Nauru's environment has been devastated by 100 years of phosphate mining. Mining of Nauru’s phosphate deposits began in earnest after the First World War under a joint Australian-New Zealand-British venture, the British Phosphate Commission. This mining was carried out with no regard for future rehabilitation and on terms that deprived the Nauruan people of reasonable returns for the sale of its phosphate in world markets.

In 1987-1988 the government of Nauru held a Commission of Inquiry into the rehabilitation of its worked-out phosphate lands. In 1988 the Commission published a 10 volume report which concluded that the island's former administrators - Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom - were responsible for the rehabilitation of worked out areas of the island mined during the period of the Mandate and Trust.

After several unsuccessful requests to the Australian government for financial assistance, Nauru took the findings of its Commission of Inquiry to the International Court of Justice which admitted a case against Australia. The case aroused much interest and controversy with Nauru receiving vocal support from world-wide environmental groups. A Compact of Settlement was reached in 1993 before the substantive hearing took place in the International Court in which Australia agreed to pay the Republic of Nauru a cash payment of AU$57 million and AU$2.5 million annually for 20 years. This money was to be used on development projects. New Zealand and the United Kingdom each agreed to contribute AU$12 million ex gratia towards the Australian out-of-court settlement

Transcript of proceedings, as follows:
Open Sittings, Days 1-33, 35-36, 39-52, pp.1-4191, 23 Feb 1987-30 Jan 1988.
Closed Sittings, Days 25, 30, 33, 34, 37 & 38, pp.1-591, 23 Nov-11 Dec 1987.
See Finding aids for details.

William Charles Groves (1898-1967) was a Supervisor of Education in
Mandated Territory of New Guinea from 1922 till 1926. He carried out
anthropological work in the Western Pacific, including New Guinea,
from 1931 till 1936, as a Research Fellow with the Australian National
Research Council. He was Director of Education in Nauru from 1937
till 1938 and Advisor on Education in the Solomon Islands from 1939
till 1940. After World War II he was appointed Director of Education
in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) and remained in that
post till 1958.

The W C Groves Papers were arranged and calendared by John A.
Collier in 1972 in eight parts: 1. Mission education in Melanesia; 2. Papua New Guinea Pre-War; 3. Papua New Guinea Port-War; 4. Nauru; 5. Correspondence and Miscellaneous; 6. South Pacific Commission; 7. Honolulu Conference, 1936; 8. Photographs in the Collection. Parts 2-4 are microfilmed here by the Bureau, together with John Collier’s, Guide to the Groves Papers. <P><B>See reel list for further details</B>

Commander Rupert C. Garsia was Administrator of Nauru from 1933 to 1938. He died c.1954. His wife Mrs Dorothea Garsia, died in Canberra on May 16, 1968.

The papers consist of three documents relating mainly to Commander Garsia's period of administration of Nauru. They are:

1. A diary of Mrs Dorothea Garsia for the period May 22, 1934 to November 16, 1938.
2. Notes by Commander Garsia on the history of Nauru from 1788 to 1933 and an account of the Nauru Administration and community health and health facilities around the time of Garsia's arrival in 1933.
3. A brief outline of medical work at Nauru from 1933 to 1938 (with an introduction covering 1920-1932) by Dr T.M. Clouston, Government Medical Officer, Nauru.

Please see PMB MS 493 for full entry.

Miscellaneous correspondence of John T. Arundel, 1902-09. During this period, Arundel was involved in phosphate mining with the Pacific Phosphate Company in Kiribati and Nauru.

Please see PMB MS 493 for full entry.

Newspaper clippings, official printed documents and typescripts on the Pacific phosphate industry. Largely associated with mining in Kiribati and Nauru. See also PMB MS 14, 480-495.

The records begin with a report from a German official in Jaluit to the Duke of Bismarck, dated May 6, 1887, stating that local German firms had suggested that the German Protectorate of the Marshall Islands should be extended to cover Nauru. A report written in Jaluit on October 31, 1888, by Herr Sonnenschein, the German Imperial Commissioner in the Marshall Islands, describes the raising of the German flag on Nauru on October 2, 1888. There are several extensive reports on conditions on Nauru. The remainder of the documents deal with the German administration of Nauru.

John T. Arundel (1841-1919) was a leading figure in the Pacific phosphate industry in Kiribati and Nauru from the 1860s until his death. See: Pacific Islands Monthly, April 1874, pp.59-61. For a summary of Arundel's activities from 1865-92, see film PMB MS 494. The National Library of Australia holds a number of Arundel photographic albums. The diaries have been filmed on reels PMB 480 - 492.

Diary 9 June 1870 - 31 December 1872.<BR>See also PMB 14, 498.