Colonel David Hurley, who was attending the conference as an advisor to the PNG Government, assessed that it was Chan’s intention to press on with the conference even if senior Bougainvillean secessionist leaders did not attend. Chan planned to garner sufficient signatures from attending delegates to make progress towards a settlement and to undermine support among Bougainvilleans for hard-line Bougainvillean secessionist leaders.^[21] A group of PNGDF soldiers assured non-attendance by firing at a secessionist liaison team, seriously wounding one member.^[22] Chan still had several days to bring the PNGDF into line and to make further overtures to the secessionist leadership. He decided to end the peace conference the next day, blaming the non-attendance of senior secessionist leaders for his decision.^[23] Subsequently, his representatives signed a document with moderate Bougainvillean delegates.^[24]

The SPPKF redeployed by sea and air in 72 hours, continuing a tradition of well-executed Australian military withdrawals begun at Gallipoli in 1915. In the months after the peace conference was abandoned, the campaign by the PNGDF to find a military solution in Bougainville continued. The post-conference agreement signed between the PNG Government and a delegation of moderate Bougainvilleans did not result in the sustained renewal of a peace process. Indeed, the leader of the moderates, Theodore Miriung, was subsequently murdered.