BOOK REVIEW

Ashurst in PNG: A short history of the law firm Ashurst and its predecessors in Papua New Guinea

MICHAEL CHALLINGER

This excellent new book, Ashurst in PNG, traces the history of a law firm in Papua New Guinea (PNG), from humble origins that started when as a sole practitioner, Allan McLennan, arrived in Rabaul in 1924 or 1925. The firm grew to becoming a branch of Ashurst, a global, prestigious partnership.

In doing so, Challinger tells several big stories: the roles of lawyers and judges in a complex, diverse society and how they maintained respect and authority amid poverty and conflict; how PNG law has drawn upon disparate English, Australian, German and local traditions; and the relationship between Australians and Papua New Guineans.

While describing the evolution of this law firm, the author also illustrates the dramatic political, commercial and social changes which have occurred in PNG in the last 100 years.

McLennan arrived in Rabaul at a time when complex issues surrounding the appropriation and dispersal of German plantations needed to be resolved. With the discovery and exploitation of the goldfields at Wau and Bulolo, representing mining companies became an important part of the firm’s business. This experience prepared the firm for the expansion of mining in PNG which began with Bougainville Copper Limited’s mine at Panguna in Bougainville in 1969 and accelerated after independence in 1975.

The expansion of mining and other parts of the economy led to the establishment of other businesses—all requiring legal representation. Thus, Ashurst’s predecessors advised Patair, Ansett, World Wide Air Services and Air Niugini in their registration as companies and in their subsequent operations.

The Ok Tedi mine and resulting litigation led to the expansion of the firm, then operating as Beresford Love Francis and Company. They entered a joint venture with BHP’s Sydney lawyers, Blake Dawson Waldron, to represent BHP in PNG. The opening and operation of the mine and the court cases which followed dominated the firm’s work.

The major case brought by Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML) concerned its insurance claims for damage caused by a major land slip of structures built to develop a tailings dam for the mine’s waste. The case was heard in the High Court at Waigani, a place unknown to the many international witnesses. OTML won their case but decided not to proceed with the dam.

Instead, following a decision of the government, they proceeded to dump the tailings into the Ok Tedi. The result, as Challinger writes, was ‘catastrophic and generated more litigation’.

Challinger devotes a chapter to the important contributions that Ashurst and its predecessors have made to the development of the legal profession in PNG. After 1965 they employed lawyers graduating from the University of Papua New Guinea, giving graduates the practical experience which allowed them to move to other firms or into government service.

Further, the firm promoted and contributed to the establishment in 1972 of the Legal Training Institute, which provided professional training to prepare new graduates for private practice and government positions. The firm was also an incubator for appointments of talented local people to the judiciary of PNG.

Overall, the book tells the recent history of PNG through a legal lens. It is written in clear, accessible and direct prose and lavishly illustrated. It does not shy away from the racism and injustices of some aspects of Australia’s presence in colonial PNG and the legal defence of white defendants accused of crimes against locals. The early founders of the firm were of their time and reflected the influence of the White Australia policy of that era.

The book places these key figures within their cultural and historical context, but it does not seek to excuse or justify beliefs or practices that would now be regarded as racist, oppressive or ignorant. Instead, the book maintains clarity and perspective on how Ashurst’s predecessors were sometimes involved in maintaining or defending systems of oppression during the period, particularly when defending Australians or their companies against claims by local people or against criminal charges for abuses of Papua New Guineans.

A particular strength of the book is how it charts points of continuity and change before and after 1975. It emphasises the continued role of Australian lawyers and judges in PNG after independence up to the present day, even amid the growth of the local legal profession and local legal traditions. The study of Australian law rightly emphasises the influence of the United Kingdom and the United States upon our constitutional and legal history—that is, how Australian law has drawn from other sources.

But this book is an important contribution to the study of how other nations have drawn from and been shaped by Australian law, particularly in the Pacific, both through the direct colonial inheritance and through the work of Australian lawyers and judges in other legal systems. At the same time, however, the story of PNG law has not simply been about adapting or choosing from Australian traditions; instead, PNG law has drawn from Australian law in some respects but upon local or other international sources in others, creating an idiosyncratic melange.

This book is an outstanding example of Australian and PNG legal history, for both a general and an academic audience. It is highly recommended, even for readers unfamiliar with Ashurst or its unique role in PNG. It tells a complex story with remarkable clarity and directness. It skilfully weaves together the history of the firm with its broader social context—how the evolution of Ashurst in PNG reflects broader shifts within PNG law, politics and society.

Published by Hybrid Publishers, Melbourne, Victoria (2024)

ISBN 978-1-922768-30-8 (print)

Cost: $75.00 plus postage

ISBN 978-1-922768-31-5 (ebook)

John Egerton AM & Douglas McDonald-Norman

Help Wanted

Help wanted for the compilation of book material. I’d be most grateful for copies of photographs and words on personal recollections of working in one of the government agencies that have over the past few decades ‘morphed’ into one of today’s PNG State Owned Enterprises. This would include PTC (now Telikom, Post PNG & Data Co.), Elcom (now PNG Power), Water PNG, Ag Bank, PX, Harbours Board (now PNG Ports). Please send material to, or contact, me.

John Brooksbank

E: jwbrooksbank@gmail.com

Warren Carey AO and the Papuan Delta

I read with interest the article supplied by Harley Carey on his father, Warren Carey AO, on page 50 in PNG Kundu, December 2024 edition.

I was a patrol officer at Kikori in the Gulf District from 1963 to 1967 and it was there that I met Bruce and Dulcie Hides of Ogamobu Plantation, just up the Kikori River from the Sub-District Office.

Bruce was the brother of the late and famous Patrol Officer Jack Hides. Bruce and Dulcie were a wonderful couple—great entertainers and the providers of a terrific Sunday roast. Until I read the article, I had no inkling that Bruce Hides was one of the team members at the Era Base Camp. What is mentioned in the article is a ‘bar of brown coal’ across the Era River.

On Saturday, 4 April 1964 this brown coal was discovered by Patrol Officer John Irwin of Baimuru and myself, then a cadet patrol officer at Kikori. We took some coal back with us and, after letting it dry out (because it was well and truly waterlogged), we used it with success in our stoves. The seam of coal was about 1.5 to 2.0 metres in thickness.

My photograph (above) shows a man standing at the water’s edge, with the seam extending quite a way in. We did mention the coal in the subsequent patrol report; probably hoping that the ‘dark satanic mills’ of an industrial revolution never came about owing to the coal’s ‘discovery’. At the time the two of us were ascertaining the Era River boundary of the Pie-Era Timber Rights Purchase and we went rather a long way up the Era River looking for its North-Eastern boundary marker (there wasn’t one!).

Bill Hawley

Can You Help?

Do you know how get in touch with Mrs Pat Shea, who supplied the letters and photographs from Samarai for the Una Voce article about her grandfather, Captain Soren Nelson? Since I am from Norway, like Captain Nelson, and am a frequent visitor to Milne Bay, I would like to hear more about Nelson’s background and what brought him to New Guinea and Samarai.

Jan Hasselberg

E: janhass@online.no

U206C CBI PNG Junk

I have a tale featured on your website from 2015 when I did a scary go-around from the ground at Aseki, Morobe District, in early 1970 in a Cessna U206D VH-MKG when she was brand new. This aircraft was later lost in a prang as P2-MKG with Territory Airlines in 1974 whilst transversing the Tari Gap in bad weather. The pilot was still alive when found a day or two later, but the wreck was left there.

Would anyone have more details and photos, etc. of this incident or the plane? As the first pilot of this plane in PNG when it was originally accepted by Macair Charters, I’d be most interested.

Ben Dannecker

PO Box 1478 Nowra NSW 2541

E: jetdrone@virtualcity.com.au