An Australian Army soldier, in his 20s, has died during a training exercise at the Mount Bundey Training Area.
The Australian Defence Force confirmed the incident took place on Monday and that five other Australian Army soldiers were injured.
Two of the five injured soldiers were in a critical condition, NewsWire reported.
Emergency services attended the training area after receiving reports of a vehicle accident.
A CareFlight emergency retrieval helicopter was used to airlift the injured soldiers from the site.
‘Next of kin has been notified,’ the Defence Force said.
‘We request that the privacy of Defence members and families is respected at this time.’
Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the five injured soldiers had been taken to Royal Darwin Hospital and offered his condolences to the family of the soldier who died.
An Australian Army soldier has died during a training exercise at the Mount Bundey Training Arena (file image)
‘The Northern Territory supported two injured evacuations by helicopter to Royal Darwin Hospital at about 7:30 last night and another three by plane at about 9:30 last night,’ she said.
‘I want to offer our sincere condolences to the family of the young service personnel who lost their life yesterday.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the family who are obviously devastated by this loss and of course, the support of our entire community is there for all of our service personnel who will be feeling this loss immensely.’
NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole couldn’t go into the specifics of the incident, but said that additional resources were sent to the training facility to assist Defence Department’s investigation into the incident.
‘We can’t comment on the cause of the injury to the defence personnel but we are assisting and were helping to investigate on behalf of the coroner,’ he said.
Mount Bundey Training Area is a 117,000-hectare facility located in the Northern Territory roughly 130km south-east of Darwin.
It is used by the Australian Army and its allies for live-fire training.
This isn’t the first time a soldier has died at the training site, with Australian Army Private Jason Challis killed there in 2017.
The Australian Defence Force confirmed the incident took place on Monday afternoon, where five others had been injured
An NT coroner later found that Private Challis was shot during an urban attack simulation in a mock village while standing behind a plywood wall.
The findings were critical of the training exercise, describing it as ‘shambolic’ and pointing to a ‘long-held mindset’ against rehearsals for combat-style operations.
The Department of Defence later pleaded guilty in Darwin Local Court to breaching a health and safety duty.
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