In 1885 annual Easter training camps were established; that year the size of Tasmania's military force had grown to 974 men. Work on the Kangaroo Bluff Battery was also completed at this time with the arrival of two 12.5 ton cannons from England. The first shots were fired on 12 February 1885. The Alexandra battery was also finished in 1885, and a force of permanent artillery was raised the following year. However, by 1893, an additional "auxiliary" force of 1,500 had also been raised and three years later the regiment consisted of three battalions, numbered consecutively, which were based in Hobart, Launceston and in the north west.