Another blast from the past.
Circa late 70's.
2 sig Regt had been deployed to Meekatharra in W.A. for Exercise 'West Address', and had been in the field there for several weeks.
On our return to Melbourne we resumed normal duties for around 3 weeks, preparing for Exercise 'Truppenampt' at Turangi, just south of Lake Taupo, New Zealand.
We flew via a C-130 Hercules aircraft from Laverton to NZ, cannot remember the airfield name, was somewhere near Mt Taranaki, as we could see it in the distance. From there it was a bus trip to Waiouru army base for two days before we were deployed into the field in multiple units to provide communications between Waiouru and Aukland, a distance of around 300 Km.
We were privileged to assist the Kiwis with this exercise, as the purpose was to get the 'shiney bums' out of their offices and into the field, we were just there to provide communications.
Having just had several weeks of rationed meals in Western Australia, we were not overly impressed with joining 'slop lines' for food which was dished from the side of a mobile kitchen installed in a semi trailer, so we spoke to a local farmer who lived on a property adjacent to the exercise area, and inquired if we could buy a sheep from him. He accepted our offer, and said that he would tie a rope to a suitable sheep, and tether it to the fence for our collection. All he requested in return was the cost of the animal, (Which was minimal) and said to just dump the remains of the carcass over the fence, and he would dispose of it later. One of our Techies, (Jimmy) was a qualified butcher, before he joined the military.
Jimmy slaughtered the animal the next day, and filled several eskys with the meat. That evening, as all the Kiwi troopies were plodding in line to collect their sloppy stew from the grub truck, we Aussies were seated around a makeshift BBQ 30 metres away and cooking delicious chops etc, while the smell drifted past the other guys. Almost caused a riot.
Edited: At that time, a jug of beer in Aus cost a little over $5 ... in New Zealand, it was only 65 cents... Lots of cheap drunks on our nights off
