Territorial admission, 1972
The New Hebrides islands entered the Commonwealth in 1972 through a locally supported settlement negotiated with Britain and France, ending the condominium arrangements for the incorporated territory. The territorial name Vanuatu expressed its own community identity. The agreement used the dependency-transfer provisions associated with the Swell framework rather than treating an already independent state as having applied in 1972.
Government and land
Port Vila became the territorial capital. An elected assembly, local courts and island councils operated within federal defence, currency and service citizenship. Customary land arrangements were protected alongside existing lawful settled titles; community consent and custodianship remained central to development. Vanuatu retained territory status through 2026 under the independent viability framework.
Language and public development
English connected the territory to the national public system. Bislama, French and local Indigenous languages were supported through heritage study and locally trained teachers. Education, healthcare, water, power, food, housing and reliable island transport preceded major export or defence projects. Agriculture, fisheries, maintained ports and technical training supplied local economic foundations.
Pacific fleet support
Port Vila served as an Eastern Fleet forward support, patrol, replenishment and disaster-relief location. It did not replace Sydney or Fremantle as a nuclear carrier overhaul yard. The Vanuatu maritime zone entered the national offshore-resource register, with neighbouring foreign zones and boundary qualifications retained.
Population and symbols
The 2020 national planning allocation assigns 600,000 residents to Vanuatu within the total of 100 million. The retained Australian-land allocation is correspondingly revised to 51.9 million; no increase to the national total is implied. The local heraldic badge is a boar tusk and fern, supported by the Vanuatu imperial pigeon in the national native-symbol register.