Lt Col Peter A Geraghty Personal Account

3 Para was sent to Australia Sep - Nov 1966 to take part in Exercise Barra Winga, which was the largest peacetime exercise at that time held by the Australian armed forces. The Australians were heavily involved in Viet Nam and were expanding their forces rapidly. They were upping their contingent in Viet Nam to brigade size and the exercise was to prepare the 6th Task Force, which consisted of 2nd and 7th Battalions, Royal Australian Regiment (RAR), with 3 Para making up the third battalion for the exercise. The exercise was held in a newly acquired training are at Shoalwater Bay in Northern Queensland.

 3 Para were firstly stationed at Enoggera Camp in Brisbane, using the newly constructed barracks of 8 RAR, which was in the process of forming up at the time. As a result of this 8 RAR later became 'affiliated' to the Parachute Regiment, although it has since been disbanded.  The Battalion travelled by train to the exercise area, a journey that seemed to take forever, but fond memories of being greeted by the population at the various stations on the way. It was a very realistic exercise, lasting several weeks. There is a good film clip of the Battalion on the exercise on the Australian War Memorial website.

 On completion of the exercise, the Battalion returned to Brisbane for a period of R & R and of 'showing the flag'. The UK was not getting involved in Vet Nam and this was some effort to show that were still around! As part of this phase, a detachment of about 40 all ranks was sent down to Sydney, which was the most populated city. I, battalion adjutant at the time, was put in charge and Peter Geraghty as the sergeant major. Rupert Smith, then a Lt, was also with us. Our main task was to provide the army guard (the Australian Army had a rest that year!) at the Remembrance Ceremony on 11 November at Martin Place. The British High Commission had taken great pains to make as much publicity as they could over this and made much over the fact that the Battalion had recently been on active service.

 You will note from the photograph that we used Sterling SMGs and not the SLR. I made this decision as we had to travel by train from Brisbane to Sydney in civilian clothes and I did not want the hassle of carrying weapons openly. The one SLR we had to take, for the sentinel at the War Memorial, was broken down so it could also be hidden in a suitcase. There was drill for the Sterling, which we had to learn, but there was no provision for 'fixing bayonets' as if you did, the point came very close to the next man's right nostril! However, it was a requirement for the parade, so we improvised and just got on with it. I thought the result was very effective (as per photos) and nobody ever mentioned it. 

 Peter and I had to stay back in Sydney for a couple of days to take part in a popular TV show called 'Beauty and the Beast', so Rupert took the remainder back by train and we flew back later.