Narara family makes PNG aviation history: Malum Nalu
When the wheels of the Etihad Airways Airbus A330 Flight 055 lifted off the ground in Abu Dhabi bound for Brussels on 30 March 2013, another milestone in Papua New Guinea aviation history was...
Category: Economic Development
Some flying memories: George Oakes
It was February 1954, and I was at Goroka airport with two other Cadet Patrol Officers, Max Allwood and Neil McNamara. We were about to board a Norseman for a flight to Mt Hagen...
A Saturday afternoon bowling at Bulolo: Paul Oates
While stationed at Wau as the Patrol Officer in late 1972, over Christmas my fiancée came to visit. She worked for a short while as a casual at the New Guinea Gold Mining (NGG)...
So what has the Scottish Loch Katrine to do with PNG? Maxwell Hayes
PRG 1373/15/4. Loch Katrine 1880 Courtesy of State Library Named after a Scottish lake, the rusting remains of this once magnificent clipper have been very visible on one of our Papua New Guinea foreshores...
Transport troubles in Bougainville: Mike Bourke
Continued from Marooned in the Mortlock Islands My colleague, Tom Betitis, had only limited time left for fieldwork, so to complete the second half of our agricultural survey, it was important that we leave...
About pumps and fuel: Jim Eames
One of the nice things about being editor of the New Guinea Times Courier in Lae in the ’60s was the close relationships you forged with some of the people in the aviation industry....
As you rip, so shall you sew: Bob Cleland
“Julie, have you got a curved needle and some strong thread?” “I think so, I’ll look. Why do you want it?” “Because I want to sew up a DC3.” “Ooooh . . . ....
Telefomin plaque and glider: Bruce O’Reilly
Bruce O’Reilly sent in these photos of the plaque (above) and frame of the Glider flown into Telefomin to mark Telefomin’s dependence on air transport and the first flight there by Stuart Campbell in...
Days of adventure with Denis Buchanan: Leo Butler
Back in the early 1960s, when I returned to Lae in a marketing capacity, I was visiting Goroka and naturally my first call was to again meet Denis Buchanan who had taken over Territory...
All in the day’s work: Roger Wilson
It is 1950, the Second World War in which I flew as a pilot has been over for five years. I am now in Lae, capital of New Guinea, one of Qantas’s two bases,...
MIVA in North Bougainville 1934: Chris Diercke
Rigu strip, N Bougainville 1934 L – R Johnny Sanson, Dr Kroning (of Toberoi Plantation) talking to Fr Tonjes, Rudi Diercke (of Woskawitz Plantation), Peter Berkenheier (camera man). By the 1930s the Catholic...
Madang Airport 1973: Bruce O’Reilly
A PATAIR DC3, on charter to TAA, registration VH PNB, left Madang for Mendi on a government charter with building materials (no passengers) and on approach to land discovered it had no brakes and so...
Marooned in the Mortlock Islands: Mike Bourke
In September-October 2002, I spent six weeks in Bougainville Province, now the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, doing field work for a study of village agriculture. The first indication of the transport troubles that lay...
In the driver’s seat: Paul Dennett
The first set of wheels that I acquired in PNG, soon after I arrived in my first posting, was a bright red Honda 55 trail bike with an upswept exhaust. I think it cost...
Balus ikam – Talair PNG in the 1980s: Robin Mead
During the 1980s I worked in Papua New Guinea for Talair, one of the largest third-level airlines in the world, with a mixed fleet of 55 aircraft flying a complex network of scheduled and...
