Australian Imperialism and International Health in the Pacific Islands

Abstract

Abstract The newly created Commonwealth Health Department intervened in international public health in the Melanesian and Polynesian islands in the 1920s. Commonwealth doctors sought to standardise quarantine and set up a local epidemiological intelligence service. In this process Australia produced a map of the area, which it called the ‘Austral-Pacific Regional Zone’. In mapping the region for medical administration Australia was outlining a sphere of influence. Commonwealth medical authorities tried to secure informal authority over the development of health services, which for some represented the partial fulfilment of long-standing dreams of Australian hegemony.