Formed in Egypt in March 1916, the battalion subsequently served on the Western Front in France and Belgium, after being transferred to the European battlefields shortly after its establishment.

Assigned to the 5th Division, the 5th Pioneer Battalion fought in most of the major battles that the AIF participated in between mid-1916 and the end of the war in November 1918.

[2][3] The battalion was formed in the aftermath of the failed Gallipoli campaign when the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was expanded as part of plans to transfer it from the Middle East to Europe for service in the trenches along the Western Front.

[4] Trained as infantrymen, they were also tasked with some engineer functions, with a large number of personnel possessing trade qualifications from civilian life.

A total of five pioneer battalions were raised by the AIF at this time, with one being assigned to each of the five infantry divisions that the Australians deployed to the battlefield in France and Belgium.

[5] The 5th Pioneer Battalion was formed from volunteers from the 5th Division who possessed relevant trade qualifications, or who were deemed to be suitable for manual labouring tasks.

[7] After making landfall at Marseilles, the 5th Pioneers were transported overland by train to Hazebrouck, where they moved into a camp around Bae St Maur.

Two companies of pioneers were assigned to support the attack, and it proved to be a difficult entry into the European war, with the Australians suffering such heavy casualties that the battle was later described as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history".

[10] The following month the battalion supported the Second Battle of Bullecourt, assisting the British 258th Tunnelling Company to dig a defensive mine to the east, suffering 39 casualties during the fighting.

In a single day in late September, the pioneers lost 64 men fighting alongside Americans from the US 105th Engineers, as the battalion became caught up in close quarters fighting, having to "down tools" and deal with isolated pockets of resistance,[19] before working to capture several machine gun positions that had been bypassed by the assaulting infantry in the smoke haze.

[23] In this regard, Westerman argues that the AIF pioneer battalions were rigidly utilized as either engineers or infantry, instead of "integrating those two functions".