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The Australian Army has informed the City of Whyalla it will be conducting live fire training at the Cultana Field Training Area commencing this week.
The army issued the following statement to Council to pass on to the community:
Exercise Predator’s Run 2018 will see the Australian Army’s 1st Brigade conduct a series of training activities from September 3-28 as they begin preparation for operational deployment and contingency tasks in 2019.
Combining elements from infantry, armour, artillery, combat engineers, combat service support and signals into multi-discipline teams, the 1st Brigade will undertake training scenarios to practice a wide range of military tasks.
With more than 2500 members of the brigade coming together to train at the Cultana Field Training Area, north of Whyalla, residents will see an increase in military traffic along the Princes, Augusta, Eyre and Lincoln highways.
Residents living near the training area may also hear the 1st Brigade conduct live-fire training from 9am to midnight from September 4-22. Defence will notify local communities in the vicinity in case of date changes.
Commander of the 1st Brigade, Matt Pearse said he was grateful for the continued support and understanding shown by the local community during training periods.
“Cultana Field Training Area is an outstanding facility for the Australian Defence Force due to its all-weather availability, manoeuvre space and the variety of challenging terrains within the one location,” Brigadier Pearse said.
“It is through your backing of our training activities that we are able to continue to refine our skills to protect you and the nation.”
1st Brigade’s deployment to Cultana will see an investment in the region with food for the soldiers, fuel for vehicles and equipment and other services all being source locally.
“Exercise Predator’s Run 2018 will see more than $800,000 injected into the state and local communities to sustain us through the four week training period,” Brigadier Pearse said.
There will be another army exercise in Whyalla in November as the cadets from the Royal Military College of Duntroon (RMC-D) return.
Battle Block 1D (BB1D), to be known as Exercise Binh Ba, is named after an Australian battle in the Vietnam War. It will be the final exercise the staff cadets will perform before graduating as lieutenants in the Australian Army.
Running from November 15 to November 23, it is based around a peacekeeping, humanitarian and disaster relief scenario where the cadets will be required to operate within the mock destabilised civilian population and war torn region of Whyalla.
It is a similar exercise, but shorter in duration, to the one carried out by RMC-D in November last year.