Home guard in Australia's outback
By Nick Squires
BBC, Australia

Australia's armed forces are scattered far and wide, from Iraq to the South Pacific. But there is one regiment which specialises in protecting the vast wilderness regions found much closer to home, in the Northern Territory.

It is another sweltering day in the savannah woodland of northern Australia and I am sitting in the back of a dusty Land Rover waiting to meet members of one of the country's most unusual military units.

I hear them before I see them, their presence betrayed by the faint crackle of dry leaves which carpet the forest floor.

A six-man patrol emerges quietly from the bush. They are carrying rifles and enormous packs.

Their faces are smeared in camouflage cream and they are drenched in sweat. But they are surprisingly cheerful.

"I joined up because I wanted to learn navigation and leadership skills," said Lance Corporal Shaun Evans, smiling through the fatigue. "Plus, I like being in the bush."

Red desert

L/Cpl Evans is a soldier in Norforce, a reservist unit whose job it is to patrol northern Australia looking out for poachers, gun runners, illegal fishermen and, potentially, terrorists.

What makes the regiment unusual is that about two-thirds of its 600 soldiers are Aborigines, a stark contrast to the regular Australian army, which has very few indigenous troops.

Unlike the weekend warriors of other reservist units, Norforce soldiers can serve for up to 150 days a year, and many do.

They use Landrovers, planes and inflatable boats to patrol a massive area of desert, scrub and coastline. It stretches more than 1,200 miles (1,931km) from Western Australia to Queensland, and reaches deep into the red desert around Alice Springs.

"It's a fair patch of dirt," concedes the regiment's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dick Parker, with typical Australian understatement.

Bushcraft

Aboriginal troops are held in high esteem for their tracking abilities, their stealth and their instinctive knowledge of the land.

"You won't get a better set of eyes than an Aboriginal soldier in the north," says Captain Jack Olchowik, a white Norforce officer in charge of training the unit.

"Their bushcraft and their foraging skills are second to none."

Those foraging skills include looking for bush tucker whenever there is an opportunity.

Corporal Tommy Munyarryun is a Norforce veteran of 15 years and a respected elder in the Wanguri tribe. He grins as he lists the food which can supplement his normal army issue rations: wallabies, turtles, witchetty grubs, wild oysters and a type of crustacean known as "long bum" for its unusual shape.

Dugong, or sea cow, is also something of a delicacy.

"The white fellas teach us army stuff and we teach them what bush tucker they can eat when we're out on patrol," Tommy told me.

'Nackeroos'

The origins of Norforce go back to World War II, when a rag-tag group of jackeroos (cattle-hands), gold prospectors and adventurers teamed up with Aboriginal trackers in what was known as the North Australia Observer Unit.

The crocs can grow up to six metres long... bigger than our Zodiac inflatable boats
Norforce soldier

The "Nackeroos" as they called themselves, took to the bush on horses and camels and in dugout canoes, keeping watch for the anticipated invasion of Australia by Japanese troops.

The unit was disbanded after the war but its legacy of small, self-sufficient patrols carrying out covert surveillance was revived with the formation of Norforce in 1981.

The regiment's most recent success was in February, when they came across nine Indonesian fishermen and their grounded boat on an isolated beach in the Northern Territory.

The vessel was one of dozens intercepted in recent months suspected of fishing illegally for shark fins, which command high prices in Asian restaurants.

Overcoming obstacles

The soldiers' most challenging adversaries, however, are northern Australia's stifling heat and its dangerous wildlife, from giant crocodiles and fearsome feral pigs, to dingoes and poisonous snakes.

"The crocs can grow up to six metres long, which is bigger than our Zodiac inflatable boats," one soldier told me.

"But the worst things out here are the dingoes and the wild pigs - we have to fire live rounds to scare them off at night."

Despite such hardships, there is no lack of recruits. Aboriginal elders recognise the benefit of military service for young men who might otherwise find themselves struggling with unemployment, alcoholism and welfare dependency.

It is also hoped that the example of Norforce will dispel some of the negative views of Aborigines still held by many white Australians.

Norforce's area of operations encompasses more than 100 Aboriginal languages, and many of its soldiers speak English as their third or even fourth tongue.

The regiment's white officers have to be sensitive to a whole range of cultural differences among their soldiers. Lt Col Parker recalls the example of one Aboriginal soldier who simply disappeared one day, without explanation.

A year and a half later, just as officers were despairing of ever hearing of him again, he reappeared on parade.

"He'd just gone off into the bush," said the colonel. "We call it going walkabout."

Not exactly the sort of conduct you would expect in a regular army, perhaps, but then Norforce is no ordinary regiment.

Yeah You've got to take your hat off to em ! back inthe late 60's early 70's I was attached to SASR1 .we did a lot of work with them & they wer (& still are ) a top Crew !

I wonder how they work out the unit team selection with the differing tribes and their tribal "rivalries"?

quote:

I wonder how they work out the unit team selection with the differing tribes and their tribal "rivalries"?

Each company used to be recrutied from the indervigial Tribel Lands to ensure that A there was'nt any "problems & B so each company was familar with it's area of responibility !Patroling your own back yard so to speak .It was one of the few thing the Dept of defense ever came close to getting right (their vehicles used to be marked with the cartoon charicter from snake tales of the Abo standing on a domed rock holding a barbed spear

Absolutely great stuff, a real tribute to what we can do together as one nation when we all try.

The Aboriginals in Norforce are a credit to their people, just as the white members of Norforce are a credit to their people also.

It really is a comfort to know there are people up there watching out for us.

Good story
Cheers Morton

When they are at Larrakeah barracks they eat about twice as much as the other blokes, dunno where it goes , there as skinny as a rake.

Thanks for that nelsonted1
Great story, had no idea that was going on.
Can send regards from myself and I bet a great many others