[1] The plan was devised by Lieutenant Samuel Warren Carey, a Z Special Unit officer based at Z Experimental Station, Cairns, Queensland who had extensive experience of Papua New Guina.
They left their base at Magnetic Island on 22 June and paddled by folboat through to Townsville Harbour.
[2] The men rowed into Ross Creek, dismantled and hid their folboats, then travelled into Townsville.
The navy decided not to pursue legal action on the undertaking that Carey left Z Special Unit.
[2][5] Operation Scorpion was scrapped due to lack of available submarine transport and the fact that General MacArthur's island hopping strategy involved by-passing Rabaul.