Seumas Spark

Australia’s Northern Shield?: Papua New Guinea and the defence of Australia since 1880 by Bruce Hunt

The subtitle of this book is Papua New Guinea and the Defence of Australia since 1880. Michael Somare, first prime minister of Papua New Guinea (PNG), is at the centre of the cover photograph, and the cover design uses red, yellow, and black, the colours of the PNG flag. Yet for much of this book PNG is at the periphery of ...

... (read more)

The Shadow Men: The leaders who shaped the Australian Army from the Veldt to Vietnam edited by Craig Stockings and John Connor

by Seumas Spark •

September 2017, no. 394

Seumas Spark reviews 'The Shadow Men: The leaders who shaped the Australian Army from the Veldt to Vietnam' edited by Craig Stockings and John Connor

First, a quibble. In the first paragraph of his introduction, John Connor writes that few Australians could ‘name a significant figure of the Australian Army’, John Monash and Simpson (and his donkey) aside. I am less sure. A generation after his death, Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop remains a familiar name. Two of the past three governors-general, including the incu ...

Anzac Day Then and Now edited by Tom Frame

by Seumas Spark •

June–July 2016, no. 382

Seumas Spark reviews 'Anzac Day Then and Now' edited by Tom Frame

I hazard a guess that more books are published on Anzac – the day, the legend, the myth – than on any other subject in Australian history. The least of these ...

... (read more)

A Little America in Western Australia: The US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape and the Founding of Exmouth by Anthony J. Barker and Michael L. Ondaatje

by Seumas Spark •

March 2016, no. 379

Seumas Spark reviews 'A Little America in Western Australia' by Anthony J. Barker and Michael L. Ondaatje

Visiting Australia in November 2011, President Obama announced plans for the deployment of United States marines to a Darwin base. The decision to establish a permanent American military presence in northern Australia, taken with the support of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the Australian government, was part of the 'pivot' to Asia in US defence policy. The idea ...