It is not every day that the airstrips of remote and outback communities in Queensland host Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) planes, but this week 13 of the state’s most isolated communities are getting a special visit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Exercise Christmas Hop 2025 is bringing gifts, Christmas cheer and a chance for communities to meet Olympians and see on board the aircraft.<\/p>\n
For Royal Australian Airforce Flying Officer Lucinda Branson, a visit to outback communities is a privilege. On Tuesday, she co\u2011piloted a C27J Spartan cargo plane to Mornington Island and Doomadgee.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lucinda Branson says it is an absolute joy to visit remote communities as part of Exercise Christmas Hop. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n
“It’s really cool to be able to come out and just engage with the local community because at the end of the day we’re here to serve Australia,” she said.<\/p>\n
“To be able to interact with people who are just so excited to see us is just an absolute joy.”<\/p>\n
Flying Officer Branson said aside from bringing gifts and cheer to the community, the exercise is also an opportunity to train doing air drops.<\/p>\n
“A lot of these communities get flooding often and they are impacted by things like cyclones, so [the] chances of us coming back out here to assist with disaster relief is really high,” she said.<\/p>\n
“One of the main reasons I joined the air force was because it gave me the ability to serve and to interact with the community. I didn’t necessarily think I’d be fulfilling the role of Santa.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lucinda Branson says the exercise also gives pilots a chance to practice doing air drops. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n
‘Something the kids will never forget’<\/p>\n
Several Olympians are also visiting the communities as part of the exercise.<\/p>\n
Olympic swimmer and two-time gold medallist Mack Horton, alongside hockey and relay gold medallist Nova Peris, visited Doomadgee.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Olympian and former senator Nova Peris and Olympian Mack Horton with members of the Doomadgee community. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n
Horton said despite feeling a little bit nauseous from the bumps and turns during a low\u2011flying exercise over Mornington Island, he was thrilled to be able to visit remote communities like Doomadgee.<\/p>\n
“As an athlete you take so much. The country supports you, the community supports you, all for you and your selfish pursuit,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I feel like I’m in debt and I owe my career to everyone that has supported me.<\/p>\n
“I reckon we had the whole community. We had the daycare with a couple of babies and some elderly folks, and kids in the middle.”<\/p>\n
Nova Peris, who became the first Indigenous Australian Olympic gold medallist when the Hockeyroos won at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, said she felt emotional visiting the community.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nova Peris says it is special to give back to the communities that are such a big part of Australia. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n
Peris, who switched to athletics and ran in the 400-metre sprint and relay at the Sydney Olympics, said she hopes the communities can take inspiration from the visit and consider what they can achieve in the future.<\/p>\n
“Something like this is something the kids will never forget,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We know of the flood devastation they had a few years ago where they were totally isolated for a number of months, so it is special to come back and to give back, and to tell these communities that they are a big part of this continent and they are loved and valued.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Exercise Christmas Hop will deliver donated goods to 13 remote communities across Cape York, the Torres Strait Islands and the Gulf of Carpentaria. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n
She also had a chance to connect with former students from her girls’ academy, which she ran in Darwin.<\/p>\n
“There’s about 12 of them from Doomadgee that I looked after for four years. I knew that some of them were still here,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What is incredibly humbling and beautiful to see is they’ve all gone on and done great things post their schooling career, and they’ve become beautiful young mothers.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Exercise Christmas Hop is a joint initiative between the Australian Olympic Committee and the Australian Defence Force. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n
Exercise Christmas Hop 2025 will visit Mornington Island, Doomadgee, Normanton, Kowanyama, Cloncurry, Badu Island, Horn Island, Masig, Pormpuraaw, Aurukun, Longreach, Weipa and Burketown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is not every day that the airstrips of remote and outback communities in Queensland host Royal Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,14039,182734,182738,182737,182736,94,701,84368,182735,85],"class_list":["post-325373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-defence-force","tag-exercise-christmas-hop","tag-luinda-branson","tag-mack-horton","tag-nova-peris","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-remote-communities","tag-royal-australian-airforce","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}