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The Civil War

The Australian Civil War (also known as New England War or more simply as the Civil War) was a drawn out and bloody conflict occurring in several different locations across the Australian continent between 2005 and 2011. The main area of the fighting occurred in the New England region of New South Wales, where the Australian Defence Force was pitted against the United Militia of New England.

The conflict was directly responsible for a breakdown of consensus and unity amongst the Australian people and led to the emergence of a sharp division over the future of Australia and it's external relations with the United States and the West for the next thirty years. On top of this, the fighting allowed for the independence of New England, which was attained and recognised by the Treaty of Wellington in 2011.

• Background
• Insurgency
• Bush Campaign
• Town Campaigns
• Operation Taipan
• Ninety Days Offensive
• Conclusion & Aftermath

Background

In late 2005, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, announced that the United States would be establishing permanent military bases in New England. Oopposition to the base was led by Michael Williams, president of the New Australia Party. The initial hope of the movement was that the party would be able to achieve it's ends by peaceful means. As a Australia was a stable and peaceful nation, armed struggle was not on the agenda of most people. As time went by though, it became apparent that the Federal Government would not tolerate any kind of dissent and cracked down on the party in a very heavy handed manner.

On the 7th January 2006, the Federal Police raided the headquarters of the New Australia Party in Armidale, and a number of people were arrested on dubious charges of aiding and abetting terrorism. Michael Williams narrowly avoided arrest, but others like Jonathon Braddock were detained and gaoled. The New Australia Party was labled as a terrorist organisation and membership was made illegal. Believing that the country was slipping further into a form of elected dictatorship, the New Australia Party openly defied the charge, and a small number now took up arms against the government. For the first time ever on an organised scale, Australia was now fighting itself.

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Insurgency

On the 19th February 2006, the militant members of New Australia Party renamed themselves the United Militia of New England and issued a unilateral declaration of independence. Support for the new milita stood at about 25% at the beginning of the war, but the organisation was to remain very small in the early days of the war. It was poorly armed had no heavy artillery or equipment. Most of the fighters had semi-automatic rifles at best, with a very limited access to ammunition or transport. The Australians, on the other hand, had a very modern and professional military outfit at their disposal. No one gave the milita any chance of surviving the conflict for more than a few months.

In order to weaken the Australian advantage, the militia launched a series of attacks upon government infrastructure across the region between the 21st February and the 17th April in which sixty people were killed. While the attacks did not undermine public support for the miltia, they did make it more difficult for the general population to access government services and this did cause some resentment. The day after the attack the militia issued a statement apologising for the civilian deaths, but vowing to continue to fight. The statement went on to refocus the aims of the insurgency against the policies of the government and reaffirmed the determination to have the matter of an independent New England brought before the people, but the Prime Minister rejected calls for a referendum. Instead, he ordered all regular and reserve forces into the field to flush out the rebels and destroy the milita strongholds in the forests near Kingstown and Walcha.

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Bush Campaign

Over the next two years, the militia leadership hid out in the rugged gorge country east of Armidale, while many of the fighters were sent into the towns to spy and harrass government forces. Persistent work by the government managed to whittle the movement down to just forty-five by December 2007. But instead of destroying the movement, the government was frustrated by a growing minority of civilians who continued to offer comfort and shelter to the rebels throughout 2006 and 2007. Around 35% of people in the region supported the miltia. The milita avoided fighting wherever possible and continued to use to the same insurgent tactics used at the beginning of the war. The milita also managed to keep a cache of weapons hidden while they waited for an improvement in their fortunes.

Frustrated by a lack of action, in early 2008 the government created Taskforce Leopard, with the aim of flushing out those milita fighters both in the towns. Estimates suggest that the Australians had over five hundred personnel working on the taskforce at some stage over the summer of 2007 and 2008. There were sporadic battles that were generally inconclusive as the rebels usually withdrew before reinforcements could arrive. Despite the expert training of the Australians, the guerilla tactics were working for the rebels. With civilian deaths becoming more common, recruitment of new milita fightrers across the region was able to boost it to two hundred by Fenruary 2008. With merticulous planning the rebels decided to engage the taskforce at it's headquarters in Walcha, which led to a stunning victory and massive leap in support for the rebellion.

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Town Campaign

In the aftermath of the Battle of Walcha, the miltia was well armed and well supplied, with a sound command structure in place. With support in the towns now over 60%, the militia now turned its attention on the occupation of urban centres as a bargaining chip to establishing a working peace. The miltia ramped up it's insurgent attacks in the towns, and steadily drove the army out of the region. Progress was initially slow, and the militia suffered major setbacks at with battles at Kaputar and Emmaville giving the government some hope that the war could be won. But the Australians were not able to capitalise on the weaknesses in the militia forces, and continued to lose ground. Using asymmetric warfare, the major centres of the region began to fall and relatively quick succession beginning with Walcha and concluding with Grafton, which capitulated without a shot being fired in December 2010.

Driven from most of the region, the offensives of 2010 left the government with little territory under their control. The army still controlled strategically important areas outside the region which would enable them to launch a counter-offensive in early 2011. Despite losing most of the ground to the rebels, the Australians still controlled the air over New England, albeit with some exceptions. This allowed them to launch attacks upon areas which had been occupied by the rebels to some time, and the towns regularly saw raids and skirmishes take place between government aircraft and militia ground positions. Despite the government easily having superior air power, the battle for the control of the skies remained evenly poised, with the new rebels being somehow able to mount a successful ground-based defence of their facilities.

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Operation Taipan

The Australian counter-attack began on the 2nd January 2011, with the codename of Operation Taipan. The operation began with a huge aerial bombardment on militia forces and utilities. The infantry attacks commenced two days later, after the SAS had softened up the weak points of the militia defence. After making rapid gains across the river valleys, the attack slowed as the army attempted to push up into the tablelands. This gave the militia a brief opportunity to regroup, which they were able to do in key positions along the roads leading up onto the range. A stalemate quickly settled in again.

Unable to dent the resolve the militia, government forces now turned their fury onto the civilian populations. In the heat of combat, with frustration growing in the government for a quick victory, increasingly worse atrocities against civilians took place with rape, robbery and murder becoming more and more common throughout the operation. The worst atrocity occured in Armidale in March 2011, when a failed airbourne assult led to heavy civilian casulties. With it, any suport among the people for the government position was utterly destroyed.

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Ninety Days Offensive

Angered by the attacks on the civilian population and determined to end the war, the milita declared a total nation-wide insurgency the day after the Second Battle of Armidale. A furious assult by the milita in April began the Ninety Days Offensive and forced the Australians to fall back to more defendable positions. Many in the government and the army feared that New England would quickly degenerate into a another Iraq or Vietnam, with the line between civilians and militia being so blurred that any attempt at occupation rendered useless. Calls began to be made for the war to be ended as soon as possible.

Things only got worse for the government. Over the next three months, they were driven out of all the territory that had been recaptured during Operation Taipan. The defeat of the army at the Battle of Coffs Harbour was the end of the Prime Minister, who resigned on the 21st July 2011. His passing effectively ended the desire by the government to continue the fight any further than was absolutely necessary. Peace negotiations were reopened in Wellington, New Zealand on the 22nd July.

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Conclusion & Aftermath

The conclusion of the Civil War was quick. The new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, imposed a unilateral ceasefire in late July, and made it clear that as long the militia did not threaten any major centre still in government hands, military action against it would not be forthcoming. The militia obliged and announced that peace negotiations would take precedence. In the meantime, the negotiations in Wellington were beginning to bear fruit. The Australians had conceded that there would be need for 'significant reform' of the political environment if peace was to succeed. In effect, Turnbull conceded that New England would become independent. To aid the peace process, negotiators from the United Kingdom, with experience with the conflict in Northern Ireland, were brought in to help both sides come to a series of agreements about the timetable for the peace the steps needed to get there. The going was hard for both sides, and many people began to despair that the negotiations would break down again. Then, suddenly on the 22 October 2011, the two sides emerged and announced that peace would come at 6pm that evening. The war was over.

With the ratification of the treaty by a majority of the people of New England, the region was on the path to becoming an independent state. The impact on wider Australian society was also massive. The shock of what had taken place took many years to sink in as it was realised just how bloody and violent the war had been, with the usually peaceful and apathetic Australian populace shaken out of their comfort zone for ever. The atrocities against the civilian population had been appalling, and took many years to document and prosecute. The cost to Australia was large, as a infrastructure damage had to be repaired, and the financial cost of the war had to be paid off. A massive recession in 2010s was seen as the cost of defeat, although many of the larger scale economic trends did not show for many years, which in turn sowed the seeds of another conflict between New England and Australia just twenty years later.

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