Welcome to Puckapunyal

The Puckapunyal Military Area, commonly known as ‘Pucka’, located in the Mitchell Shire is approximately 10 kilometres from the town of Seymour. Neighbouring Seymour is an historic railway town located on the banks of the Goulburn River and is surrounded by the Tallarook Ranges. Around 300 Defence families live in Puckapunyal where local facilities include a primary school, kindergarten, child care centre, shops, post office, banks and a cinema on base. The Puckapunyal region is home to a number of wineries. Puckapunyal is located about 100km north of Melbourne, an hour drive from the historic gold rush town of Bendigo and about two and a half hours drive from the snowfields of Mount Buller.

Housing assistance review

The annual review of housing assistance for 2019 has been completed by the Department of Defence, with the new rates now published in Online Services. The annual review of service residence and rental allowance contributions involved assessing the national average rent for Defence houses in each rent band, which has resulted in contributions being recalculated based on actual rent changes.

Director Military Conditions and Housing Policy, Derek Cox said providing housing assistance to ADF members was a longstanding policy. "The annual review is undertaken to ensure the Defence requirement of sharing the national cost of housing with members on a 50/50 basis is met each year," Mr Cox said. "The rent band method offers transparency for calculating contribution increases based on actual rental increases rather than forecasts."

Member contributions for living-in accommodation will be adjusted in line with the September 2018 rents and utilities subcomponents of the consumer price index. Casual meal rates and the fortnightly meal contribution will also be reviewed to ensure any revised rates are based on the reasonable recovery of actual national average costs incurred by Defence in providing meals.

The new rates will be reflected in members' salaries in February 2019.