Billabong Flats, Kuwait
Introduction
Billabong Flats is an Australian training and support facility in Kuwait, with between 120-150 ADF personnel, variously reported as located within the US Camp Arifjan or the Kuwaiti Air Force Ali Al Salem Air Base.
Government sources
Australia’s Force Support Unit -1 hands over operations, Operation Slipper, Images Gallery, Department of Defence, 13 August 2009
FSU 2 took over responsibility at a ceremony and parade at the Billabong Flats barracks. The Force Support Unit (FSU) provides vital training and support to deployed units and personnel on Operation SLIPPER.
Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program, Senate Adjournment Debate, CPD, 18 June 2009, pp. 3769-3770
Senator David Bushby: The ADF conducts a training course for all personnel arriving in the Middle East theatre at Billabong Flats, a base Australia maintains in Kuwait. This is where we were taken to upon arrival. The training course is designed to acclimatise personnel to the risks they will face in the Middle East and normally takes four days.
Outside the training with the troops, we also received briefings on the operations of Billabong Flats and the logistics required to support our activities in the Middle East. A lot of the briefings noted the changes required to be made following our withdrawal from Iraq. From there, we travelled to an Australian Air Force base in a nearby friendly host nation, and from there we flew into Afghanistan.
Analysis
Zemljaradnik’s MySpace Blog, 2009-04-06
After weeks of seeing nothing but desert and sand in Kuwait, the shock of trees lining the streets of Camp Arifjan; strange trees with deciduous limbs carrying foliage that looked like it belonged on a juniper tree. Mud puddles everywhere. A sign in the Australian sector of Arifjan sporting a Kangaroo with boxing gloves welcoming visitors to “Billabong Flats”. The silhouettes of transport aircraft tucked away between bunkers bombed during Desert Storm. The massive gaping holes and enormous slabs of concrete thrown from those same bunkers giving an overwhelming realism to the aircraft footage so many of us watched on TV.
See also
Project coordinator: Richard Tanter
Updated: 4 November 2009