Soldier killed in military vehicle rollover near Darwin identified as Corporal Brendan Hannam
Corporal Brendan Hannam has been identified as the soldier who lost his life in a vehicle rollover at the Mount Bundey training ground, just outside of Darwin.
A beloved 28-year-old father-of-two who “would give the shirt off his back for anybody” has been identified as the Australian Army soldier killed in a Northern Territory military training exercise.See how the moment unfolded live.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) confirmed Corporal Brendan Hannam lost his life in a vehicle rollover at the Mount Bundey training ground outside Darwin on Monday afternoon.
Five other men were injured in the incident, two of whom are still in Royal Darwin Hospital.
At a press conference in Perth, Chief of Army Susan Coyle confirmed Corporal Hannam was a junior non-commissioned officer based in Darwin who had served in Afghanistan and trained soldiers in Ukraine.
“It is with deep and profound sadness that I can confirm that we lost one of our soldiers yesterday,” she said.
“Brendan is survived by a partner and two young children.
“He is a much-beloved junior leader in our army, he has served and sacrificed on two operational tours.
“His mates tell me that he would give the shirt off his back for anybody, and the thing that he will be most be remembered for is the love and support that he had for his partner and his kids.
“For now … the family are being deeply supported by the unit, by the 5th/7th Battalion — it’s the unit that Brendan has grown up with since he joined the army.
“They are his army family, and it’s the right people to be connected with the family at this time.”
Lieutenant General Coyle said Corporal Hannam had aspirations to be a medical technician in the army.
“And I know that he would’ve been superb,” she said.
The Mount Bundey Training Area, about 100 kilometres south-east of Darwin, is used by the Australian Army and its allies for live-fire training.
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro confirmed the five injured soldiers were flown to Royal Darwin Hospital.
“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.”
Lieutenant General Coyle said the death of a member of the army brought profound sadness.
“My heart goes out to his family, as well as to his mates, the unit, across the broader army as well,” she told 102.5 ABC Perth earlier today.
“[This is] always a difficult time for anybody, but it hits home, it’s like they’re your own kids.”
Lieutenant General Coyle said further details would not be released until after an investigation was completed.
“The site gets secured at the incident, it gets handed over to our military police,” she said.
“We have a land accident investigation board team that will then undertake an investigation as well.
“We’ve got to give them the time and space to truly understand what has happened so that we can make informed decisions on what to do next and what steps to take to try and mitigate this so it doesn’t happen again.”
NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole said he had sent resources to the training facility to assist the Defence Department’s investigation.
“We can’t comment on the cause of the injury to the defence personnel but we are assisting and we’re helping to investigate on behalf of the coroner,” he said.
