AAFCANS and Defence Estate have rejuvenated Harry’s Sports Café at Lavarack Barracks in Queensland. The Estate project cost approx $800k with the facility reopening to the base on 30th August 2023 after a 6-month closure.
Harry’s Sports Bar, originally opened in September 2001 as a social club bar. The premise, mess, and amenities precinct are named after Lieutenant General ‘Sir Harry Chauvel’. Chauvel was a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force who fought at Gallipoli, Commander of the 1st Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Paying homage to his service and the origins of the sporting theme, AAFCANS embellished the walls of the new café with a 1.8M high canvas split image showcasing the iconic ‘Cricket at Gallipoli’ image taken on Shell Green on 17th December 1915 by no other than Sir Charles Bean. Also, rescuing part of the original cricket mural featuring the late ‘Shane Warne’. Warnie’s image was taken during the December 1996 (West Australian test match where Australia took on the West Indies).
“The renovation was to revitalise and refit the premise so the equipment, décor and overall environment would be fit for purpose and improve operational capability and support the South end of Lavarack Barracks now and into the future. AAFCANS worked hard to retain the key historical elements and transform the space to service the local units and live-in personnel. Says Mr Tim Manic, Managing Director of AAFCANS.”
Our team has been pivotal in the execution of the AAFCANS strategic plan playing a key role in major projects, including the rollout of the Merrychef ovens and a kitchen equipment refresh. This included new commercial-grade blenders to create our new protein shakes and smoothie offer. Both initiatives combined to improve our food offer, speed of service, team safety, and overall customer experience.
March 2022, AAFCANS opened their Online facility for their Family Store.
The new facility offers order online and click & collect with delivery available to select live on-base accommodation areas and ADF family homes in the base village.
The new service is focused on supporting members with a drop-off delivery facility covering live-on-base accommodation, health precinct, LIA accommodation areas and military training schools on base.
The married patch with a village of over 300 ADF homes is also covered by a door-to-door delivery service.
AAFCANS invested approx $k for the equipment upgrade
November 2022
AAFCANS benefited from a Defence facility upgrade at RAAF Tindal Canteen and Convenience store/fuel stop.
Customers entering fuel-side or poolside can enjoy a panorama of quick grab groceries, retail, healthy & beauty, grab-and-go food, healthy salads, barista coffee and a TV menu of freshly cooked-to-order meals. The new dining lounge welcomes customers with its soft coffee shop furnishings, comfy dining booths with GPO/USB A&C recharge capacity, casual meals, and snack-style tables. The room is lit with industrial LED pendant lighting. Window murals featuring iconic RAAF Tindal base imagery and specialised decor such as unique RAAF Tindal Map add an aviator theme to the ambience. The build benefited from an investment in new equipment to help increase service efficiencies and expand menu capability. The design featured sustainable building materials such as innovatively engineered Bettastone countertops (silica-free and made from recycled crushed glass). Rustic Australian timbers such as spotted gum, Tasmanian Oak and birch; FSC certified and harvested sustainably. A coffee area waiting couch awaits, magazine rack for our Defence newspapers and an adjustable height designer toddler chair for families dining with little people.
AAFCANS has reserved space in the dining room to display indigenous artworks in the future.
Latchford Barracks canteen décor immersed in history. The décor of the newly refurbished amenities facility features historical and military artifacts and memorabilia draping the walls, ceilings and seating areas. Post-WWII metal food strainers frame the coffee machine turning the kitchen relics into designer light fittings. ASCO (Australian Services Canteen Organisation) historic pallets hang from the ceiling as decorative lighting trusses over the seating areas. The dock pallets (from circa 1958) were discovered in deep storage on base and repurposed for the build. These, along with an ASCO handmade step ladder (possibly made on base), circa 1940s/50s timber drink crates which were refashioned into a sideboard by the builders, now form part of the new look canteen. AAFCANS added a history cupboard filled with historic military books, genuine trench art mug, circa 1915/17, vintage trade tools, a vintage army health manual 1954, and more. Vintage Army recruitment posters, 1920s explosives box (iconic Nobels Explosives), the inventor of dynamite and purveyor of materials to the Victorian goldfields and Defence are just some of the décor treasures. The build benefited from an investment in new equipment to help increase service efficiencies and expand menu capability. The design featured sustainable building materials such as innovatively engineered Bettastone countertops (silica-free and made from recycled crushed glass). The design featured rustic Australian spotted gum feature walls and shelves.
AAFCANS invested approx $280k
AAFCANS has initiated a new recipe and menu management platform ‘Nutritics’.
The software and implementation program is designed to provide compliant nutritional information, assist in accurate recipe builds and produce food labels with dietary, allergens comms and use-by details. The new platform was rolled out across all outlets which meant the deployment of new software, specialised label printers, restructuring and setting up hundreds of product lines suitable for the new software format and applying nutritional information across our food offer.
