Events for 2010

Members should be look-ing forward to a number

of activities planned for 2010. On Saturday, 29th

May, the Regiment is or-ganizing a Cocktail Party

at Keswick Barracks. The Cocktail Party has been

held at this time to cele-brate the Birthday of AUR some 62 years ago.

The Cocktail Party will be held at Keswick Barracks

Officers Mess and many of the guests from our

Association will be hosted by Officer Cadets. The

Cocktail Party is for all ranks with both staff and

Cadets represented at the function. Please put

this date in your address book or phone/PDA.

We are organizing a func-tion in July which will be a

‘Back to the Buck’ night at

the Buckingham Arms Hotel. This was a favorite

haunt of the Subaltern’s of AUR in the 80’s and

90’s. We are booking the

conference room which caters for about 40 peo-

ple. It should be a great night for food and con-

versation.

Our third function for the

year is our ‘Back to Tor-rens’ Muster and reunion.

We have booked the Torrens Training Depot

for an informal Barbeque and get together. We are

arranging a tour of the

Depot so you can see the changes that have oc-

curred since your time in the Regiment. We are

looking for some familiar tunes from the Pipes and

Drums as well as an op-portunity to mix and min-

gle with current members and staff from AUR.

The date booked for this

activity is

Sunday, 17th October 2010 from 12:30 till

4:00pm. Please mark it in you diary.

Membership …...

Issue 4

25th March 2010

Breaking News:

Lieutenant Colonel Rex Lipman AO ED, our first CO, has accepted our invita-tion to be the Pa-tron of the Associa-tion. He has done us a great honour! Rex was our first CO and inaugural President of the AUR Association . We look forward to active participation for many years to

come.

AUR Graduating Officers 2010

2

Gathering of AURian’s

2

The AURA Website

2

More of our Future Officers

3

Back to Torrens 17 October

3

Colonel Bill Monfries CSC

3

The Depot 4

Inside this issue:

AUR Association

Newsletter March 2010 A d e l a i d e U n i v e r s i t i e s Re g i m e n t A s s o c i a t i o n I n c

Membership is currently at 130 persons including 49

life members and 81 mem-bers. The AURA Council

decided to extend financial membership for all those

who joined in 2009 until the end of 2010. The pri-

mary reason for this was

that AURA has sufficient funds to undertake the

planned tasks of develop-ing a website, organising

future activities and pre-senting prizes to graduates

within the AUR structure. The development of an

active Association ‘ Face-

book’ and increasing by AURians access to our

website has kept many members in touch with

each other and helped to promote the objectives of

the Association. Try www.aurassociation.org.au

to access or website!

functions planned by your Associa-

tion. For perspective members there are forms for downloading

The Council has recently launched an Association website. The site con-

tains details of the events for 2010, membership details and some pic-

tures taken at recent AURA events or activities. You can help by identi-

fying items of interest to include on the website under either photos,

activities or news topics. We have included an area which contains all of the past newsletters from early 2009.

The site is regularly updated with information about activities and

which you can complete and send back to us with either EFT details of

a cheque for you annual or life mem-bership. The website will be ex-

panded to cover some of the special interest groups such as members

from a particular time or platoon in AUR. We are anxious to include

some of the historical information from the records held by individuals or by the Regiment. Please send us a

scan of your favorite pictures of your time in AUR!

Page 2

AUR Graduating Officers—2010

The AUR Association Website …..

AUR Association Newsletter March 2010

mateship going. These are informal brunches organised at local haunts such as Najah’s or Café Bravo. An email ‘warning order’ sent out by Adrian Horan seems to rally the troops for one of these casual gather-ings. The conversation usually moves to the ‘old days’ and ‘where are they now’ discussions. If you know the whereabouts of a former AURians drop us an email or put them forward as a friend in Facebook! aurassocia-tion@gmail.com will get to us. Alter-natively, pass on to them our website URL for membership forms and infor-mation.

Max Weir, Claire Murray and Silvia Kriven enjoying the ambience of an evening with mates from AUR—December 2009 at the

Meredith’s Annual Christmas BBQ.

www.aurassociation.org.au

Gathering of AURians …..

Brenton Gasteen, Anne Lonie, Robin Marlin

enjoying a coffee at Café Bravo. Brenton’s new bike is ’parked’ outside after it took him up to Norton Summit and back. Lucky Bren-

ton!

Every year there are a number of informal activities that have occurred for many years that keep the AUR

From the left: Lieutenants Amanda Walton (RAEME), Aaron Newfield (RASigs), Fran Altree (RASigs) and Michael Fell (RAInf) ac-

cepting a book from Brigadier Nick Williams presented by the AUR Association to mark their appointment as an Officer in the Aus-

tralian Army.

On Saturday, 13th March 2010, the

Officer Cadets organised a Cocktail Party at Keswick Barracks to cele-brate and recognise the commission-

ing of 6 Officers from AUR. There were 2 Officers from Tasmania who

were unable to attend. The gradua-tion of Officers represents about 22

months training with attendance at various modules conducted at AUR

and other University Regiment’s and at RMC Duntroon.

As part of their training the Officer Cadets were responsible for planning

the activity, arranging for the wel-come and hosting of guests, senior

Officers and NCO’s of the Regiment, and conversing with guests through-

out the evening.

The young graduate Officers are posted to positions across a range of Corps postings.. Amanda had trans-ferred to the Regular Army and is currently posted as a RAEME Officer

with the Army Logistics Training Centre at Latchford Barracks in Vic-toria. The Association selected as its presentation the book ‘Operation Orders’ written by Brigadier Pat Beale DSO, AM. The book is an ex-cellent account of Pat’s command and leadership experiences in Malaya,

Papua New Guinea and Vietnam.

Our Association is looking forward to assisting with presentations and prizes for a range of courses now conducted in their broader role by the Adelaide Universities Regiment. During the evening, Lieutenant Colo-nel Stevens and his successor, Simon Ridgeway congratulated graduates on their dedication and achievement in successfully completing the First Ap-

pointment Course.

Issue 4

How many O/C’s does AUR have in the

pipeline for 2010 and how many may

graduate in 2010?

Currently there are 38 OCDT's in Adelaide

and Darwin (does not include TAS) We have

had five graduate in February and expecting

another four to Graduate later in the

year. We have also had two graduate as

SSO's and there may be a further one from

Darwin SSO in the next month or so.

How is training of O/C’s conducted in

the companies in NT and TAS?

In Darwin there are currently 8

OCDT's. TRG is conducted by the TRG

Cell located in Darwin and as they move

through the training program they are

brought down to Adelaide to complete

specific training objectives, or AUR will fly

instructors up to complete them. They

then attend the normal training blocks

(TB's) as does every OCDT. Tasmania

is run by Major Hughes who also has a

TRG team to complete the required com-

petencies.

What is the current strength of AUR?

130 staff & a total of 317 including

cadets and soldiers in the Recruiting

Holding Company.

Can you outline the stages of develop-

ment of an Officer Cadet and the time

taken for each stage or course?

There are three broad requirements to

complete the FAC. They complete five

training blocks which are continuous resi-

dential courses. The first is TB1-Recruit

Course of 28 days duration at Ka-

pooka. The OCDT's complete the same

recruit course as other recruits. TB2 is 16

days and focuses on IMT skills. TB3 is also

16 days and they continue with their field

skills and are exposed to section level

tactics and some section level com-

mand. TB4 is 16 days and exposes the

OCDT's to PL tactics and limited PL COMD

responsibilities. TB5 is their final course of

28 days conducted at RMC. Upon passing

they graduate as Lieutenant's. In between

these training blocks they have a non

residential training assessment package

made up of various modules that they are

required to complete. These include field

skills, service writing, customs and tradi-

tions, navigation, first aid etc. They are

also required to complete an External

Assessment Package (EAP) which assesses

their ability on service writing, completion

of a training program, and some elements

of military history. The commitment re-

quired is quite high. There are two each

of the TB courses per year. AUR, in con-

junction WAUR, run the TB2 at Murray

Bridge with the next such course in April

2010. The time taken to complete the FAC

normally ranges between two to three

years. However one graduate recently

took approximately 15 months.

Are all the staff cadets posted to other

Units on graduation or are some kept

as instructors? All graduates are posted

out on graduation. In the last course two

went to Signals, and three to infantry (two

to 12/40 RTR and one to 10/27 RSAR)

Service Cross in the Australia Day

Honours this year.

Bill’s honour reads: For outstanding

achievement as the Commander's Educa-

tion, Training and Development adviser

at Headquarters Training Command-

Army. Bill said in response to our

note of congratulations:

“I have asked to retire in Jan 2011. Con-

sidering I signed on at Torrens in Dec

1971 I guess I have come quite a dis-

tance. It's certainly been surprisingly

enjoyable and rewarding, and I certainly

never thought I'd be in uniform for so

Colonel Bill Monfries CSC originally

joined the Royal Australian Infantry

and was promoted to Second Lieu-

tenant in the Adelaide University

Regiment in 1974. He transferred to

the Australian Regular Army as a

RAAEC Officer in 1982. He served as

the Career Advisor from 1993-1995

and as Deputy Head of Corps from

1996 to 1997. He was promoted to

Colonel in 2003, when he took up the

position of Head of Corps. Bill was

recognised for his valuable contribu-

tion with the Award of a Conspicuous

long, or end up where I have.”

Good luck Bill with your last 12

months!

Then and …

Now!

AUR in 2010 …..

Colonel Bill Monfries CSC …...

they are making to Defence. Many of

them have undertaken service over-seas in the Solomon Islands, Timor

and Operation Resolute (border protection). We have included a few

pictures of TTD

in 2010. See if you can recog-

nise an office or two, the Mess or

the Drill Hall. The building had

a $3 million up-grade before the

RSL, RAAF Association and History

Trust moved in.

Back to Torrens—17 October 2010 ….. The AURA Council is busily prepar-ing an afternoon at the Torrens

Training Depot. You can drop in for the BBQ with cooking by the mem-

bers of the Council! You can wander around the Drill Hall and look at

where you trained and enjoyed your service in AUR. We are hopeful of

some tunes from the Pipes and Drums. You can also talk to current members of the Regiment about sol-

diering in 2010 and the commitment

Where: Torrens Training Depot

When: Sunday, 17th October 2010

What: Informal BBQ with mates

Activity: Tour of the Depot

Page 3

The Depot ….

We want your membership …...

• Come along and join in the functions organised for you. The Cocktail Party in May, The dinner at the Buck in July and the BBQ at Torrens in October 2010.

• Tell us about your experiences in AUR and keep sending those photo-graphs in to add to our web pages.

• E-mail your friends and search out your mates from those early days in AUR.

• Fill out a membership form which is available for download from our website.

• Visit the AUR Regimental website at www.army.gov.au/aur

• Support the current Regiment members as they train others in their new enhanced role of training across the spectrum of Reserve needs.

• Bring a mate to the next AURA function as we want to expand!

PO Box 7394

Hutt St PO

Adelaide SA 5000

Adelaide Universities

Regiment Association

Is this the RAP?

Is this a CO’s or RSM’s office?

AUR Officers Mess—where is the bar?

Air conditioning in the Depot? Look at

the parquetry floor!

An upstairs lecture room or library?

The Western entrance to TTD.

Phone: 0413270370

E-mail:

aurassociation@gmail.com

http://www.aurassociation.org.au

Your business tag line here.

Website

www.aurassociation.or

g.au

AUR Courses 2010 …... • Reserve Response Force (RRF) Training— Keswick

• Infantry Initial Employment Training Modules 1 & 2 (2 courses)

• First Appointment Course Training Block 2—Panel of 90

• High Readiness Reserve and AR Grade 2 Course

• C2/MR2 Course—Panel of 30