page_title: 5th/6th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment
section_title: The Regiment
hierarchical_section_title: 5th/6th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment / Unit history / The Regiment
caption_attribution_description: 5th/6th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment marching down Swanston Street past Flinders Street Station, as part of the 2008 ANZAC Day Parade in Melbourne.
context_page_description: The 5th/6th Battalion is one of two battalions of the Royal Victoria Regiment, and is an infantry battalion of the Australian Army Reserve. The battalion can trace its lineage back to many units that existed prior to Federation, as well as units that fought during World War I and World War II and the battalion carries the battle honours of these units as a mark of respect. Today 5/6 RVR is part of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Division and is based at various depots around Melbourne, Victoria. Recently, members from the battalion have been involved in deployments to the Middle East, East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Malaysia as part of Rifle Company Butterworth.
context_section_description: In the late 1950s, it was determined to consolidate all Army Reserve infantry regiments into one regiment per state.  With this move, several proud regimental histories were ended and a new chapter in the history of Victorian volunteer military forces had begun. The Royal Victoria Regiment was formed on 1 July 1960, as a non-tactical grouping of all Army Reserve infantry battalions in the state of  Victoria. It inherits and embodies the traditions of the infantry in Victoria from the earliest units formed since 1854. To fully understand the heritage of the regiment it is necessary to go back to the very founding of the colony, however, this summary will concentrate on the history of the Melbourne battalions since the conclusion of World War II.
  A number of previously existing Melbourne metropolitan units and Victorian regional units now make up the 5th/6th Battalion, The Royal Victoria Regiment. The regional units' proud traditions and histories are entrusted to 8th/7th Battalion, The Royal Victoria Regiment, which is the sister unit of 5/6 RVR. It should be understood that many of the 1st AIF and the 2nd AIF units were raised directly from the skeleton of militia units on the declaration of war. For this reason, The Royal Victoria Regiment can claim more battle honours than any other regiment or unit in the Australian Defence Force. A list of the approved battle honours is included below.
  This summary follows three Victorian battalions (5th, 6th and 58th/32nd) that have been merged, split and renamed several times from 1948 through to 2003. A fourth battalion was briefly formed in the early 1970s and some of its activities will be briefly mentioned. This constant flux and turmoil has disrupted the clarity of the battalion's heritage. The various regimental families however, sustain the unit's past and a benefit of this consolidation is the breadth of its affiliations.
caption: 5/6 RVR marching through Melbourne on ANZAC Day 2008
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