Alan Patterson
Gungaandji (Yarrabah, North Queensland)
Able Seaman
Royal Australian Navy
Medals
Australian Operational Service Medal – Border Protection
Australian Operational Service Medal – Greater Middle East Operation
Australian Defence Medal
I come from the Yarrabah Aboriginal Community in Far North Queensland and was born in Cairns, QLD in 1988. I am a Gungaandji man of the Guru Buna clan, whose traditional lands are situated in Yarrabah, southeast of Cairns, North Queensland. I graduated from Gordonvale High School in 2005 and joined the Cape York Employment Partnership Program to work in various places in Adelaide, South Australia, and Mildura and Robinvale in Victoria, fruit picking and irrigation pipe laying. After spending two years away, I returned home to the Yarrabah Aboriginal community and worked as a construction worker. A year later, in June 2008, I decided to join the Royal Australian Navy as a Boatswain’s Mate and served on HMAS Wewak, Darwin, Melville, Leeuwin, Parramatta, Newcastle, ADV Cape Inscription, and as commissioning crew of HMAS Adelaide. As an Able Seaman, I became a Recruit School instructor in 2018 and joined the Navy Indigenous Development Program, serving as an instructor on my last posting before discharging in June 2019.
