Mt Fubilan, Ok Tedi & Other Tales – (Part Three)
Fred Pratt is a surveyor and engineer who lived and worked in PNG from 1961 to 2014. He worked at Ok Tedi over the period 1969–83, and again briefly in 2014, and tells the...
Category: On patrol
A Memorable Experience Kandrian Sub-District, West New Britain District – Part One
Kandrian Station, a small outpost on the south-west coast of West New Britain. I arrived there on 21 November 1967 from Talasea, where I had spent five months in introductory work under the tutelage...
Bob Gotts’ Butterfly Collection – 25 November 2019, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra
The colourful butterflies of PNG add to this extraordinary country’s beauty and colour. This is a rare opportunity to see Bob Gotts’ amazing collection! Bob Gotts went to PNG to teach and spent 60...
See footage on PNG! National Film & Sound Archives, Canberra – Friday 22 November 2019
PNGAA members have a special opportunity to visit the NFSA and experience film footage on Papua New Guinea including sound and still images. There is a range of fascinating material starting from the 1930s...
Family Farm to PNG Development Bank—Story of a Didiman by Murrough Benson (Part 1)
Papua New Guinea was my home from February 1966 until September 1977, initially as a didiman (agricultural officer) and then with the PNG Development Bank as a rural officer. This instalment traces the first...
The Best Beer I Ever Tasted by Chips Mackellar
On page 11 of the March 2019 edition of Una Voce, mention is made of the Star Mountains Patrol, conducted by Assistant District Officer Jim Kent from 22 September to 22 December 1954. This...
‘Indiana Joan’ by Joan and Colin Dwyer
Joan Dwyer turned ninety-two in November 2018. She was a patrol officer’s wife in Papua New Guinea for almost two decades—resourceful, friendly and determined, she lived in three countries, but Papua New Guinea was...
Didiman’s Diary #10 by David Montgomery
The story continues from Una Voce, June 2018, of new experiences, challenges and developments in the West New Britain District. I finished off in June saying there was a need to explain patrol necessities—mattresses,...
Didiman’s Diary #9 by David Montgomery (1956-65)
Continued from 2017, No. 4 – December issue pp 14-16 July 1960. Another posting, another piece of paradise. Prior to going on three months leave in March I advised head office of plans to...
Kairuku Village by Graham Hardy
Chris Warrillow’s letter in Una Voce (2017, No. 3 – September) regarding Kairuku village in the Upper Purari got me thinking of a series of events that I recalled over several years from 1950...
In Extremis Southern Highlands, 1935. By Ralph Sawyer.
We are staring at starvation. Yesterday the carriers finished their last bag of rice. One of them is now wearing the bag for warmth. At last we have crossed that murderous limestone country. The...
How and When New Guinea was Won – and the Loss of AE1 By GPO HH Kemsley
First published in Una Voce, journal of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia Inc, June 2009 page 46 – with thanks to Jim Kemsley These extracts were taken from the diary of Petty...
Kairuku Village by Graham Hardy
Chris Warrillow’s letter in Una Voce Sept. 2017 regarding Kairuku village in the Upper Purari got me thinking of a series of events over several years from 1950 to 1954 which culminated in a...
Didiman’s Diary No. 7 by David Montgomery
A continuing story of transfers, travels and the testing times of an Agricultural Extension Officer in Papua New Guinea. 5 January 1960. I flew into Maprik, from my previous posting at Aitape, and took...
Mick Leahy and his Reunion with Namu after 30 years as told by Ken Sevenoaks
From 1965 through to 1968 I was the mechanic for Jascar Ltd in Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands. Jascar was a coffee processor and coffee plantation owner and coffee buying company with Mike Collins...
