On Wednesday morning, emergency crews and military personnel in North Queensland were put to the test to combine their skills in the region's largest ever mass casualty training event.
Featuring explosions, smoke, and crashed vehicles, around 100 soldiers and emergency personnel were involved in a series of life-like scenarios on-ground, to better prepare them for action in real-life circumstances.
The training was led by LifeFlight, with support from the Australian Defence Force - in particular the Townsville-based 3rd Brigade.
LifeFlight retrieval medicine's director of northern operations and event organiser Ben Butson said the mock scenario was designed to build on lessons learned from past mass casualty events that had taken place within the region.
"So we planned an event that occurs within the backdrop of an impending category 5 cyclone disaster and features a high degree of realism, with special effects, role players and moulage (mock injuries)," Dr Butson said.
"What we're trying to do in an exercise like this is trying to become more comfortable with being uncomfortable and more familiar with the chaotic nature of mass casualty events."
Dr Butson said the training was timed to enhance the relationship between military and civilian agencies as the region shifts into high risk weather season.
Other services involved in the event included the Queensland Ambulance Service, Queensland Police Service, Queensland Fire and Emergency Service, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, QG Air, State Emergency Services and Retrieval Services Queensland.
"The ability to get all the emergency services together like this and exercise with the Australian Defence Force as well is vanishingly rare - I can't think of a time something of quite this scale has happened in the past," Dr Butson said.
Major Hugh McKeown acted as an observer trainer for elements of the engineer task group as a part of the training and said it had been an excellent exercise to prepare crews for working together going forward.
"This exercise was an opportunity for defense and emergency services to benchmark their equipment and training, and also understand each other's procedures, so in the event that we need to respond to a high risk weather event we can work better as teams," he said.
Senior ADF Officer Townsville, Brigadier Kahlil Fegan, DSC, said the importance of these types of multi-agency, civilian and military training activities cannot be understated.
"They expand the inter-operability of all agencies involved, and set up a positive working relationship that serves us so well when we are called upon to serve the community shoulder to shoulder," Mr Fegan said.
"The exercise will further improve Army's already excellent integration with civilian agencies and, importantly for us, test engineering capabilities in preparation for the high risk weather season.
"What we learn from each other, and importantly the relationships we build in these types of exercises are of a value far greater than individual training and pays dividends in times of crisis."
The large-scale event received strong support from Cubic Defence Australia, who generously provided cutting-edge North Queensland-based technology for the scenario.
Dr Butson said Cubic was an essential player in making the event come to life.
"We are very fortunate they identified the importance of this training to the local community," he said.
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