Following the loss of its original infantry battalions, the headquarters unit of the 23rd Brigade, which had not deployed with the infantry battalions, was used to re-form a new brigade. Three Militia battalions were assigned, the 7th, 8th and 27th Battalions. Reassigned to the 12th Division, after garrison duty in Darwin and training in northern Queensland, the 23rd Brigade saw action in 1944–1945 against the Japanese on Bougainville. Ostensibly the 8th Division ceased to exist in 1942; however, one of its artillery regiments, the 2/14th, which had remained in Darwin when the 23rd Brigade deployed, continued to serve until 1946, albeit attached to the 9th and 5th Divisions during their campaigns in New Guinea.