Lavarack Barracks, Townsville RAAF Base to be updated

Deputy Prime Minister to visit NQ to reveal funding commitments in line with Defence Strategic Review. Here’s what the region will receive.

The Deputy Prime Minister will be in Townsville on Thursday to announce major upgrades to military bases in the city.

Richard Marles is expected to reveal how the Australian Defence Force will operate in the region moving forward and will visit both Townsville and Darwin, with about $2bn promised for air bases across the country and further upgrades to barracks.

This comes after the federal government released the Defence Strategic Review on April 24.

The government commissioned the review in a bid to help prepare the country to effectively respond to the changing regional and global strategic environment and ensure the ADF was capable and able to respond accordingly.

According to the review, multiple recommendations from the 2013 Defence White Paper relating to northern bases had not been implemented.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles and Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy spoke to the media in Canberra following a defence industry roundtable. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The government says it had identified a need to urgently remediate the network of bases, with priority given to air bases.

About $2bn will be invested in RAAF Base Learmonth (WA), through Cocos Islands and our air bases in the Northern Territory to RAAF Base Scherger (QLD) and RAAF Base Townsville (QLD).

Lavarack Barracks will also be updated, with $1bn spent on the Townsville base, Robertson Barracks in the NT and further upgrades to training areas in the Territory.

There is an additional $200m towards the acceleration of additional projects.

The strategic review also highlighted that the north should be optimised for land and maritime capabilities.

It also recommends posturing the majority of the Defences aviation in Townsville – this includes the Apache helicopter.

Townsville Enterprise released a statement on Wednesday saying the move showed confidence in the region.

“The review reveals Townsville as the industry node for Boeing

helicopters which is something we strongly advocated for and a great win for

Townsville,” TEL CEO Claudia Brumme-Smith said.

“This gives us confidence that Defence and Defence Industry will continue to invest

here, create hi-tech jobs, TAFE to develop training offerings for contractors working

with Defence and provide long-term certainty for maintenance capabilities for Defence

aviation in Townsville.”

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Originally published as Lavarack Barracks, Townsville RAAF Base to be updated