In mid-October training came to an end and the battalion prepared to move again as orders were received that the 8th Brigade was finally to be committed to a combat role. A short time thereafter, they conducted a brigade-level landing rehearsal along with the 29th Battalion on Florida Island, about from Guadalcanal. Following this, the 36th Battalion was involved in the 8th Brigade's landing on Mono Island as part of the plan to secure the Treasury Islands in order to conduct future operations on Bougainville, in the first opposed amphibious landing carried out by New Zealand troops since the Gallipoli campaign in 1915.