Des Martin receives PNG medal: Wally Johnson
On 3 March 2015 Des Martin was presented with the PNG medal of the Order of Logohu (Bird of Paradise) in a ceremony in Brisbane. Magdalene Moi-He, the PNG Consulate General in Brisbane, presented...
Author: president
Badihagwa Cemetery, Port Moresby: Chris Warrillow
My first interest in the old “European cemetery” dates back to the late 1980s when fellow-former kiap and friend Dave Henton and I decided to locate former Lieutenant Governor Sir John Hubert Plunkett (“Judge”)...
Lark Force trek: Tol memorial: Frazer Harry
Over the Anzac Day period in April this year, a group trekked from Rabaul to the South Coast of East New Britain, following in the steps of many of the soldiers of 2/22 Battalion...
How to cook scrambled eggs: Maxwell Hayes
I never thought that I would be writing about a simple little cook book. But here I am and this is a little gem. On clearing out my library I came across a long...
A reunion 50 years in the making
In stark contrast to the 1962-1963 Cadet Education Officers (aka The Reunion Junkies), the first official reunion of the 1963-1964 CEOs has been held. Thirteen of the 38 who attended the Passing Out Ceremony...
Papua New Guinea–My ‘last frontier’: Barry Craig
I gave a show-and-tell (PowerPoint) presentation at the annual luncheon of the South Australian Branch of the PNGAA in Adelaide on 31 October. Jan Kleinig and the Adelaide organising committee asked me to convert...
Matt Foley
Matt Foley was one of the two remaining former Australian coastwatchers who served in Papua New Guinea during World War II has died. He was 91. Foley lived in Rabaul, in East New Britain...
More wartime recollections: Bob Emery
(As recorded on tape in October 1996 and published in Una Voce, March 1997, page 35. An edited version is contained in Tales of Papua New Guinea, page 70) Our membership records show that...
Edward (Ted) Kenna, VC: Charles Betteridge
Edward (Ted) Kenna was born in Hamilton, Victoria, on 6 July 1919. He died there on 8 July 2009, aged 90 years and two days. He was the last surviving Australian Victoria Cross winner...
Montevideo Maru—New evidence on Austrealia’s greatest maritime loss: Rod Miller
In 1941, with war against Japan threatening, the Menzies government dispatched “Lark Force”, (nearly 1500 men) to garrison Rabaul, in the Australian Protectorate of New Guinea. On 1 July 1942, around 800 of these...
Private Stokie’s war in the jungle: Don Hook
One of the more extraordinary stories to come out of WW2 involves John Stokie, a New Guinea planter and one-time private in the NGVR, who ended the war as a decorated coastwatcher and guerilla...
Merry Christmas be blowed: The lorry is calling for you in an hour: Pat Murray (neé Stanfield)
This long letter that Patricia Murray (neé Stanfield) wrote from Sydney in February 1942 to her older brother, Jim Stanfield, then serving with the RAF in Britain, recalls the hardships faced by very many...
Recollections of ANGAU: Tom Grahamslaw
Tom Grahamslaw, who died at the age of 73 in 1973, spent 45 years with the old Papua and Papua New Guinea administrations, retiring in 1960 as PNG’s Chief Collector of Customs and a...
The evacuation of Samarai, Boxing Day 1941: Rosalie Thacker (neé Skelly)
This is a record of the last days our family (mother Lillian, sisters Zelma, Dawn, Leonie and myself and others) experienced prior to, and after, the evacuation. My father, Clarence, remained in Samarai with...
The story behind the picture: John Phillips
Eric Johns writes about ‘that’ photograph: I thought I knew something about that iconic photograph of Raphael Oimbari and George Whittington, until I met fellow PNGAA member John Phillips on 28 April at the...
