Exercise Fleet Feet DPR/TV/1568 (DPR/S/154)

The banks of the Archer River about 40 miles north of Coen high up on the Kennedy Development road in the Cape York Peninsular and a brief stop-off for soldiers from the Townsville based "B" Squadron the 3rd Cavalry Regiment during Exercise Fleet Feet. A week before 13 Armoured Personnel Carriers, One Armoured Command Vehicle and 4 Track Load Carriers together with two tracked fitters vehicles left Weipa on the North West side of Cape York to drive back to Townsville....about 1000 miles away. After a week of living off Army combat rations this fresh water Perch caught by Lieut Bill Haines of Paynesville Victoria made a welcome change for lunch while Sgt Noel Beare of Townsville and Trooper Mike Heffernan of Ipswich Qld tried their luck at panning for gold in the river. The exercise was designed to test the unit's ability to operate in remote conditions without normal support...They carried all their fuel and supplies with them and to map read and navigate under difficult conditions as well as conducting a reconnaisance of the roads in the Cape. During the exercise two Sioux helicopters from the 162 Recce Flight travelled with the carriers keeping watch overhead flying ahead to check the road conditions and creek crossongs. 2 Lieut Peter Simmons checks over his instruments before taking off. On to Coen.. population about 30 for an overnight stop and a dawn start the next day for the next stage to Musgrave Station. With 20 tracked vehicles involved ih the exercise on is sure to protest and cy enough like this one just one mile out of Coen. RAEME mechanics travelling with the group decide the job is too big to fix on the spot and the track will have to be towed by another carrier to Musgrave station...60 miles away... where it will be loaded on a tilt bed trailer and sent home. Along the road the group stooped on the hour every hour for a check of the carriers and to stretch their legs. One track link on this vehicle is found to be unhappy about the rough conditions and is quickly chanded by the crew. An appreciation of the vastness of the countryside as Capt Phill Lawerence checks his bearings before his troop drops down from the Range on the way to Musgrave Station for an over night stop. Helicopter pilot 2 Lieut Peter Simpson checks in with the Exercise Commander Capt John Crossman before the troop commanders discuss the next days running. Meanwhile the offending APC is loaded onto a tilt bed trailer behind a recovery vehicle minus its tracks ready for an inglorious trip back to Townsville. The next day the group moved down the road to Laura. The unusual activity in the main street... the only street...didn't raise as much as an eyebrow from the locals as the troopers took time out to service their vehicles and renew track links that had worn out over the rough road and sustained running. When the work was completed the soldiers took time out to lubricate their dry throats from the dust they had been swallowing with a cool stubbie or two in the shade of the verendah of the Laura pub. The next day some of the soldiers went off on a sightseeing tour of some the incredible Aboriginal cave painints that abound in the Laura area. Experts say ther are 13 known galleries in the Laura area with some of the paintings believed to be thousands of years old. This one is known as the mushroom gallery..local legend has it that the natives painted figures of their enemies on the walls of the caves and then tried to sing them to death. Other soldiers went looking for old relics like this chaff cutter and old bottles...some believed to be over 100 year old were dug out of the side of this bank..once adumping area in the old gold rush days. From Laura the squadron split into three groups...one travelling up the old Battle Camp range road another followed the line of the abandoned Laura to Cooktown railway and a third went into Palmer River area to Maytown. Once a thriving gold town with nearly 70 houses of ill repute.. now all that's left is the foundation posts of a couple of buildings and this derelic machinery from a crushing battery. The three groups married up in Cooktown where the historical items such as the chaff cutter old bottles and mileage markers found along the abandoned railway line were handed over to the curator of the Cooktown Museum Mr Norman Innes-Will by Capt John Crossman and Lieut. Gordon Dickens. From Cooktown the route was plain sailing back to Townsville via the picturesque Atherton Tablelands. The exercise proved to be an outstanding success and showed that the Armoured Carries could operate in remote conditions without normal support and could undergo sustained running under some of the toughest conditions in Australia. As well as testing the initiative of the soldiers they were also able to see a part of the country the majority of Australians will never have the opportunity of seeing.