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The Genesis of The Australian Army

Australian Intelligence Corps

Formed on 3rd December 1907

Until the federation of Australia, the armies of the Australian Colonies relied on the British Government for the necessary information to conduct their military planning and activities. It is unlikely that the Colonies placed great demands on the British Intelligence Service; but, they were expected to play their part in the Imperial Military Data Collection as directed from London.
So in 1875 all Colonies were required to report annually to the British Intelligence Department of the War Office.

Some early Australians, formally recorded as being involved with intelligence, are noted in 1885, during the Sudan Expedition, when a Captain Parrot of the NSW Engineers conducted a terrain survey of the area around Suakin for the British Intelligence Department; and, it seems that William Bridges of the NSW Artillery conducted intelligence collection duties in the Southwest Pacific during 1898 at the behest of the British Intelligence Department. Then the Boer War led to a number of Australian Officers being seconded on intelligence duties with various British commands.
 
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The creation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 Jan 1901 saw the birth of the Australian Army. Integration of the separate Colonial Military Forces took over a year. In February 1902, the Colonial Defence Committee in London, advised the newly appointed General Officer Commanding the Commonwealth Military Forces, MAJGEN Sir Edward Hutton, that he would require a staff of 13 officers, of which three should be British to man the first Australian Army Headquarters. Hutton initially proposed a staff of 12, but Australian budgetary constraints forced him to accept eight officers, none of whom were British.

In Hutton’s headquarters, intelligence fell to the ‘Assistant Quartermaster General’, whose duties included military organisation, mobilisation and topography. This position was one of the three which the Colonial Defence Committee insisted could not be adequately filled, other than by a British officer.

The first Australian Assistant Quartermaster General was an ex-NSW Artillery officer, Major William Throsby Bridges.  Almost immediately, Bridges, acting on request from the War Office in London, embarked upon his second espionage expedition. Under the guise as a commercial agent for Dalgety and Company, Bridges collected information on French defences and the suitability of Noumea as an anchorage for warships.
 
In 1904 Bridges was appointed Chief of Intelligence on the Military board when it first convened on 12 Jan 1905. The term ‘Chief of Intelligence’ was a misnomer as Bridges responsibilities were far more wide ranging than just intelligence duties.
 
From the late 1890’s, sections of the Australian community became increasingly concerned over the rising power of Japan. The dramatic defeat of the Russian Fleet by the Japanese in 1905 dramatically enhanced Australian perceptions of the need to develop it’s local defence capacity.
 
In July 1905, Alfred Deakin became Prime Minister of Australia. Deakin was alarmed to find that there were no military plans prepared for the defence of Australia, nor was there a system to collect information on Australian geography, transportation and communications. Indeed there were no military maps of Australia at all. Deakin took action to rectify these shortcomings by approving the formation of an Australian ‘Intelligence Department’.
 
Bridges responsibilities for intelligence were reaffirmed.  He was sent overseas to study intelligence management in Switzerland, Canada, the United States and Britain. Subsequently, on 7 Nov 1907, Bridges sent a five page minute to the Minister for Defence, advocating the establishment of an ‘Intelligence Corps’. The Government replied on 2 Dec 1907 advising that the proposal had been accepted and was to be put to the Military Board. Acting on advice from the Minister for Defence, the Military Board approved the formation of the ‘Australian Intelligence Corps’ on 3 Dec 1907.

The Military Board directed that the Corps be placed seventh on the precedence list and declared it an Arm. Lieutenant Colonel James Whiteside McCay was appointed Director of Intelligence and Head of Corps for the Australian Intelligence Corps.