Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion

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Members of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion on Thursday Island in 1945 (AWM 119169).

The Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was an Australian infantry battalion of World War II. The Battalion was unique in that almost all of its enlisted men were Torres Strait Islanders, making the Battalion the only Indigenous Australian Battalion ever formed by the Australian Army.

The Torres Strait Light Infantry was initially formed as an independent infantry company in May 1941. It was expanded in June 1942, with one fifth of the population of the Torres Strait volunteering for service. As a result of this remarkable influx of volunteers the Torres Strait Company was expanded to a full battalion in early 1943. Throughout the war the Battalion was based on Horn Island and Thursday Island in the Torres Strait where it formed an integral part of the Islands' defences. A detachment from the battalion conducted a patrol into Japanese held Dutch New Guinea from October to December 1943.

Due to the racial policies in place at the time, Torres Strait Islanders originally only received one third of the pay of white soldiers of equal rank. In response to this and other concerns, ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies of the Battalion briefly went on strike in late December 1943. In February 1944 the Army agreed to increase the soldiers' pay to two-thirds of that of white soldiers and the soldiers received full back pay for their war service in the 1980s. Despite the discriminatory pay scales the Islanders generally appreciated the Army's culture, as the Army's discipline and hierarchy allowed them to be treated with respect by white soldiers.

The Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was disbanded in 1946. 'C' Company of the 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment (51 FNQR) was established in the Torres Strait in 1987 as a Regional Force Surveillance Unit (RFSU) responsible for sovereignty patrols in the Torres Strait.