General News
14 May, 2025
51st Battalion to lead Pacific exchange program
Regional surveillance soldiers from the Delta Company barracks will be sent on an exchange to Vanuatu.
North West army reservists are expected to lead a Pacific Island military exchange program later this year.
51st Battalion commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Luke Wessell said regional surveillance soldiers from the Delta Company barracks, which is based in Mount Isa and extends across the Gulf, are likely to be sent on an exchange to Vanuatu in the coming months.
He said it followed a similar exchange with soldiers from Cape York last year.
The small Pacific nation of 300,000 residents does not have a standing army. Instead, it works alongside the local police to maintain law and order, as well as Australian Border Force, on coastal surveillance matters.
“We are planning future cooperation with Vanuatu Mobile Force that delta company will be leading this year,” Lt Col Wessell told North West Weekly.
“Vanuatu will run some of their training in Australia and we support their training over there.
“They have a similar operational model in Vanuatu to what we have in the 51st (Battalion).
“So a lot of the Delta Company soldiers will be over in Vanuatu later this year to support their development.”
Lt Col Wessell said the Australian Army had worked towards increased collaboration with Pacific Island nations.
“When the Vanuatu Mobile Force was first raised many years ago, they used to do a lot of work with the 51st Battalion,” he said.
“The commander of the VMF right now and the senior leadership over there all trained with the 51st Battalion when they were junior soldiers.
“Now they are in those leadership positions, they have asked for that relationship with Australia to be reinvigorated.”
Lt Col Wessell said the Pacific experience would provide skill transfer opportunities for the North West reservists.
“Our soldiers work in a lot of the same type of environments as the Vanuatu Mobile Force so culturally it is a really good fit,” Lt Col Wessell said.
“Last year we ran a similar exchange with our Bravo company out of Weipa. It was the first time a lot of our guys had actually gotten a passport and left Australia.
“So, when a lot of our Indigenous soldiers got over there, they were surprised by the similarities culturally they had with the Vanuatu guys.
“It gives our soldiers experience working in new environments and seeing what challenges other organisations face and what solutions they might have found that we can adapt to our own work.”