Australia and New Zealand will co-operate to reduce the threat of unexploded ordinance in Bougainville.
Bougainville - an autonomous province of Papua New Guinea - is expected to hold a referendum on its independence between 2015 and 2020.
"Australia and New Zealand are key partners in supporting the Bougainville peace agreement, including assisting PNG and the Autonomous Bougainville Government to ensure a referendum on independence takes place peacefully," Prime Minister Tony Abbott and John Key said in a joint statement on Friday.
"This year we will co-operate on an operation to reduce the threat of unexploded ordinance in Bougainville."
Bougainville played host to a grim civil war in the 1990s that left thousands of people dead.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has apologised to the people of Bougainville for the civil war.
Mr O'Neill also performed a reconciliation ceremony with the autonomous region's president, John Momis, and visited the site of the Panguna Copper mine which sparked the civil war.
