5 unbroken years of high-tempo operations is taking its toll, not just on equipment, but on personnel.

Soldiers lodged up to 11,000 injury reports last year, prompting a high-level warning that Australia's commitment to the war against terror was taking a heavy toll on combat readiness. [...]
The rise in injuries and compensation claims is described as "extremely concerning" by the Australian Defence Force Chiefs of Staff Committee, which includes the three service chiefs and provides advice directly to ADF Chief General Peter Cosgrove.

"At the time of this consideration (January 2004), COSC had before them extremely concerning statistics in regard to the number of injuries occurring, the effect on combat readiness and escalating compensation costs," the document says.

"32,000 working days were lost in one year (1997-98), with the compensation bill alone reaching $101 million not including training, recruiting or medical costs."
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A total of 10,633 injuries, and two deaths, were reported for Australia's 52,000-strong defence force in 2002-03. There were also 889 incidents where ADF personnel needed immediate medical attention, hospitalisation or were off work for more than 30 days. There were also 2307 incidents recorded as "near misses" that "could have but did not result in a fatality, incapacity or serious personal injury".

Defence sources have told The Australian that deployments to places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Solomon Islands was only part of the reason for the high attrition rates.

Motorcycle and vehicle accidents, stress disorders over prolonged deployments, injuries playing contact sports and during heavy endurance training had also taken their toll.
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Sources also suggested that the real injury toll may be much higher because soldiers were "stoic", and tended to hide niggling injuries, particularly in special forces units.

The Armed Forces Federation, which represents ADF members, said last night the higher injury toll was a symptom of the force being both "overworked and undermanned". "People are being broken by higher fitness standards and the higher operational tempo generally. And they are just not able to get the rest in between deployments," federation chief industrial officer Graham Howatt said.
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Australian Defence Association executive director Neil James said last night the increase in injuries was not surprising. "When you consider that the defence force has been busy deploying non-stop since East Timor in 1999 it is not surprising that there are going to be more injuries."