Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people please be advised that the following contains the names, images and objects of people who have died.
Adapted from the Australian War Memorial article “Australians and Peacekeeping".
A Proud Record
Australia has had peacekeepers in the field with the United Nations since 1947. In Indonesia in 1947, Australians were part of the very first group of UN military observers anywhere in the world, and were, in fact, the first into the field. Australians have also commanded various multinational operations including India and Pakistan (1950 – 1966), Cambodia (1992 – 1993), the Sinai (1994 – 1997), Iraq (1997 – 1999), East Timor (1999 – 2000), and Cyprus (2019 - ).
In the early years, Australia's peacekeepers were generally unarmed military observers, promoting peace indirectly by ensuring that neither side in a conflict could violate a ceasefire or commit atrocities without the United Nations and the world community knowing about it.
In Indonesia, information from UN military observers ultimately helped the Indonesian republicans win their independence from the Dutch. In Korea in 1950, the UN's judgement that North Korea had invaded the south was based, in part, on a report by Australian military observers serving with the UN Commission on Korea.
3 April 1952
Major Stuart Paul "Bill" Weir, Officer Commanding the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, shakes hands with President Syngman Rhee of South Korea (second from left) following the arrival of the battalion in Korea. James Plimsoll, the Australian delegate to the United Nations Committee for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea (UNCURK) is third from the left (wearing a dark suit).
Observer missions help create stability, but do not necessarily help end the conflicts which they are observing. Australian observers took part in a UN operation in Kashmir from 1950 to 1985. The operation continues today, without a resolution of the conflict in sight. Similarly, Australian observers have served with UN operations in the Middle East since 1956.
More recently, when the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, Australian observers took part in a UN operation monitoring the ceasefire.
Larger operations
Since the 1970s, Australia's contributions to peacekeeping operations have increased in size and scope. In that decade, and again in the 1980s, RAAF helicopters operated in the Sinai, as Egypt and Israel ended three decades of hostilities. At the end of the 1970s, an Australian infantry force of 150 soldiers took part in a British Commonwealth operation as Zimbabwe won its independence. A decade later, an even larger contingent, composed largely of engineers, assisted a UN operation with a similar role in Namibia.
With the end of the Cold War, the 1990s proved to be the busiest decade in the history of multinational peacekeeping. For a period in 1993, Australia had over 2,000 peacekeepers in the field, with large contingents in Cambodia and Somalia. A year later, Australians were in Rwanda, another country to fall victim to genocidal civil violence. This time, the Australian contingent centred on medical staff who were able to treat many of the local people, in addition to members of the UN force.
Angkor Wat, Cambodia, 25
February 1992.
Group portrait of members of the Australian contingent to the
United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC), on the occasion of the
presentation to them of the Australian Service Medal. The soldiers are dress in
jungle green uniforms with the distinctive blue berets and scarves of the
United Nations (UN).
8 November, 1994. Photographer: Geoffrey Fox
Captain Jim Parsons, a member of Headquarters 3 Brigade, serving in Rwanda with the Australian Medical Support Force, sits outside with a group of local children at the displaced persons camp. The Australian Medical Support Force is serving with UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda), a peacekeeping mission to the war-torn central African nation. It provides medical treatment to UN troops deployed to repatriate refugees affected by the civil war, and provides humanitarian assistance to local people.
After this there was a lull in Australian peacekeeping, though long-running operations continued in the Middle East, Cyprus, and Bougainville, and Australians were still involved in Iraq inspecting weapons-manufacturing facilities and policing sanctions.
Then in 1999, Australia led a peace enforcement operation which dwarfed all its previous peacekeeping efforts. As East Timor achieved independence from Indonesia, a period of violence, looting and arson erupted. Though a multi-national peacekeeping effort, Australia was the largest contributor of personnel to this peacekeeping mission. The last of Australia's personnel deployed to East Timor returned home on 27 March, 2013.
Smaller in scale than the operation in East Timor, Australia led the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Island (RAMSI) from 24 July, 2003 to 30 June, 2017 following instability and violence.
23 Platoon Forward Operating Base (FOB) in a palm oil plantation near the village of Bemuta, Solomon Islands. 16 March, 2009.
Each year National Peacekeepers' Day is observed on 14 September to recognise and remember Australian peace operations. This is the anniversary of the day in 1947 when Australia deployed servicemen to its first peacekeeping mission to Indonesia (then known as Netherlands East Indies).
2022 marks 75 years of continuous peacekeeping service by Australian personnel.
The Townsville Connection
Jason Rogalewski-Slade
Jason Rogalewski-Slade was 17 years old when he enlisted in the Australian Army on 17 August, 1988. He had always wanted to join the Army, inspired in part by his grandfather's service in World War II.
At the time of his deployment to Rwanda, Jason was a lance corporal and Armoured Corps crew commander in B squandron, 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment in Townsville.
Most of the 1st Australian contingent to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda II (UNAMIR II) arrived in Rwanda in late August 1994. Jason remembers the mission being a difficult one, full of surreal and unconventional experiences.
Hear Jason tell his own story of the peacekeeping mission to Rwanda here. Please be advised that there may be descriptions of traumatic events that you may find disturbing or may be triggering for you. Please use your discretion when viewing external links.
Want to Know More?
Australian War Memorial
https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/peacekeeping
Defence News
https://news.defence.gov.au/media/media-releases/australian-personnel-complete-timor-leste-operation
Anzac Portal
https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/research-education/schools/learning-about-australia-peacekeeping-operations
Northern Beaches State High School wishes to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we live and work, the Wulgurukaba and Bindal people. We pay our respects to their elders, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.