Liberation: The end of Australian rule in Papua New Guinea

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 269-280

  Nelson, Hank ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33748866340     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00223340020010562     Document Type: Review

References (37)

1. The names for the east of the island of New Guinea are confusing. From 1884, the northeast was German New Guinea and the southeast was British New Guinea. In 1906, the southeast became the Australian Territory of Papua. The Australians occupied German New Guinea in 1914 and in 1921, it became Australian New Guinea, a territory held under mandate from the League of Nations. During World War II, both Australian territories of Papua and New Guinea were combined and known as New Guinea. In 1945, the two territories continued under one administration as Papua-New Guinea, from 1949 as Papua and New Guinea, and from 1971 as Papua New Guinea. The name Papua New Guinea was adopted by the new nation at independence. Papua New Guinea is sometimes used here for all of east New Guinea before that became the official name in 1971.
2. Pacific Islands Monthly, Sept. 1961, p. 67.
3. I was teaching at the first preliminary year of the University in 1966, and a fellow lecturer told me he had heard tire term in the Highlands.
4. Names for the west of the island of New Guinea vary and carry political significance. It was Netherlands New Guinea or Dutch New- Guinea, before it became West Irian in 1962 then Irian Barat, in 1973 Irian Jaya. West Papua is the name preferred by those who want Irian Java to be free of Indonesian control. I have used the neutral 'West New Guinea' at various times.
5. R.V. Prescort, 'Problems of International Boundaries with Particular reference to the Boundary Between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea', in RJ. May (ed.), Between Two Nations: The Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border and West Papua .Nationalism (Bathurst 1986), 7.
6. John Andrews, 'New Guinea and Australia's Defence and Foreign Policy', in J. Wilkes (ed.), New Guinea and Australia (Sydney 1958), 184, quotes: 'New Guinea is strategically vital'.
7. Wilkes, New Guinea and Australia, 160.
8. P. Hasluck, A Time for Building: Australian Administration in Papua and New Guinea 1951-1963 (Melbourne 1976), ch. 30.
9. Pacific Islands Monthly, Apr. 1960, p. 19.
10. June Verrier, 'The Origins of the Border problem and the Border Story to 1969', in May, Between Two Nations, 18-48, has a general summary, but I have also had access to the work of Stuart Doran, doctoral student at the Australian National University, who has just completed a detailed archival study on West New Guinea.
11. Hasluck, speculating about the future relationship of Australia and Papua and New Guinea, said that, in 30 years time when this question might be resolved, then both countries would have changed (Wilkes, New Guinea and Australia, 86).
12. P. Hasluck, 'Present Tasks and Policies', in Wilkes, ibid., 84. Hasluck did not write of making a new nation but a new 'society'.
13. Wray Vaniplew (ed.), Australians: Historical Statistics (Sydney 1987), 201.
14. Quoted in T.B. Millar, Australia in Peace and War (Canberra 1991), 318.
15. M. Ryan (ed.), Advancing Australia: the speeches of Paul Keating, Prime Minister (Sydney 1995), 196 and 201.
16. Vamplew (ed.), Australians: Historical Statistics, 284.
17. This was not true of several of those Asian governments that through this period achieved very high rates of economic growth.
18. Australian Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 12 Nov. 1901, vol. 6, p. 7091.
19. 'Late German New Guinea' was a term used in documents at the time.
20. The tenus 'sacred trust.....' are from Article 22 of the Treaty of Peace, Versailles.
21. F. West (ed.), Selected Leiters of Hubert Murray (Melbourne 1970), 225-6.
22. EJ. Ward, Minister for External Territories, House of Representatives, 4 July 1945
23. and reprinted in B. Jinks, P. Biskup and H. Nelson, Readings in New Guinea History (Sydney 1973), 322.
24. Report to the General Assembly of the United Nations: Administration of the Territory of New Guinea 1st July 1963-30th June 1964, Government Printer, Canberra, pp. 25-6. The Annual Reports are a basic source for formal and public intention and through the tables of statistics provide a measure of achievement.
25. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 7 May 1963, p. 1073.
26. T. Stannage, K. Saunders and R. Nile (eds), Paul Hasluck in Australian History: civic personality and public life (Brisbane 1999), has an account of Hasluck's career. Hasluck gave a detailed history and defence of his own ministry in A Time for Building. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 8 Mar. 1962, p. 608. Hasluck answered a similar question on 13 March.
27. I. Downs, The Australian. Trusteeship Papua New Guinea 1945-75 (Canberra 1980), 368-75.
28. Governor-General Lord Casey presenting the government policy, Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 12 Mar. 1968, p. 9.
29. There is no single line of separation, but all the major islands of Torres Strait are Australian.
30. Papuans had closely questioned the. Australian Prime Minister John Gorton in Port Moresby in 1970 about their special status. They got no comfort. H. Nelson, Papua New Guinea: Black Unity or Black Chaos? (Ringwood 1974), 27-8.
31. Pacific Islands Monthly, Feb. 1971, pp. 25-6. Whitlam had his speech included in Hansard, House of Representatives, 10 Oct. 1972, pp. 2298-300.
32. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 10 Oct. 1972, pp. 2296 -7. Somare's motion was included in Peacock's statement.
33. Those powers included all except defence, internal security and foreign affairs.
34. L. Johnson, Colonial Sunset: Australia, and Papua New Guinea, 1970-74 (Brisbane 1983), 250.
35. Address to the New South Wales Branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 8 June 1972, and reprinted in Hansard, House of Representatives, 28 Aug. 1975.
36. Michael Somare, Sana: An Autobiography (Port Moresby 1975), 142-3, gives Somare's speech in favour of independence.
37. I used this transformation as a title : 'From Frontier to Territory, Colony and Nation: Australia and New Guinea', in Dolores Elizalde (ed.), Les Relaciones Internacionales en el Pacifico (Siglos XVIII-XX): Colonizacion, Descolonizacion Y Encuentro Cultural, Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas (Madrid 1997), 671-94.