Image Gallery 2006
30 October 2006
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAIL
Brigadier Mal Rerden was born in Melbourne in 1958 and educated at Melbourne High School before entering the Royal Military College Duntroon in 1976. Upon graduation in 1979 he was appointed a Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Infantry Corps and served as a Rifle Platoon Commander in the 2nd/4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in Townsville. This was followed by one year as a Recruit Platoon Commander at the 1st Recruit Training Battalion at Kapooka.
From July 1992 to June 1993, BRIG Rerden attended the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College at Quantico, Virginia. As a Distinguished Graduate of the College, he was selected to attend a further 12-month course at Quantico. In June 1994 he graduated from the School of Advanced Warfighting as Student of Merit.
On return to Australia, BRIG Rerden was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted to Army Office in Canberra. In July 1995, he attended the Joint Services Staff College as a member of Course 52/95. In 1996 and 1997 he was the Commanding Officer of the 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment. As a Regional Force Surveillance Unit, the Battalion operated from the southern areas of the Gulf of Carpentaria, through the Cape York Peninsular region and in the Torres Strait Islands
In 1998, BRIG Rerden served as the Staff Officer Grade One - Operations on the Deployable Joint Force Headquarters in Brisbane. During this time he deployed to Bougainville for four months on Operation BEL ISI II as Chief of Staff of the Peace Monitoring Group. In January 1999 he was promoted to Colonel and was posted as Colonel Development at Land Headquarters in Sydney until December 2001. From September 2002 to July 2005, BRIG Rerden was Defence Attache Southern Europe based in Rome and accredited to Italy, Greece, Israel and Turkey.
In August 2006, he was appointed as the deputy commander of Operation ASTUTE in Timor-Leste. On the 22nd October he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and then on the 25th October 2006 assumed the command of the JTF631 in Timor-Leste.
