The Royal Western Australia Regiment is a reserve infantry regiment of the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), who ...

consisting of two battalions, the 11th/28th Battalion and the

16th Battalion 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

. The regiment was raised in July 1960 as part of the reorganisation of the

Australian Army Reserve The Australian Army Reserve is a collective name given to the reserve units of the Australian Army. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, the reserve military force has been known by many names, including the Citizens Forces, the Citizen ...

through the amalgamation of the three existing infantry regiments in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

: * The City of Perth Regiment * The Cameron Highlanders of Western Australia * The Swan Regiment Initially formed as a single battalion, in 1966 it was reorganised into first two, then three battalions. Two of these, the 11th Battalion and 28th Battalion were reduced to single companies in 1977, then amalgamated into the single 11th/28th Battalion in 1987. The regiment perpetuates the traditions of three battalions of the Australian Imperial Force: * 11th Battalion – the 11th Battalion was raised in 1903 when the Perth Rifle Volunteers was renamed as the 11th Australian Infantry Regiment. On the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, volunteers from the 11th Regiment were recruited into the 11th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force. This unit saw action in the Middle East at Gallipoli and in France before the end of the war. For its service, the battalion was awarded a King's Colour. The battalion was amalgamated with the 16th Battalion for a time, named as the 11th/16th Battalion for three years, before regaining its former title for service during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. A second battalion, 2/11th Battalion, was raised for service overseas in 1939. This saw service in North Africa,

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

and

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

, where the majority of its men were captured following the Battle of Retimo Airfield. Reformed in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

in 1941, the 2/11th Battalion moved to New Guinea in 1943. Both war raised battalions were disbanded in 1946. * 16th Battalion – the 16th Battalion was originally raised in September 1914. It was landed at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles s ...

the following year, also seeing service in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The battalion was disbanded at the end of the war, then becoming a Citizen Military Force unit. It amalgamated with the 11th Battalion in 1930. A new 16th Battalion was raised in 1936 as the Cameron Highlanders of Western Australia. This battalion saw service in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and e ...

before the end of the

. * 28th Battalion – the 28th Battalion was raised in 1915, and saw service in the Middle East and

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers * Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a maj ...

before being disbanded in 1919. The battalion was reformed from its militia unit for the

, serving alongside the 11th Battalion in

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the D ...

. The 2/28th Battalion saw service overseas in North Africa, the Middle East and New Guinea. It was disbanded in 1946.

Battle honours

11th/28th Battalion

* South Africa 1899–1902 * The Great War: Pozieres, Messines, Passchendaele, Mont St.Quentin, Landing at Anzac, Somme 1916–1918, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Amiens, Hindenburg Line * World War II: Capture of Tobruk, Defence of Tobruk, El Alamein, Brallos Pass, Liberation of New Guinea, Kokoda Trail, Borneo, Damour, Lae-Nadzab, Labuan

16th Battalion

* South Africa 1899–1902 * World War I: Somme 1916–1918, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Polygon Wood, Passchandaele, Arras 1918, Hamel, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, France and Flanders 1916–1918, Anzac, Landing at Anzac, Defence of Anzac, Suvla, Sari Bair, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1915–1916 * World War II: North Africa 1941, Syria, Syrian Frontier, The Litani, Sidon, Wadi Zeini, Damour, South West Pacific 1942 – 1945, Kokoda Trail, Isurava, Eora Creek, Templetons Crossing, Efogi-Menari, Ioribaiwa, Buna-Gona, Gona, Liberation of Australian New Guinea, Ramu Valley, Shaggy Ridge, Borneo, Balikpapan, Waitavolo

Alliances

* – The Highlanders * –

The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires) The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (or PWRR, also known as 'The Tigers') is the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, second in the line infantry order of precedence to the Royal Regiment of Scotland and part of the ...

* –

The Rifles The Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Formed in 2007, it consists of four Regular battalions and three Reserve battalions, plus a number of companies in other Army Reserve battalions. Each battalion of The Rifles was formerl ...

External links

Official website of the Royal Western Australia Regiment
{{Australian Infantry WA Military units and formations established in 1960 Australian army units with royal patronage 1960 establishments in Australia Military Units in Western Australia

Battle honours

11th/28th Battalion

16th Battalion

Alliances

See also

External links