The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
The Bitapaka road. The first objective of the New Guinea expedition was the German wireless station at Bitapaka, a few miles inland from Blanche Bay, which at the outbreak of war was still in the course of construction, but was hurriedly finished and ready for use. When the Australians entered Blanche Bay, landing parties were at once despatched to seize the station. The road to the wireless station (shown in photograph) was entrenched by the Germans and held with native levies, a brush occurred between these and the naval brigade, in which two Australian officers and four men were killed while fighting, the first Australians to be killed in action in the First World War. When the wireless station, which the Germans had deserted, was occupied, it was found that the mast had been destroyed.
Colonel William Holmes, Commander of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) (in centre) and two unidentified officers at the wireless station at Bitapaka after its capture. Th
Bitapaka, New Britain. 1915-08-24. A RAN member of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) and an (indigenous) New Briton native stand as sentry at one of the three defensive tr
New Britain. A German made spy tree commanding the road to Bitapaka which was a few miles south of Blanche Bay. (Donor Colonel S. McKenzie)
New Britain. A section of the road from Blanche Bay to Bitapaka. The drain alongside the road had originally been a series of rifle pits constructed by the German Forces. (Donor Colonel S. McKenzie)
RABAUL, NEW BRITAIN. C. 1914. THE CROSS BESIDE THE LOCAL NATIVE MARKS THE PLACE WHERE THE FIRST DEFENSIVE TRENCH ON THE ROAD TO THE BITAPAKA WIRELESS STATION WAS TO BE BUILT. THE BITAPAKA STATION WAS
Bitapaka, New Britain. 1915-01-05. Group portrait of RAN members of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) standing behind a pipe mine which they have been digging out on Bitap
