images

The crowd at Centennial Park, Sydney, at the Federation celebrations for the new nation of Australia, 1 January 1901. This was the first time the Parliament of Westminster transferred constitutional responsibility for external affairs to a dominion. With that transfer, Australia launched its first intelligence operation in March 1901—against Britain and France. National Library of Australia (NLA)

images

The managers of the new nation’s affairs. Standing, left to right: Muirhead Collins, of Defence; Atlee Hunt, of External Affairs; David Miller, of Home Affairs. Sitting, left to right: Robert Garran, of Attorney-General’s; Harry Wollaston, of Trade and Customs; Robert Scott, of Post-Master General’s; George Allen, of Treasury. National Archives of Australia (NAA)

images

Sir Edmund Barton, Australia’s first prime minister and the authority for the first Australian clandestine spying mission against France and Britain in 1901, spearheaded by William Le Couteur. State Library of NSW

images

The first post office in the New Hebrides, built by the British and French Condominium. This was the post office that Le Couteur used to receive and send correspondence with Atlee Hunt during his mission. Courtesy of Martin Treadwell

images

Walter de Haas, the German businessman who arrived in Sydney on 22 November 1893 and who was appointed German Trade Commissioner in 1903, photographed in 1915 during his internment at Liverpool Camp. Despite the confected outrage of Australian newspapers, de Haas was repatriated to Germany in late 1915. NAA

images

The Scottish linguist and scholar Professor James Murdoch, who set up the first Japanese language program for the Australian government and who participated in the collection of political intelligence in Japan. State Library of Queensland (SLQ)

images

Captain Myer and members of the crew of the SS Greifswald en route to Fremantle, where the ship was apprehended on the outbreak of war. Captain Myer failed to destroy his secret code books, which were seized by Australian Naval authorities who immediately began decoding intercepted signals forwarded by the Admiralty in London. NLA

images

A rare photograph of Reg Hockings, owner of the Wanetta Pearling Company, who avoided publicity by never marrying and living on his plantation on Boeton Island, Celebes. Brisbane Courier, 24 June 1934

images

Reg Hocking’s lugger, the radio-equipped Wanetta, at Thursday Island in 1919. Last known to be operating in the Maldives in the 1970s. University of Queensland Library

images

Thursday Island, c. 1917–1920, with some luggers of the fleet and views of Prince of Wales Island on the left horizon and Friday Island on the right. NLA

images

SS Matunga, the Burns Philp trader sought by Reg Hockings and the Admiralty. SLQ

images

Australia’s first official, although unpaid, coastwatcher, Ancell Clement Gregory, and his wife, Kate, in 1921. Courtesy of Kate Lance

images

Lugger of the Torres Strait type used by Ancell Gregory at Broome. Courtesy of Kate Lance

images

Ancell Gregory’s close friend and business partner Murakami Yasukichi and his wife, Theresa Shingeno, photographed in the late 1930s. State Library of Western Australia

images

Flagship of the Australian Fleet, HMAS Australia.

images

An RAAF Seagull A9-2 stowed on HMAS Australia during the Islands Cruise of 1932. This was the second combined intelligence collection operation integrating RAAF HUMINT with RAN SIGINT. NAA

images

Islands Cruise, 1932: Stowage of Seagull A9-2 on HMAS Australia. NAA

images

Islands Cruise, 1932: Photograph of a mission station on Darnley Island, taken from Seagull A9-2 on HMAS Australia. NAA

images

Steam yacht Franklin, used by RAN for SIGINT high-frequency propagation research and intercept operations against the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in Mandated Territories, 1927. Royal Australian Navy

images

HIJMS Asama under tow, Port Melbourne, 1932. This vessel conducted propagation trials in Australian waters during which Lieutenant W.E. McLaughlin stole the radio frequencies and schedules. State Library of Victoria (SLV)

images

Plan for the HFDF station intended for Rottnest Island in 1936 but later built at Jandakot in Perth. Two further stations were built, one at Darwin and one at Canberra, as part of Australia’s belated response to the proposals agreed at the 1921 Penang Conference. NAA

images

Security poster warning service personnel about loose talk. It would have been more accurate had it portrayed the Director General of the ABC or an Australian newspaper proprietor as the puppet master. SLV

images

Harry Freame around 1920, when he was a Japanese language teacher working for Professor Murdoch in Sydney. Goodyear Family Collection, courtesy of Sheila Spence

images

Freame and his daughter Grace on Anzac Day, 1937. This was the Harry Freame sent to Tokyo in October 1940. Goodyear Family Collection, courtesy of Sheila Spence

images

The lions waiting for Freame in Tokyo: Japanese Military Police (Kempeitai). The Kempeitai would prove a formidable foe of Australian intelligence and special forces personnel.

images

The headquarters of Fleet Radio Unit, Melbourne (FRUMEL), Monterey, Melbourne, c. 1943. NAA

images

A photograph of Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) personnel outside Monterey. The faces at the windows indicate the excitement of this unique occasion. NAA

images

FRUMEL’s Teleprinter Room showing the highly sophisticated (for the time) electronic, tabulating and card index files used in code breaking in the 1940s. NAA

images

FRUMEL’s Radio Control Room showing wireless telegraphists encrypting signals using punched tape devices and readers. NAA

images

FRUMEL’s Coding Room. WRANS were employed to do the bulk of this type of work. NAA

images

Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, home of the Special Intelligence Bureau headed by Professor T.G. Room, and also Land HQ and Military Intelligence Branch. NAA

images

Australia’s first line of defence in January 1940. Tom Weeks, radio operator on Thursday Island, dressed to kill in his uniform, First World War webbing equipment and two-tone shoes. NAA

images

A photograph of Patrol Officer Eric Feldt exploring the Sepik River in 1924. Feldt’s experience of the geography, climate and the peoples of the islands was an important factor in the success of the RAN Coastwatch organisation. NAA

images

A three-part tele-radio, similar to that carried by coastwatchers while eluding their Japanese pursuers. Note the bulky batteries on the back of the rack. NAA

images

A tele-radio antenna array of the type carried by coastwatchers in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. NAA

images

AWA radio station, Rabaul, in 1937, with a worker sweeping volcanic ash off the roof—demonstrating the difficulties of radio communication in the tropics, where thunderstorms were just one cause of bad atmospherics. NAA

images

German raider photographed on 27 December 1940 by Petty Officer H.J. Barnes, RANR, radio operator on Nauru and clandestine SIGINT operator. He faced capture if the Germans landed, something the Admiralty had warned Australia about. NAA

images

Smoke from the burning oil storage tanks after the German attack on Nauru, December 1940. NAA

images

The phosphate loader and gantry on Nauru was a major target for the German raiders. Smoke from the burning oil storage tanks can be seen in the background. NAA

images

Ruby Boye-Jones at her tele-radio on Vanikoro Island, Santa Cruz Group. She sent detailed reports four times a day. Courtesy Boye Family Collection, Sea Power Centre—Australia

images

British Solomon Islands Protectorate Defence Force soldier, probably Sergeant William Bennett, at Segi station on New Georgia, operating a tele-radio. Australian War Memorial (AWM)

images

Captain Roy Kendall, RNR, Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) Head of Station and Secret Intelligence Australia (SIA), Brisbane, 1942 to 1946. Later he was elected Senator for Queensland. NAA

images

A rare photograph of Eve Walker as part of the BOAC delegation in Melbourne, 1946. From 1943 to1945, Eve Walker, using the cover of a Third Officer WRNS, was Roy Kendall’s deputy in Brisbane and ran the SIS counterintelligence effort against the United States and Australia. The Women’s Weekly, 15 June 1946, NLA

images

Central Bureau headquarters, 21 Henry Street, Ascot, Brisbane. Central Bureau worked for General Douglas MacArthur but was controlled by SIGINT authorities in Washington and London and was closely monitored by Kendall’s SIS on London’s behalf. AWM

images

Alastair Sandford, the head of Central Bureau and the unheralded father of Australian SIGINT.

images

No. 3 Wireless Unit, RAAF, based at Coomalie Creek, NT, 1944—part of Central Bureau’s extensive intercept organisation. AWM

images

Lieutenant W.J. Reid (hand on hip) and DSIO, Lieutenant Commander I. Pryce-Jones (second from right), with members of the British Solomon Islands Police, probably late 1943 on Guadalcanal. AWM

images

Coastwatcher Donald Kennedy’s house at Segi, New Georgia. AWM

images

The Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD) Maintenance Lugger Section’s Snake-class junk, HMAS Tigersnake, which transported SRD parties and supplies into Japanese-occupied islands. NAA

images

Photo of Petty Officer Roy Woodroffe when he was a leading telegraphist. He was captured around July 1942 and subsequently executed by the Japanese in late 1942. AWM

images

Coastwatch communications dugout, Guadalcanal, October 1943, with operator and runner. The radio on the left was used to communicate with higher headquarters and supported military commands, and the AWA tele-radio set on the right was used for monitoring X frequency used by the coastwatcher network. AWM

images

Sergeant Yauwika of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Native Police being presented the Loyal Service Medal by Lieutenant Commander I. Pryce-Jones, RANVR, for his work as a coastwatcher at Kieta, 14 October 1943. AWM

images

Coastwatchers in late 1942. Front, left to right: L.E. Ashton, L.C. Noakes, F.A. Rhodes, E. Feldt, H.A. Mackenzie, G.H.R. Marsland, H.R. Koch, A. Campbell. Back, left to right: M.H. Wright, R.I. Skinner, K.W.T. Bridge, R.C. Cambridge, L.A. Walker, H.A.F. Robertson, C.W. Seaton, H.L. Williams. All of the men in this photograph survived the war, a tribute to the professionalism of Eric Feldt’s organisation. AWM

images

An appalling truth revealed: the 12 August 1945 signal to the SRD from the Kempeitai on Timor, sarcastically confirming the compromise of all SRD operations on the island. NAA