What is your preferred location for our 40th Anniversary of Graduation Reunion in June 2013?
Canberra ACT
19%
Portsea VIC
78%
Another location, post location as a comment
4%
Total votes: 27
Poll
Navigation
User login
Who's online
There are currently 0 users and 1 guest online.
Who's new
- Garry Young
- Rashid Mydin
- Badrulzaman
- John Cooper
- Kunny Prak
Time Since Commissioning
14113 days, 13 hours, 2 minutes since we were commisioned.
This site is hosted by
We are proud to advise that this site has been electronically archived by the Australian National Library's PANDORA (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia) project as "an online publication of national significance". Clicking the Pandora logo above will take you to the OCS, Portsea - Graduating Class of June 1973 Archived site.
Peter Austen
216483 Major Peter Austen
Peter Richard Austen was born on 19 Jul 46 and entered the Office Cadet School of Australia , Portsea on 8 Jul 65 , graduating into the Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery on 11 Jun 66 . He served South Viet Nam with 12 Field Regiment from May 68 to Mar 69 and on return was posted to 16 Air Defence Regiment. Captain Austen returned to Portsea as an instructor serving from Jul 71 to Jan 74. From Portsea he went to 8th/12th Medium Regiment as Battery Captain/Training Officer of Headquarter Battery followed by a staff posting to Field Force Command from Jul 76-Dec 78 with the rank of Major. From FF Comd he was posted to 7th Field Regiment RAA (Army Reserve) at Willoughby , Sydney .
Peter had served only weeks at 7 Fd Regt as Training Major when he was tragically killed in a freak accident whilst driving along Eastern Valley Way in Sydney on 8 Feb 79 . A car crossed the double yellow line and crashed into Peter’s blue Mini Minor. The other driver had fallen asleep at the wheel after being up all night assisting his wife in childbirth. At the time of his death he lived at North Rocks and was survived by his wife, son and daughter.
Like fellow artilleryman John Phillips, Peter found himself in a strong infantry environment at Portsea. He approached the task of training cadets in an understated, quiet but effective manner. Being a Portsea graduate, Peter had a good understanding of the difficulties cadets faced and was more inclined to help than criticise.
Recent comments from former and serving senior artillery officers who served with Major Austen reflect their respect and liking for him. Three examples are; “a really nice humane sort of guy who was liked by all; a very friendly and generous bloke, it was a tragedy he was killed; a very even-handed and likeable sort of bloke who did not put shit on subbies!”
A little known fact about Peter is that he was a keen surfer and good enough to go in the World Championships at Manly in 1964 which were won by 'Midget' Farrelly.