The Factory: The Official History of the Australian Signals Directorate, Vol 1

'This story has never been told, because in the secret world we could not, and cannot, share what we do all day, even with family and loved ones.' - from the foreword by Rachel Noble, Director-General, Australian Signals Directorate At the end of World War II, it was clear that the nation must never again find itself entering a major war without a national intelligence capability. The Factory tells the story of how Australia's talented signals intelligence amateurs took an ad hoc wartime organisation and made it a national agency that became a highly regarded member of the 'five eyes' signals intelligence system. Founded in 1947 as the Defence Signals Branch, the organisation built upon the foundations put in place by the interwar Royal Australian Navy and wartime signals intelligence agencies, particularly Central Bureau Brisbane, which comprised personnel from all five eyes nations. Today's Australian Signals Directorate continues the work of protecting the interests of the nation and its allies. This is the story of the people who did the everyday work of capturing and analysing foreign signals. It reveals how they approached the complexity of world politics and managed massive technological change, from the days of radio transmissions to high-capacity machine systems and computing during the Vietnam War.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Introduction 1.First Steps 2.Australian Signals Intelligence, 1901 to 1939 3.Serving the Nation 4.The Royal Australian Navy, the WRANS and FRUMEL 5.Central Bureau at War: People and Politics 6.War: In the Ears of the Operators 7.Central Bureau's Work 8.Saving Capability 9.The Case and Australian Signals Intelligence 10.High Policy 11.The UKUSA Agreement 12.Moving Forward 13.Korea 14.Growing Capability in the Early 1950s 15.Communism, Russia and China 16.Malaya and the Emergency 17.Indonesia and Konfrontasi 18.Vietnam 19.The Future Breathing Down Your Neck Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Dr John Fahey worked at Defence Signals Directorate in the 1980s and 1990s. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University and the author of Australia's First Spies and Traitors and Spies.