page_title: 3rd Division (Australia)
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: 3rd Division (Australia) / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: Sourced from: http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil Details: ID: DASC9101854 Service Depicted: Multi-National Two Australian army soldiers lead a column of American troops from 4th Bn., 87th Inf., 25th Inf. Div. (Light), during the joint Australian/U.S. exercise Kangaroo '89. Camera Operator: AL CHANG Date Shot: 7 Aug 1989
context_page_description: The 3rd Division was an infantry division of the Australian Army. Existing during various periods between 1916 and 1991, it is considered the "longest serving Australian Army division". It was first formed during World War I, as an infantry division of the Australian Imperial Force and saw service on the Western Front in France and Belgium. During this time it fought major battles at Messines, Broodseinde Ridge, Passchendaele, Amiens, and the St Quentin Canal.
  After the war the division was demobilised in 1919 before being re-raised in 1921 as part of the Citizen Forces, based in central Victoria. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the division's establishment fluctuated due to the effects of the Great Depression and a general apathy towards military matters.
  During World War II, the division was mobilised for war in December 1941 and initially undertook defensive duties in Australia before being deployed to New Guinea in 1943 where they took part in the Salamaua–Lae campaign against the Japanese in 1943–1944, before returning to Australia for rest and reorganisation. In late 1944 they were sent to Bougainville to take part in their final campaign of the war.
context_section_description: In 1948, with demobilisation of Australia's wartime army complete, the decision was made to re-raise the part-time forces of the Militia, albeit with the new name of the Citizens Military Force (CMF), and on a reduced establishment of two infantry divisions, an armoured brigade and various corps-level support units. During this time the 3rd Division was re-raised and based around a nucleus of three infantry brigades—the 4th, 6th and 9th Brigades—it was once again based in central Victoria, although subunits were also based in South Australia and Tasmania. Once again the division's component units bore little resemblance to those that had fought with it during the two World Wars. Service in the post war CMF was initially on a voluntary basis and recruitment remained poor until 1951 when conscription was introduced once again in an effort to improve the readiness of the Australian military during the Korean War. The 3rd Division was not deployed during this time, however, and although national service was instituted, service in Korea was undertaken on a voluntary basis, and conscription was used only as a means to expand the CMF and provide a base upon which mobilisation could be achieved if it proved necessary.
  Nevertheless, the resulting influx of manpower revitalised the CMF to the point that during the 1950s the division experienced a remarkable level of manning and resources that saw many units achieve full strength, with full equipment allocations. On 23 March 1958 a divisional parade was conducted at Puckapunyal, bringing together all of the division's Victorian-based units in a concentration of force not seen in the division since 1916. The following year the division conducted a live-fire exercise at Puckapunyal based upon the 4th Brigade and involving over 3,500 men, tanks, artillery, aircraft, and various supporting arms. Despite the success demonstrated by the exercise, it would be the last time that the division mounted something similar the national service scheme was modified to limit the size of each yearly intake of trainees and the size of the CMF was reduced by over 30,000 men in an effort to free up Regular personnel to raise the 1st Brigade. The 1957 reforms, however, did not achieve the efficiencies required to free up Regular personnel to meet the strategic requirements to maintain a regular field force that was ready to respond to the exigencies of the Cold War. As a result, in 1959 the decision was made to suspend national service as it was realised that further changes were required to expand the size of the Regular army. Further changes came with the introduction of the Pentropic divisional establishment into the Australian Army. This saw the reduction of the Army to just two divisions, the 1st and 3rd Divisions, and as a part of this the division was reorganised into five battalion-plus sized battle groups, and resulted in the removal of brigade-level formations and the disbandment and amalgamation of a number of smaller regionally based infantry battalions, into larger units that were part of State-based regiments.
  With an authorised peacetime establishment of 13,621 personnel, the 3rd Division included formations in five different military command districts including Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia as well as those in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. The main infantry components at this time were: 2nd Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment (RQR); 1st Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment (RVR); 2nd Battalion, RVR; 1st Battalion, Royal South Australia Regiment (RSAR); and 1st Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment.
  The Australian Army's experiment with the Pentropic establishment did not last long, however, as it created a number of planning issues including lack of interoperability with other Western allies, none of whom used it. As a result, it was abandoned in late 1964 and into early 1965 and the 3rd Division was once again reorganised. The resulting changes saw the establishment of brigade-level formations, briefly known as "task forces", however, due to other plan
caption: Australian and US troops taking part in Exercise Kangaroo '89 in northern Australia
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