PNG may not welcome ADF
IN 1963, as the administering power in the Territories of Papua and New Guinea, the Australian Government faced a defence dilemma.
It mainly involved defending the remote, mountainous and often impenetrable border between PNG and the former Dutch West New Guinea.
Although the Netherlands retained control of its former colony after the Japanese defeat in 1945, Indonesia’s dictator Sukarno always insisted it should be merged with the newly independent Indonesian Republic.
In 1961 Indonesia launched military assaults against the Dutch administration.
The UN intervened in 1962, ceding temporary control to Indonesia on the proviso West Papuans be given the opportunity to decide whether they wanted to retain their sovereignty or merge with Indonesia.
Indonesia tightened its control, including launching calamitous airborne raids into south west Papua in PNG.
This military misadventure resulted in the deaths of all participants. Those not killed in the jump were murdered on the ground by furious villagers.
The Australian Government suppressed news of this incursion, though it raised concerns in Canberra about possible Indonesian military intent. While it had not yet committed combat forces to Vietnam, Malaysian- based Australian troops were engaging communist terrorists on the Malay- Thai border.
Although Malaysia, Britain and NZ committed forces to counter Indonesia’s aggression, the Australian Government initially declined, lest such actions provoked an Indonesian military response in Irian Jaya, as it had been renamed.
Translated as West Irian, the inference was Indonesia regarded the territory to the east of the border as East Irian, over which it harboured further territorial ambitions.
The ADF had a single, locally recruited infantry battalion in PNG, the Pacific Islands Regiment, whose officers were drawn from the Australian Army.
Based at Taurama Barracks on Port Moresby’s eastern outskirts, the battalion maintained company outposts on three monthly rotations, including at Vanimo on the West Irian border and a few kilometres from the provincial capital Jayapura.
The RAN maintained a maintenance and refuelling facility on Manus Island.
In 1964, the Australian Government raised an additional battalion of the Pacific Islands Regiment based in Wewak and reintroduced compulsory national service at home.
It also raised another six infantry battalions, though not specifically for service in PNG.
While 4RAR, which included national servicemen in its ranks, was committed to service in Borneo against Indonesia, all RAR battalions starting with 5RAR would serve in South Vietnam until all Australian combat forces were withdrawn by Prime Minister William McMahon, beginning in late 1971.
Since PNG independence in 1975, Australia’s military commitment to PNG has been in training and advisory roles.
As China flexes its muscle in the region, Australia has signalled its willingness to help PNG expand its military resources, including possible ADF involvement.
As successive Australian governments allowed old military relationships to wither, that gratuitous offer of future involvement might not sit well with PNG’s independent political and military hierarchies.