Anti-war activists gathered at Mindil Beach on July 23 to protest the Exercise Pitch Black war games and oppose the increasing militarisation of the Northern Territory.
Military aircraft will be flying through NT airspace from July 20 to August 7. The Department of Defence describes the exercises as “the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest international exercise”.
They involve military aircraft and personnel from several countries, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Britain and the United States.
Exercise Pitch Black has been conducted biennially in the NT since 1983, with the exception of 1986, 2002 and 2020. Since 2012, the war games have included a fly-over spectacle at Mindil Beach.
Nicole Everitt, a unionist and member of Teachers and Families for Palestine NT told the protest: “It would be nice if we had a culture in Australia where we don’t glorify weapons that are used to commit genocide and environmental destruction.”
Local resident Anna Sri said: “These weapons are causing such significant devastation in the countries in which wars are being carried out. That’s probably incomprehensible to people here who see this as a bit of a stunt or a spectacle.”
The RAAF F-35A Lightning II jets is being tested in these exercises. Israel uses a modified version of the F-35A to carry out genocide in Gaza and attack its neighbours.
Australia is complicit in the global supply chain that provides F-35 fighter jets to Israel. Declassified Australia recently reported that a total of 68 shipments of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft parts were flown from Australia directly to Israel between October 2023 and September 2025. The Tindal RAAF Base, near Katherine, was listed as the sender’s location for shipments of F-35 parts to Israel at least one time.
West Papua solidarity activist Billee McGinley criticised the propaganda accompanying the war games. “This PR event has been very successful. The ABC, City of Darwin and the NT government are getting everyone out, pumping this event up to be some sort of ‘family event’. Thousands of people come out today to celebrate these war machines that are causing so much harm.”
McGinley said that more than 30 West Papuans have been killed by the Indonesian military since the beginning of the year, with the Prabowo Subianto government escalating its oppression. “The Australian government needs to rethink its joint training with the Indonesian military.”
Luke Gosling, federal Labor MP for Solomon and special envoy for defence, veterans’ affairs and northern Australia, is pushing for more military bases and personnel in the NT, arguing in the conservative Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s journal, The Strategist, in 2024 that “defence must build logistics bases in the north and employ Territorians “rather than establishing them in Victoria, which seems to be the preference”.
Since then the US military has ramped up its presence in the NT, including increasing the number of US Marines stationed in Garramilla /Darwin on six-month deployments and expanding the type of training.
The Australian-US spy facility at Pine Gap, near Mparntwe /Alice Springs, which provides intelligence to Israel and other US allies, has also been expanded. Anti-war activists gathered at Pine Gap from July 18-20 to demand it be handed back to its First Nations custodians and shut down.
“We advocate for peace in the Pacific,” Everitt said. “We don’t want this military build-up here. We don’t want a war machine that demands the diversion of public funds from housing, healthcare and education.”
