Captain Wales' Australian adventure

Prince Harry has learned bush survival techniques including how to source food and water during his first two weeks with the Australian Defence Force. As the prince reaches the half way point of his month long attachment more details of Harry’s time with the ADF have been released. And Captain Wales, as he is known in the Army, has been keeping very busy indeed.

 

Harry learned his survival techniques while with NORFORCE, a unit mostly made up of Aboriginal soldiers. Just days after his secondment began details of the prince’s visit to Wuggubun, a remote community around 500 miles southwest of Darwin, emerged. Now more information about the time he spent there have come through and we now know that Harry spent several hours there engaging with both children and elders of the local community. Harry’s time with NORFORCE, also known as the North-West Mobile Force, included two nights camping out in the remote Kununurra region as well as taking part in bush survival lessons. 

The information about the first two weeks of his attachment have been released by the Army and the Royal Household. But Harry’s Australian adventure hasn’t been spent completely on the ground. He has also undertaken flight simulation training and gone out in an Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) Tiger taking off from Robinson Barracks in Darwin as he spent time with the 1st Aviation Regiment. 

There was some intense training for Captain Wales, too, as he got ready for field exercise which will form part of Exercise Thunder Observer – a Fire Team Training exercise which will soon take place. It will incorporate a live fire collaboration between ground and air assets. And Harry has also been showing off his sporting prowess. Another highlight of these first two weeks saw the prince participate in a game of wheelchair Australian League Football involving service personnel from the Soldier Recovery Centre and the 1st Brigade. Captain Wales also got the chance to meet injured soldiers and hear their stories and concerns. 

Prince Harry will spend another two weeks in Australia although he will leave briefly to head to Turkey where he will join the Prince of Wales at ceremonies commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaigns which began on April 25th 1915 – thousands of the soldiers who died there came from Australia and New Zealand. On his return to Australia the prince is scheduled to spend time in Perth and Sydney and once his one month attachment is over he will head to New Zealand for a week long tour of that country. And given the amount he has packed in during his first fortnight, there’s little doubt the next few weeks will be just as busy for Captain Harry Wales.

All photos from the Australian Defence Image Library