40 years ago, the Torres Strait was at the centre of a bitter political dispute over whether it should stay Australian or become part of the soon-to-be independent Papua New Guinea.
Prime Minister Gough Whitlam wanted the Strait split in half, but was outwitted by Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who support the islanders "Border Not Change" campaign.
With the federal government's current push to strengthen even further ties with its northern neighbour, Stefan Armbruster looks at the events that established Australia's northern international border.
The islands of Saibai, Boigu and Dauan mark Australia's only international border with another country.
Tiny villages on these islands lie just a few kilometres off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
Forty years ago there was outrage in the Torres Strait as these islanders faced being stripped of Australian citizenship to become Papua New Guineans.
Getano Lui Junior was deputy chair of Iama island at the time.
"There were people didn't know where Torres Strait was and I can understand the feeling. 'Oh it's only a group of islands, let's divide it', until they actually had that uprising, in a sense, which was the protest by us, by our people."
The late George Mye, in his time considered the elder statesman of the Torres Strait, led the so-called "Border Not Change" protests.
He spoke about why in an interview recorded in 2011.
"We can't let Australia go. They owe us too much. They cleaned our place out, too much of our resources."
In 1879, Queensland annexed the whole of the Torres Strait, and about 300 islands, right up to the coast of present day Papua New Guinea.
Once valuable pearl shell, trochus and beche de mer fisheries motivated colonial occupation.
With it came control of an international shipping channel between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
In the 1960s, proposed PNG independence led to the inevitable question of what happens to the Torres Strait colonial border?
For thousands of years, Torres Strait islanders have traded with their PNG neighbours … and still do on islands like Saibai.
Salee Koiget is an elder from Sigabadaru village, a short boat ride away on the coast of PNG.
"The PNG government was saying they would take Torres Strait islands, like Saibai, they were saying the Papua New Guinea government would take that."
Getano Lui Jnr recalls the demands from PNG's future Prime Minister Michael Somare and his colleagues.
That call came from Port Moresby for the Torres Strait to be divided, mainly because of the fact that umm, when PNG received their independence under international law, obviously they were entitled to the continental shelf and the economic boundary they needed to establish that."
So the game began … and the islanders were caught in the middle.
Gough Whitlam was elected Prime Minister in 1972.
In the spirit of decolonisation at the time, Whitlam promised the Strait would be split in half, and up to nine inhabited islands transferred to PNG.
There was no consultation with the islanders.
Hugh Lunn was working for the 'Australian' newspaper at the time as its Queensland correspondent.
"Canberra would have said, the obvious thing to do would be to move the border south half way and some of the people may not like that because the may not be eligible for Medibank and those sort of benefits of being part of Australia rather than New Guinea."
Queensland government consent to change the state's border was required.
Gough Whitlam faced a formidable foe - one who revelled in attacking the Labor Party - the Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
"You are people of the sea, not the land. The sea is just as important to you as the land of the island itself, the sea is what gives you most of your food, it's the highway to other islands."
Sir Joh made several visits to the Torres Strait, championing the islands' demand to remain Australian.
It was in stark contrast to his staunch opposition to Aboriginal land rights.
"All I'm saying is it's got to be stopped this land rights business and continually giving away the national assets, and not only giving it away but giving the militant leaders in the are the right to veto mining and all the rest of it. "
The national asset at stake in the Torres Strait was 25,000 square kilometres of Queensland territory.
"Joh Bjelke-Petersen was looking for publicity and he knew it was going to be great for him and that the people were on his side."
In 1973 Bjelke-Petersen assembled the media for a trip to the islands, that Gough Whitlam had never visited.
Journalist Hugh Lunn was among them.
"So he wanted to take us up there and see and tell the rest of Australia about the huge welcome he's receiving from all these islanders, who think he almost like he is a God and that he's right, and it's a message to Canberra don't take me on about this, and it worked."
A famous image of the trip shows Joh Bjelke-Petersen being carried ashore by two islander men.
"No doubt it was organised like all political events, but when we arrived at this island the tide was out and we all had to walk through the mud to get to the shore, and Joh appeared like he was going to walk through, but these two blokes ran out and picked him up and carry him ashore, like a messiah, and it made a great photo."
The Premier's campaign stalled Mr Whitlam, and the issue was unresolved when he was dismissed in 1975.
His successor Malcolm Fraser decided to keep all the islands but with a twist … and again faced a familiar opponent.
"The island leaders are still deeply concerned over the border issue with Papua New Guinea. They have been informed by the federal government that they can live on their islands but they must give up their seas. However the leaders have informed me that their islands without their seas, their people will become strangers in their own land."
Malcolm Fraser visited the islands to sell his plan, again with the media in tow.
"We sat under these giant trees and that's when Fraser took off his trousers, another time, he wrapped one of these big bits of cloth around his waist, like George Mye and the islander leaders and they sat for a pow wow and Fraser got up and explained that you don't have to worry, and Bjelke-Petersen's wrong, that it's a seabed border and its down in the sea and you can travel wherever you like and it's not a problem, and Fraser made this speech and said, 'Now has anyone got anything to say?' and out strode this George Mye, who was bigger than Malcolm Fraser and he stood there and said, 'Mr Prime Minister, we are concerned and why we don't want you're sea bed border is because we believe it will rise up to the sea and then to the sky and that was the end of it, I never heard it mentioned again."
George Mye recalls his tactic.
"Torres Strait is the only part of Australia that is interfacing with a foreign country, and that's something we've got up our sleeves and we're proud of it."
In 1978, PNG and Australia signed the Torres Strait Treaty, leaving almost everything as it was.
Today, not everyone is happy with the outcome, including villagers on the PNG side of the border like Salee Koiget.
"I would honestly say no, I was not educated, I didn't really know what was happening. Me and my Siga people, most of us along the coastline were not educated during that time, properly"
But the treaty did give the islanders … and 13 PNG coastal villages … unprecedented recognition of their traditional rights.
Whatever John Bjelke-Petersen's motivations, the federal government's redrawing of a line on a map, ended with Torres Strait islanders place in Australia being secured with an international treaty
The role of the Queensland Premier is not lost on Getano Lui Junior.
"I feel and being personally involved with him, met the guy and spoken with him, the things we asked for we actually got and if anyone gave us a greater measure of autonomy in the Torres Strait, it was Joh."
