Correcting the Record – Australia's Timor Sea Energy Diplomacy in the 1960s and 1970s

This thesis examines Australia’s diplomacy in the 1960s and 1970s that sought to maximise Australian sovereignty over energy-rich areas of the Timor Sea. It challenges claims by Australian diplomats and politicians that energy reserves in disputed areas of the Timor Sea did not factor in Australia’s support for Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in December 1975. The thesis demonstrates that Australia’s decision to recognise Indonesia’s sovereignty in East Timor in 1978 was primarily driven by Australia’s economic interest in negotiating a Timor Sea boundary with Indonesia, and not by humanitarian objectives as claimed by the Australian government at the time.