Agim Ajazi, 34, faced Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday for sentencing after pleading guilty in May to foreign incursions, engaging in hostile activities and advocating terrorism.
Ajazi left Australia in July 2013, establishing a base in Turkey from which he crossed the border into Syria the following year, prosecutors said in May.
The former Gold Coast resident was not a member of a terrorist organisation, but admitted taking part in efforts to overthrow the Syrian government as an infantry fighter who fired an Kalashnikov assault rifle during battles that caused hundreds of casualties.
Defence barrister Glen Rice said in May that Ajazi no longer has extremist views but had been inspired to travel to the war zone at the start of the Syrian conflict.
"He was particularly motivated by images which were available on the internet of the kind of treatment that that regime dealt its citizens," Mr Rice said.
Ajazi faced a possible maximum sentence of life in prison under Australia's laws targeting people who travelled overseas to act as foreign fighters, particularly for groups in Iraq and Syria that were also involved in terrorism.
Justice Susan Brown on Tuesday sentenced Ajazi to eight years and two months in prison with a set non-parole period of six years, one month and two weeks.
Justice Brown declared Ajazi had already served 1295 days in custody, including in South Australia and a year spent detained in Turkey.
"I am also required to warn you ... that an application may be made for a continuing detention order requiring you be detained in custody after the end of your sentence or an extended supervision order," Justice Brown said.
The judge said she would later publish her reasons for the sentencing.
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