Questions loom as 7th Battalion move to Darwin confirmed

An Adelaide-based army unit has been told it is moving to Darwin, with some families already receiving posting orders. But questions remain as to who will command the new NT unit.

As the Australian Army issues posting orders across the organisation, anticipation builds around Adelaide’s 7th Battalion. Picture: Supplied.

Hundreds of Adelaide-based soldiers and their families are being forced to pick up and move north in the coming months, as a South Australian battalion merges with a Northern Territory unit.

But there is speculation brewing as to who the commander will be and how the merged unit will be restructured.

As thousands of soldiers, sailors and aviators across the nation receive their new posting orders this month, sources from Adelaide’s 7th Battalion (7RAR) have revealed their next destination has been confirmed as the Top End, with a small group of troops having already moved to Darwin’s Robertson Barracks ahead of the bulk of the regiment.

The move would follow more than a year of speculation by the Army community, after rumours circulated in mid-2023 the around 500 soldier-strong Adelaide unit would merge with 5RAR to create 5th/7th Battalion.

In a public announcement in September, 2023, the Department of Defence confirmed such a merge would occur.

Darwin’s Robertson Barracks will get a bump up of personnel when 7RAR arrive.

When approached by this publication last week - almost 12 months since the announcement - the Department of Defence did not confirm if postings for 5th/7th Battalion had been issued, but acknowledged plans to merge the two units remained in place.

“The 5th Battalion and the 7th Battalion will be relinked to become 5th/7th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, and will be based in Darwin,” they said.

In an article posted to Australia’s Defence website in early June regarding Exercise Rhino Run, Commanding Officer 7RAR Lieutenant Colonel Von Lambert hailed the exersise as his unit’s last hurrah in SA and acknowledged the move to Darwin.

“Today marked the culminating point of our live-fire training as part of our final activity as Battle Group Boar, and the 7th Battalion, in the field here in Cultana,” Lieutenant Colonel Lambert said.

“It’s bittersweet, and we’re really proud of our efforts, and we’re really proud of the last 12 years of the 7th Battalion here in South Australia.”

With the ADF experiencing significant retention issues and army units reporting manning deficiencies, it remains unclear precisely how many 7RAR troops will be pushed to Darwin, with a standard infantry battalion supposed to field hundreds of troops.

Further, it is yet to be officially unveiled who the unit’s commanding officer will be, however, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Grogan, who was appointed 5RAR’s commanding officer during 2024, is expected to lead the NT unit for at least another year.

Darwin’s 5th Battalion will remain at home in the Top End and is expected to become 5/7 RAR. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

As well as 7RAR members and their families familiarising themselves with their new home, the newly-arrived troops will also need to undergo fresh training to get them up to speed with 1st Brigade’s new littoral role, which involves water-based and boat-related activities.

By transitioning to a littoral outfit, it is also expected 7RAR - which has traditionally been employed as a mechanised battalion - will leave their M113 armoured vehicles behind in Adelaide.

Online, montage videos have circulated paying tribute to 7RAR, with current and former serving members sharing their memories of the unit’s standalone tenure.

However, the merge is expected to bring back fond memories for thousands of veterans, who served in 5/7RAR between 1973 and 2006.

Nicknamed ‘The Tigers’, 5/7RAR’s first deployment was, ironically, to Darwin in response to Cyclone Tracy, before undertaking operations in East Timor and the Middle East.

Originally published as Questions loom as 7th Battalion move to Darwin confirmed