History of the Australian Army

In January 1788, following the arrival of the First Fleet, the accompanying New South Wales Marine Corps came ashore to become the first modern infantry on the Australian continent.

The regiment was tasked with the stated purpose to protect the colonists and provide order to the Colony of New South Wales through policing and guarding the transported convicts.

[3] The new regiment was assisted by local 'loyal associations' – free settler militias formed in 1801 in response to fears of a convict uprising.

Following orders to establish a penal colony in what is now Tasmania, a company of the NSW Corps accompanied colonists to Van Dieman's Land.

One of the most brutal episodes in this period of Australian history was in 1828, when the Governor of Van Diemen's Land declared martial law and initiated a conflict called the Black War that lasted until 1832.

[6] During the economic depression of the early 1890s, large-scale strikes in various colonies were met with governments mobilising and/or threatening to use militia against strikers.

Before Federation of Australia and the forming of the national army, the six self-governing and independent Australian colonial governments sent contingents to South Africa to serve in the Second Boer War.

Later Australians transferred to, or enlisted into multinational units, such as the Bushveldt Carbineers, in which Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Hancock served, before their court martial and execution for alleged war crimes.

However, the first target for Australian action was close to home, seizing German colonial outposts in the south-west Pacific and New Guinea.

Departing from Western Australia on 1 November 1914, the AIF was sent initially to British-controlled Egypt, to pre-empt any attack by the Ottoman Empire, and with a view to opening another front against the Central Powers.

In the Middle East, the light horse had endured summer in the Jordan Valley before leading the British offensive in the final Battle of Megiddo.

In addition, three mixed brigades were raised in Queensland outside the divisional structure (the 11th), Tasmania (the 12th), and Western Australia (the 13th), which would come under the 5th Division's command in the event of a war.

Due to the provisions of the Defence Act 1903 this force was raised as part of the Royal Australian Artillery, even though it consisted of a large number of infantry.

[15] When the Second World War broke out between Britain and Germany in September 1939, the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) was formed, to fight in France.

After the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) withdrew from France in the Dunkirk evacuation in the face of the German Blitzkrieg, the 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions, as I Corps, were sent to Egypt.

As fears of war with Japan mounted, most of the 8th Division was sent to Singapore, to strengthen the British garrison; the remaining battalions were deployed in the islands to Australia's north, at Rabaul, Ambon and Timor.

Following short but bloody campaigns in Malaya and the islands, virtually all of the 8th Division was lost when stronger Japanese forces swept through South East Asia, in early 1942.

The prime example was the 39th (Militia) Battalion, many of them very young, untrained and poorly equipped, who distinguished themselves and suffered heavy casualties, in the stubborn rearguard action on the Kokoda Trail.

The 6th and 7th Divisions, with Militia units and elements of the 1st Armoured, formed a large part of Allied forces which destroyed the major Japanese beachhead in New Guinea, at the Battle of Buna-Gona.

The 9th Division remained in North Africa and distinguished itself at the Second Battle of El Alamein, after which victory over Erwin Rommel was assured, and returned to Australia in 1943.

General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific, was resented for his treatment of Australian forces.

A planned invasion of the Japanese home island of Honshū in 1946, Operation Coronet, would probably have included a proposed 10th Division, formed from existing AIF personnel.

According to the AWM: Meanwhile, planning for post-war defence arrangements had come to the conclusion that the Australian Army should be predicated on maintaining a relatively strong peacetime force.

The mission, code-named Operation Deuce, lasted until late April 1956 when 2RAR transferred responsibility of their area to the 1st Battalion, Royal Malay Regiment.

[21] In September 1957, 2RAR was replaced by the 3rd battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), which began patrols as part of Operation Shark North in December.

[27] In 1979, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 435 which called for a peace keeping force to be deployed into the then South West Africa to provide assistance with its transition to the independent nation of Namibia.

The removal of these land mines was left to the South African Army, however, tens of thousands remained when RSA forces finally withdrew in 1990.

These included naval forces, support troops (such as air traffic controllers) and a security detachment of about 75 soldiers in strength to defend key Australian interests.

After Al Muthanna province gained provincial control in mid 2006, the Australian force transitioned into a new role and was retitled the Overwatch Battle Group.

In July 2000, a detachment mounted the Queen's Guard in London for three weeks; this included four women, under the command of Captain Cynthia Anderson.