ANALYSIS
LAND SYSTEMS & WARFARE
TURNING AN EAST COASTCENTRIC ARMY’S ATTENTION NORTH WEST By Stephen Bunce,
Defence Writer,
WA DEFENCE REVIEW
&
Graham McKenzie-Smith AM, Contributing Military Historian
Since Federation, the Australian Army has had an east coast-centric conception of the nation - a consequence of the facts that the majority of Australia’s population resides in the east and that Defence’s primary focus has been on Asia and the Pacific. While the 1987 Defence White Paper, The Defence of Australia, may have introduced the concept of the Regional Force Surveillance Unit (RSFU) and precipitated the deployment of a brigade to Darwin as part of the ‘Army Presence in the North’ initiative, the west coast and the remote North West have remained largely neglected by the army. While recent measures to modestly increase the army’s size in Western Australia are welcome and long overdue, more needs to be done to address the variety of national security vulnerabilities in the west and the North West of the Australian continent. An expanded army presence would match the increased focus on the Indian Ocean and strengthen our ability to protect and secure Australia’s sovereignty and national interests.
Soldiers from 3 Squadron Pilbara Regiment conduct exercises on West Lewis Island in the Dampier Archipelago in preparation for an Operation Resolute deployment. © WA DEFENCE REVIEW. Photographer: Serge DeSilva-Ranasinghe.
