The 6th Engineer Support Regiment (6 ESR) is a specialised engineer regiment of the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), wh ...

. Established in early 2003, the regiment was formed by grouping several previously independent engineer squadrons – each providing different engineer support functions – together under a single headquarters. Headquartered at

RAAF Base Amberley RAAF Base Amberley is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) military airbase located southwest of Ipswich, Queensland in Australia and southwest of Brisbane CBD. It is currently home to No. 1 Squadron (operating the F/A-18F Super Hornet), N ...

in Queensland, the regiment's sub-units are also based in Queensland.

History

The regiment was formed on 13 January 2003, in order to serve as the administrative headquarters for a number of

squadron Squadron may refer to: * Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies * Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...

-level subunits, which had previously been independent. Attached to the 6th Brigade, the regiment's subunits – the 17th and 21st Construction Squadrons, the 1st Topographical Survey Squadron and the 20th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron – were spread across three different locations:

Gallipoli Barracks Enoggera Barracks (also known as Gallipoli Barracks) is an Australian Army base in the northwestern Brisbane suburb of Enoggera in Queensland, Australia. It was officially established in the early 20th century when the area was used for field ...

in Enoggera;

in Amberley; and

Holsworthy Barracks Holsworthy Barracks is an Australian Army military barracks, located in the Heathcote National Park in Holsworthy approximately from the central business district, in south-western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The barracks is part of ...

Holsworthy Holsworthy is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Torridge District, Torridge district of Devon, England, some west of Exeter. The River Deer, a tributary of the River Tamar, forms the western boundary of the paris ...

. These subunits are supported by a fifth subunit, the Operational Support Squadron. By virtue of the regiment's function, the majority of its 600 personnel are regular soldiers drawn from the

Royal Australian Engineers The Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) is the military engineering corps of the Australian Army (although the word corps does not appear in their name or on their badge). The RAE is ranked fourth in seniority of the corps of the Australian Army, b ...

, although various other corps provide administration clerks, drivers, mechanics and quartermasters. Personnel from the regiment have undertaken numerous deployments since its establishment, and the regiment provided the headquarters element for Reconstruction Task Force 4, which deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 as part of

Operation Slipper The Australian contribution to the war in Afghanistan has been known as Operation Slipper (2001–2014) and Operation Highroad (2015-2021). Australian Defence Force (ADF) operations and the size of the forces deployed have varied and ADF invol ...

. The 1st Topographical Survey Squadron was reassigned to the 1st Intelligence Battalion. The 17th Construction Squadron relocated to RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland from Holsworthy Barracks in New South Wales.

Structure

The regiment consists of the following units: ;Amberley *Regimental Headquarters * 17th Construction Squadron * 21st Construction Squadron *Operational Support Squadron * 20th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron

History

Structure

References

Further reading