Maprik’s royal visit: Paul Dennett
We were treated in 1970 while in Maprik to a visit from the then Prince Richard, now Duke of Gloucester. Was the Prince making the trip out of personal interest or to show the...
Category: People & Places
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...
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...
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...
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...
Morning in Goroka: John Pearne
Shared thoughts with those who have known Papua New Guinea Lines written following a return visit, after twenty-one years, to the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea One awakes, the memory of so many...
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...
Some biographical notes on pre-war New Guinea administrative staff: Philip Selth
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...
Biographical notes on pre-war PNG identities: Philip Selth
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...
Harry West’s eulogies: Andrea Williams, Bill Brown and Ross Johnson
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...
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...
