U.S. Marines chat with locals during Talisman Sabre training near Stanage Bay, Australia, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
STANAGE BAY, Australia — Talisman Sabre is a big deal for this isolated beach community on Australia’s eastern coast, according to Bevon Haynes, who has owned and operated the Plum Tree Store here for three decades.
“That’s why a lot of people are staying here now,” he said ahead of an amphibious landing this week by U.S. Marines and Japanese and German soldiers.
The troops were participating in Talisman Sabre, a massive, two-week exercise by 30,000 troops from more than a dozen countries. The drills kicked off July 21 and conclude Friday.
Many in the small beach community brought chairs atop sand dunes overlooking nearby Langham Beach to watch the Marines and Germans arrive on four hovercraft.
American, Japanese and Australian troops have been dropping in regularly over the past few weeks, said Haynes, who wore a Talisman Sabre polo shirt Wednesday featuring art of Marines and soldiers raiding a beach and an MRH-90 Taipan helicopter.
Four Australian aviators were lost July 28 when their Taipan ditched in waters off Queensland. Human remains have been found, Lt. Gen. Greg Bilton, the Australian Defense Force’s chief of joint operations, said Thursday in a report by Australian broadcaster ABC.
Bevon Haynes poses behind the register at the Plum Tree Store in Stanage Bay, Australia, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. The Talisman Sabre exercsie is a big deal with the isolated beach community, he said. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Nicole Svendsen, left to right, Wiliam Svendsen and Yvonne Burns pose near Langham Beach during Talisman Sabre training near Stanage Bay, Australia, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Locals watch an amphibious assault on Langham Beach during Talisman Sabre training near Stanage Bay, Australia, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Eighteen Marines and dozens of Japanese soldiers are renting houses owned by Haynes in Stanage Bay. His wife, Marie, brings them an Australian breakfast each morning, he said. An Aussie breakfast typically consists of bacon, eggs, toast and tea or coffee.
The Marines aren’t allowed to drink alcohol during the exercise, but their favorite brew before the action began two weeks ago was a local one called Great Northern, Haynes said.
Talisman Sabre has brought troops to Stanage Bay every other year for more than a decade, Haynes said. In 2019, Marines “liberated” the town from Australian soldiers playing the enemy, he recalled.
During Talisman Sabre locals passed out an Australian treat, Tim Tams, an Australian brand of chocolate cookies, to Marines and snapped photos with them.
“My team has been out here for a few days,” Marine Staff Sgt. Austin Bail, of the Amphibious Reconnaissance Platoon, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday. It’s his first trip to Australia.
“We’ve seen the locals in their own environment,” Bail said. “So, finally being able to interact with them is nice. They’re really friendly folks, and they seem super happy to have us here and they have been super supportive of everything we are doing here.”
Large numbers of rare sea turtles hatch on the beach between November and February, outside the exercise season, said bystander Yvonne Burns.
Burns owns a house near the beach and has invited friends and family to watch the drills since 2017.
“It is amazing, seeing all the big boats coming in and meeting all the military members, taking photos,” Burns’ daughter, Nicole Svendsen, said Wednesday. “This is not the norm. We know how privileged and blessed we are.”
