At the crack of dawn, Australia's best hand-picked battalions were up and into the gruelling activities of the annual Duke of Gloucester Cup at Singleton Military Base.
Seven teams representing Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) battalions, converged for the six-day competition at the School of Infantry, Lone Pine Barracks.
The Cup originated in 1946, during the occupation of Japan following World War II, when the Governor-General, also the Duke of Gloucester, presented a cup to the Australian Army to be awarded annually to infantry battalions.
School of Infantry Tactics Wing senior instructor major David Evangelidis said the day was always popular among the participants and important to set the benchmark of military training.
"It benchmarks the training level across the battalions, it's a really gruelling, long endurance activity and shows us where the battalions training levels are at," he said.
Participants were flown into the Hunter Valley from other bases including Darwin, Townsville, Brisbane and Adelaide.
"They've competed in a variety of activities over the last week focusing on marksmanship, combat shooting, endurance obstacles, crossing section attacks - all good ground level infantry tactics," major Evangelidis said.
He said the competition was highly contested with the prize and title sought after by the battalions.
"It's very competitive and the scores were very tight which shows our healthy level of competition," he said.
"It's a great activity and it's great for the area."
Results
First: 2nd Royal Australian Regiment
Second: 8th/9th Royal Australian Regiment
Third: 3rd Royal Australian Regiment
Equal fourth: 6th Royal Australian Regiment and 5th Royal Australian Regiment
Fifth: 1st Royal Australian Regiment
Sixth: 7th Royal Australian Regiment
