If you weren't aware of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) being in Lismore, you would now, following yesterday afternoon's military exercise at the old Trinity Catholic College on Dawson Street.

120 ADF personnel made their way from their Lismore Airport base on Trinity on foot and in full kit to take part in a low-level conflict or stability operation.

Major Ben Carolan said the activity is designed around preparing our force to be rapidly deployable to any operation around the globe at short notice for operations like peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and potential conflict if required.

(Major Ben Carolan addressed the media yesterday)

"Essentially, we train for a wide range of different types of operations throughout our training year. Today we've got the 8th and 9th Battalion, with attachment from the 7th Brigade, and from other units around Australia. This creates what we call Battle Group RAM, which is a conglomerate of multiple units with multiple specialities.

Earlier in the day, the ADF conducted riot control exercises at the airport.

"We might have to conduct vital asset protection and also protection of the local populace as well and we'll be doing this using non-lethal effects such as protection."

Yesetrday's exercise involved an Operating Environment Force which includes civilian forces and an opposing force creating an environment that the ADF operating unit will have to respond to.

"We will have the operating unit moving in conducting a cordon of this facility to ensure no one is able to move in and move out. That's both for security of the area and also to ensure that anyone in the surrounding area does not move into a potentially dangerous location as well," Major Carolan explained.

"An order will come out, and the team will generally be given a timeframe that will need to be cleared by."

As the exercise unfolded, nearby residents could clearly hear the multiple gunshots (blanks) as different rooms in Trinity were entered, civilian forces engaged and opposing forces taken care of to clear the building of danger.

Major Carolan said urban settings like the Trinity building are perfect sites.

"We always relish the opportunity to conduct activities in environments like this. We don't often have the opportunity to do it in our traditional defence training areas. So, being able to conduct activities in an environment with a community enables our soldiers to rehearse and practice and train, responding with a community in an area where they might deploy operations there's more itself."

"Lismore itself, we have a lot of people in our unit, including myself, that have been down here and support the flood relief effort. And in doing so, we've we've created this bond within the community."

"We spoke to Lismore City Council who have been amazingly supportive, and the Mayor himself has been really supportive of our training. There's also a lot of facilities that we can use within this environment while also not impacting the local community as well. For instance, the school doesn't have school students currently, so we're able to use that and not interrupt the local environment, but also use it to our advantage for training."

Mayor Steve Krieg said council wanted to help the ADF where they could because of the incredible job the ADF did during the cleanup of Lismore, Woodburn, Coraki and other flood-affected areas.

"Unfortunately, we've got the perfect facilities for them at the moment, but after everything they did post-flood, it's the little things that we can do to help them out because they did so much to help our city out in the cleanup and the recovery immediately after the flood. So anything that we can do to support the ADF personally, I'll jump on board with it."

When asked about resident feedback at a busy school bus interchange, Mayor Krieg praised the ADF for their understanding and flexibility.

"The ADF were excellent in organising their schedule to not interfere with bus timetables, and they're not going to use live ammunition, so there's no physical danger to anyone. The ADF have been exceptional in managing their schedules around the city's needs, and I can't speak highly enough of them."

The feedback from the people of Lismore has been positive for the ADF, according to Major Carolan.

"It has been really positive, so it's an experience that I'm sure they won't get very often. And they were interacting with the locals. There were a few surprised people, but they were able to talk to them and explain what they were doing. This is a great benefit for their training as well and also just community engagement."

Lismore can expect more of the same tomorrow as the ADF will be back at Trinity around 9:30am for a repeat of Exercise Ever Ready RAM.