Colonial forces of Australia
Co-ordination of Australia-wide defensive efforts in the face of imperial German interest in the Pacific Ocean was one of the main reasons for federation, and so one of the first decisions made by the newly formed Commonwealth government was to create the Department of Defence which came into being on 1 March 1901.
[8][9] Accompanying the First Fleet to Port Jackson were three companies of marines totalling 212 men under the command of Major Robert Ross,[1][4] to guard the fledgling colony of Sydney and that of Norfolk Island, which had been established on 6 March 1788 to provide a food base and investigate supply of masts and flax for canvas for the Royal Navy.
This included guarding convict settlements,[30] hunting down bushrangers,[31] suppressing armed resistance by Indigenous Australians,[32] providing security on the goldfields,[33] assisting local police to maintain public order,[34][Note 5] undertaking ceremonial duties and developing the infrastructure of the nation's military defences.
Provisionally, the militia's establishment could be maintained by a compulsory ballot among men of certain ages who could be compelled to fight, albeit within certain prescribed territorial limits,[60] and who were generally considered to be engaged for a fixed period of service to meet an obligation.
[67] Other reforms that took place around this time included the organisation of units into standard formations such as battalions, increased payments to volunteers, land grants for efficient service, the establishment of annual training camps – usually over Easter – the creation of cadres of professional soldiers, known as "permanent staff" to provide training, the requirement for officers and non-commissioned officers to pass exams and the establishment of minimum required attendance.
[64] The following decade a number of inter-colonial conferences were undertaken and this set the scene for further co-operation later, when Queensland and the other colonies worked together to annex parts of New Guinea due to concerns about German imperial interests in the Pacific in 1883.
The resultant wave of patriotism forced the colonial governments to allow citizens to form new units of "second-line" troops who were not as well trained as the paid volunteers or voluntary militiamen.
[77] In late 1899, the outbreak of fighting in South Africa against the Boers, resulted in the dispatch of contingents from all colonies and an increase in volunteers serving in local units in Australia.
[84] Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 reductions in the size of the British Army began concerning the then Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, and it was at this point that considerations were given to forming a militia force in the colony, consisting four troops of cavalry and eight companies of infantry.
[86][87] The first steps towards developing a defence manufacturing industry in Australia came in 1845, however, when 5.5-inch mortar shells went into production in Sydney to meet the demand for high trajectory fire support for British infantry attacks on Maori forts in New Zealand.
[101] The offer was accepted, and within two weeks a force of 30 officers and 740 men comprising an infantry battalion, with artillery and support units, was enrolled, re-equipped and dispatched for Africa.
[155] The first two Victoria Crosses awarded to Australians in that conflict were earned by Private John Bisdee and Lieutenant Guy Wylly, both members of the Tasmanian Bushmen, in action near Warm Bad in 1900.
[40][162] In 1827, Captain James Stirling sighted the area surrounding the Swan River as being suitable for agriculture,[161] and upon his return to England in July 1828, lobbied for the establishment of a free settler colony, unlike the penal settlements of eastern Australia.
[162] In addition to the British garrison, a small locally raised unit, known as the Swan River Volunteers, was established in 1829; all settlers between 15 and 50 years of age were obligated to serve and were required to supply their own weapons.
[59][Note 10] Although provisions were made to pay these volunteers, the organisation was not successful, however, as the settlements were dispersed over wide areas, making concentration difficult, while economic considerations meant that it was not fully supported by settlers.
[171] In 1872, a troop from the West Australian Mounted Volunteers was converted to a horse artillery unit when they were entrusted with two breech-loading 12-pounders that had previously belonged to the enrolled pensioners that had been sent to the colony to guard convicts prior to the end of transportation.
[180] In 1890, in an effort to encourage participation an efficiency bonus was introduced which saw payments being made to volunteers who paraded 12 times a year and completed basic musketry training.
The government proclaimed a general order that established the South Australian Volunteer Militia Force, which was to be organised into two battalions, each consisting of six companies of between 50 and 60 men, which would be known as the Adelaide Rifles.
[193] The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in France on 19 July 1870, led the South Australian Governor, Sir James Fergusson, to conduct a review of the colony's defences.
The success of raising those units did not stop the political arguments over the issue with wrangling between Governor Sir William Jervois and Premier John Colton temporarily suspending further development.
[28] About 1,000 miners fortified a position, and at 3:00 am on 3 December 1854, a party of 276 members from the 1st/12th and 2nd/40th Regiments[28] supported by Victorian police, under the command of Captain John Thomas, approached the Eureka Stockade and a battle ensued.
[185] When British troops began to be redirected from the Australian colonies to New Zealand in the early 1860s there was renewed interest in Victoria for raising local forces to take over more of the responsibility for garrison duties.
[211] Throughout the rest of the decade, Victoria's military remained roughly the same size, although it obtained higher levels of efficiency as training opportunities were expanded and its organisation was improved.
[223] The following year, the Victorian Mounted Rifles – who were the first unit to adopt the iconic slouch hat – were formed, primarily recruiting in rural areas where men had already established horsemanship skills and thus did not need further training and were able to provide and maintain their own horse.
[75] In December 1892, men of the Echuca Company of the Victorian Rangers nearly sparked an inter-colonial incident between New South Wales and Victoria, by accepting an invitation to cross the colonial border of the Murray River to nearby Moama, to attend a patriotic march.
[227] By 1896, Victoria boasted the largest artillery arsenal of all the Australian colonies, possessing nineteen 12-pounder BL guns, six 12-pounder rifled breech loaders (RBLs) and another six 6-pounders of the same type.
[240] That year, 1885, in response to concerns about a possible war with Russia due to tensions between that nation and the British in India, Queensland forces were called up for continuous service over the Easter period, exercising at Fort Lytton.
[241] In 1889, as part of Edwards' review of colonial military forces, the Queensland artillery exercised at Fort Lytton and engineers demonstrated their capability by detonating a number of submarine mines.
[243] This progress was lost, however, in the early part of the following decade as the Australian colonies were gripped by an economic depression which had the effect of reducing the amount of money spent on defence.
[116] Troops from the Queensland Mounted Infantry were involved in the first significant Australian action of the war when they took part in an attack on a Boer "laager" at Sunnyside on 1 January 1900,[250] during which they lost two men killed and two wounded.
