Secret Intelligence Australia facts for kids

Secret Intelligence Australia (SIA) was a secret British spy group during World War II. It was led by Captain Roy Kendall and reported straight to MI6 in London, which is a big British intelligence agency. SIA was also called Section B of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, but it didn't have to answer to Australia or the United States.

SIA had two main jobs:

• To gather secret information about the enemy and their actions. They used special methods to do this.
• To get information from the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) using connections with Islamic groups.

SIA was a very special unit. It was mostly designed to deal with secret plots and stopping enemy plans. It was better suited for busy cities than for the Pacific islands. To keep its parent group in Britain (MI6) safe, the main Allied military headquarters in the South West Pacific agreed that SIA could work very independently. They kept very few records to stay secret.

SIA's first missions involved bringing in local religious leaders. Their main goal was to gather information. They also aimed to keep Islamic people united against Japanese ideas. For this, they brought Hajjis (people who had made a pilgrimage to Mecca) from Mecca. This idea came from the Rajah of Sarawak, who was in Australia at the time.

Many Dutch and Australian agents were captured or killed trying to get into the Netherlands East Indies and the islands north of Australia. The military headquarters thought that using traveling Imams (Islamic priests) might work better, as local people might not betray them. However, it was very hard to get these special agents into place and even harder to get information back from them. Some were captured and never heard from again. But later in the war, other agents managed to get useful information before Allied forces took over islands in the Halmahera group, especially Morotai.

The SIA group also helped set up a Celebes coastwatcher network. This was part of a bigger plan called "Co-monitor." SIA teams worked in the Banda Sea area, sending their signals to control stations in Biak and Darwin. SIA's communication system worked together with the existing Dutch system.

In 1945, not long before the war ended, SIA successfully set up five excellent secret stations in the Java area. These stations gathered information and reported on the weather. One station was near Soerabaja in the west. Another covered the Sunda Straits, between Java and Sumatra. Three others were on islands around Java. These stations were still working when the war ended. In fact, they kept working for a while after the fighting stopped to check on Japanese soldiers who might still be causing trouble.

Where SIA Worked

SIA agents trained in Caboolture, Queensland, and at the Z Experimental Station in Cairns, Far North Queensland.

The main office for SIA was at a place called "Craigroyston" in Bowen Terrace. This was in the New Farm area of Brisbane.

Secret Missions in the Java Sea

SIA carried out several secret missions in the Java Sea. These missions had code names to keep them secret:

• CAEN
• BATH
• LONDON
• CREW
• DOVER
• LEEDS