page_title: New Guinea Air Warning Wireless
section_title: Initial activities
hierarchical_section_title: New Guinea Air Warning Wireless / History / Initial activities
caption_attribution_description: English: AWM description: NG2191 Sergeant J B McAdam, New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, and Damien Parer, Official Cinematographer, observe Japanese movements from a secret tree top observation post above Nuk Nuk. This post was established by the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles and was also used by the New Guinea Air Warning Wireless Company (NGAWW). It was manned for a six week period by Corporal Ross Kirkwood, who narrowly escaped capture by the Japanese.
context_page_description: The New Guinea Air Warning Wireless, also known as the "New Guinea Air Warning Wireless Company", "NGAWW", or "The Spotters", was a unique signals unit of the Australian Army formed in January 1942 in Port Moresby, Territory of Papua, during World War II, to provide early warning of Japanese air attack, and subsequently providing surveillance of shipping and ground-based troops. During the first month of operations 16 stations were established, with positions set up along the Papuan coast as well as in the mountains near Port Moresby. They often operated behind Japanese lines and were at risk of being captured by the Japanese due to the nature of their operations, while a number of outstations were over-run and the men manning them killed. By the end of 1942 the company was maintaining 61 operational stations and had a strength of 180 men.
  Eventually, at its peak in late 1944 there were more than 150 spotter stations deployed on islands and mainland territories throughout Papua, New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea. The company's headquarters moved to Nadzab in June 1944, by which time stations had been established as far as Hollandia.
context_section_description: The first group of "spotters" left Port Moresby on 1 February 1942 for the Samarai area, at the strategically important tip of Papua. The NGAWW issued its first air warning on 3 February after spotters at Tufi observed Japanese aircraft heading towards Port Moresby to attack it for the first time. During the first month of operations 16 stations were established, with positions set up along the Papuan coast as well as in the mountains near Port Moresby. The control station for this group was located at Awala, while there was a rear link to company headquarters at Rouna, approximately 34 kilometres (21 mi) from Port Moresby. However, whilst the outer perimeter was able to provide the anti-aircraft defences at Port Moresby with approximately an hour's warning of an air raid, the system would be unable to track approaching aircraft if they changed course after crossing the reporting line. As a consequence a second, inner perimeter, was established in March, at a range of 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Port Moresby to provide ten minutes' warning of an attack.
  The air warning system was set up so that the inner perimeter stations were under RAAF control, while the outer stations were supervised by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). In addition, there were a number of spotter stations set up and manned by the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, as well as a few civilian stations reporting to ANGAU. In March the crew of a shot-down Japanese bomber were engaged from an observation post at Gona by a team of spotters, resulting in the killing of the first Japanese in Papua by Australian ground forces. Working with Kanga Force, a network was set up around Wau in May. For three weeks in June 1942, spotters manned an observation post in a tree just 300 yards (270 m) from the Japanese airstrip at Salamaua. Spotter Ross Kirkwood was photographed by Damien Parer in this post with an agreement not to release the pictures. Yet the photos were soon published in a newspaper in Sydney and the observation post was attacked by the Japanese the day after, with Kirkwood forced to make a narrow escape. In July 1942, the Buna station reported the landing of Japanese forces in Papua, an event which marked the commencement of the Kokoda Track Campaign.
caption: Kirkwood's Spotter's Post at Salamaua
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