Historical information

Presented to 1st Battalion, The Royal Western Australia Regiment by Field Marshall HRH The Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh at a parade held at the Western Australian Cricket Association Ground, East Perth on 25 November 1962.

The Royal Western Australia Regiment was formed on 1 July 1960 from the amalgamation of the following existing infantry battalions in the State at the time :-
• 11th/44th Infantry Battalion (The City of Perth Regiment)
• 16th Infantry Battalion (The Cameron Highlanders of Western Australia)
• 28th Infantry Battalion (The Swan Regiment)

At the above presentation of colours to the new battalion, the Colours of the former battalions (four sets of Queen's and Regimental colours) were trooped through the ranks of the battalion and marched off the parade for the last time. These former colours were subsequently laid up in the undercroft at the State War Memorial, King's Park on 29 November 1964. These were transferred to the Army Museum of WA in 1988 as part of the Bicentenary Colours Project. (Refer to Items 4-12 for individual records of these colours)

1st Battalion, The Royal Western Australia Regiment was renumbered 16th Battalion effective from 1st January 1966 as part of a move to reintroduce the old battalion numbers back into the State Regimental system

16th Battalion, The Royal Western Australia Regiment was presented with a new set of Colours on 27 October 2002. The original 1962 Colours were formally handed over for safe keeping to the Army Museum of Western Australia on 3 November 2002.

Battle Honours allocated to the State Infantry Regiments created under the CMF reorganisation in July 1960 were promulgated in Australian Army Order 85/1962. These were a consolidation of the battle honours awarded to the various individual battalions that were amalgamated to form the new regiments.

Physical description

Royal blue with gold and red fringes. In the centre the main device from the regimental badge consisting of a black swan upon a pair of crossed rifles on a red background, within a circle inscribed "THE ROYAL WESTERN AUSTRALIA REGIMENT". The whole enclosed within a wreath of Australian wattle and surmounted by the Crown. Across the lower portion of the wreath a scroll inscribed with the regimental motto "VIGILANT". In the upper canton the Roman numeral "XVI" (Originally this was the numeral "I" - changed to "XVI" in 1966 - see Historical Background details below)
Battle honours emblazoned on the colour :
SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, SOMME 1916-18, POZIERES, BULLECOURT, MESSINES 1917, YPRES 1917, PASSCHENDAELE, AMIENS, MONT ST QUENTIN, HINDENBURG LINE, LANDING AT ANZAC