Visiting Broome with the ADF

I’ve just had the extraordinary privilege of spending a couple of days in Broome with soldiers of NORFORCE – a specialised Army unit, comprising both regular and reserve soldiers, which carries out surveillance and other key functions in Australia’s remote North.  This was part of a program under which Parliamentarians join Defence force units in locations around the country – indeed around the world – to observe and in some cases participate in their work.

Broome is a long way from the leafy North Shore of Sydney, and the visit was a powerful reminder to me of the huge expanse of our vast and lightly populated country.  The thousands of kilometres of extremely remote coastline – dotted with endless numbers of pristine beaches – are a tempting target for those wanting to land undetected; to smuggle native wildlife out of the country; to fish illegally; to land heroin or other illegal drugs and material; or do many other things harmful to our national interest.  All of that is before considering the ultimate task and purpose of our Defence force: to secure our nation against invasion or other military threat.

On my visit to Broome I was able to join with the NORFORCE troops in a variety of activities, including safety training in the use of a Zodiac inflatable boat; weapons training with a standard issue sub-automatic rifle; an observation mission in which we deployed to a remote creek using four wheel drive Landrovers before proceeding on foot (carrying packs, weapons and other equipment) to establish an observation post; visiting local aboriginal communities (who are a major source of recruitment for NORFORCE) on the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome; and conducting a patrol in one of the Zodiac boats. 

I also had the chance to spend some social time with the men of NORFORCE (there are also women, but not in the group I was with), eating several meals with them – and enjoying a few beers after a late night return from our observation mission.  Their sense of duty was very impressive; their enjoyment in their work was obvious.  

During the visit I wore standard Army camouflage gear, slept in an Army facility, at some stages carried a pack and other equipment (including a weapon) and ate the same food as the soldiers. 

The visit was a thoroughly worthwhile exercise which gave me a better insight into the work done by the Australian Defence Force in a remote part of the country. It also enabled me to ask a few questions about communications in this remote area: I was interested to learn that two Aboriginal communities we visited were served by the Telstra NextG mobile network as well as satellite delivered free to air television and FOXTEL over satellite.  (The more remote of these two communities is located some 150 kilometres north of Broome on a road which is dirt – passable by 4WD only – for about half of the way.)

It is not easy for Parliamentarians – or indeed anyone else – to get a grasp of the scale and diversity of the many aspects of the federal government.  I now feel I have a better understanding of one small part of one arm of government, the Australian Defence Force.  When this is multiplied by all of the Parliamentarians who have participated in this program, it is easy to see its value.