Located in the area of Scheyville in the Hawkesbury region of Sydney, Australia, the establishment was opened in April 1965 to train officer cadets who had been called up for service under the national service scheme and offered a short but rigorous commissioning course for trainees, tailored to meet the Army's need to increase the number of junior officers being produced in order to meet commitments to train national servicemen, and to provide platoon commanders for units serving overseas in Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia.
[2] Unlike previous versions of national or compulsory service, which had limited the liability of men called up to service in Australian territory within the meaning of the Defence Act (1903) only, the new scheme envisaged conscripted soldiers serving in Regular Army units to bolster their numbers for deployment being sent overseas to meet Australia's commitments in Southeast Asia.
This, coupled with the expansion of the Royal Australian Regiment to nine battalions,[2] meant that there was a need for the Army to increase the numbers of junior officers serving in its ranks in order to oversee the training of national servicemen and to command platoons on operations overseas.
[4] Approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) north-west of Sydney, the land had originally been used as part of the Dreadnought agricultural training scheme, before being used during the First World War as an internment camp for "enemy aliens".
The majority were allocated to the infantry, although graduates were posted to all corps of the Army and went on to serve in Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as throughout Australia.
[4] The abolition of National Service in December 1972 by the Whitlam government meant that there was no longer a requirement for an accelerated commissioning course and, as such, OTU Scheyville was finally closed in April 1974.
[5][note 1] Gordon Sharp was the first OTU trained officer to be killed in Vietnam while serving with the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment at the Battle of Long Tan on 18 August 1966.
Some of the most notable examples include Jeff Kennett, who became Premier of Victoria, and Tim Fischer, who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.