Defending Australia’s land border: The Australian military in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Although no war was fought there after the defeat of the Japanese in 1945, Papua New Guinea (PNG) occupied an important place in Australia’s strategic thinking during the early Cold War. Not only was the island seen as a barrier to Australia’s enemies, it was also a potential base from which to strike the Australian mainland should it fall. During the 1950s it continued its position as a barrier to invasion against the threat of communist aggression from the north. However, with the Indonesian takeover of West Papua in 1962, Australia, for the first time, shared a land border with a potentially hostile nation, and when Indonesia embarked on its policy of Confrontation with Malaysia the following year, PNG was never far from Australian planners’ minds.1 As a result, throughout this tumultuous period PNG was closely integrated into Australian strategic thinking and wider planning in the event of a conflict with Indonesia, with Australian forces also drawing on experiences in Borneo against Indonesia to inform their preparations in PNG. At the same time, the Australian Army’s units in PNG had a clear peacetime role, helping to patrol the border, gathering topographical and human intelligence, and building relationships with the people on whom they would rely during any war or conflict.