Defence Force Families

[mum2BXX]

Rustysgirl - I'm glad you will be going to Adelaide to be with your family. That's what I'm doing - well going to Brisbane to be with my family. We live in Sydney at the moment and I don't know anyone, so it would be horrible to be stuck here. My DH is going to the HQ's near Afghanistan - leaving on Tuesday (my birthday) and will be due back the day before our baby is due! We went to a function the other night and were sitting on a table with Nigel Coates (Navy Fleet Commander) and he told me to contact him if there was anything I needed while DH was away. I said "just make sure he is back in time for the baby!"

Well I've had my first real dealings with DHA. We lived in one DHA house for 6 weeks but the other houses have been RA. We found a place on Homefind in Brisbane and DH had lots of trouble contacting the lady we were supposed to be dealing with. I made him keep calling her and just as I did, because it turns out that he needs to sign the lease even though I'm Power of Attorney and he is just about to leave the country and then spend 3 weeks touring Afghanistan!!

[Canberra84]

Hi all, I am new here. My partner is in the Army and deploying to the ghan next year. I have recently relocated to Canberra to be close to family whilst he is away.

Having the usual DHA drama of very little housing being available but I am trying homefind constantly.

Are there any Canberra meet ups for defence partners?

Look forward to chatting with you

[Marydean]

Hello and welcome to BB - I'm sure you will find plenty of support here.

It's worth contacting DCO re meetups - while I was there I was constantly on their case about having regular (keyword REGULAR) meetups for spouses, I hope they finally got the message. There are morning teas at the Chapel on Duntroon on a regular basis, if you're army it's worth popping in there a couple of times to find out what else is going on. There are also some meetups in Gunghalin & Belconnen way, can't remember but I think some of them are playgroups and some are crafty type things.

Key thing with deployments - do *not* sit at home and wait for the support to come to you. It won't. Esp in Canberra as there aren't any large units that deploy from there so you are likely to fall through the cracks. First time my DH was deployed I didn't get a phone call from anyone (DCO, unit, anyone) until after he'd been home for 2 weeks. I suggest you find out who the welfare officer is in your DH's unit and make phone contact, at least then you have someone you can ring if you're faced with any kind of crisis.

So good that you will be close to family - I'm sure that has been a very wise move.