'Up Top': Darwin and the Confrontation with Indonesia 1963-1996

10.30 - 11.30am

The campaign by the Sukarno regime in Indonesia to abort or unravel the creation of Malaysia provoked a low intensity but dangerous war with a coalition of Commonwealth allies, led by the United Kingdom. Australia played an important but complicated role in this volatile conflict. Darwin was central to that role in two respects. One is well documented and, while important, was also straightforward; Darwin was an important staging and support base for Australian and Commonwealth operations and movements in the area. The other is less well known, and more revealing. Not until well into 1966 could it be safely assumed the conflict would not escalate to open war. At one period, in late 1964, such escalation seemed imminent. This compelled the Commonwealth coalition to prepare contingency plans, to cover a range of possible scenarios. All of them envisaged a conflict that would have posed a much greater and direct threat to Australian security and national interests. The most serious were based on an all out air offensive by Commonwealth air and naval forces against Indonesian air, sea and national power. And Darwin was pivotal to them all. This presentation will analyze how Australia participated in preparing for this wider and more dangerous war, the role Darwin played in these preparations for wider war in the air, and what this problem can tell us all about how Australia tried to relate its own direct national security interests to wider problems of collective security 'Up Top.'

Associate Professor Brian P. Farrell is Deputy Head of the Department of History at the National University of Singapore, where he has taught since 1993. A former Canadian soldier, he graduated with a B.A. from Carleton University, Ottawa, before gaining his doctorate from McGill University in 1992. He is author, co-author or editor of several books on the military history of Singapore, the Malaya campaign and British grand strategy in World War II, and is currently working on a history of Britain's Far East Command from 1962 through to 1971, including the period of Indonesian 'Confrontation' over the formation of Malaysia.