There are few Defence members who can say that their siblings, parent, grandparent, and even in-laws have, or currently are, serving their country and supporting Australian Defence Force (ADF) capability. The Delchau extended family of eight is one of them, three generations connected not only by service, but by their continuation of home, wherever Defence life has taken them.
Connection among family is often shaped by shared experiences, an unspoken bond, and even rivalry. But for the Delchau family, their bond has been shaped through a lifestyle of service and movement.
Across generations of service, postings have taken them throughout Australia, yet with each move, their idea of home has never changed. The family’s sense of home isn’t tied to a single place, but to the feeling that comes with it.
Through providing housing and related services for Defence members and their families, Defence Housing Australia (DHA) aims to play a role in that feeling, supporting the family as they move between postings, raise children, and build their lives alongside service.
A long line of Defence
Air Force Group Captain Andrew Delchau’s own father wore the blue uniform.
“Dad joined up to the Air Force when I was about 6, I remember it vividly.... seeing Dad in his blues, same as it is today, from that day on I wanted to wear that uniform.”
Now, 31 years in service, as Group Captain Delchau attaches his ensign patch, and angles his headdress each morning, his children Pilot Officer Nicholas, Major Matilda and Flight Lieutenant William Delchau, and son-in-law Warrant Officer Class 2 Anthony Cocuzzoli, do the same with their blues and khakis.
Daughter-in-law Alicia has her own long family line of serving members, a factor of her career choice in working for the Department of Defence.
Group Captain Delchau said, “We're one big family; it's almost like a family business.”
Wife and mother Ann-Maree has experienced all three of her children following in their father’s footsteps and has remained the loudest and proudest cheerleader for the family unit, saying:
"That's what it is: being a backbone for everybody and helping them all through hard times and good times."
Home keeps pace with every posting
With generations of service, extended through in-laws and their respective families, it’s likely that most family conversations circle back to the Defence lifestyle. The Delchau’s recognise the significance of the commitment to Defence: a lifestyle that sees regular postings and the family currently located across regional New South Wales, Sydney, Sale in Victoria, and Adelaide.
Among the relocations is the sense of home that keeps pace with each posting—the one thing that doesn’t move when everything else does. It’s this sense of stability, when a Defence family enters their new property, that DHA aims to support.
Group Captain Delchau also has a personal connection to DHA and acute understanding of member relocation logistics, having worked with the organisation in 1999 to support collaboration and planning between Defence and DHA.
Across the family’s postings, the Delchau’s have collectively lived in more than nine DHA owned or managed properties, spanning decades of service. Alicia alone has lived in 12 DHA homes growing up, reflecting the role DHA has played across multiple Defence families.
The house that holds the most memories, however, is the family home in Jerrabomberra, NSW, where Andrew and Ann-Maree still live, 19 years after purchasing the property from DHA at its end of lease. Located metres from the first DHA property that they lived in with their eldest children Matilda and Nicholas, the home represents a rare point of continuity in an otherwise mobile Defence life.
“The house is just 200 metres from where our first DHA house was 30 years ago. We now take our granddaughter to the same park where we used to take our kids. It’s very nostalgic, it means a lot, it’s home, and it’s just such a beautiful house and we love it.”
When the Delchau family reunited for a rare moment in May for Nick’s officer training graduation at RAAF Base East Sale, it was the perfect opportunity to ask the family what home means for them. Watch their responses, captured on camera.