August 25, 2026
Sport brings Townsville’s defence community together
Around 330 people came together in Townsville on Sunday for the North Queensland Defence Community Sports Expo, connecting with local sport, support services and each other.
Townsville is home to around 14,200 current and former ADF personnel, nearly 10 per cent of the city’s population. In a city with such a large defence community, creating accessible ways for veterans and families to connect with the wider community is particularly valuable. Sport can offer a natural way to meet people, become part of a community and find activities they can keep coming back to.
Invictus Australia helps make those connections easier, bringing the defence community together with sporting organisations, support services and opportunities available locally.
This year’s Expo brought together 16 sporting groups and 14 additional community and support stalls, giving people plenty of opportunities to try something new and connect with clubs offering ongoing activities in the local community.
Why connection matters
For Sailability Townsville, the value of the day went well beyond simply trying a sport:
“Days like today remind us that sport is about so much more than the activity itself. It creates opportunities to meet people, try something different, share a laugh, build confidence and find connection.”
That sense of connection matters. Research into the benefits of sport for veterans found that nearly one in five veterans experience loneliness and one in 10 report social isolation as they transition into civilian communities. The research also highlights the role sport can play in building social connections, restoring camaraderie and creating a stronger sense of belonging.
Bringing the wider community together
Creating those connections also relies on more than sporting clubs alone. Veteran and family support organisations and community groups were there alongside Invictus Australia’s Exclusive Partners IPAR, Ventia, Boeing and Optus, bringing different parts of the local community together in one place.
According to veteran and United Martial Arts and Fitness Coach, Pablo Cardenas, this collaboration made the event so unique:
“The military is a very tight community. While serving, you are surrounded by that sense of belonging, mateship and shared experience. When people eventually discharge and move outside the fence, it can be easy to lose some of that connection.
Yesterday demonstrated how organisations such as Invictus Australia can help bring that community back together…Seeing familiar faces reconnect, have a chinwag and share a few stories was something special.”
The Expo was also attended by Phillip Thompson OAM MP, Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel and Defence Industry; Janelle Poole MP, Assistant Minister for Community Safety, Defence Industry, Veterans and North Queensland; Townsville Deputy Mayor Cr Suzy Batkovic and Councillor Vera Dirou.
Their attendance provided an opportunity for representatives across federal, state and local government to hear directly from the Defence community and local organisations, and to see firsthand how sport can create practical pathways to connection and participation for veterans and families.
Bringing these different parts of the community together also helps build a stronger shared understanding of what veterans and families need locally, and the role community-based sport can play alongside broader support services.
“Invictus Australia has a unique role in helping connect the Defence community with the sporting opportunities and organisations that already exist around them,” said Justine Lugg, Invictus Australia Veteran Engagement Manager.
Days like this bring veterans and families, sporting clubs, support services and our partners together in a welcoming environment. Our role is to help make those introductions easier and create pathways people can continue to be part of long after the Expo finishes.”
Giving back through sport
Those pathways can also create opportunities for veterans to stay involved in different ways. Invictus Games alumni and author Heidi Joosten returned as a volunteer, almost a decade after competing at the Invictus Games.
“Almost a decade after competing at Toronto 2017 and Sydney 2018, coming back as a volunteer, sharing my story and giving something back to the community that gave so much to me was a pretty special full-circle moment.”
Her experience reflects another role sport can play beyond participation itself. Research into sport and military-to-civilian transition has found that volunteering, mentoring and coaching can give veterans opportunities to use the skills and experiences gained through service, while building a renewed sense of purpose and contribution.
For Townsville’s Defence community, the Expo was ultimately about more than one day of sport. It was about making it easier to find the people, activities and local communities that can help veterans and families stay active and connected.
This event was made possible thanks to the support of the Queensland Mental Health Commission.
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