The 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment (51 FNQR) is an Australian Army Regional Force Surveillance Unit headquartered at Porton Barracks in Cairns. The battalion's primary role is to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance tasks in support of border security operations. Its area of operations includes the Torres Strait (especially Australia's border with Papua New Guinea) and the Cape York littoral environment. Additional tasks for 51FNQR include the collection and collation of military geographic information as well as community engagement and disaster relief operations.
Soldiers in the unit are cross-trained in a variety of "low-visibility" skills such as weapons, survival, sniping, medic, small boat handling, driving, tracking, air operations. It is the only battalion of the Far North Queensland Regiment, and draws its lineage from an Australian Imperial Force (AIF) light infantry battalion, which was raised for service during World War I.
History
World War I
The 51st Battalion was originally raised in Egypt in early 1916 as part of the reorganisation and expansion of the AIF following the Gallipoli campaign. This was achieved by transferring cadres of experienced personnel predominately from units of the 1st Division to the newly formed battalions and combining them with recently recruited personnel who had been dispatched as reinforcements from Australia. The unit's first intake of personnel were drawn from men originating from Western Australia, many of whom had already served with the 11th Battalion during the fighting in Turkey. As a result, at the time of its formation, it inherited the battle honour awarded to the mounted infantry from Western Australia who served during the Second Boer War.
Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Murray Ross, a regular British Army officer, the battalion—as part of the 13th Brigade attached to the 4th Australian Division—sailed for France, arriving in Marseilles on 12 June 1916. Shortly afterwards it was committed to the fighting, taking part in the Battle of Mouquet Farm during August and September. In three weeks, the battalion lost 650 men killed or wounded.
Following this, it moved to Belgium where it saw service on the Hindenburg Line, participating in the battles at Messines and Polygon Wood in 1917. In early 1918, it assisted in the repulse of the major German offensive on the Western Front following the collapse of Russia. On the morning of 24/25 April 1918—Anzac Day—the battalion took part in an Allied counter-attack at Villers-Bretonneux, in France, where they suffered 389 casualties in two days of fighting. Following this, the 51st Battalion took part in the last major Allied offensive of the war—the Hundred Days Offensive—between August and September 1918. After that the battalion, along with the rest of the Australian Corps, was removed from the line having been severely depleted and suffering manpower shortages and it was out of the line training when the Armistice was declared on 11 November 1918, effectively bring an end to the war.
After the end of the war, as the demobilisation process took place the 51st Battalion was amalgamated first with the 50th Battalion and then also with the 49th, before being disbanded on 5 May 1919. During the fighting, it suffered lost 34 officers and 851 other ranks killed in action or died on active service and 50 officers and 1,643 other ranks wounded or captured.
Members of the battalion received the following decorations: one Victoria Cross (VC), one Distinguished Service Order (DSO) with one Bar, one Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), 16 Military Crosses (MCs) with two Bars, 16 Distinguished Conduct Medals (DCMs), 122 Military Medals (MMs) with five Bars, eight Meritorious Service Medals (MSMs), 25 Mentions in Despatches (MIDs) and eight foreign awards. The battalion's sole VC recipient was Lieutenant Clifford Sadlier, who received the award for his actions during the attack on Villers-Bretonneux on 24/25 April 1918.