Brian Hartigan - the Big Irish Git - was employed as a photojournalist at the Army Newspaper Unit from January 1998 until May 2002

This job basically gave him an opportunity to learn and develop skills already practiced as official Unit Photographer at 162 Reconnaissance Squadron and 5 Aviation Regiment in Townsville

He has been deployed as a photographer reporter on countless assignments around Australia and overseas

In 1999 he was deployed with INTERFET as part of Australia's commitment to East Timor and proved himself a competent photojournalist, reporting the Australian soldiers' story on operations

He has had more than 100 photos from this assignment published in more than a dozen internal Defence and external journals - including the front cover of the Defence's official account of INTERFET - Mission Accomplished

Brian Hartigan continues to develop his photographic and photojournalistic skill with the Australian Federal Police and was recently deployed as official AFP photographer on the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands