Australia — Major North-West Tasmanian Defence Exercise Highlights Reserve Capability

The Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary for Defence, Sen­a­tor David Feeney, announced that a major exer­cise will be held in the North-West of Tas­ma­nia this week­end.

Army Reservists from the 12th/40th Bat­tal­ion, the Roy­al Tas­ma­nia Reg­i­ment, will con­duct tasks between Som­er­set, Burnie and Ulver­stone under Reserve Response Force (RRF) training. 

“This major Reserve exer­cise clear­ly demon­strates the lev­el of exper­tise in Reserve capa­bil­i­ty in Tas­ma­nia,” Sen­a­tor Feeney said. 

Local Labor Mem­ber Mr Sid Side­bot­tom said: “Defence has a long his­to­ry in Tas­ma­nia. The Gillard Gov­ern­ment strong­ly sup­ports Defence activ­i­ties in Tas­ma­nia. It is great to see this Exer­cise hap­pen­ing in North-West Tasmania.” 

“The Reserve Response Force Exer­cise will be sce­nario based and will occur with­in the con­text of a fic­ti­tious major sport­ing event in the region. The Exer­cise will involve Reservists pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty sup­port to Tas­ma­nia Police,” Sen­a­tor Feeney said. 

“Tasks will include search­es of key premis­es, cor­don and search oper­a­tions and con­duct­ing vehi­cle con­trol points,” Sen­a­tor Feeney said. 

“Tas­ma­nia Police will also be involved in cer­tain sce­nar­ios. This Exer­cise will ensure that the Tas­man­ian Reserves and Police are able to respond quick­ly to any nat­ur­al disasters. 

“The role of the RRF is to pro­vide sup­port to local author­i­ties. This occurred dur­ing the recent Queens­land floods, Cyclone Yasi and Vic­to­ri­an bush­fires,” Sen­a­tor Feeney said. 

“Part of this assess­ment is work­ing at the pla­toon lev­el so the week­end will encom­pass indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive train­ing as part of the fic­tion­al sce­nario,” Lieu­tenant Colonel Col­in Riley said. 

“A num­ber of sol­diers from the Bat­tal­ion are con­tract­ed to the 9 Brigade Reserve Response Force and this week­end pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty for train­ing and assess­ment of these mem­bers,” Lieu­tenant Colonel Col­in Riley said. 

Lieu­tenant Colonel Col­in Riley said the RRF skills have also been utilised at major events such as the Mel­bourne 2006 Com­mon­wealth Games, APEC and World Youth Day 2008. 

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

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