For Anita, service has never been confined to wearing a uniform.

Raised in Gawler, South Australia, Anita was first drawn to military service at 16 while completing her Duke of Edinburgh Award through the Gawler Blue Light program. As part of the program, she trekked the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea – a demanding 96 km trail where Australian soldiers fought during World War II.

The experience left a lasting impression on her.

“It hit me how close their sacrifice was – and how much they gave,” she says.

That moment shaped her sense of purpose and led her to pursue a career in the Army.

At 17, she entered the Australian Defence Force Academy as an officer cadet, before completing her commissioning training at the Royal Military College. One of just 23 women in a cohort of 180, she found strength in the camaraderie of those around her.

“We banded together – it was an incredible support network, with very strong camaraderie,” she says.

Commissioned into the Royal Australian Corps of Transport, Anita was posted to Townsville, where she commanded an amphibious beach team delivering a critical ship‑to‑shore capability. Her work supported humanitarian and disaster response operations following cyclones, floods and bushfires.

“I looked after the ‘boats with the wheels’ – the lighter amphibious resupply cargo vessels, or LARCs and the LCM-8s,” she says.

“Working with the Navy, it was our job to disembark first off the ship to assess a beachhead so that our forces could project further forward.”

She later commanded a platoon in Darwin responsible for border protection operations across Australia’s north. During this time, she embraced the Territory lifestyle by famously raising her pet crocodile, Schnapps.

Crocodiles are legal pets in the Northern Territory.

“When in Darwin, do as the Darwinians do – why not buy a crocodile?” she says.

In 2023, Anita deployed to the Middle East with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation as a military observer. One of the younger officers in a multinational team, she later served as aide de camp to the Head of Mission in Jerusalem, gaining valuable operational and leadership experience.

Despite such a rewarding career, transitioning out of Defence brought new challenges.

“You lose community, purpose and identity all at once,” she says. “It’s all I had known for my entire adult life.”

For Anita, transition became a process of redefining her identity and translating her skills into a civilian context.

“In Defence, your role, your team and your purpose are very clear every day. Transitioning meant learning how to translate that into a different environment – but the foundations are still there,” she says.

“Service doesn’t leave you, it just shows up in a different way.”

After taking time off in Indonesia, where she established a restaurant and a Pilates studio, Anita returned to South Australia and began her civilian career with ASC as a Capability Growth Manager.

In this role, she contributes to workforce and capability development that supports Australia’s sovereign defence industry. For Anita, the alignment between her service and her civilian career has been clear.

“It’s the closest I’ve felt to the military’s sense of purpose,” she says.

Drawing on her own transition experience, Anita has become a strong advocate for veteran employment and inclusion. She believes veterans bring highly transferable skills that are often undervalued in civilian workplaces.

“You can’t teach what service gives you – leadership, time management, judgement under pressure, and the ability to work with anyone from anywhere,” she says.

Her vision is to see clearer pathways and stronger understanding between Defence and industry.

“We should be making it easier for veterans to see where they fit, and for employers to understand what they bring,” she says.

“There is such a strong alignment between Defence experience and industries like shipbuilding and capability development – we just need to bridge that gap.”

Now in her 30s, Anita continues to carry forward the purpose that first took shape on the Kokoda Track, supporting a new generation of veterans as they transition and continuing her service in a different way.

Story developed in partnership with ASC.