Later Years
In 1973, the year in which Australia granted self-government to Papua New Guinea, ASOPA was redesignated and restructured as the International Training Institute (ITI) within the Australian Development Assistance Bureau, a division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. ITI provided management training for professionals from developing countries in the Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
A final restructuring – and change in name to Centre for Pacific Development and Training - saw the Middle Head campus used as a base for consultants operating in the South Pacific until this role came to an end late in 1997.
The history of ASOPA, and its successor institutions, paralleled the changing political milieu of the post-war and cold war years. ASOPA began as a training institution for Australians taking leadership positions in Australia's territories. In its middle life, the School offered courses to people from developing countries. And, at the end, it provided a base for Australians consulting to the developing world.
At the end of World War II, confronting the first of many threats to the School’s existence over the years, John Kerr wrote: “The idea was opposed, and opposed in influential quarters... We were determined that what had been created should not be destroyed. In this we succeeded.”
Today the old Army huts on Middle Head are empty, but they have been heritage listed by the Commonwealth Government and now await refurbishment and regeneration into another role.
Read more about this topic: Australian School Of Pacific Administration
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