‘A prodigy of wastefulness, corruption, ignorance and indolence’: The expropriation board in New Guinea 1920 — 1927 ∗

Abstract The Australian Government set up the Expropriation Board to seize and dispose of German property in former German New Guinea. Staffed mainly by ex‐officers of the Australian occupation force, and returned soldiers unable to assimilate into civilian life after the Great War, the Board quickly became noted for inefficiency, incompetence and very questionable dealings in plantations and movable property. Civilian Administrators had to contend with the Board which was the de facto administration. The government failed to correct this. By the time the Board was wound up two major Australian companies controlled considerable property as the inexperience of the (mainly returned servicemen) new owners of plantations saw many of them dependent on one or other for financial assistance. The ineptitude of the Board, and Australia's inexperience in colonial administration, created problems which were to haunt Australian governments up to, and after, the Second World War.