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Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Land Force Reserves and Homeland Security: Lessons Learned from the Australian Experience
By Jeffrey Grey
Abstract
The Australian Army is now more than a century old, but for much of its history it had no formal, organised reserve force as we understand that term now. The CMF was reconstituted in 1948, and although successive governments were committed to the creation of a regular field force of brigade group strength, practice rather than policy suggested that the mainstay of the ground defence of Australia — homeland defence by any other name — continued to be the part-time force. The only time in which the non-regular force has been called up and utilised in the defence of Australia and Australian interests was during the Second World War. The Vietnam War then completed the demise of the old-style citizen-soldier structure and function in Australia.