Page 40 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

40 DEFENCE BUSINESS CENTRAL QUEENSLAND
APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
lia’s northern-most bases. So, if there is an issue in the South China Sea or that area – missile threats, long-range air threats – Darwin is close, Townsville is a little further away, Central Queensland is a little further away again. It gives a little bit of depth in strategic defence.”
Further to this geographic advantage are the already established facilities throughout the region which could quickly be leveraged – including the country’s biggest train- ing area (Shoalwater Bay Training Area), one of the biggest deep-water ports in Australia (Gladstone Port), a capable explosive handling facility (Port Alma), and Rockhampton Airport, which the submission proposes could serve as a potential future air base.
LAND AND AMPHIBIOUS – SHOALWATER BAY TRAINING AREA
The SWBTA in Livingstone Shire is the largest training area in Australia, covering almost 500,000 hectares of land. The facility hosts large, complex operations across land, air and sea, including the biennial Exercise Talisman Sabre.
It is already undergoing a $2 billion expansion as part of Australia’s relationship with the Singapore Armed Forces, but Andy Ireland, Mayor of Livingstone Shire Council, says
Furthermore, the port’s close access to ammunition han- dling capabilities at Port Alma, and proximity to munition storage facilities at Bajool Reserve – combined with the re- gion’s expertise in sovereign munitions production – means Gladstone could serve as an optimal resupply point for naval vessels needing to quickly return to a potential contingency.
Port Alma, only 40 kilometres to the north of Gladstone Port, is the principal designated port for handling large quantities of Class 1 explosives on the east coast of Australia, while Bajool Reserve is one of four sites in Queensland that’s currently put aside for safe storage, distribution, and disposal of explosives.
“Currently, if there’s an operation around Papua New Guin- ea, around the Torres Strait, or in that northern part of Aus- tralia, ships based at Fleet Base East (Sydney) have to travel south to load munitions, and then head north again to a com- bat zone,” Mayor Matt Burnett of Gladstone Regional Council told ADM. “If you had a presence in Central Queensland, in Gladstone, you could quickly head north [to Port Alma], load what was necessary, then continue north, and save days of travel time, potentially securing Australia’s sovereignty.”
AIR – ROCKHAMPTON AIRPORT
The submission also identified Rockhampton Airport as an ideal location for accommodating existing and future manned and unmanned aircraft, particularly in support of maritime surveillance.
“Rockhampton Airport has a 2,628-metre long runway and can host our largest military aircraft along with 737 and A320 aircraft,” Rockhampton Regional Council Mayor Tony Williams said. “It also has the capacity to be upgrad- ed, making it a prime and versatile option to support and deepen capacity for joint maritime operations.”
The submission argues that if expanded, the airport could provide a unique location for maritime surveillance of north- ern and eastern approaches to Australia. For example, from Rockhampton, a P-8A Poseidon could reportedly operate at increased range compared with operating from its home base at Edinburgh – covering the waters of Vanuatu, New Caledo- nia, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea.
The submission recommends investing in Rockhampton to serve as a dispersal and forward operating RAAF base, primarily for maritime surveillance forces but including other aircraft types, with a view to developing a maritime domain awareness intelligence centre in the long term.
Mayor Williams also noted the opportunity for Defence to leverage the deep maintenance facilities already current- ly being developed at Rockhampton by Alliance Airlines.
The submission also highlights that the area is ide- ally suited for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), due to its proximity to the Pacific islands and the wider region.
“Central Queensland also has additional air operation- al range capacity and reach, enhancing critical response time during partnering operations or humanitarian assis- tance and disaster relief,” Mayor Williams said. “Given the ADF’s significant role in regional and domestic HADR, Rockhampton airport is an effective option for delivery of aid and also an ideal location to base an Army reserve unit trained and prepared to respond to natural disasters.” ■
“ONE OF THE DRIVING FACTORS FOR THE DEFENCE STRATEGIC REVIEW WAS OUR CHANGED STRATEGIC CIRCUMSTANCES”
it has more to offer still – including the opportunity to scale in support of ad- vanced training, experimentation, and mission staging.
Mayor Ireland said the submission recommends the potential for a main- tenance facility initially, with a view to eventually establishing a more perma- nent base for land forces.
“SWBTA is, in my view, one of the premier military training areas in the world because it allows training of air, land, naval and amphibious forces – and
what we’d like to see is the construction of a maintenance facility there,” he said.
“At the moment, when exercises happen, the Army for example gets deployed out of Enoggera Army base in Bris- bane, and every time they travel up and down the highway, it costs approximately $6 million.
“Why wouldn’t you have a more established permanent presence at Shoalwater Bay rather than having to deploy out of Brisbane every time you run an exercise?”
MARITIME – GLADSTONE PORT
Central Queensland’s two ports – Gladstone Port and Port Alma – could also offer enhanced maritime support for Defence operations by reducing transit times for warships requiring rearmament.
Gladstone is a deep-water port with dual shipping lanes and is the only port between Brisbane and Darwin current- ly certified by the inter-departmental Visiting Ships Panel (Nuclear) to host nuclear powered surface ships.
The submission suggests that Gladstone’s location fur- ther north than Fleet Base East in Sydney would make it a better location for responding quickly to contingencies in the South Pacific.