HISTORY OF THE ARMY RESERVES
1. The first
Australian part-time defence units were raised in September 1800. Known as the
Sydney and Parramatta Loyal Associations, they were a response to fears of Irish
and convict uprisings and, later, to concerns about the possibility of French
raids during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1850 to 1900, enthusiasm and Government
support for volunteer defence forces waxed and waned, largely in accordance with
perceptions of external threat. During the Crimean War, Victoria raised
voluntary rifle and cavalry units. New South Wales recruited a battalion of
riflemen and a battery of artillery, primarily to man the expanded
fortifications around Sydney Harbour.
2. By 1863 these two colonies had mustered over 5,000 volunteers. These
part-time troops were not paid directly for their service but were entitled to a
Government grant of 50 acres of land on completion of five years 'efficient'
service. In contrast to the mostly poor and squalid backgrounds of the British
regular troops garrisoned in the colonies, the local volunteers drew heavily on
the rising urban and rural middle classes. A large proportion of this local
force consisted of artisans and skilled labourers. Volunteering members needed
to pay the costs of their uniforms and cover their wages forgone. They were also
free to resign at any time and unit discipline was usually less than stringent.
The Government's prime obligation was to provide appropriate weaponry
3. During the 1860s 2,500 men from the eastern Australian colonies
volunteered for service in the Waikato War against the Maoris in New Zealand.
Many of these individuals had experience in the colonial volunteer forces.
During this period security scares were not only stimulated by distant European
wars but also by rumours of the approach of foreign naval vessels. A continuing
colonial nightmare was the early morning appearance in the port approaches of a
foreign warship which was able to shell the coastal cities with virtual
impunity. In 1839 two American warships did, in fact, anchor overnight in Sydney
Harbour undetected. In 1878 there was mild panic when an Italian cruiser
appeared unexpectedly off Sydney Heads.
4. The departure of the last British troops from Australia in 1870
precipitated the raising of a new category of local military force. While the
'volunteers' provided a basic local defence capacity for a very modest cost,
successive reviews of defence preparation in the colonies highlighted a need for
higher standards of training, stricter discipline and the introduction of more
modern equipment. The gold rushes and associated economic prosperity also
generated a climate in which colonial administrations felt that they could
afford to build more capable defence units. Consequently, volunteers were sought
for a new, partially paid, colonial militia force. Militia volunteers were
supplied with uniforms and essential equipment as well as cash payments for
periods of service. In return, the training periods for these units were
compulsory and their exercising and discipline were far more rigorous than for
the 'volunteers'.
5. The Australian colonies were very cautious about raising regular
military units. There was a widespread aversion to the dangers of militarism and
wariness about the potential for permanent defence forces to be used to suppress
workers' movements. There was also little interest in generating an officer
'caste' along the lines fostered by the British. Most Australians did not want
to compromise their egalitarian spirit by creating a more formal, permanent,
professional military force. Thus when the first full-time defence units were
raised in some of the colonies in the 1870s, they were very small in size and
tasked with supporting the much larger militias, primarily in manning the
expanded network of coastal fortifications. This meant that by the 1880s the
following categories of military service existed in several of the colonies:
permanent, militia, volunteer and school cadet and rifle club reserves.
DEPRESSION OF THE 1890'S
6. The economic Depression of the 1890s brought a severe reduction in
spending on defence, reduced manning levels, cuts in militia and permanent force
pay and severely curtailed training periods. The Depression also brought serious
industrial disturbances which led the Victorian and Queensland Governments to
call out troops to reinforce State police. These operations against strikers
exacerbated the distrust of large segments of the population of the military.
THE SUDAN
7. The New South Wales commitment of forces to the Sudan in 1885 and the
commitments of all six colonies to South Africa in 1899 required calls for
volunteers for overseas service. Many, but not all, of those who volunteered had
previous militia or volunteer experience. During the Boer War, eight contingents
totalling some 16,175 men left Australia for South Africa. This experience
fostered a popular belief that young Australian men, especially those from rural
areas, possessed natural bush skills that made them 'born' soldiers.
THE BOER WAR
8. The experience of the Boer War, however, suggested that, while
Australians possessed many valuable natural attributes, thorough training and
appropriate equipment were also essential. While the first two contingents
acquitted themselves well, the latter contingents were less experienced and
weaknesses in training and discipline became apparent.
FEDERATION
9. At the federation of the Australian colonies on 1 January 1901,
responsibility for defence passed from the individual colonies to the new
Federal Government. In terms of manpower, the national government inherited a
total of 29,000 soldiers (including 1,500 on full-time duty) and 2,000 naval
personnel (including 250 on full-time duty).
10. The resounding Japanese naval victory over Russian forces in the
North-west Pacific in 1905 and the withdrawal of British capital ships from the
theatre following conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese alliance again stirred
Australian feelings of vulnerability and encouraged an expansion of Australia's
defences. W.M. Hughes had for some years been urging adoption of compulsory
part-time military service because he saw it as a means of society as a whole
enhancing its security while avoiding the propagation of militarism, the threat
that armed forces might be used against the workers and disruption to business
and civil life. In 1909 Field Marshal Lord Kitchener was invited to review
Australia's defences and provide professional comment on the proposed compulsory
military training scheme. His report foresaw the possibility that in a future
crisis the Royal Navy might be distracted elsewhere and Australia may need to
provide the main forces for its own defence.
COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE
11. He endorsed the compulsory military service scheme and called for
increasing the size of the Australian militia army to 80,000 men. The Government
accepted the thrust of his report and 92,000 18-25 year olds boosted the ranks
of the militia by commencing part-time training in 1911.
RMC DUNTROON
12. An important parallel development during this period was the
establishment of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, to provide staff officers
and instructors for the growing militia army. By the outbreak of war in 1914,
over 200,000 Australians were on full- or part-time service. It was not
possible, however, for the existing army units to be committed directly to
hostilities.
THE COMMONWEALTH DEFENCE
ACT
13. The Commonwealth Defence Act precluded the dispatch of any but
volunteers for overseas service. Therefore, in raising a special force to
capture German New Guinea and in creating the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to
serve in Europe and the Middle East, the Government appealed to the entire
population for recruits. In the event, a large number of volunteers and
compulsorily trained militia made themselves available. A notable feature of the
Australian forces committed to World War I was the quality and effectiveness of
many of the senior citizen force officers. Monash and other officers of high
calibre were the product of long periods of militia training. They believed
strongly that their part-time backgrounds rendered them more suitable for high
command than permanent officers. The vast human costs of the war, the divisive
wartime plebiscites on compulsory overseas service and the apparent opportunity
for post-war arms control generated strong pressures to cut defence expenditure
in the early 1920s.
14. Nevertheless, compulsory militia training for home service continued
until 1929. Its cessation placed unexpectedly sudden pressure on the volunteer
force. The great depression further reduced defence spending over the following
three years, bringing the armed forces to their lowest strength in the inter-war
period. In the mid-1930s the rise of Hitler and Japan's operations in China
revived concerns in Australia about the likelihood of a new world war. Defence
expenditures rose at an increasing rate towards the end of the decade. By 1939
Australia's Army consisted of 3,000 permanent personnel and 80,000
under-equipped, part-time citizen force volunteers.
WORLD WAR II
15. At the outbreak of World War II neither the Government nor the
Opposition was enthusiastic about introducing compulsory overseas military
service. So in raising forces for overseas service (the Second AIF) volunteers
were again sought from the general community. Militia were encouraged to
transfer to the AIF, but only about one quarter did so. The remainder continued
to serve in Australia. Thus, at the beginning of the World War II, Australia
effectively maintained no less than three armies: the Second AIF, an
all-volunteer force eligible for overseas service anywhere; a militia, which was
ineligible for service outside Australia; and the permanent Army, which was a
relatively small force of volunteer personnel.
16. The distinctions between the militia and the other forms of service
were subsequently modified in February 1943, when legislation was passed
extending the region in which the militia was liable for service to include the
entire South-West Pacific area, excluding the Philippines, West Java and North
Borneo. Many militia units subsequently distinguished themselves in combat
overseas. Nevertheless, this differentiation within Army remained a continuing
source of friction.
17. Many developments during World War II had long-term consequences for
the future shape of the Australian Defence Force. One important development was
the growth of a close and enduring strategic relationship with the United
States, which was predicated on defending Australian and allied interests on an
almost continuous basis in forward Asian theatres. Another was the increasing
complexity and technological sophistication of modern war, which encouraged the
application of higher levels of technical expertise to the profession of arms. A
third was that, in contrast to World War I, the permanent Staff Corps officers
gradually gained the ascendancy in senior Australian command positions. A fourth
important consequence was that World War II accelerated greatly the
industrialisation of the Australian economy and established the foundations for
relative prosperity in the late 1940s and through the 1950s.
18. Accordingly, when the post-war shape of the Defence Force came to be
discussed seriously in 1945, the conditions were different in many respects from
those of the 1930s. Moreover, the Government of the day urgently wished to
commit a brigade of volunteer troops to the British Commonwealth Occupation
Force in Japan. These volunteers were drawn from veterans of the demobilising
6th, 7th and 9th Divisions of the AIF and signed up as permanent personnel. This
was, in effect, a major break with Australian military tradition. Militia and
other volunteers were not sought to fill this commitment. It soon became clear
that permanent soldiers were no longer to be merely assistants and facilitators
for the much larger citizen militia.