• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Naval Historical Society of Australia

Preserving Australia's Naval History

  • Events
  • Account
  • Members Area
  • Volunteer
  • Donate
  • Contact us
  • Show Search
  • 0 items
Hide Search
Menu
  • Home
  • Research
    • Where to start
      • Research – We can help!
      • Self help
      • Naval Service Records
      • Library
      • Related Maritime websites
    • Resources
      • Articles
      • Videos
      • On This Day
      • Podcasts
      • Australian Military Ship Losses
      • RAN events on a  Google Earth Map
      • RAN Vessels – Where are they now?
      • Related Maritime websites
    • Other
      • Newsletters: Call The Hands
      • Occasional Papers and Historical Booklets
      • Books
      • HMAS Shropshire
      • Book reviews
    • Close
  • Naval Heritage Sites
    • World Heritage Listings
      • Cockatoo Island
    • National Heritage Listings
      • HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran Shipwreck Sites
      • HMVS Cerberus
    • Commonwealth Heritage Listings
      • Garden Island NSW
      • HMAS Watson
      • HMAS Penguin
      • Spectacle Island Explosives Complex NSW
      • Chowder Bay Naval Facilities
      • Beecroft Peninsula NSW
      • Admiralty House, Garden and Fortifications
      • HMAS Cerberus
      • Naval Offices QLD
      • Garden Island WA
      • Royal Australian Naval College ACT
      • Royal Australian Naval Transmitting Station ACT
    • NSW Heritage Listings
      • HMAS Rushcutter
    • Close
  • Naval Art
  • Tours & Cruises
    • Navy in Sydney Harbour Cruise, East
    • Navy in Sydney Harbour Cruise, West
    • Anniversary Cruise: Sydney under Japanese Attack
    • Tour Bookings
    • Close
  • About us
    • About Us
      • What we do
      • Our People
      • Office Bearers
      • Become a volunteer
      • Our Goals and Strategy
    • Organisation
      • Victoria Chapter
      • WA Chapter
      • ACT Chapter
    • Close
  • Membership
  • Shop
  • Become a volunteer
  • Donate
You are here: Home / Archives for Coastwatchers

Coastwatchers

‘No Cloak, No Dagger’

A.N. Other · Dec 15, 2023 ·

By Tim Proust  This story was provided by Tim Proust of the Orbost & District Historical Society from an original unpublished family history prepared by his grandfather Walter Hugh Brooksbank. ...

Book Review: Australia’s Secret Army.

Book reviewer · Dec 7, 2022 ·

Australia’s Secret Army. A story of the Coastwatchers, the unsung heroes of Australia’s Armed Forces during World War II is told by Michael Veitch, published by Hachette, Sydney, 2022. Soft ...

A Lonely and Dangerous Vigil: New Zealand and Coastwatching in the Second World War and RNZN Involvement 1939-1945

A.N. Other · Dec 7, 2022 ·

By Michael Wynd  In Australia we possess a plethora of material on Coastwatchers but know very little of a similar operation on the other side of the Tasman. This fine ...

Third Officer Ruby Boye BEM WRANS

Editorial Staff · Sep 16, 2022 ·

The remarkable story of Mrs. Ruby Boye has recently received considerable media attention. This version, dictated later in her life by Mrs. Boye to her friend and neighbour Mrs. Joy ...

Book Review: Right Man, Right Place, Worst Time

Book reviewer · Jun 29, 2021 ·

Right Man, Right Place, Worst Time. By Betty Lee, Boolarong Press, Tingalpa, Queensland, 2019. Paperback, 318 pages, with sketch maps and photographs. Available from booksellers and publisher rrp $32.00. Along ...

Mrs Ruby Boye (Jones), Australia’s only female Coastwatcher during World War Two talks about her duties and life in the Solomon Islands.

David Michael · Jun 7, 2021 ·

Ruby Boye (Jones) was living on the island of Vanikoro in the Santa Cruz group of the then British Solomon Islands Protectorate when World War Two broke out. Changing circumstances ...

The Navy’s Secret War in the Pacific

Proud, J.C.R, Commander · Mar 31, 2021 ·

This article was the first to appear in the very first issue of the Australian Naval Historical Review in 1971. It retains its historical interest, and is very much in ...

Another Coastwatcher – Ron (Dixie) Lee

Editorial Staff · Mar 24, 2018 ·

As told to our Editor by Ron (Dixie) Lee The December edition of this magazine contained a story The Last Coastwatchersfeaturing James (Jim) Burrowes. Mention was also made of endeavours ...

The Last Coastwatchers

Editorial Staff · Dec 5, 2017 ·

Earlier this year your Editor had the pleasure of meeting James (Jim) Burrowes, aged 94, and Beryl, his ex-WAAF wife of 66 years, aged 93. They were married in 1950. ...

Simply a Question of Duty: A Coastwatcher in North Australia Part 2: Coastwatching on Groote Eylandt during WWII

A.N. Other · Jun 22, 2016 ·

By John Harris Japan’s sudden entry into WWII, threatening the whole Pacific region, galvanised Naval Intelligence into immediate action to formalise and expand the old pre-war Coastwatcher program in coastal ...

‘Simply a Question of Duty’ A Coastwatcher in Northern Australia Part 1: Coastwatching Before World War II

A.N. Other · Mar 4, 2016 ·

By John Harris Around Australia’s northern coast and islands before and during World War II a small band of civilians in remote locations was asked to volunteer as official Coastwatchers. ...

Coastwatchers – Thank God Such Men Lived

Wright, Ken · Mar 21, 2010 ·

Their contribution was out of all proportion to their numbers. The Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse was erected in 1959 at Kalibobo Point in Madang, Papua New Guinea, by public subscription and ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

Organisation of Coastwatching in the New Guinea WW 2

Wright, Ken · Sep 10, 2009 ·

People over-impressed by spies and espionage are fond of quoting the observation attributed to the French General Napoleon Bonaparte around 1795 when he estimated that a spy in the right ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5

The Role of the RAN in the Liberation of the Philippines

Royle, Guy, Admiral · Mar 30, 2001 ·

An address by RADM Guy Griffiths, AO, DSO, DSC, RAN Retd at the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne (Oct 2000) Together with the widely dispersed set-backs in late 1941 – early ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Book Review: Alone on Guadalcanal – A Coastwatcher’s Story

Duchesne, Tim · Jun 20, 2000 ·

ALONE ON GUADALCANAL – A Coastwatcher’s Story, By Martin Clemens CBE OBE AM MC High on anyone’s list of largely unsung heroes of the Pacific War must come the British and ...

Book Review: Coast Watching in the Solomon Islands 1941-1943

Grifiths, Guy, AO, DSO, DSC, Rear Admiral, RAN (Rtd) · Jun 5, 1996 ·

Title: Coast Watching in the Solomon Islands The Bougainville Reports December 1941-July 1943 Edited by: A. B. Feuer* Publisher: Praeger Publishers, 1 Madison Avenue, New York USA 10010. The diaries ...

Coastwatching In The Pacific – Solomon Islands

Gregory, Mackenzie J. · Apr 12, 1993 ·

The Australian Coast Watching Service owed its genesis to a suggestion by the then District Naval Officer, Western Australia (Captain C.J. Clare R.A.N.) in 1919. He submitted, that selected civilians, on ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Ruby Boyes – Woman Coastwatcher turns 98

A.N. Other · Mar 30, 1990 ·

Hundreds of well wishers contacted Australia’s only woman coast watcher, Ruby Boyes BEM, on her 98th birthday. Ruby operated on Vanikoro in the Solomons and saved thousands of Allied locals ...

Ruby Boye – Coastwatcher Heroine

Zammitt, Alan · Sep 9, 1984 ·

MRS. RUBY BOYE-JONES lived with her husband, Mr. Skov Boye, at Vanikoro, a small tropical island in the Santa Cruz group of the then British Solomon Islands Protectorate at the ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Primary Sidebar

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Categories

Latest Podcasts

  • The Fall of Singapore
  • HMAS Armidale
  • Napoleon, the Royal Navy and Me
  • The Case of the Unknown Sailor
  • Night of the midget subs — Sydney under attack

Links to other podcasts

Australian Naval History Podcasts
This podcast series examines Australia’s Naval history, featuring a variety of naval history experts from the Naval Studies Group and elsewhere.
Produced by the Naval Studies Group in conjunction with the Submarine Institute of Australia, the Australian Naval Institute, Naval Historical Society and the RAN Seapower Centre

Life on the Line Podcasts
Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories.
These recordings can be accessed through Apple iTunes or for Android users, Stitcher.

Video Links

  • Australian War Memorial YouTube channel
  • Royal Australian Navy YouTube Channel
  • Research – We can help!
  • Naval Heritage Sites
  • Explore Naval Art
  • Dockyard Heritage Tour
  • About us
  • Shop
  • Events
  • Members Area
  • Volunteer
  • Donate
  • Contact us

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Members Area
  • Privacy Policy

Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc. Copyright © 2025