Exercise Diamond Dagger 21 Kicks Off In Townsville

It’s about to get a whole lot louder in North Queensland and Townsville with defence activity beefed up from Friday.

Exercise Diamond Dagger 21 is a 7th Combat Brigade activity taking off at Townsville Field Training Area from 27 August to 19 September.

7th Combat Brigade Commander, Brigadier Jason Blain explains that they will "be going to really test our mechanised inventory, our cavalry, our tanks, our artillery, our combat engineers, our logistics capabilities".

This Saturday Townsville residents will get the chance to see what goes on behind the scenes as the Australian Defence Force hold an Open Day at the Lavarack Barracks.

Retired Senior Officer John Caligari encourages everyone to get along with a gold coin donation, with all proceeds going to Legacy. 

"They are proud of what they do, so they will appreciate the opportunity just to tell people their story"

There will also be increased Defence road traffic via Roma and Emerald. 

Join Tom Tilley with regular rotating co-hosts Jan Fran, Annika Smethurst and Jamila Rizvi on The Briefing, Monday - Saturday, for the day's headlines and breaking news as well as hot topics and interviews. Available on Listnr.