The Melancholic Seeker

Two resident Australian Defence Force cadet units are at risk of being disbanded or amalgamated if the Department of Defence fails to find new homes before handing Leeuwin Barracks to the Department of Finance for sale.  The federal government has identified the barracks as a property to be ‘fully divested’ under the Defence Estate Audit, with a Defence department representative saying it is hoping to complete the disposal process within a two-year period during a community information session earlier this month. This will include efforts to rehome the 56 Army Cadet Unit and the air force cadets’ 703 City of Fremantle Squadron. Both have a lengthy history and legacy relating to the East Fremantle site, the former establishing itself at the barracks after the then HMAS Leeuwin was transferred over to the army from the navy in the 1980s, and the latter being established during the Second World War under the auspeices of the Air Training Corps. The department’s official position is th...

(Last week I attended a community information session in Fremantle hosted by the Departments of Defence and Finance as part of their community stakeholder engagement for the disposal and eventual sale of Leeuwin Barracks. The decade-long seesawing of whether the federal government will sell the riverside property finally concluded with the release of the Defence Estate Audit in February, determining it was one of properties to be sold. I have followed this story since the 2022 general election, when the then-Morrison government announced facility upgrades for cadet units on defence bases, including Leeuwin Barracks, and an expansion of the cadet program should the Liberal National coalition win. They clearly did not, however I suspect it was just another vote-buying ploy, much like the white elephant covid quarantine facility in Bullsbrook to try and save the seat of a disgraced minister and the ‘boat gate’ scandal when the Liberal Party publicised classified information of the interce...