Puckapunyal, Victoria - Traditional home of the RAAC

Puckapunyal is known throughout Australia for its military connections - it is, in fact, the largest military training centre in Victoria. It is located 100 km north of Melbourne via the Hume Highway and 11 km west of Seymour.

The association of the area with army training camps really began in 1904 with the establishment of a troop of Light Horse at Seymour. The rail connection, local terrain, good water supply and agreeable property owners made the area a convenient assembly point for military trainees who met annually for field exercises and official inspection. Thus when Lord Kitchener came to Australia in 1910 to advise the government on military matters he inspected a major encampment at the racecourse and recommended it as a permanent military training area. When World War I broke out a camp was set up and, in 1920, Seymour shire became the major military area in the state. This led to the establishment of the Puckapunyal camp in World War II.

One of the best known military camps in Australia, Puckapunyal Camp, widely-known simply as "Pucka", opened in November 1939 to accommodate troops of the 17th Brigade of the 6th Australian Division. It was one of several new camps built for the concentration and training of the Second AIF because existing military facilities were already occupied by militia units. Initially 5,714 hectares of grazing land were compulsory acquired just to the west of the town of Seymour (96 kilometres north of Melbourne); Seymour had been a site for military training since the late 1800s. The camp's name was derived from the name of a large hill within the field training area, today known as Mount Puckapunyal. Puckapunyal is an English rendering of an Aboriginal word the meaning of which is obscure. It has been variously translated as "death to the eagle", "the outer barbarians", "the middle hill", "place of exile", and "valley of the winds". The camp facilities at Puckapunyal were spartan at first - consisting primarily of unlined, windowless corrugated iron huts - but were progressively improved as the war continued. Both AIF and militia units were trained there, and the camp was also home to several Army schools. Puckapunyal remains in use by the Australian Army today and the field training area now encompasses almost 40,000 hectares. Since the Second World War a wide array of units, of both the regular and reserve, have been based at Puckapunyal or used it for training. It remains best known, however, as the home of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, the first units of which moved there in February 1941.