Australian Army Cadets - Annual Field Exercise

Annual Field Exercise

The AAC conducts an Annual Field Exercise (AFX) once every year at regional level for a duration of 1 to 2 weeks.

Levels of training for annual camps across Australia differ, but usually consists of three levels (Tiers):

• Tier 1 (Recruit/IET)
• Tier 2 (Proficiency)
• Tier 3 (Advanced)

In addition, many School Based Units run their own AFX, as they have the numbers to allow them to do so. By state their AFX's are:

• In New South Wales, AFX is held at Singleton Army Barracks. Most School Based Units have separate AFXs to the Community Based Units, however, Baulkham Hills High School Cadet Unit and James Ruse Agricultural High School Cadet Unit attend AFX as part of 22BN and are a part of 22BN, not SBUs. Recent 22BN AFXs have included senior rank cadets of St Aloysius Cadet Unit and Knox Grammar Cadet Unit along with Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia (VAS) to aid in the exercise.

• In North Queensland Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 are all held in an 8 day block at the Harvey Range Training Area, at Camp McAliney.

• In South Queensland Tier 1 and Tier 2 are held in week 1 and Tier 3 in week 2.

• In Victoria, AFX is known as Exercise EMU and is held at Puckapunyal Military Area. School Based Units typically do their AFX one week before the Community Based Units.

• In Western Australia the AFX is held over the September October School holidays for 1 week at Bindoon Army base just outside of Perth.

• In the Northern Territory the AFX is held in the last week of June for 1 week at Kangaroo Flats Training Area in rural Darwin.

• In Tasmania the AFX is held during the September school holidays, lasting for one week. The AFX is held at Stony head or Buckland, each year the location is the opposite to the previous (i.e. 2009, Buckland. 2010, Stony Head).