The late Bruce Hunt was a Research Fellow in the School of History, College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. He had a BA (Hons) from Sydney University and a PhD from the University of New England.

He was an officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) from 1974 to 2011. In addition to Port Moresby, he served overseas in Bonn, Harare and Tel Aviv and as High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Tonga. He was Director of the PNG Section in DFAT from 1990-1994 and from 2000-2003.

In 2000 he was an adviser to the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group set up to examine the challenges faced by the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. He is the author of Australia's Northern Shield? Papua New Guinea and the Defence of Australia since 1880.

Stephen Henningham is a specialist historian in the Historical Research Section in DFAT. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of New South Wales and a PhD from the Australian National University (ANU). He served in Noumea as a policy officer, in Port Moresby as Deputy High Commissioner, in Ho Chi Minh City as Consul General, and in Samoa as High Commissioner.

He was a South Pacific specialist at the Office of National Assessments in 1987-1988 and worked on South Pacific politics and history at the ANU from 1988 to 1995. Among other publications he is the author of France and the South Pacific: A Contemporary History and The Pacific Island States: Security and Sovereignty in the Post-Cold War World.