Category: People & Places

Patrick considered it ‘a great privilege’ to be asked to pay tribute to Peter Figgis’ remarkable wartime service at Peter’s funeral.  He said: ‘I hope I can do justice to an extraordinary man’.  The...

The guest speaker at the annual Adelaide Reunion Luncheon, on Sunday 25 October 2009 at the Public Schools Club, was Peter Routley, Headmaster of Keravat Senior High School from 1975 to 1977. Guests were...

PNGAA member Claire Inchbold has kindly provided a memoir of life in New Guinea prepared by her father, Fred Holland. As it was not intended for publication, she has requested that access be restricted...

Bill led an extremely interesting and varied life in both PNG and Australia. He died in Melbourne, after several months of ill health, on 4 January 2011, aged 94. Bill started life in a...

From the Eulogy delivered by Rev. Barry Dangerfield on behalf of the family Gwen married Keith Dyer in 1948 and they sailed to Taskul, New Hanover, Papua New Guinea, where he was the Patrol...

I am writing a biography of John Joseph ‘Mangrove’ Murphy (1914-1997), New Guinea Patrol Officer, Coastwatcher, POW, District Commissioner. As part of my research into John Murphy’s life, I am endeavouring to prepare brief...

Jack Eric Daymond was born in Launceston on 26 April 1904. He was an active sportsmen, and played senior grade with the Launceston Football Club and pennant cricket with the Esk Cricket Club. At...

These are eulogies from the funeral of Harry West, OAM, held on 21 July 2015 Andrea Williams Harry was a dear friend to so many of us and we miss him. He was humble...

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...

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...

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...

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...

(Published Una Voce, March 1993, page 16) Bob Cole’s career in Papua New Guinea spanned the years 1938 to 1968. Bob was in District Services and Native Affairs, serving in the Sepik, Bougainville, Western...

  Two children; lost plane; torrential rain; soggy suitcases; barefoot trek and a missing husband! Marjorie Kleckham’s father, Geoffrey Sheldon, was a surveyor in PNG. He surveyed the Bulldog Road which eventually became the...