Our Military Heritage

The band is inextricably linked to the Australian Army. The band was founded by the members of the 4/3 Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regimental (RNSW) band. The soldier musicians of that Army Reserve band transferred to the SPCB when the Army band was folded in 1995.

The uniform, worn to this day, pays tribute to its historic past as an Army Reserve band.

It is fair to say that in the 1990's the 'bean counter's' who controlled Defence funding generally lost interest in bands, closing down a number of bands across Australia.

SPCB was founded 30 years ago as an adjunct to the Army band. It was known then as the “4/3 Battalion RNSWR Band Association Band”.

The Constitution was drafted in 1992 by the late Bob Smith before his retirement from the Army. Bob remained a loyal member of the band right up to his passing in 2017. We still have two members of the original Army Reserve Band today.

The band became known as the South Pacific Concert Band for the first time in 1993 when it was the guest band on a South Pacific cruise on the P&O ship, Fairstar.

The 4/3 Battalion RNSWR band has an interesting and colourful history, which goes back to WW1 as one of the original 'Diggers' bands. At that time it was common for an entire civilian band to be recruited, all that changed was the name and uniform.

When it was recruited, it became the band of the 4th Battalion Australian Imperial Force (AIF), which was stationed at Randwick. The band would have trained with the Battalion, ready to be posted overseas. Then, as now, Army musicians would have also trained as medics and stretcher-bearers.

The Battalion saw distinguished service in Gallipoli at Lone Pine and subsequently served with distinction in France and Flanders until the end of the War. It received 23 battle honours.

The Battalion's lineage is traced back to the Newtown Volunteer Rifle Corps (1862) and the Ashfield Volunteer Reserve Corps (1885). It is probable that the band came from a civilian band in one of these communities.

The band has participated over the years in a number of important engagements including the Royal Command Performance for Prince Charles at the Opera House in 1979.

The Battalion band was the first Army Reserve band to perform overseas. The first occasion was when the band was invited to perform at the 50th Anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1991. The band played in the grounds of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for Veterans and relatives of those linked to the attack.

The second tour was to Indianapolis at the invitation of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Association of America. Both these tours were highly successful and cemented the reputation of the band as one of the best in the Australian Army.

We are extremely proud to recognise and continue the distinguished history and traditions of the Band, both as an Australian Army Reserve Band and now as a highly successful Community band.