than 6000 sol­diers, sailors and air­men and air­women next month with the start of Exer­cise HAMEL — the most com­plex train­ing activ­i­ty ever under­tak­en by the Aus­tralian Army.

While most of the troop activ­i­ty will take place in the Townsville Field Train­ing Area to the west of Townsville, the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy will con­duct beach land­ings at Cow­ley Beach as part of the exer­cise, and Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force air­craft and per­son­nel will con­duct oper­a­tions from RAAF Base Townsville. 

“Exer­cise Hamel is a large and very demand­ing exer­cise that is designed to enhance the Army’s abil­i­ty to fight and oper­ate in a mod­ern, com­plex bat­tle­space,” said Brigadier John Frewen. 

“It reflects the Army’s com­mit­ment to world class train­ing, to pre­pare our troops for ser­vice both at home and over­seas on operations.” 

As the Direc­tor for Exer­cise Hamel, BRIG Frewen said pri­or­i­ties have been placed on ensur­ing both the local com­mu­ni­ty and the envi­ron­ment are well looked after. 

“Through­out the course of the exer­cise a large num­ber of troops will move through North Queens­land. Through com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion and liai­son with var­i­ous local gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tions we have been work­ing to min­imise any dis­rup­tion, as well as mak­ing sure that our land use plan offers us sus­tain­able choic­es to take the best pos­si­ble care of the environment.” 

Media con­tact: Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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