Sailing aboard the , after arriving in New Guinea in early August, the 2/48th established a camp around Milne Bay where they undertook further amphibious training, before taking part in the landing around Lae on 4 September 1943, as part of the final phase of the Salamaua–Lae campaign. This was the first large-scale amphibious landing conducted by the Australian forces since the landings at Gallipoli in 1915, and the battalion, along with the rest of the 26th Brigade, landed on Red Beach, about north-west of Lae. They subsequently advanced westwards, and on 14 September captured Malahang airstrip. Following the fall of Lae to the 7th Division—which had advanced from Nadzab as part of the two-pronged assault—on 16 September, the Allies hurriedly launched a follow up campaign on the Huon Peninsula. Initially, only one brigade was committed to the operation, and so the 2/48th Battalion remained around Lae until the 26th Brigade was transported by sea to Finschhafen in late October in order to reinforce the 20th Brigade, which had landed the month previous in an effort to follow up troops withdrawing from Lae, before coming under heavy Japanese counterattack. During this time the battalion took part in repelling an attempted landing at Scarlet Beach, as the Japanese launched a counteroffensive against the Australian lodgement.