Locals are grumpy about the noisy aircraft and nervous about the marine battalion growing to 2,500 by 2017-18

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

The thunder of fighter jets is fast becoming a key feature among Darwin’s dry season attractions.

Beer, backpackers, crocs and thongs are being joined by the ever-increasing roar of war machines overhead, leaving transient performers in town for the Mindil beach markets begrudgingly admitting it has become the "military capital of Australia".

One man who has lived in the north-east outskirts of Darwin for 40 years but does not want to be named grimaces as yet another US marine F/A-18 jet flies overhead from Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin, temporarily rendering any conversation hopeless.

"That’s Darwin," he shrugs, once the noise has dissipated.

But it’s not the mix of multinational pilots in town for the RAAF’s largest annual combat training activity each June, Pitch Black, that has created the biggest stir among locals. Instead it is the 200-strong contingent of US marines based at Darwin’s Robertson Barracks and the fact they are paving the way for a full 1,100-strong battalion to arrive next year, increasing to 2,500 by 2017-18, that is making the most noise.

On Darwin’s main entertainment strip, Mitchell Street, socialising Americans from Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, are easily spotted at night in civilian clothes.

They stay together in groups of three or four and, for the most part, are on their very best behaviour, even as backpackers and locals become more and more rowdy into the late hours.

By day they can be spotted manning charity stalls, visiting schools, even trying their skills at Australian rules football in public relations exercises.

USMC rotational force Darwin forward coordination element acting officer in charge Major Maurice Brown and Australian defence force commander first brigade brigadier John Frewen at the Robertson Barracks Photograph: Malcolm Sutton for the Guardian

For Basewatch member Justin Tutty, who provides a focal point for community concerns about the US Marine Corps in Darwin, locals largely feel "very relaxed" about the marines – an attitude he partly attributes to America’s long history in the region, which began in earnest following Darwin’s bombing in the second world war and the perception that Australia needed help to defend itself.

But Tutty wants ground rules established regarding the fighter jets, transport aircraft and navy support vessels that will arrive to support them.

His case was highlighted recently when a botched training drill in Queensland resulted in two unarmed bombs and two inert bombs filled with concrete being dumped by US aircraft into deep waters in the Great Barrier Reef marine park, much to the outrage of local environmentalists.

"A lot of people are grumpy about noisy aircraft and there’s going to be more of that," Tutty says.

The marines are part of a US force posture initiative under which its presence will increase in northern Australia as it pivots its attention away from the Middle East and Europe, and its economic decline, and into the Indian Ocean and the east and south-east Asia regions.

ADF Commander 1st Brigade Brigadier John Frewen says it is a natural extension of the Australian/US alliance that has been in place for many years.

Australian soldiers have embraced the marines, including Private Scott Bailes, 5th Royal Australian Regiment, who received sword and guidon manual lessons during a recent USMC Corporals course at Robertson Barracks.

"It’s good to see how their personal training is different to ours," he says.

"We’ll work hard, have a break, and go back to it, but with the marines it’s just go, go, go."

But Tutty fears the full battalion will be a riskier prospect than the small group that has been charming the locals so far.

A Deloitte Access Economics report commissioned by the ADF and released in April, Social Impact of rotations of up to 1,100 US Marines and associated equipment in Northern Australia, found that US personnel from 24,600 servicemen in Okinawa, including about 17,000 marines, had been involved in seven cases of reported or alleged sexual assault cases between 1996 and 2012.

Australia too had experienced its own issues with the US military, including in 2001 when up to three cases of alleged sexual assault by visiting servicemen were reported to NT police.

Deloitte suggested there was a 1 in 20 chance of a sexual assault taking place in a period of six months by an 1100-strong force of marines in the NT.

This presented a lower risk than an equivalent sized group of NT males, who would statistically commit 4.4 cases of sexual assault in the same period.

Major Maurice Brown, the acting officer in charge of the marines, says maintaining high behavioural standards comes down to good leadership and enforced regulations.

"And we have strict measures that are in place for those who violate those protocols," he says.

"Whether it be two marines or 2,500 marines, they’re certain standards that we have to uphold and keep and so far I think everyone’s doing a fantastic job of meeting them."

US military personnel deployed in Australia operate under the 1963 Status of Forces Agreement.

It holds them to account under Australian law for crimes committed within its borders, but also provides for limited circumstances when they could be charged under US military law instead.

University of Canberra government and law assistant professor, Dr Robin Tennant-Wood says there is a certain level of diplomatic protection afforded to military personnel, but there have been cases in the past when visiting US naval personnel have been returned to Australia to face trial after being accused of assault or various petty crimes.

Given that the rotation was announced as a "mark of friendship" between the two countries, however, the US would be keeping marines on a tight leash with short rotations.

But Tutty also wants assurance that Australia would not end up providing logistical support for US nuclear-capable "war machines" or have to tolerate the presence of illegal nuclear WMDs, and the stockpiling of depleted uranium and cluster munitions.

"I’m not ‘anti-American’. I support a defence force and I’m confident this co-operation can work, but it’s a difficult policy challenge," he says.

"If there is a future war that Australia doesn’t agree with, we’re in a position to find ourselves logistically supporting US deployment to that war zone."