The Queensland University Regiment has led the pack at the recent Royal Military College of Australia Graduation Weekend, outstripping its interstate counterparts on the eve of its 60th anniversary.
The Regiment contributed the highest number of graduates, imparting what Honorary Colonel Major General John Pearn has described as a “fitting tribute” to its longstanding legacy of success.
“Since it was founded, initially as the Queensland University Rifles, the Regiment has been one of the principal army reserve units training young men and women for leadership careers in the Reserves of the Australian Defence Force,” Maj. Gen. Pearn said.
“The Regiment has a very proud history… [having] had a series of esteemed alumni on the university staff and [with] many of its young officer cadets over the years having gone on to occupy very senior positions in the professions, particularly in law, engineering, in education and in medicine.”
Fourteen cadets graduated across a variety of arms and service corps, with QUR’s Lieutenant Tyson Brock awarded the top prize nationally for leadership. Lt. Brock has been posted as a Platoon Commander at the 25th/49th Battalion of the Royal Queensland Regiment, where he will lead a platoon of 30 soldiers.
QUR Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Jenny Cotton said the graduates had represented well their various corps, exhibiting great dedication and commitment.
“They completed two training components – a suite of residential modules of about 104 days in five different periods usually held during university semester holidays, and the non continuous training, which is one weekend a month, and a parade night every Tuesday evening,” she said.
“The spread of Corps was quite broad – we had graduates posted to infantry, artillery, transport, electrical and mechanical engineers, engineers, and signals corps, just to start.”
The results have provided an ideal start to the milestone year, setting the scene for the keenly anticipated anniversary celebrations, due to begin later this month.
“We’re having a special visit to the University by Captain Keith Payne, VC, one of Australia’s two surviving Victoria Cross winners,” Maj. Gen. Pearn said.
“He’s visiting the regiment on Wednesday, April 23, and he’ll be meeting with students and cadet officers of the regiment on that occasion. And then we have our 60th anniversary dinner and that’s being held on Saturday, May 10 at Cromwell College.”
While the celebrations are sure to stir up nostalgia, Lt. Col. Cotton said the anniversary would also highlight just how far the Regiment has come since it was first formed in 1948.
“The course has continued to change and even now we are introducing new opportunities for our officers.
“For the previous few years you’ve only been able to graduate in February… but this year we’re also going to have another graduation opportunity in August. The following year the August graduation ceremonies will be brought back to align with the university holiday, and so staff cadets will be able to graduate [in synch with the University] in both February and July.”
Despite the changes and updates, which have also include extended and expanded activities at the Witton Barracks at Indooroopilly, Lt. Col. Cotton said the unique opportunities offered by a career in the reserve have remained constant.
“Quite often with our graduates we’ll find they’ll want to actually go into a field that can extend their university study, especially with civil and mechanical engineers, because the skills that they get from their civilian careers can easily translate across, but also provide them with different opportunities,” she said.
“As an engineer, it would be unlikely for you to be able to build a bridge and also blow things up – mostly you just build things, but for our engineers in this case there is also the opportunity for demolition, which is not something you could do in a civilian job.
“In signals corps, too, the range of equipment you would use is also quite different to what you would use in a civilian environment.”
The Queensland University Regiment has its regimental headquarters in Walcott Street, St Lucia, as part of the University’s extended campus. There are opportunities every Tuesday evening for university students to visit and find out more about becoming an Officer in the Army Reserve.
MEDIA: Maj. Gen. John Pearn (07 3365 5323), Lt. Col. Jenny Cotton (07 3271 4333), Lucy Manderson (07 3365 2339, l.manderson@uq.edu.au).
