Hinchinbrook Shire Council Acting Mayor, Andrew Cripps, has thanked the local community for their cooperation and support during the recent Australian Defence Force (ADF) exercise ‘Diamond Strike’.
The Shire hosted the training scenario last week, which involved personnel from the Australian Army’s 7th Brigade with allied personnel from the United States, Japan, Fiji, Tonga and France.
Councillor Cripps said he had received positive feedback from the ADF about the value of the training scenarios undertaken across the Shire, in particular the warm welcome ADF and allied personnel received from local residents during the exercise.
“We welcomed the participation by the ADF at Tasman Turtle’s Big Day Out and by all accounts, the engagement with the local community for the whole week was very accommodating, respectful and safe,” he said.
“Of course, a lot of planning had gone into facilitating the exercise in the lead up to the arrival of ADF and allied personnel and I want to acknowledge local landowners and organisations who were involved.
“Our Council has strongly supported these training exercises being held in the Shire and we are very keen to deepen and strengthen our relationship with the ADF so that they keep coming back in future.”
Cr Cripps, who was “detained and interrogated” and the subject of an “attempted assassination” as part of the exercise, said he believed the local community felt a sense of pride to be supporting the training needs of the ADF.
“I want to thank the people of the Hinchinbrook Shire for their cooperation with and positive response to the exercises and I am sure we are all proud to be providing our soldiers with a valuable training experience.”
“Apart from the outstanding professionalism of the visiting ADF and allied personnel, there were also special moments, such as the group of talented Fijian soldiers who sang together as a choir at St Patrick’s Church during the Sunday mass service,” said Cr Cripps.
He said the Hinchinbrook Shire would also play a role in July and in August, hosting participating personnel as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre, which will involve communities across North Queensland.
