Anyone have any experience in being there?

Did a port call there in 98. Damn good time. The Aussies absolutely loved having us there.

My wife is from Sydney. I remember reading the headline a few years ago that the US would start stationing marines in Darwin. I still want to open a cheeseburger joint there

Darwin is cool. Chill. I went there in '10 with 1/4 on the 15th MEU for a few days. Chartered a fishing boat and drank beer. Pure liberty stop.
Aussies are definitely cool.
Talk to your Marines about the working women there and the dangers therein. See below link for our visit...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2544075/posts

I have to add, sneaking over to Bali is worth it too. When I was with 1/1 we did 5 days in Bali, 2 at sea, 5 days in Darwin. My liver and checkbook both took a massive hit.

I'm glad the USMC is here and the Aussies are glad too. The Chinese... not so much. But the Chinese are quite happy with the new $5 million investor Visa.

Port call there in 2007. Had fun and a pretty small community. You will probably enjoy yourself there.

Good OPSEC

yeah cuz nobody knows that the USA is sending US Marines to Australia

Pendleton Marines leaving for Australia deployment

Well, you got me there, but it doesn't make it right. Stars and Stripes shouldn't be publishing that **** either.

Sometimes you might want to show the flag in a particular location to let your adversaries know you are there - and can be there in force if the need requires it. Similar to the "war games" we conduct in South Korea every year.

This is a situation where the Aussies want a certain country to know that they're backed by the USA.

So, if you can't find news about this in the US media, the Aussie media will definitely cover it. Of course the unit designations won't mean anything to the Aussies so there's a bit of intel there. The last I read, the agreement was for 1800-2000 US Marines to be stationed in Darwin, Northern Territory as a permanent party.

quote:

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Well, you got me there, but it doesn't make it right. Stars and Stripes shouldn't be publishing that **** either.

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1st MarDiv and USMC facebook pages have been publishing pictures of training from there for the last 3 months. Hell the day the agreement was signed with Australia, the Corps announced it to everyone. This is a highly publicized move that (as previous posters have already pointed out) the Corps want everyone *cough*China*cough* to know about.