In February 1885, as implementation of the Jervois-Scratchley recommendations in New South Wales was nearly completed, news was received of the death of General Charles Gordon at Khartoum during the Dervish revolt in the eastern Sudan.²⁴ The following day New South Wales offered two batteries of its regular artillery, a battalion of infantry and a small ambulance detachment to serve with the British forces in the Sudan. Within three weeks, the force of 768 all ranks was enrolled, equipped, and dispatched in two ships.²⁵ (Only one artillery battery was dispatched.)

Within a month of embarkation the contingent saw action at Tamai. By May 1885, the campaign had been reduced to a series of skirmishes and the troops returned to Sydney by mid-June. Three soldiers were wounded and two died of illness during the campaign, while three later died of illness at Colombo during the voyage back to Australia.²⁶

Lord Wolseley said that 'the result was so satisfactory that I trust the noble and patriotic example set by New South Wales may, should occasion arise, be followed by other colonies', an opportunity which came fourteen years later. The Sudan Contingent was the first army contingent to be raised and dispatched by an Australian colony. In 1907, the award of the honorary distinction 'Suakin 1885' was made to the New South Wales infantry regiments of the Australian Army descended from their colonial forebears which had contributed volunteers to the infantry battalion that served in the Sudan.²⁷