Jim Burton runs regular monthly gatherings, at Toowong Library, Brisbane, titled: ‘Memories of the South Pacific Islands Are Being Recalled’. Each gathering has a guest speaker. The following is an excerpt from an address...
I always had a desire to do a crossing of New Ireland. Numerous discussions with John, an Irishman who had been in New Ireland for many years, had fired my imagination. John and I...
(Published Una Voce, March 1997, page 15 and in Tales of Papua New Guinea, page 105) Nancy Johnston was wife of the late Bill Johnston who began his career in PNG as a Patrol...
In 1974, Mum and Dad came to visit my wife and me at Sialum Patrol Post. Sialum Patrol Post was situated on the north eastern tip of the Huon Peninsular of the then Morobe...
When I was at Sialum, I remember walking along the beach and seeing a bloke from the village (Kwamkwam) nearby, busily pounding two rocks together. I’ll give the gist of what happened next and translate it...
(This is how I remember the TPNG outstation protocols. Other kiaps may have differing recollections.) On a Patrol Post or Sub District Headquarters, the working day in the late 1960s and early 1970s would...
1968 Igam Barracks L-R: Capt Bob Cole wearing the rank of Colonel as Hon Col of PNGVR, Lt Col Don Ramsay CO 2 PIR, Brig Ian Hunter, Commander PNG Command, Lt Col Mal Bishop...
Bill led an extremely interesting and varied life in both PNG and Australia. He died in Melbourne, after several months of ill health, on 4 January 2011, aged 94. Bill started life in a...
Jack Eric Daymond was born in Launceston on 26 April 1904. He was an active sportsmen, and played senior grade with the Launceston Football Club and pennant cricket with the Esk Cricket Club. At...
I am writing a biography of John Joseph ‘Mangrove’ Murphy (1914-1997), New Guinea Patrol Officer, Coastwatcher, POW, District Commissioner. As part of my research into John Murphy’s life, I am endeavouring to prepare brief...
The guest speaker at the annual Adelaide Reunion Luncheon, on Sunday 25 October 2009 at the Public Schools Club, was Peter Routley, Headmaster of Keravat Senior High School from 1975 to 1977. Guests were...
(Published Una Voce, September 2002, page 24.) Valerie, one of three daughters of Rev. R V Grant, spent her early childhood in the Milne Bay District of Papua (Dobu, Fergusson and Normanby Islands). At...
My first posting away from the coast was at a school about 2 kilometers out of Maprik. An unforgettable feature of the tropical night there was the constant, and for a young expat on...
(Being an account of one day in the life of a house-wife at Wau, New Guinea) Part One “Whatever do you do all day?” is the question I have so frequently been asked since...
(Published Una Voce, September 1997, page 19 and in Tales of Papua New Guinea, page 112) Nancy Johnston was wife of the late Bill Johnston who began his career in PNG as a Patrol...
