Australian Colonial Uniforms 1863-1903

1. Field Service Dress, Private Australian Volunteer, Waikato Regiment seconded to the Commissariat Transport Corps, 1864

Volunteers serving with the CTC 1863-72 retained Waikato Regiment status and uniform, adopting a red band to the new style forage cap which had replaced the Kilmarnock type from 1860. He is shown in field dress of jumper (or frock, a coarse weave jacket), blue trousers with red welt, forage cap with red band and red worsted button, white leather belt and black lace up leggings and boots. He is depicted as a wagon driver with horse whip (he might alternatively have been a bullock driver), armed with the Enfield rifle.

2. Field Service Dress Dress Warrant Officer Commissariat Clerk, New South Wales Soudan Contingent, 1885

Two members of the Colonial Commissariat were specially enlisted with the force for liaison duties after the British Army undertook the contingent’s supplies and transport support. There was no Corps in the New South Wales Forces, so it is unlikely that they wore any special uniform or insignia in a force raised and embarked within three weeks. The Warrant Officer is therefore shown with the field khaki uniform issued to the Contingent from British stocks after arrival, with white helmet and puggaree dyed khaki after arrival. The badge of rank shown on blue backing remains the usual one for the blue tunic, but no helmet badge is shown as these were removed prior to embarkation. He is shown with black boots and khaki canvas leggings, and not being in the field, with a white leather belt.

3. General Duty Dress, Corporal Victorian Ordnance, Commissariat and Transport Corps, 1889

The original Corps was raised within Artillery units, so the Commissariat colours of blue, silver and gold ensured a similar dress to that of the hosts. Leaving the Artillery fold in 1888 gave an incentive to take on something different, and as khaki was becoming fashionable for general wear, this was adopted with blue facings to retain the basic corps colour. As with all corps the universal badge was worn on the headdress, and for distinguishing insignia an OCT shoulder title continued until changed to C&T the following year with departure of the Ordnance element. This insignia is listed as yellow worsted for a junior rank from 1889, presumably for a blue uniform, but examples of metal OCT badges are extant, khaki undress jackets used brass titles until at least 1893 and it would seem that this was usual with khaki dress.

4. Full Dress, Major Commanding (Assistant Commissary General), Victorian Commissariat and Transport Corps, 1890

It is problematical just how many of the uniform changes detailed in the VMF regulations actually came into effect before being overtaken by the next. The Full Dress is on safe ground through the tunic from Mr E. Millett in the collection in the Australian War Memorial. The uniform is a lieutenant’s so it has to be 1891 or later, but it conforms with the 1889 regulations, and the furnishings and accessories of those regulations have been used. The Major depicted would have worn a blue helmet if on parade with troops, but was permitted to wear the earlier cocked hat in full dress elsewhere, and is shown thus.

5. Full Dress, Captain Commanding, New South Wales Commissariat and Transport Corps, 1891

New South Wales Military Forces dress regulations are less thoroughly documented than the Victorian, but there is fairly ample photographic evidence to supplement a Commissariat and Transport tunic held in the Australian War Memorial. An 1891 photograph shows clearly the blue uniform with white piping and trousers with a single broad white stripe, different to the Victorian double one; and accoutrements and insignia used – white colonial pattern helmet with NSW helmet plate, white patent leather cartrouche belt and pouch, waist belt and sword furnishings.

6. General Duty Dress, Driver, New South Wales Army Service Corps, 1897

This dress combined the blue jacket or frock with riding breeches, the hat with blue and white puggaree also making an appearance in place of the helmet. The badge used on the hat is unknown, there being no evidence of an ASC badge between the universal badge and the Advance Australia badge identified at or prior to 1900. The driver is prepared for deployment to the field with Oliver pattern water bottle and haversack. The leg wear is obscured or indistinct in all available photographs, some showing what appears to be a black pullover material legging with no fasteners, but it is not possible to be positive on this. The fact that the initial Commonwealth AASC uniform included puttees makes it likely that this may have been the preferred dress of its predecessors; also the NSW Artillery wore blue-black puttees with field service uniform, and so by likely analogy those have been included in this depiction.

7. General Duty Dress, Bugler, Victorian Army Service Corps 1899

The bugler represents the pictorial and material evidence which interprets the Victorian Forces dress regulations and amendments applying to the Victorian Army Service Corps by the turn of the century. The uniform differs from the New South Wales versions in the double white trouser stripes, the headdress and jacket facings. The original epaulette title of OCT had changed to C&T and now to AS in metal. The badges appear to be a Service Corps type, but there is no documentary or specimen evidence for this, so it has to be accepted at present that they were the Victorian universal badge; the Commonwealth Par Oneri badge motto remains a mystery. What is apparent is that the small Victorian ASC component had a stronger influence on the AASC regalia than the larger NSW component, no doubt attributable to the Commonwealth Defence Head-Quarters being established in
Melbourne.

8. Field Service Dress, Lieutenant Victorian Army Service Corps, Special Service Officer South Africa, 1900

Special service officers went as individuals, presumably in their regimental uniforms which, for the Victorian ASC officer who commanded a British transport company, meant blues, which he would quickly have changed to the khaki theatre dress. A slender bit of photographic evidence suggests that he would have worn a hat with braided puggaree turned up on the right Tom Price style, as was then the Victorian norm, the usual breeches and the brown lace up riding boots which had become generally accepted amongst equestrian officers. This has been completed with the sam browne belt with two shoulder braces, popular during the Soudan campaign of 1898 and then widely adopted by all arms of the service.