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...
Category: Transport
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 . . . ....
Fifty years ago in PNG: Brian Darcey
In 1955, I had just returned to Sydney from a trans-Tasman crossing to New Zealand in Kylie, a steel ketch which had taken up the previous two years of my young life as we...
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...
The first plane at Tari: Quentin Anthony
In 1951 a decision was made to open a new patrol post in the Tari valley of the Southern Highlands of Papua. A suitable site for an airstrip had earlier been located by Sid...
Walking off Mount Otto: Phil Latz
In January 1964, as a licenced helicopter maintenance engineer, I was sent to PNG for the first time. One of the first tasks I remember took place in the Western Highlands when we flew...
Fly River: Peter Hay
When I got married in 1969, the idea was to have a year doing something interesting before settling down to kids and suburbia in Sydney. A shipmate from Jardines was Master of a coaster...
