YEARS OF SERVICE
THE 51st Battalion has called Far North Queensland home for the past 80 years.
On Saturday, this milestone was commemorated with a wreath-laying service at Fuller Park.
Cairns World War II soldier Fred Schipke said it was an honour to attend the service.
“I actually joined the 51 in 1938, only two years after they’d been formed,” Mr Schipke said.
He’d initially joined as an instrumentalist, Mr Schipke said he was the bugler, but as a fourth-year motor mechanic he was shifted to transport and trained up as an engineer.
“I thank the army for that, it led me into a career,” he said.
Mr Schipke believed commemorative services like this were important because it was an opportunity to pay respect and remember. “I relish it actually,” he said. Ted Shambrook was a 51st Battalion commanding officer in the early 70s. He joined in 1949 and was proud to be celebrating its 80th year in Far North Queensland.
He said the unit formed unbreakable friendships.
Kel Ryan, who is an honorary colonel with the 51st Battalion Far North Queensland regiment, said it had first been formed during World War I in Egypt before it moved to the Western Front in France and Belgium. After the war the unit was moved around Australia before it was settled in Far North Queensland in 1936.
“It’s part of the fabric of the community and I think that’s so important,” Mr Ryan said.
He was the original commanding officer when the unit was formed as a regional force surveillance unit in 1986.
The 51st Battalion was one of three regional force surveillance units across the top of Australia, he said.
“Their role is reconnaissance and surveillance. They work in conjunction with Border Force, Customs, Federal Police, federal agencies, state agencies ...,” Mr Ryan said.
As an honorary Colonel, he said he was the link between the unit and the community, and loved still being involved.
“As I get older, it’s just something special,” he said.