Australia led international support for Timor-Leste during its first 10 years of independence, not only as the largest bilateral donor of development assistance, but also by providing a leadership role to ensure security and stability in the country.

Australia also led the military force that helped stabilise the country after it gained independence from Indonesia in 1999 and it has been a major source of aid ever since.

Providing vital support in areas such as infrastructure, health, education, and governance, Australia’s aid also focuses on regional integration, security and capacity-building programs.

[5] Fairbairn, a qualified pilot, flew to the island himself on a Lockheed Model 10 Electra chartered from Guinea Airways, departing from Darwin and returning on the same day.

It has been suggested that his visit "was most notable for being the first time anyone had left the country, landed on foreign soil, and returned to Australia in a single day.

[6] An agreement for the Darwin–Dili air service was signed in late 1940, following approval from the Portuguese government, and representatives from Australia's Department of Civil Aviation visited in January 1941 to conduct a survey of the aerodrome and proposed flying boat base.

Japanese forces occupied the territory in February 1942, but Australian soldiers remained present on the island for three years in the resulting Battle of Timor.

[14] Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam told Indonesia that his government would not oppose an annexation of East Timor in 1975,[15] a decision that quickly proved controversial at home.

[21] There have been numerous high-level visits between Australia and Timor-Leste: Australian Defence Force units arrived in East Timor in 1999 to quell the rioting, disorder and low-level fighting created by the Indonesian military's scorched earth campaign as it withdrew from its former possession in 1999.

Australia also landed combat troops in the country in 2006 to quell ethnic fighting that involved East Timorese police and soldiers.

Territorial disputes over control of this resource, which some geologists estimate could pump over $10 billion of oil and gas, have coloured diplomacy with Timor-Leste, both when it was an Indonesian possession and since.

Since Timor-Leste's independence, disputes over the split Dili would receive when the resource was finally developed have been an occasional strain on otherwise close relations.

[29] On 3 March 2014, in response to an East Timorese request for an indication of provisional measures, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Australia not to interfere with communications between Timor-Leste and its legal advisors in the arbitral proceedings and related matters.