Secret Intelligence Australia Secret Intelligence Australia ( SIA ) was a British World War II intelligence unit commanded by Captain Roy Kendall who reported directly to MI6 in London . SIA was known as Section B of the Allied Intelligence Bureau but was not accountable in any way to the Australians or the Americans . SIA had two main functions : 1 . Gather information on the enemy and his activities through special means and channels concerning which detailed secret instructions would be issued from time to time . 2 . Specifically charged with obtaining information from the Netherlands East Indies through Islamic channels . SIA was a very specialised unit designed primarily to deal with subversion . As organised , it was better adapted to the needs of industrialised , congested national or metropolitan areas than to conditions in the Pacific . In order to preserve the security of its parent organisation in Britain ( SIS or MI6 ) , Allied General Headquarters ( GHQ ) in the SWPA agreed that SIA could live a very self contained existence . Records were kept to the minimum . SIA ' s initial operations were concerned with the introduction of native religious leaders , whose immediate object was to gain intelligence , and whose incidental object was to maintain Islamic solidarity to offset Japanese racial propaganda . For this purpose , Hajjis were imported from Mecca . The decision to use Hajjis followed upon the advice of the Rajah of Sarawak , then in Australia . The casualty rate was high among Dutch and Australian operatives attempting to penetrate NEI and the islands to the north of Australia . GHQ believed that the use of itinerant Imams ( priests ) , whom the natives were not likely to betray , had good possibilities . Great difficulty was experienced in inserting these specialised agents , however , and still more in following up to obtain the results of their activities . Several of them apparently were captured , as nothing was heard of them again . However , later in the war , others managed to obtain useful information before Allied forces occupied the islands in the Halmahera island group , particularly Morotai . The SIA Section assisted in the development of a Celebes coastwatcher net under a general AIB plan known as " Co - monitor " . SIA parties operated in the Banda Sea area , flashing their signals to the net control stations at Biak and Darwin . SIA ' s communication net was operated in conjunction with the existing Netherlands net . In 1945 , not long before the surrender , SIA succeeded in establishing five excellent information and weather - reporting secret stations in the hostile Java area . One operated off Soerabaja , in the west , while another covered the Sunda Straits , between Java and Sumatra ; three others were on islands on the perimeter of Java . These stations were in operation at the war ' s end , and in fact , were continued for a while after the cessation of hostilities in order to check movements of Japanese renegade forces . Locations SIA operatives trained at Caboolture , Queensland and at the Z Experimental Station in Cairns , Far North Queensland . The headquarters of SIA was at " Craigroyston " in Bowen Terrace , in the suburb of New Farm in Brisbane . Known Operations ( Java Sea )