Colonel Tim Stone takes reins as Commanding Officer of 1RTB, Kapooka

Colonel Stone has now spent 24 years in the service of his country and, on the anniversary of the day he joined up as an 18-year old from North Queensland, he takes on the mammoth task of training the next generation of our armed forces as the Commanding Officer of the 1st Recruit Training Battalion (1RTB) at Kapooka.

He officially took the reins on January 9, replacing Colonel Andrew Deacon.

In his first few weeks in a posting such as this, it's been impossible not to reminisce and take stock of a long career, especially seeing all of those fresh recruit faces at the year's first full reception.

"I actually felt quite excited for them because I look at them and they're right at the start of their military career, and I'm sort of tailing off towards the end of mine," Colonel Stone said from behind his desk at Kapooka headquarters.

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"It kind of re-energised me a little bit to see them, and I guess the excitement and probably a little bit of trepidation from them as well."

It brought him back to the day he landed in Canberra to take his place at the Royal Military College in Duntroon. It was the first time the young Townsville lad had ever been on a plane.

"I was very much a proper North Queenslander, that's why you have to speak slowly to me," he said with a laugh.

Colonel Stone remembered being met and put on a bus, but the rest is a bit of a blur, and to this day he's not entirely sure what made him choose the army.

"I can't put my finger on the moment that I realised I wanted to join the army, because I don't have a family background in it, or anything like that," he said.

"But I think I think it was the desire to sort of serve the country, but also be something be part of something that's bigger than one person or bigger than myself."

Colonel Stone didn't expect to get this command. Usually somebody of his rank would be placed into staff roles, but he's pleasantly surprised he gets to take on a job where he'll get his hands dirty.

"I wouldn't say I'm naturally gifted as a staff officer. I certainly love being around people," he said.

"This is such an important job for me at the moment, considering the problems that we've got with recruiting and numbers. To be able to try and do my part in fixing that, I think it's a really exciting thing to do."

The Australian government wants to increase the defence workforce to 100,000 by 2040. According to the 2021 census, 60,300 people are currently serving in "regular service".

Defence Minister Richard Marles described Australia's recruiting issue as a "crisis".

As the ADF has struggled to attract new recruits in recent years, they've lowered entry requirements to widen the talent pool, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has heard in the past year.

Dr Robert Worswick, a senior clinician contracted to Defence, told the commission's Wagga hearing that dwindling fitness levels was having a detrimental effect on trainees who may be forced to retire early due to injuries. But Colonel Stone argues there are two sides to this issue.

"Yes, the general fitness standard of the average Australian has probably dropped off in the last 20 years. But it's our job to bring that to the standard that it's required to be at," he said.

"Whilst it might sound like I'm generation bashing, I'm certainly not, because the trainees that turn up now, they might not be as physically fit as previous, but they are certainly more aware and more intelligent than I was when I walked through the door."

Another issue often discussed is the overall culture in Defence.

The Royal Commission was told that the "pressure cooker" environment and poor culture trainees are at times subjected to at our military schools sets the tone for poor behaviour in the defence force as a whole.

For Colonel Stone, the culture at Kapooka starts with him and his team.

"It's the tone that myself and the [Regimental Sergeant Major] set for the unit. That's what, to me, a culture is," he said.

The mantra "hard training that's done positively" will be the guiding ethos for 1RTB during Colonel Stone's tenure.

"We have to train recruits hard, we owe them that. But it must be safe, it must be respectful and it must be positive," he said.

"Because they'll take that experience with them into their careers. If they've had a positive experience from the very beginning, then hopefully they realise that it's a great career opportunity."

For a man of his stature, both in rank and physically - he stands over six-foot and broad - Colonel Stone comes across as thoughtful with a gentle manner, not something a civilian would associate with the head of an army training base.

The responsibility he bears as a teacher weighs heavily.

"Australian families give us their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, that's actually a really big responsibility for us," he said.

"We need to make sure that we give them back in better condition than what we've got them in - both physically and mentally.

"The recruits volunteered to get on that bus and turn up, so automatically they deserve our respect."

Colonel Stone will be the first commanding officer of Kapooka whose speciality is logistics, which has given him a broad knowledge of many units in Defence and a unique skill set, he said.

He also served overseas in Afghanistan with the first of the mentoring and liaison teams that the Australian Army ran with the Afghan National Army.

The top job at Kapooka is not his first training appointment. He has previously acted as CO at the Army Logistics Training Centre at Albury, while his most recent appointment was director of soldier career management for the army, overseeing a portfolio of 23,000 soldiers.

January is a transitional time at Kapooka. Two-thirds of staff are new at this time of year, plus a few hundred new recruits, all of them looking to the future.

As for Colonel Stone's future, he has already achieved everything he dreamed of for his army career.

"Hopefully after this posting I'll have done something positive to improve the place ... to leave the unit in a better condition than when you got it," he said.

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