[1] Formed from Australian Machine Gun Corps personnel, the battalion was assigned to the 4th Division, and had an authorised strength of 46 officers and 890 other ranks.

[2] The establishment of machine gun battalions within the AIF was the final step in the evolution of the organisation of direct fire support during the war.

At the end of the Gallipoli Campaign, the AIF was reorganised and expanded in preparation for its transfer to the Western Front, and the machine gun sections within each infantry battalion had been consolidated into companies assigned at brigade level.

[4] The first three of battalion's constituent companies had been formed in Egypt in February 1916 during a period when the AIF was being expanded in preparation for its transfer to the Western Front following the end of the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign.

These companies had participated in the fighting around Pozieres and Mouquet Farm in 1916, before taking part in the Battle of Bullecourt in early 1917 as the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line.

[6] The battalion was equipped with a total of 64 Vickers medium machine guns – assigned at a scale of 16 per company – and took part in the final stages of the war, seeing action during the Allied defensive operations during the German spring offensive and then the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which finally brought an end to the war.

Following the outbreak of World War II, four machine gun battalions were eventually raised as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force, each assigned at divisional level.