ISSUE 61 : Nov/Dec - 1986 - Australian Defence Force Journal

38 DEFENCE FORCE JOURNAL No. 61 November/December 86
2. The destruction of the basis on which the
Royal Australian Navy was organised, and
as a result of which the Australian people
committed themselves to the expenditure
of several millions of public money. . .
3. The announcement of a vital departure in
many important respects from a policy
agreed upon between the Dominions and
the Imperial Government, without any previous
consultation with, or even preliminary
notification to, the government of the
Dominions."
Reid declared that Australia would pursue the
policy on which she embarked in 1909 as it was
seen to be "vital to the cause of Imperial defence
and Imperial union, and an essential safeguard
for her own protection."
It was now accepted that Australia could not
rely on Britain for its maritime defence and in
June 1914, shortly before commencement of
World War 1, the Minister for Defence announced
that the Government would build two
more light cruisers of the Brisbane class and
two submarines at a total cost of 1,700,000
Pounds. The material for the first cruiser, later
named Adelaide, was to be obtained immediately.
Adelaide was the only ship of this program
to be built and she did not complete until
August 1922.
Synopsis
In a little over a decade since achieving
nationhood Australia had acquired a modern
fleet unit and as such was the first British colony
to take a substantive step to provide for her
own maritime defence.
To a large extent the strategic and defence
policy perceptions, which culminated in establishment
of the Royal Australian Navy in 1911,
are synonymous with those which have been
recently regenerated.
Despite the incremental impact of technological
developments on the nature of conventional
warfare Australia's defence situation has remained
essentially unaltered. This has been influenced
in no small way by the enduring impact
of geography and its central importance to the
formulation of defence policy.
Regardless of Australia's various alliance
commitments, since Federation, the basic concern
has remained the direct defence of Australia.
There has over the years, however, been
some fluctuation in views on how this might
best be achieved.
A central feature of the 1901-1914 period is
the striking similarity to a number of aspects
of Australia's present strategic and maritime
perceptions. These include:
• lack of a clearly defined or identified threat;
• pre-eminence of the maritime environment
in force structure planning;
• assessment that small-scale raids, or in current
jargon low-level contingencies, should
be our primary force structure determinant
rather than the threat of major invasion;
• an awareness of the strategic importance
of Australia's northern maritime approaches
and the need to develop maritime
infrastructure to support operations in the
north;
• lack of a clearly defined maritime strategy,
or concept of operations;
• focus on ship characteristics and performance
directly relevant to Australia's geographic
and strategic situation;
• recognition that our allies might be either
unwilling or unable to come to Australia's
assistance in time of defence emergency;
and
• implicit acceptance of the benefits of local
manufacture of defence equipment and
willingness to incur the associated financial
premiums.
Given the enduring nature of Australia's defence
posture it is unfortunate that greater attention
is not accorded, in the formulation of
defence policy, to reassessing the lessons of
history with particular attention to the rationale
for development of the earlier policies. U
REFERENCES
1. Hansard, Commonwealth of Australia, 1901-14.
2. Parliamentary Papers, Commonwealth of Australia,
1901-14.
3. G. St. J. Barclay, The Empire is Marching — A Studv
of the Military Effort of I he British Empire 1800-1945,
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1976.
4. J. Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, Angus and Robertson,
Sydney, 1975.
5. R. Gillett, Warships of Australia, Rigby, Adelaide,
1977.
6. R. Gillett, Australia's Colonial Navies, the Naval Historical
Society of Australia, Sydney, 1982.
7. D.C. Gordon, The Dominion Partnership in Imperial
Defense, 1870-1914, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, 1965.
8. R. Hyslop, Australian Naval Administration 1900-1939,
Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1973.
9. C. Jones, Australian Colonial Navies, Australian War
Memorial, Canberra, 1986.