A Tale of Two Floods.. And a Cyclone! Brigadier Peter Jeffrey
Reserve commitment within a wider ADF commitment
11th Brigade January 2011 Response Observations The Way ahead Reserve Military Engineers
Joint Task Force 637 was established
Headquarters 1st Division (initially) Headquarters 7th Brigade
11th Brigade provided forces to JTF637 RAAF and RAN
Queensland’s Army Reserve
Coolangatta to Cairns 1950 part-time/150 full-time Infantry (3x battalions – 1300) Logisticians (1x battalion – 300) Engineers (1x squadron – 100) Signallers (1x small squadron – 40) Others (360)
Keenness to help!
CAIRNS TOWNSVILLE AYR MOUNT ISA MACKAY EMERALD ROCKHAMPTON GLADSTONE
YANDINA
BUNDABERG
CABOOLTURE
MARYBOROUGH
BRISBANE
GYMPIE
LOGANLEA SOUTHPORT GATTON TOOWOOMBA WONDAI DALBY ROMA WARWICK STANTHORPE
Floods
Rockhampton Toowoomba-Grantham Brisbane
TC Yasi
North Queensland
Northern
Command and control Liaison Aviation support (primarily helicopter)
Southern
Workers! Transport Command and control Liaison Search Security
Prevention Preparation Response Recovery
Theodore water supply
First solution: supplement with water purification unit Second solution: rehabilitate town supply
Safety
Leadership
Community ‘looks to Army’ Every soldier a leader
Mobility
Culture Willingness to help
Vehicle fleet/capable drivers
Engineers
Force multiplier/skill sets
Defence White Paper 2009 Army to re-balance
Plan Beersheba
To be finalised An embedded concept – Reserve HQs taking a more formalised responsibility for Disaster Relief
11th Brigade
Currently
1x Engineer Squadron (NQ)
Planned
1x Engineer Regiment Comprised of: 1x Headquarters (SQ) 2x Squadrons (SQ) 1x Squadron (NQ)
Are there better ways for managing engineering resources to deliver improved humanitarian outcomes? What role is there for defence engineers in domestic disasters? Could the engineering community be better prepared to undertake recovery from domestic disasters Does the risk of disaster and cost associated with recovery demand an improved regime of preparedness of engineering capacity?