ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Our thanks to the official Army Soldier's Newspaper for the following articles
Space, cyber careers ready for lift-off
Deputy CJOPS Maj-Gen (NZ) Hugh McAslan, Chief of Joint Capabilities Lt-Gen Susan Coyle, and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Matt Keogh unveil the name of Florence McKenzie Building at HMAS Harman.
AUSTRALIA’S future space workforce has taken a major step forward, with direct entry recruitment open for two new roles in the rapidly growing space domain.
Civilians considering a career in uniform can now apply to become space operations officers or space operations specialists, marking the first time the ADF has offered space-focused positions through direct entry.
The new pathways represent a boost to Australia’ sovereign space capability, with space now recognised as a critical operational domain in an increasingly complex strategic environment.
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The ADF’s expanding space workforce will support a spectrum of mission sets, including satellite communications and operations; position, navigation and timing; space control and domain awareness; missile warning; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and, environmental monitoring.
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Successful candidates will undertake specialist training at the Defence Space and Cyber School in the recently opened Florence McKenzie Building at HMAS Harman.
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The building’s namesake, Florence McKenzie, was Australia’s first female electrical engineer and a pioneer of modern military signalling and technical training.
Her contributions during WWII helped lay the foundations for many of the technologies that underpin today’s space and cyber operations.
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The purpose-built facility delivers a suite of signals and cyber-focused training and simulation programs for personnel across the ADF.
Ranks Chart Updated
LAC Chris Tsakisiris
DEFENCE has issued an updated ADF ranks chart to reflect the transition to the reign of King Charles III and ensure official material aligns with current Commonwealth symbols.
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While minor graphical updates have occurred over time, the previous chart had been in place for more than two decades.
The update reflects the change of sovereign and incorporates refinements to selected rank insignia across Navy, Army and Air Force to improve accuracy, consistency and visual clarity.
Key changes include updated crown imagery; simplified artwork for improved recognition, including black-and-white visibility; the inclusion of trainee ranks, such as staff cadet and officer cadet; and, the removal of obsolete ranks no longer in use.
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The update applies to published rank imagery and reference material only and does not require immediate changes to uniforms or issued insignia.
The updated chart will be available on the ADFHQ Governance intranet page and will be incorporated in the Defence diaries in 2027.
Royal surprise for sig
Lt Fenlan Miller
Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, presents Sig Wikitoria Kirkby with the trophy for RASIG Signaller of the Year during her visit to Gallipoli Barracks in November.
Photo: Cpl Cameron Pegg
IT is not every day you get to meet royalty, and certainly not while receiving one of the RASIG’s most prestigious awards.
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Sig Wikitoria Kirkby, of 1 Sig Regt, was named Signaller of the Year last year, and was handed the award by Col-in-Chief RASIGs Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, during her visit to Gallipoli Barracks, Brisbane in November.
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The award recognises high achievement in junior RASIGs soldiers, based on an individual’s skills, regimental performance and adherence to Defence values.
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“I feel very honoured to have received Signaller of the Year from Her Royal Highness,” Sig Kirkby said.
“It was very unexpected to be honest. I just tried my best, as we all do.”
She received the award, in part, for her outstanding work as the communication systems operator for 1 Div Commander Maj-Gen Ash Collingburn.
Sig Kirkby said it was a great opportunity to improve her skills in tough situations.
“Over the course of 12 months I supported the division commander directly as his signaller, working a lot overseas and in the field environment,” she said.
“It was challenging being away from home so often, but I really enjoyed working as a part of a team and I feel we performed really well.”
Sig Kirkby’s squadron sergeant major, WO2 David Marcato, said the regiment was proud of her achievement.
“I have had the opportunity to witness Signaller Kirkby’s growth and development as a soldier, both as her platoon sergeant during her training and again as her squadron sergeant major this year,” WO2 Mercato said. “She is very deserving, and generally a very good human. She is well liked within the regiment and amongst her cohort.” With four years in Defence under her belt, Sig Kirkby is excited for what’s next. “I’ll be posting down to Adelaide for 2026, I’m keen to learn and do something completely new,” she said.
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Joining Army and moving away from home for the first time was a big step, but one she was glad to take.
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“Before joining Defence I was living on a dairy farm, hand milking cows down in Launceston, Tasmania,” she said. As a keen outdoors person in her spare time, her new lifestyle has been a perfect fit.
“Joining the Army is just something I’d always wanted to do. I felt it was right, so here I am,” she said. “I love this country, I’m very patriotic.”
my Police Museum
Our thanks to the official Police Museum for the following articles
From the Vault - Brisbane's First Traffic Lights 1936
QPS Media on Jan 27 2026
As the amount of cars, trucks and other conveyances increased on Brisbane’s roads so did the propensity for pedestrians to be hit as they tried to cross busy thoroughfares. It was the responsibility of traffic police to keep the intersections flowing and give everyone a fair chance to move or cross roads. Once the police took control of busy intersections the accidents dwindled.
Traffic running smoothly at the Adelaide St and Queen Street at Petrie Bight. The Union Hotel on RHS (now gone) is site of the current Stockland building. In the distance LHS is the Orient Hotel (cnr Queen and Ann Streets). The picture is taken from Queen St corner (site of Old National Hotel), looking towards Fortitude Valley. Believed to be the first traffic signals in Brisbane and were lit on 21 January 1936.
By the middle of the 1930s there were moves to place traffic lights as some of the more congested city intersections. At precisely 3pm on Tuesday, January 21, 1936, Mr. E. M. Hanlon, Minister for Health and Home Affairs, switched on the electro-matic vehicle activated, traffic control system at the junction of Ann, Upper Albert, and Roma Streets. The Courier-Mail reported the following day that “the traffic at that time was fairly heavy, yet surprisingly few made mistakes. Traffic police were on duty to point out to the unheeding or the confused the error of their ways, and in a short time it was obvious that the signals were easy to follow, and the traffic flowed evenly in all directions”.
A close-up view of new electro-matic vehicle actuated traffic signals at the corner of Queen and George Streets.
Men set up speakers to amplify the switching on ceremony which took place on May 24, 1937.
Sixteen months later a second set of traffic lights was installed at the very busy junction of Queen and George Streets. The lights were switched on by Mr E. Hanlon at 3pm on Monday, May 24, 1937. It was reported that the police officer on point duty at this intersection walked off his post for the last time just as the Minister for Home Affairs switched on the current for the ‘electro-matic’ traffic control system. It was quite the novelty and people lined both footpaths during the ceremony, and amplifiers carried the words of the Minister’s speech to crowds at the already “lit” intersections of Ann, Albert and Roma Streets. Mr Cecil Carroll, Commissioner of Police was quoted as saying that “the installed traffic control system was the most modern of its kind, and was in use in all parts of the world”.
Commissioner Cecil Carroll, middle of the image, and other dignitaries, check that the traffic signals at the intersection of Queen and George streets are working correctly, the day after they were switched on, May 25, 1937.
With the installation of automatic control it was said that Queen Street was the most orderly street in the Commonwealth. The new traffic lights were set to operate each day between 7.30 am and midnight.
View from above of new traffic lights at the corner of Adelaide (with tram) and Edward Streets “Brisbane’s new Automatic Traffic Control System worked smoothly during peak hour on Saturday, as revealed by this bird’s-eye-view.” Brisbane Courier-Mail 31.5.1937
This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available at the time of writing.
From the Vault - Slipping on Orange Peels
lisaj on Feb 24 2026
Have you ever wondered where the expression “slipped on a banana peel” comes from? While it’s a phrase often associated with slapstick comedy, its origins come from real-life hazards.
While banana peels became infamous in the United States for causing accidents, here in Australia, it was the orange peel that posed the greatest risk to pedestrians in the 19th century. In fact, the issue was so significant that the 1876 Queensland Police Manual included a specific instruction for police officers to remove orange peels from footpaths to prevent accidents.
1876 Queensland Policeman’s Manual, p160
This seemingly small task was a serious matter as slipping on an orange peel could lead to severe injuries. By 1859, Australian newspapers were reporting on accidents caused by discarded orange peels and urging the public to throw their peels into the gutter rather than onto the footpaths. In some parts of Queensland, the issue became such a problem that local councils considered introducing penalties for littering orange peels. One angry writer in 1874, begged the government to step up and implement change to stop orange-peel litter bugs.
The dangers of orange peels weren’t limited to Australia. In 1858, The Sydney Morning Herald recounted a tale from England: “A serious attorney, walking through Hand Court, in Holborn, set his foot upon a piece of orange peel, slipped, and had made eleven involuntary affidavits before he providentially recollected that he could not charge for them, and ceased.”
Even if it was intended as a joke, it shows how an everyday nuisance had become so familiar that it worked itself into popular humour.
Oranges themselves have a long history in Australia, dating back to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. Seeds and plants were brought over from England and soon after, orange groves were established in the Hawkesbury Valley and the Central Coast hinterland. By the mid-19th century, oranges were a common snack, contributing to the abundance of peels littering the streets [Kim Hanna, The Dictionary of Sydney, Oranges | The Dictionary of Sydney].
As for banana peels, they didn’t become a slipping hazard in Australia until much later. Banana plantations weren’t established in Northern Queensland until the 1880s, which explains why the trope of slipping on a banana peel didn’t gain traction here until then. According to Australian Bananas, the banana peel slip became a more prominent concern in the decades that followed.
So, the next time you hear someone joke about slipping on a banana peel, spare a thought for the 19th-century Australians who had to deal with streets littered with orange peels. And perhaps take a moment to appreciate the efforts of those early Queensland police officers, who were tasked with keeping the streets safe—one orange peel at a time.