Sad goodbye as 1st Aviation Regiment soldiers start to relocate from Darwin to Townsville
Two army sergeants, and their families, among the first contingent from the 1st Aviation Regiment to relocate from Darwin to Townsville have told of the sadness of saying farewell to the nation’s most northerly military town. Read here.
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Two army sergeants, and their families, among the first contingent from the 1st Aviation Regiment to relocate from Darwin to Townsville have told of the sadness of saying farewell to the nation’s most northerly military town.
The Darwin based regiment, which operate the Army’s fleet of ARH Tiger helicopters, are relocating to North Queensland to work alongside the 5th Aviation Regiment, which operates a fleet of 14 CH-47F Chinook helicopters at the Townsville RAAF base.
Soldiers from 1st Aviation Regiment will slowly transition to Townsville while it still operates the ARH Tiger from Darwin until the helicopter is withdrawn from service in 2028.
The relocation of the aviation regiment to RAAF Base Townsville was earmarked in 2023 in the Defence Strategic Review to coincide with the introduction of the new fleet of AH-64E Apache helicopters later this year.
More than 50 soldiers and officers from 1st Aviation Regiment will call Townsville home.
1st Aviation Regiment’s Sergeant Aaron Robertson said the challenge for he and his wife moving to Townsville is that they were very well established in Darwin.
“There’s a lot of things that we liked about Darwin,” he said.
“It is just going to be a matter of how we continue our settling in.”
The soldier said he and his wife love sport and he played rugby union in Darwin.
“I’m very big on rugby union. I’ve moved to a place that is very rugby league.”
Sergeant Robertson said he was also looking forward to the challenges of working with the new Apache helicopter platform.
“The challenges with the new platform, for me, is going to be different to what I probably experienced back when I was quite junior, or the tradesman,” he said.
“It’ll be a challenge, certainly for myself, adjusting to the different nuances of the Apache compared to a RH Tiger.”
Sergeant Leigh Sparks also said farewell to Darwin and is now adjusting to a new location.
He confesses to be an AFL fan, but added that both he and his wife also played basketball in Darwin
“But I believe I now need to start hating anything the colour blue (State of Origin) except the Cowboys, of course,” he said.
Sergeant Sparks said his family would start following the Townsville Fire in the WNBL competition.
He said he and his family were still finding their feet in a new city.
“My wife’s opinion is there’s a lot more shops to choose from, which is great,” he said.
“It’s just about finding our place at the moment.”
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