In December an advanced party from the regimental headquarters and the 64th Battery moved to Lae and after preparing a regimental area, moved on eight LCMs to Finschhafen where it joined the 9th Division. In January 1944, the 27th and 28th Batteries embarked upon the USS "Stephen Girard" at Townsville and joined the 64th in New Guinea. After establishing itself at Kelanoa, the regiment took over from the &lt;a href="2/12th%20Field%20Regiment%20%28Australia%29"&gt;2/12th Field Regiment&lt;/a&gt;, from which it acquired a number of Ordnance QF 25-pounder Short artillery pieces. As the fighting in the Huon Peninsula tailed off, the 9th Division handed over to the Militia 5th Division, which was tasked with completing the task of clearing the peninsula, and the regiment supported the 4th Infantry Brigade around Madang and then Alexishafen, where it remained until December 1944 when the 5th Division was dispatched to secure New Britain.