Category: Roads and bridges
Bevynne Truss As the push started towards and up the west coast of New Ireland in 1969 my bulldozers’ track systems suffered huge damage—cracking and high cleat wear, bolts shearing apart due to the...
11 April 2019 marked the opening of upgrades to the Boluminski Highway in New Ireland – a project led by the Papua New Guinea Department of Works and funded by the PNG-AusPartnership. As part...
Notes and photos by Deryck Thompson In the early days after WW2 a road was constructed from Bulolo to Wau and in later years it was known as the Gorge Road, as it closely...
During 1955 and 1956 I was stationed in the Western Highlands District of Papua New Guinea. It was a wild frontier: tribal fights, freezing nights and development fever, as planters vied for the best...
The last road I built was an appropriate swansong. Road-building was an occupational disease; a recurring health hazard. Kiaps did it because all District Commisioners and Assistant District Commisioners loved comfortable day-drives along new...
An obituary of Ian Downs in the PNG Post-Courier mentioned him as “the principal facilitator of the construction of the Highlands Highway.” Stuart Inder in the Sydney Morning Herald had words of similar import....