2 CER's lineage is formally traced to 4th Field Company (4 Fd Coy) Royal Australian Engineers, which was raised in the early stages of World War I.

Renamed 7th Field Company (7 Fd Coy) in 1915, the unit was renowned for its service in France and Belgium at the Battle of the Somme, Menin Road and on the Hindenburg Line.

[3] Assigned to the 2nd Division,[4] the company served in Egypt and France during World War I, where it saw action in the Battle of the Somme, Menin Road and the Hindenburg Line.

[5] Key roles undertaken by engineers during the war included field construction, signalling, obstacle breaching, tunnelling and mining, and river crossing and bridging tasks.

[8] In 1921, the Australian government decided to restructure the part-time Citizens Forces units to replicate the numerical designations and perpetuate the honours of the AIF.

[10] During World War II, the Defence Act continued to bar the Militia from overseas service and the government raised a second Australian Imperial Force (Second AIF).

[13][14] Another Militia sapper unit from Queensland, the 11th Field Company (which had been based at Kelvin Grove and Toowong before the war), also saw active service in New Guinea and Bougainville.

[19] During this time, the unit provided the nucleus of personnel used to form the 1 RAR Assault Pioneer Platoon, which subsequently took part in operations along the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War.

In June 1960, the Australian Military Forces were reorganised along a divisional basis with the adoption of the Pentropic organisation, and 7 Independent Field Squadron (redesignated 7 Fd Sqn) moved to Wacol, Queensland.

The mission was to supervise the withdrawal of the South African Defence Force (SADF), assist those displaced by the war to return home, and to pave the way for the first 'free and fair' elections ever held in that country.

[26] 2 CER next underwent a change during 1999, when it was assigned the task of forming and commanding the new Joint Incident Response Unit (JIRU), in support of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games as part of Operation GOLD.

The unit was split, with the majority of personnel moving to Holsworthy to form the JIRU (and subsequently the new Incident Response Regiment [IRR]), leaving a small Headquarters element and 7 CE Sqn in Enoggera.

[27] 2 CER subsequently led an independent Company Group in support of a multi-national United Nations Security Force as part of Operation SPIRE during the period December 2004 – June 2005.

[28] 2 CER deployed Squadron or larger size groups to Afghanistan's Orūzgān Province on four occasions as part of Operation SLIPPER.

[30][31] 2 CER personnel were deployed in a wide variety of roles including training and mentoring members of the Afghan National Army, and undertaking route clearance, high-threat search, construction tasks and infantry missions.

[33] In 2014, 2 CER provided the foundation of the ADF's technical and high risk domestic search capability for the Group of Twenty (G20) meeting in Brisbane.

The works included repairs to roads, infrastructure, schools, medical facilities, hazard reduction, structural assessments and debris clearance.

[citation needed] Throughout its history, individual members of the unit have also been involved in operations in Cambodia, Somalia, Pakistan, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands and Bougainville, and support to police during the several Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM).