So read the heading on one of the pages of a booklet for school-leavers circulated when I was completing my “Intermediate” (Year 4), the year after I had arrived in Melbourne as a Pommie...
Speech given at Sharing Histories: Kiap tribute event at the National Archives of Australia, 20 November 2010 In March 2002 Chris Viner-Smith commenced a lone campaign to have the service of Kiaps formerly recognised...
(Published in Una Voce, December 1998, page 16) Adrian Geyle was CPO for two years at Lake Murray, Kiunga, Gaima and Daru, Western District; PO OIC Green River, Sepik District; PO H/Q, Madang District....
John Green, Government Agent, 14 January 1897, Tamata, Northern Division, British New Guinea, together with Corporal Sedu, and Constables Dumai, Gaiwa, Mirio and Taurauki, Armed Native Constabulary. Robert Dorrien Kirby, Patrol Officer, April 1916,...
(Published in Una Voce, December 2003 page 9) A tribute to those who followed in the tradition and footsteps of the pre-war ‘outside’ men in penetrating and establishing law and order in the primitive...
Like all good stories, this one starts “long, long ago and far, far away” The great bird island to the North of Australia dozed in the tropic seas for millennia until, in the mid-1840s,...
I was saddened to read of Don Vincin’s death in the March 2011 edition of Una Voce. The mention in his obituary of the Maramuni area stirred memories of one of the most satisfying...
I was interested to read the articles in the latest Una Voce regarding the role of kiaps in pre-independence Papua New Guinea. I was especially interested in the statement that Cadet Patrol Officers were...
PNG’s location on the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire was given bad press with the death and destruction at many locations, including pre and post war Rabaul, Mt Lamington and Manum and Kairiru Island....
Being Queensland born, when I read a Government advertisement for Patrol Officers in PNG, in the Hobart Mercury newspaper (and it was a cold winter in Hobart), I didn’t hesitate to reply. Another incentive...
A good doctor is one who can diagnose an illness where the person does not drink or smoke, and is not overweight. In August 1952, Jack Baker and I were on patrol in the...
One of the world police forces’ simplest yet effective form of handcuffs was in use in Papua New Guinea for over half a century. This was about a metre of ordinary brass chain such...
Being Queensland born, I thought I could do with some tropical warmth when I read the advertisement in the Hobart Mercury. It was a cold winter’s day and the ad was for Patrol Officers...
With thanks to Ross Wilkinson, Paul Oates and the many people who have contributed to this Honour Roll. Died in the service of Australia: 1878 November 27 – William Bairstow Ingham, Government Agent for...
Reading Paul Oates’ article on Communications rekindled memories of Christmas, 1968. I was in Kieta, Bougainville. After many months in the bush (incidentally equipped with an A510 radio), escorting CRA geologists out of Panguna...
