 After a brief stay in Sydney where the battalion ’ s equipment deficiencies were made good and some reinforcements were received from local recruit training depots , they embarked again on 10 January in company with <unk> Canberra , and proceeded through the Bass Strait . As they were under way , the troops were kept occupied with training on the Bren light machine gun and the Thompson sub @-@ machine gun , quantities of which were hastily added to the battalion ’ s equipment scale . They reached Fremantle , Western Australia , on 15 January and overnight , a large number of 2 / 4th men defied orders to stay aboard ship and went ashore to spend time with their families ; when the Aquitania sailed the next day , 94 men were left behind . The situation in Malaya was grave as the Japanese were steadily pushing the British and Commonwealth defenders south down the peninsula and as the gravity of the situation <unk> upon the Australian government , a knee @-@ <unk> reaction saw the dispatch of 150 partially trained reinforcements from Northam . They arrived just as the Aquitania departed , being ferried out to <unk> Island where they joined the ship ’ s company late in the afternoon of 16 January . Although the reinforcements made good the men that had been left behind , they were only partially trained and ill @-@ prepared for the fighting that would follow . 
