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By 1891–92, the colony's military force consisted of 91 permanent soldiers, 3,133 militia and 841 volunteers. [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. [244]
The following is a list of British Army regiments that served in Australia between 1810 and 1870. From 1788 to 1790, the colony was defended by Royal Marines. From 1790 to 1810 the colony was defended by the New South Wales Corps. From 1810 to 1870, the colony was defended by British Army regiments.
The Australian Defence Force's (ADF) ranks of officers and enlisted personnel in each of its three service branches of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Australian Army, and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) inherited their rank structures from their British counterparts. The insignia used to identify these ranks are also generally ...
In March 1901, the Australian Army came into existence as the Commonwealth Military Forces through the amalgamation of the former colonies military forces. The existing regiments and battalions of the colonies were reorganised and renumbered due to their absorption into the national army and subsequently formed the first military units of a united Australia.
The first British colonial settlement in Australia of Sydney was established in 1788 with the protection of four companies of the Corps of Royal Marines. In 1790 these were mostly replaced with soldiers of the New South Wales Corps, a regiment raised specifically for service in Australia. This regiment was based in Australia until 1810.
The colony, like many British territories at the time, was short of coins, and rum soon became the medium of trade. The officers of the Corps were able to use their position and wealth to buy all the imported rum and then exchange it for goods and labour at very favourable rates, earning the Corps the nickname "The Rum Corps".
The Corps was established on 31 August 1786 with assent from King George III, for a force of 160 enlisted marines and accompanying officers to attend the settlement of New South Wales "... for the purpose of enforcing subordination and obedience in the settlement [at Botany Bay], as well as for defence of that settlement against the incursions of the natives."
Following the outbreak of war Australian forces moved quickly to reduce the threat to shipping posed by the proximity of Germany's Pacific colonies. The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), a 2000-man volunteer force—separate from the AIF—and consisting of an infantry battalion plus 500 naval reservists and ex-sailors ...