Minister Matt Thistlethwaite (front row, fifth from right) and local MP Luke Gosling (fourth from left) with contractors and base personnel at Robertson Barracks. Photo: ADF.
The Department of Defence will spend $24 million on infrastructure upgrades to the Robertson Barracks Army base and Howard Springs accommodation centre south of Darwin.
The upgrades are part of the Federal Government’s wider program to upgrade the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) key bases in the country’s north.
Last year’s Defence Strategic Review (DSR) identified the need to strengthen Australia’s northern bases in the face of emerging threats in the Indo-Pacific region. These upgrades will include lengthened runways and larger aircraft parking aprons, more resilient fuel storage and supply, and better base accommodation and security at bases right across the north.
Over the next four years, some $3.8 billion has been committed to the projects in northern Queensland, the Territory, northwest Western Australia and the Cocos Islands.
As part of this investment, Robertson Barracks will see an investment of about $22 million in upgrades to infrastructure including medical and dental facilities, military working dog facilities and fitness facilities on the base.
The base is home to more than 2000 ADF personnel from Army’s 1st Brigade (1Bde) and 1st Aviation Regiment (1Avn), although 1Avn will be relocating to Townsville in the next couple of years to prepare for the arrival of the Army’s new Boeing AH-64E Apache helicopters.
Howard Springs South will see an investment of about $2 million to deliver maintenance works and new air-conditioning systems. The former mining camp and pandemic quarantine facility has been repurposed to house members of the US Marine Corps who visit the Territory as part of the annual Marine Rotational Force (MRF) deployments.
The works are expected to provide more than 230 jobs in the Northern Territory, providing opportunities for local trades, construction and other businesses.
Assistant Minister for Defence Matt Thistlethwaite said, “The $24 million upgrades at Robertson Barracks and Howard Springs South in Darwin will be delivered by local businesses and provide a significant boost to the local economy by creating job opportunities in the construction industry.
“The Defence estate plays a critical role in supporting the operational readiness of the Australian Defence Force, and having a safe and maintained estate is integral to capability and supporting personnel who live, work and train on base,” he said.
“These are important infrastructure upgrades, medium to small scale ones, that improve the liveability of an important base such as this.
“Across the whole of the Top End most of our bases are getting major upgrades,” he added.
“From the wharf facility at HMAS Coonawarra (in Darwin), to a new runway facility over at RAAF Base Curtin (in WA’s Pilbara region), to new facilities over at Scherger (near Weipa in QLD), and the Greenvale Training Area (near Townsville), Shoal Bay (near Rockhampton) facilities and those sorts of important military facilities along the Top End, all of those are being upgraded by the government as well.”
During his visit to Darwin for the announcement, Mr Thistlethwaite expressed concern that the main north-south road and rail link from Adelaide to Darwin had been cut off by floodwaters for the third year in a row, but stopped short of any firm commitments to any resilience projects.
“It is a really important issue because the Defence Strategic Review did identify that climate change is now a major national security threat,” he said in response to a question from the media.
“And given that a lot of our strategic bases are in the north here, and are subject to the extremities of climate change … making sure that those facilities are accessible and that they can function properly is really, really important.
“So, we’re keen to invest in infrastructure projects such as that to ensure that our bases are accessible and that they can work into the future.”
