Please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that that general experience and qualification in the Civil ATC world is gained initially by working in area control, with more experience leading to moving up through approach/dept, and the most experienced /qualified might be working in the Tower environ.
However in the RAAF, the system used to work in the opposite sense, with junior guys being posted straight to Gnd/Tower work, and approach qualifications being achieved later on a longer course of training once some field experience was gained. In the past it was typical for the ATC boggie to be sent to Darwin and Tindal and work in Tower/Ground as lesser desirable postings. That was one reason for a lot of junior RAAF ATC manning the tower in Darwin.
Is this still the case? If so, and with greatest respect to current CAF and his views, experience and qualification levels in the Tower/Ground environ at these locations would not be comparable to equivalent civil aerodrome operations.