Nauru: How Pleasant Island became world’s smallest republic

A crowd gathered in Nauru 50 years ago today to celebrate independence, but many Nauruans were ambivalent.

First president of Nauru, Chief Hammer DeRoburt, in 1968.

THE brightly dressed crowd assembled for what should have been a great moment in the history of Nauru. Pigs grunted near the dais and barbecues sizzled as the Nauruans listened while officials from Australia, Britain and New Zealand handed over power of their tiny island nation, 50 years ago today.

An RAAF Central Band played Nauru Bwiema (Nauru Our Homeland) a composition by English-born Australian migrant, bandmaster Laurence Henry Hicks, set to words by local author Margaret Hendrie.

One hundred foreign dignitaries witnessed the event, including senator Don Willesee from Australia and UN undersecretary Issoufou Djermakoye, who praised Australia for its “intelligent and careful” administration of the island.

It should have been an exciting day for Nauruans, but many were ambivalent. Although there had been an element of exploitation of the island by Australia, Nauru’s largest neighbour had also been its saviour. A checkered relationship that continues today.

Nauru was formed about 23-35 million years ago by an underwater volcano. A coral atoll grew atop the eroded remains of the volcano upon which millions of years of seabirds using the island as a rookery added a layer of phosphate rich guano.

Men standing with three small steam locomotives in Nauru, in 1920. Picture: State Library of South Australia

It is thought the first people arrived between 2000-3000 years ago, during a wave of Pacific migration. The distinctive Nauruan language suggests they spent a long time isolated from nearby islands. For millennia Nauruans developed a culture and social system consisting of 12 tribes.

On November 8, 1798, British whaling ship Hunter, under the command of John Fearn, became the first European vessel to come near the island. Canoes rowed out to meet the ship, but Fearn and his crew remained on-board, while the Nauruans stayed in their boats. The natives didn’t seem to be hostile and the idyllic look of the land resulted in Fearn charting the place as Pleasant Island.

After 1830 more Europeans, or drifters known as beachcombers, began visiting, bringing European ideas and customs, guns, alcohol, food and disease. In the 1830s two Irish convicts, John Jones and Patrick Burke, both escapees from Norfolk Island, made their way to Nauru where Jones briefly established himself as ruler over the other beachcombers. In 1845 he was banished from the island.

A group of boy scout leaders on Nauru in the 1930s. Picture: National Library of Australia.

But other beachcombers, like William Harris (another Norfolk escapee) who married a Nauruan, forged bonds and became a vital trade negotiator. But trade increased the number of guns on the island, resulting in a 10-year civil war between rival tribes in 1878.

Meanwhile, German traders established themselves on the island and, to protect their interests, Germany annexed Nauru in 1888. One of the most lucrative exports was copra (dried coconut flesh) but the discovery in 1900 of phosphate deposits, mainly used as fertiliser, made the island a particularly valuable possession.

When WWI broke out in 1914 Australia seized Nauru. After the war prime minister Billy Hughes lobbied leaders at the Versailles peace talks to keep Nauru. But in 1923 Australia was given joint trusteeship along with Britain and New Zealand. The rich phosphate deposits were to be administered by a joint British Phosphate Commission.

Officers from the Australian garrison on Nauru in 1942. Picture: State Library of Queensland

Smoke from burning oil tanks on Nauru, caused by a German raider, in 1942. Picture: State Library of Queensland

Nauruans celebrate their independence on January 31, 1968.

In WWII Australia maintained a garrison on the island and Nauru became a target by German raiders trying to destroy the phosphate mining facilities. In March 1942 hundreds of civilians, including many Chinese workers from the phosphate mines, were evacuated. A Japanese attempt to occupy the island in May 1942 was repelled but the Japanese returned in August and captured Nauru, interning the remaining five Australians and sending many of the remaining natives to forced labour camps on other islands.

From 1943 Allied bombers pounded the Japanese, leading to the death of the Australians, until they surrendered to Australian forces in September 1945.

Many of those evacuated were repatriated to the island in 1946 and, in 1947, the three-way joint trusteeship was re-established. But in the ’50s there were calls for Nauru to gain control of its own destiny, led by activists such as Chief Hammer DeRoburt.

In 1966 self-government was granted and negotiations began for full independence, which came into effect on January 31, 1968. DeRoburt became the president of the world’s smallest republic.

Nauruans became wealthy from the proceeds of the phosphate mining, but that wealth was squandered by a series of corrupt governments. A fall in demand for phosphate in recent times left the island so desperate for money they sued Australia for the environmental degradation wrought by mining and made a deal to take asylum seekers.