A handful of the Australian Defence Force's future leaders have taken their first significant step into their careers, signing up to become Australian Army cadet officers.
Seven recruits, who have recently been successful in the ADF's tough application process, signed on the dotted line, took a pledge in front of friends and family and boarded a bus bound for the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in Canberra on Tuesday.
The cadets have been selected to spend the next 18 months training.
They will come out the other side as junior officers and will eventually become leaders in the Army.
New cadet officers for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Australian Navy and Australian Defence Force Academy who have recently been named successful applicants will also be sent off to begin their courses throughout this week, after being officially welcomed into the defence force family at the ADF's Newcastle recruitment office.
Lieutenant Natalie Harbert said at Tuesday's ceremony that the cadets had "the opportunity of a lifetime".
Lieutenant Harbert said defence force life could be challenging, especially during training or deployment away from family, but hard work, sacrifice and perseverance were the keys to success.
She said, given the cadets had all passed the "long and arduous selection process", it was expected they would successfully complete their basic training.
Lieutenant Harbert told the Newcastle Herald after the ceremony that part of Tuesday's group would remain at the Duntroon college for the entire 18 months while some others would move on to the Australian Defence Force Academy to join Navy and RAAF officer cadets to complete degree studies over three-to-four years.
"There's obviously a very wide variety of jobs that Defence Force Recruiting recruit for, we have officer candidates and we have general entry roles," she said.
"The process is fairly similar for both.
"We actually intake almost fortnightly across all the different roles."
Lieutenant Harbert said the ADF accepted recruitment applications throughout the year and anyone who wanted more information about a career in the armed forces could either drop-in to the Hunter Street office or visit the federal government's defence jobs website.
