This was published 2 years ago
Seeing green: One in four Defence recruits come from south-east Qld
By Sean Parnell
More than one in four Australian Defence Force candidates are recruited in south-east Queensland.
According to figures obtained by Brisbane Times, 27 per cent of ADF candidates in 2021-22 came from the region, and that proportion has remained consistent for years.
Soldiers load gear onto trucks at Gallipoli Barracks as part of Operation Flood Assist 2022.Credit: Australian Defence Force
A Defence spokeswoman was unable to confirm south-east Queensland, home to less than 15 per cent of the Australian population, was the ADF’s top recruiting area.
However, the ADF has kept a high profile in south-east Queensland, with camouflaged personnel assisting with the pandemic response and flood recovery.
On Saturday night, F/A-18F Super Hornets, MRH-90 Taipan Battlefield Mobility helicopters and Eurocopter Tiger Armed Reconnaissance helicopters put on a show for Riverfire crowds, having practised above the city in the days prior.
The city’s only major Defence facility, Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera, has been expanding, and its Bushmaster armoured troop carriers and other vehicles are frequently seen driving through the northern suburbs.
According to the latest census, 3.7 per cent of people in Greater Brisbane had previously served or were serving in the ADF. That was more than Greater Sydney (1.6 per cent) and Greater Melbourne (1.6 per cent) combined, but less than the leading garrison city of Townsville in north Queensland (8.1 per cent).
The ADF last month held a national workforce conference in Brisbane.
One of the key topics was the need to increase the number of permanent personnel by about 30 per cent to 80,000 by 2040.