Aussie soldier dies during training exercise as five others are injured

DAILYMAIL.COM • 3h ago

By BURNEY WONG – NEWS REPORTER 23:23 05 Oct 2026, updated 02:12 06 Oct 2026

An Australian Army soldier 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 Australian 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 her condolences to the family of the soldier who died.

‘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 could not go into the specifics of the incident, but said that additional resources were sent to the training facility to assist the Defence Department’s investigation into what had occurred.

‘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.

Federal Minister for Veteran Affairs Matthew Keogh said, ‘No matter how someone in our Australian defence force passes away, it’s tragic and we want to make sure that their families and the people who work with them are supported whenever that occurs.’

Opposition leader Angus Taylor said the incident was a ‘tragic reminder that our men and women warfighters put their lives on the line even when they are not on mission’.

‘We are also thinking of the five soldiers injured in this incident.

‘We wish them a full and swift recovery, and our thoughts are with their families who will be supporting them through this very challenging time.’

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 is not the first time a soldier has died at the training site, with Australian Army Private Jason Challis killed there in 2017.

An NT coroner later found that Private Challis was standing behind a plywood wall when he was shot during an urban attack simulation in a mock village.

The coroner described the exercise as ‘shambolic’ and criticised what the findings identified as a ‘long-held mindset’ against rehearsing combat-style operations.

Defence later pleaded guilty in Darwin Local Court to breaching a workplace health and safety duty over the 2017 incident.

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