Masta Lapun: Jeanette Fox
Memories: It just takes an old timer to reminisce and tales from the past come flooding back. Masta Lapun! He was the miner in the claim next door (which usually meant two or three...
Category: People & Places
The eruption of Mount Lamington, 21 January 1951: Marjorie Kleckham
Witnessed and written by Marjorie Surtees Kleckham, wife of the district agricultural officer Fred Kleckham At the time Marjorie and Fred Kleckham were living at the Popondetta Agricultural Station. They had three children Fred...
Independence Day in Wewak: Charles Betteridge
The following is taken from my personal notes I wrote up just four days after PNG’s lndependence celebrations in 1975 at Wewak. It is Saturday afternoon 20 September 1975, and as I sit on...
Mount Lamington: Des Martin
On Sunday morning 21 January 1951, I was relaxing in the single men’s quarters Lae in what was then the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG). Actually I was posted to the Finschhafen...
Jimi River memories: Peter Skinner
Tabibuga in the Jimi River was one of the more far-flung patrol posts in Western Highlands District while my father Ian Skinner was DC during the mid-to-late 1950s and, while most of the time...
Meeting the Mokolkols: Jim Toner
(Published Una Voce, September 2002, page 33) Jim Toner: Chief Clerk, District Office, Mendi 1957-59; District Office, Rabaul 1960-64; Field Manager, New Guinea Research Unit (ANU), Port Moresby 1965-73 Obligated to report annually to...
Return to New Ireland: Leen van Lien
In 1963 I qualified as a health inspector but did not get a job until a year later with the NSW Government. As a newly appointed officer I had to go through an office...
Lombrum: Jerry Lattin
From 1963 to 1965 I was in command of the small naval cargo ship HMAS Banks in PNG waters. Later, in 1970, I had a year in HMAS Aitape commanding the PNG Patrol Boat...
The eruption of Mount Lamington, 21 January 1951: Marjorie Kleckham
Witnessed and written by Marjorie Surtees Kleckham, wife of the district agricultural officer Fred Kleckham At the time Marjorie and Fred Kleckham were living at the Popondetta Agricultural Station. They had three children Fred...
Mi meri Tolai: Born and raised in Rabaul: Muriel MacGowan Larner
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...
Chu Leong: Rod Noble
During WW 2, after the Pearl Harbor attack, when Japanese forces were rapidly conquering Pacific islands, the Australian Government decided to evacuate expatriates from its Papua and from its New Guinea mandated territories: but...
A visit with King Cam of Kitava: David P Eyre
I was a Medical Assistant and part of an Anti-TB team that visited the Trobriands to find people with active tuberculosis and to protect susceptible people with BCG vaccine. If my memory serves me...
Captain RR Cole, MC: Bob Harvey-Hall
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...
One man’s kingdom—’King’ Carson of Nuguria: Brian Darcey
He came back to his island home with his mother and sister at the end of World War Two. They were returning from wartime exile in Australia to Nuguria Atoll and the devastated wreck...
A didiman’s diary: David Montgomery
A good while ago I said to the Editor of Una Voce, “there are always stories of Kiaps in our magazine, rarely news of Didimen”. Her prompt response was, “that’s your problem!’’ I said...
