Soldiers to bed down in former pandemic quarantine camp

Aaron Bunch | July 3, 2023

A former COVID-19 quarantine camp in the Northern Territory will become military accommodation for the Australian Defence Force and its allies.

The Howard Springs facility, formerly the Centre for National Resilience, housed thousands of travellers who had to isolate when arriving in Australia during the pandemic.

It will be repurposed by the Department of Defence to accommodate military personnel near Darwin, with the first cohort of about 1300 to arrive in July.

They will take part in Exercise Talisman Sabre, to improve the combat readiness and operations between the Australian Defence Force, US military and other allies.

“The Centre for National Resilience was there for Australia in the beginning, during and the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic,” NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said on Monday.

“Repurposing (it) as a defence accommodation precinct allows Defence to more readily host visiting forces and services in the Territory.”

It will also take pressure off local hotels during the busy tourist season in the dry winter months.

The camp will be known as the Defence Accommodation Precinct Darwin under a five-year lease deal signed by the Commonwealth and NT government.

Assistant Minister for Defence Matt Thistlethwaite said it would improve the ADF’s ability to operate from Australia’s northern military bases.

The Centre for National Resilience officially stopped operations on June 16, 2022. 

At the centre’s busiest, staff cared for up to 2000 people per fortnight, including Territorians and domestic visitor to the Top End.

More recently it has housed displaced flood victims.

Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 will be held between July 22 and August 4 in the NT, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia.

More than 30,000 military personnel from 13 nations, including Germany, the UK, Japan, France and Indonesia will take part.