New camp for SAF soldiers on Exercise Wallaby in Australia now operational

Singapore soldiers who are on Exercise Wallaby and other training exercises in Australia now have a new camp to support them while they are away from home.

Camp Tilpal, located north of the city of Rockhampton and in the newly expanded Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland, Australia, has improvements in accommodation, operational and medical facilities compared with the existing Camp Growl. It also has widespread wireless internet access.

Construction of the camp began in 2019 and was completed earlier in 2024.

The camp, which was jointly developed by Singapore and Australia, is able to house about 2,000 soldiers. It will also be used by Australian troops as well as other armed forces.

Defence Science and Technology Agency senior programme manager Beatrice Kwan, who worked on the new camp, said the buildings and the camp’s overall structure were designed with the terrain and weather in mind, taking into account factors such as wind direction and sun exposure to keep soldiers cool.

The camp also features an improved exercise command room, where commanders coordinate units out in the field. 

The Singapore Armed Forces’ Major Mullainathan, the camp’s head for the control of training, said: “Exercise Wallaby is a very complex exercise with many moving parts. Our job is to make sure that this complexity does not get in the way of units achieving their objectives.

“The infrastructure, such as communications and tracking equipment, at Camp Tilpal is much better than what we used to have, and allows us to have better situational awareness.”

This includes improved technology, which, integrated with Global Positioning System tracking of various units training on the ground, helps commanders visualise where the different units are – which is crucial when soldiers are firing live ammunition in the training area. 

The camp also has an improved medical centre that replicates the level of care of centres in Singapore’s camps.

The new medical centre also has capabilities to deal with more urgent or serious cases, said Captain (Dr) Thaned Ong, a full-time national serviceman.

Among its features are robust air-conditioning and ventilation systems, as well as facilities to manage heat-related injuries and other kinds of ailments common to the training environment in Shoalwater Bay, which is arid and sandy. 

 

Dr Ong, who was on Exercise Wallaby in 2024, said: “This helps us to make arranging for care a lot easier, and also improves patients’ experience.”

In the past, Camp Growl had some medical facilities, but did not have a purpose-built medical centre.

Camp Tilpal also features a full-scale indoor kitchen set-up operated by Sats and a dining hall that can accommodate the camp’s full capacity of 2,000 people in two sittings, compared with the more rudimentary open-air kitchens at Camp Growl.

 

The Sats outfit at Camp Tilpal can generate between 500 and 2,000 servings per meal, four times a day, during training. 

The new infrastructure, which also allows for better food safety as it is enclosed, has been a boon for junior sous chef Beebee Jan Abdul Kadir, 62, who is on her sixth posting to the annual exercise, as she and the team try to bring a taste of home to the soldiers. 

 

She said: “My speciality is nasi lemak, which the boys here call ‘Wallaby nasi lemak’.

“When I come, year after year, sometimes I see the soldiers again, and they say, ‘Hi, makcik (auntie in Malay), I miss your food.’

“And they make their request... What they request, we try to give them.”