By Tania Phillips
It may not have a coast line but Stanthorpe does have a naval cadet unit and it is looking for new members.
TS Kookaburra Navy Cadet Unit is set to start its 2023 activities during the next few weeks, including a recruitment drive according to one of the group leaders Lieutenant Katrina Nemeth, ANC.
The group will hold it’s first big day of the year on 29 January at Storm King Dam with a sign-on day on 12 February at their base at the Defence Depot, Red Bridge Court, Stanthorpe.
“We will start the year with our first day on Storm King Dam where will be canoeing and sailing, and paddleboarding,” she said.
The cadet unit is currently sitting at 18 members with two new recruits interested in joining already however Katrina said they are looking to attract even more teenagers.
“We are hoping to get to about 30 members after the sign-on day,” she said.
The group has been going since the early 2010s but a lack of leadership forced it to take a break for a couple of years before being restarted. Katrina, whose oldest son aged-out of the original group, was one of those to put up her hand to train to be a leader, wanting her younger son and other local teens to have the same experiences as her oldest boy.
While it’s not unusual for coastal towns to have a TS (Training Ship), land-locked Stanthorpe could be considered a little bit out of the box but Katrina said it was a simple case of having people interested in forming a unit.
“The local naval association decided they want to have one, people got together and decided to create a unit,” she said.
“They got leaders, they got kids and then some of those left, it went into hiatus, they got new leader – that was us and we reopened it.”
The group is part of the Moreton Flotilla with units from throughout South-East Queensland including those from Brisbane and the Gold Coast Region down to Tweed’s TS Vampire and out to TS Kookaburra.
She said the current leaders have been getting their qualifications together to go on the water at Storm King Dam and until now other leaders have come into the area to help them.
“But now we have qualified staff here and they will be on the water,” Katrina said.
“A couple of staff from Brisbane will also come up for the water day.”
She said it was decided the water day was the perfect start for the new year followed by the recruitment event.
“We are just looking for cadets at the moment, we have four staff so that means that we can have 40 kids. If we get more kids then we can have more staff,” Katrina said.
She said while three of the cadets have joined the forces already, there was no pressure for the cadets to go on to join the Navy, Airforce or Army.
“It is just showing them, this is what is possible,” Katrina said.
“We are the number one youth development organization, we have discipline, they learn new skills, they learn leadership skills, they make friends. My son just went on a camp to the Navy Recruit School and there were 160 cadets from all around Australia, so he made friends from WA, SA – everywhere. “They make friends for life from all over Australia, they used to do overseas exchanges but they haven’t due to Covid. Our oldest son went to America in 2016.
“It’s a great organization.
“We start the kids at 13. If they start at the beginning of the year, by the end of the year they have changed so much, they’ve grown in themselves. They might have started out as a shy kid by the end of the year they’re not shy.”
And while they are technically land-locked Katrina said the group had a very special connection to the Navy, with the Chief of the Navy coming from the Southern Downs and Granite Belt and marching in the Apple and Grape Festival with the cadets and meeting with them on a several occasions.
For further information phone LEUT KatrinaNemeth, ANC on 041877796.
