THE high achiever status of local Lachlan ‘Lachie’ Barber, and the speed of his accelerated journey through the Army Cadets since early last year doesn’t look like diminishing after the 17-year-old’s Victorian team won the Chief of Army Cadet Team Challenge at Puckapunyal earlier this month.

It was a close call – the Victorians were behind just before the end, but Lachie and his new mates finished strongly to just lift themselves into first place when it counted.

Lieutenant (AAC), Michael Byrne, said he couldn’t be prouder of Lachie and the way his unit got through all the challenges.

“They were consistently better at working as a team,” he said.

“They spent a few days getting to know each other and also understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and then as a team (they) spurred each other on.

“There was a lot of talking and planning that went on and then they actioned the activities as a team so there was no one individual really pushing the barrow.”

LT Byrne said they repeatedly overcame a combination of mental and physical obstacles and won recognition from the officers with their ability to arrive at good solutions.

An example of this was working together to move a loaded trailer with a flat tyre, an activity Lachie recounted as a defining moment for the team.

“We had to put all our stores – ammunition, guns, webbing, water - we had to put all that into a trailer which had a flat tyre, which made it really heavy,” he said.

“You have to push from behind and we strapped a log to the front so we could push from there as well.

“We had to push it 900 metres up a dirt road.”

Even though this presented itself outwardly as purely a physical challenge, Lachie said his team made sure they used their heads to maximise their combined energy and endurance.

“We made a rotation system where everyone changed roles on the trailer as to give people breaks or to relieve stress,” he said.

“We started singing at one point to boost morale. That was pretty good.”

That might sound incidental, but LT Byrne said by using a cadence “just like a chant (or) a song that you sing … keeps everyone motivated and can also get you in time” and their tactics meant they finished the challenge in just 18 minutes compared to most of the others in 30-40 minutes.

“One of the ADF guys up there said, ‘you’re the only team that actually did that to work together’,” LT Byrne said.

Lachie said the way the Victorians found out they won the overall challenge – at a formal parade – meant that they had to curtail any immediate external celebration.

“It was all a surprise,” he said.

“So we did the actual parade … we all marched on and it was announced after the Chief of Army had a couple of speeches.

“The runner-up was New South Wales 1 and then Victoria was announced as the winner and that was when it got revealed to us (but) we had to stay dead silent and still.”

The result was even more remarkable given the impediments of recurring COVID lockdowns in Victoria compared to other states impacting on cadet training.

“We were very, very cut off at the knees for a couple of years,” LT Byrne said.

Lachie’s mum, Kate Barber, said she was “stoked” at the result and has watched him take to Army Cadets in an extremely strong way over his short 18-month journey, especially after having some rough times at school.

“It’s just clicked with cadets,” she said.

“It’s been a positive progression since the first day he walked in there. He gets so much support from everyone.”

She said his mental strength had clearly advanced and “his opinion of himself has improved” with all his family praising his achievements.

“They think it’s great,” she said.

With his strengths of First Aid and Navigation helping out his new mates on the Victorian team, Lachie will have another opportunity to develop his other skills later this year with them heading to New Zealand to undertake combined activities with NZ Cadets in different terrain and environments whilst also seeing the New Zealand Defence Force up close as the reward for the win.

Lachie will be hoping it won’t be as cold as Puckapunyal in early July.

“It was very cold,” he quipped.