7th Brigade (Australia) - Current Organisation

Current Organisation

Today, the 7th Brigade is converting from an integrated formation containing both Regular Army and Army Reserve units, to a mainly Regular formation, based in Queensland as part of the Deployable Joint Force Headquarters/1st Division. Under plans announced in 2006, 7th Brigade was expanded by the re-raising of 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (8/9 RAR), as a Regular motorised infantry battalion. In order to facilitate this, the two Reserve infantry battalions of the Royal Queensland Regiment were transferred to the 11th Brigade in July 2007. As such the current composition of the Brigade is as follows:

• HQ 7 Brigade
  • 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry)
  • 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Motorised Infantry)
  • 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Motorised Infantry)
  • 1st Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery
  • 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment
  • 7th Combat Signals Regiment
  • 7th Combat Service Support Battalion

While the Brigade has not deployed as a whole unit since World War II, component units have deployed on operations to East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout 2010 the brigade provided elements to operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor, with around 2,500 personnel being deployed. On 20 November 2010, the brigade marched through Brisbane's central business district, as the returning soldiers were officially welcomed back to Australia in the biggest welcome home parade since the end of the Vietnam War.

Under a restructuring program known as Plan Beersheba announced in late 2011, the 1st, 3rd and 7th Brigades will be reformed as combined arms multi-role manoeuvre brigades.