The Australian army wants more women to join its ranks.
And to showcase what army life is all about, they’re holding a female adventure camp, at Brisbane’s Gallipoli Barracks.
Rachel Riga reports.
TRANSCRIPT
Early morning drills, training sessions and driving army dozers is what it’s about for these 36 school students.
The hands on program is out to recruit an extra 600 young women next financial year.
Captain Jess Boyd, Head Mentor: “Women generally are, they don’t largely know what the army has to offer and there are so many jobs out there that they wouldn’t have even considered without the chance.”
Today on the week-long program students experienced the art of detecting explosives using dogs and remote control trucks.
VOX 1: “The trucks are pretty good to go in and have a practice and the bomb sqaud was pretty good.”
VOX 2: “This has been so good. It’s made me want to join.”
VOX 3: “I have family in the defence and I’ve always wanted to join.”
Currently women only make up a bit more than 10 per cent of those in the Defence Force, but none on the front line.
It’s possible these young hopefuls could be amongst the first women in Australian history eligable for combat.
Captain Jess Boyd, Head Mentor: “All roles, inlcuding combat roles are avalible to all women from 2016.”
If any of these cadet hopefuls are keen to join they could be recurited within the next few months.
Rachel Riga, QUT News.