 500 men from the Kennedy Regiment were sent to Thursday Island from Townsville to garrison the island in response to a possible threat from German forces in the Pacific.Additionally, militia troops were used to establish and guard internment camps and garrison artillery and engineer units from the militia were also mobilised to assist the regular units that were manning coastal defences.By the end of 1914 the naval situation in the Pacific had eased to a large extent due to the sinking of the "Emden", and it was decided that there was no longer a need to maintain guards on many of the less important facilities, and instead it was decided to concentrate the home defence network upon maintaining the coastal defences and on guarding ships while they were in port.