Robertson Barracks is a major

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

base located in Holtze, an outer suburb of

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...

, around east of the Darwin city centre.

History

Robertson Barracks was built between 1989 and 2001. The barracks was named after Lieutenant General Sir Horace Robertson, commander of the 1st Armoured Division and 6th Division during the Second World War, and later Commander in Chief British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. The "Atomic Tank" was a

Centurion tank The FV4007 Centurion was the primary main battle tank of the British Army during the post-World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing comba ...

which was placed from ground zero of a 10Kt atomic bomb test at Woomera in 1953. It was damaged but still driveable, was repaired and served in Vietnam, before being used as a "gate guardian" at Robertson Barracks. In 2021, prime minister

Scott Morrison Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party and was ...

visited Robertson Barracks, where he announced expenditure of million to upgrade the Robertson Barracks Close Training Area, Kangaroo Flats Training Area, Mount Bundey Training Area and Bradshaw Field Training Area. This was part of a total of billion allocated for spending on defence installations in the Northern Territory.

Description

Robertson Barracks is a major Australian Army base in Holtze, a suburb of Darwin in the Municipality of Litchfield, about east of the Darwin city centre. Robertson Barracks are home to the 1st Brigade and the 1st Aviation Regiment. It has a helicopter airfield, similar to Holsworthy Barracks.

Units

The units currently located on Robertson Barracks are:

1 Brigade units

* 1st Combat Service Support Battalion * 1st Combat Signals Regiment * 1st Combat Engineer Regiment * 5/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment * 8th/12th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery

External units

* 1st Aviation Regiment *B Coy, 1st Military Police Battalion *Joint Movements Control Office – Darwin *Joint Logistics Unit (North) * 1st Close Health Battalion (Headquarters) ** 8th Close Health Company

US Marines

In 2011 as part of the Obama administration's "pivot to Asia" it was announced that US Marines would be based in Darwin at the Robertson Barracks. In November 2011 it was announced that up to 2,500 US Marines would be based in Australia for training, starting from 200 to 250 in 2012, to 2500 over the following five years. The Marine groups were to stay for six months at a time. Robertson Barracks is reported to be a future site of a United States Pacific Command, Marine Rotational Force-Darwin (MRF-D), and its current capacity of 4,500 troops will be upgraded in the near future. Currently, the size and the accessibility of key facilities in Darwin follows closely with other US deployment sites around the globe. In 2016, 1,250 US Marines deployed to Robertson Barracks, along with four UH-1Y Venom helicopters. Drawn-out negotiations over cost-sharing and other issues meant that the original number of 2,500 Marines per deployment would not be reached until at least 2020.U.S., Australia delay plans to send more Marines Down Under 10 June 2016
'' Marine Corps Times'' Retrieved 15 November 2016 , it was reported that up to 2,500 Marines had been stationed at Darwin each year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson Barracks Buildings and structures in Darwin, Northern Territory Barracks in Australia Military installations in the Northern Territory Australian Army aviation Military installations of the United States in Australia