From Shepparton to the world: Zac Williams’ army adventures

For Zac, the constant challenges of the army keep him engaged.

“I always said if I ever got bored I would stop. I haven’t yet,” he said.

Zac grew up in Shepparton, the son of Stuart and Katrina Williams, attending Orrvale and Guthrie St primary schools, before going on to Wanganui Park Secondary College.

At 17, he left school to join the army, a decision he has not regretted.

Twenty years later he is still in the army.

Now posted fairly close to home at Puckapunyal Military Base, Zac’s job has taken him all over the world.

He has been stationed in different parts of the country during his time in the army – Victoria, NSW, Queensland and the Northern Territory, as well as three deployments overseas on three very different missions.

His first deployment overseas was to Iraq in 2007 when the war there was in full swing.

Zac described his six or seven months posting as “a good experience”, but admitted it was stressful at times.

“I learnt a lot. And I was doing the thing I joined to do,” he said.

While serving there, Zac was an Australian Light Armoured Vehicle gunner, with his role including doing security patrols and setting up observation posts.

On these patrols, there would be about six Australian armoured vehicles travelling and working together, and the patrols could go for days at a time.

“We would go through areas of suspected insurgent activity,” Zac said.

“We got into a couple of minor scraps.”

While there was no set frequency for how often they patrolled, Zac said it “felt like a lot”.

Zac said his time in Iraq did not feel scary.

“We were professional soldiers. This was something we were trained to do,” he said.

“You had a role to do, and you were trained to do it.”

When they were not out on patrols, Zac said a lot of time was spent in compounds with Australia Defence Force personnel as well as those from other countries.

Here, there was still not much in the way of downtime, with vehicles constantly being re-fitted and everything prepared for the next patrol.

Zac’s next overseas deployment was a very different one – as a peacekeeper in East Timor.

Again, it was for a mission that lasted about seven months.

“In Timor, it was a bit different. There wasn’t a constant need for patrols,” Zac said.

“Our role was to react to things like riots.

“But we didn’t see too much of it.”

The Australian and New Zealand base was in Dili, and Zac said a lot of time at the base was spent checking cars, cleaning weapons, doing personal training and drills.

“We were preparing for if things go bad,” he said.

With it being a peacekeeping mission, the pace was slower than it had been in Iraq.

“I really like Timor,” he said.

“It was beautiful as a country, the people are nice, the food is really good and the coffee is good.”

After returning to Australia from East Timor, Zac rose through the ranks in the army, before heading on another deployment, this time to Papua New Guinea in 2016.

There he helped train Papua New Guinean officers for about three and a half months.

“It was unreal working with the Papua New Guineans and going through the jungle with them,” he said.

Another of his overseas postings was to the Philippines for six months, where Zac was part of a joint Australian training team that was taking part in a large number of exercises with the Philippines’ armed forces.

Working out of the embassy, Zac’s role there included co-ordinating things like how to get food and transport while based in a foreign country.

He has also spent time in the United States, where he trained with tanks, before the US military came to Australia to also train here.

Now 37, Zac plans to remain in the army for quite a while yet.

“I’ve had a really good, really enjoyable, career,” he said.

“I really love this job. I always have.

“There’s so much to like about life in service.”

Zac said the camaraderie he had built with his mates he had served with was one of the things he liked best about life in the Australian Defence Force.

This year, Zac will be the guest speaker at the Anzac Day commemorative service in Shepparton.

He also plans to attend the dawn service in Shepparton, but just as part of the crowd of people paying their respects.

He has always attended Anzac Day services, no matter where he has lived.

As a serving member in the army, Zac said there was “definitely a personal feel to the day”.

“When you talk about war dead, I also talk about friends lost. And we have lost a few to suicide,” he said.

While he had marched in capital cities including Melbourne, Darwin and Brisbane on Anzac Day or Remembrance Day in the past, Zac said he also enjoyed going to services in country towns.

“The crowd that rocks up (in the country) is really good,” he said.