Last month was hectic – The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide spent two weeks in Townsville and by all reports the Commissioners were very happy with the conduct and info gained. We Officially Launched the Black Dog Institute Report on Operation COMPASS the week before the Royal Commission and it was very well attended, especially online across Australia. We had a smash hit with our Anniversary Open Day which is now set to be repeated each year. We had a visit by the new Minister for Veterans Affairs Matt Keogh which we were happy with as he was very well informed and engaged with the real issues. Earlier in the month, we had the ADF Transition Expo and an info update from Joint Transitions Authority which will be the only one for the year. Our Operation COMPASS #CheckYourMates BBQs and Banjo & Coffee Breakys are going exceptionally well. The architects who designed The Oasis Townsville Home Base, Counterpoint and Phorm, won the NQ Regional Architects Award. We are grateful again to Lamberts Produce for the massive cook-off and fundraiser. And to cap off a very busy month the Veterans Business Alliance gained more prospective members, and several more new activities started in the Connections Program at Home Base. And we set a new record with over 10,000 hours utilisation of Home Base, the nearest we got to that previously was 8428 hours in March.

This month – the biggest event will be Townsville's Coolest Book Fair put on by BrothersNBooks. We have temporarily closed Dirty Boots Café to give it an exciting upgrade – we guarantee you'll love it when we are done. Work will continue on preparations for next month's Handicraft Market, naming one of our huts by a 101-year-old veteran of WWII, and the next scuba diving activity in late August.