sentences:  Within a month of arriving, the New South Wales detachment had seen action at Tamai, becoming the first Australian raised military force to do so.By May 1885, the campaign had been reduced to a series of small skirmishes, the most significant of which for the New South Wales contingent came at Takdul on 6 May.Shortly afterwards, the British government requested to deploy the contingent to India where there were concerns about Russian intentions in Afghanistan, however public opinion in the colony was against the deployment.