Category: Political Development
The night Cinemascope came to Kerema: Graham Egan
Every Monday I would post my freezer order to Steamships and then rejoice in the arrival of that order, by faithful “K” boat, the following Thursday week. Thus I marked the days of my...
My life in Papua New Guinea: Sandy Sinclair
Alexander Morrison Sinclair, better known as Sandy, was born in Cunningham Street, Dundee in 1904. He joined the Brigade of Guards in 1921 where he served for 8 years at Home and in China...
The die was cast! Peter Goerman
Perhaps it is the result of having read Coral Island and Somerset Maugham at an impressionable age, but the South Pacific islands have always evoked a powerfully romantic image with me. Mention the South...
The Hagen Country Club: Chips MacKellar
(Published in Una Voce, September 1998, page 5) Malcolm (Chips) MacKellar 1953-1955 CPO Daru and Lake Murray (Western District) 1955-1956 P.O. Mount Hagen (Western Highlands District) 1957 ASOPA Long Course 1958-1964 PO at Madang...
A taxing time: Bob Piper
The tax office for Papua New Guinea in the mid-1960s was located adjacent to the main wharf at Port Moresby. For the staff downstairs it was hot and often dusty but the assessors, upstairs,...
Memories of school days through the eyes of a Lapun B4: Patricia Poircuitte (neé Spence)
At a recent small lunch gathering in Sydney, we happened to be three B4s from the Wau Valley area, together with children and grandchildren. In due course talk came around to schooling in New...
Some notes on the traditional shell money (and other currencies) of the Gazelle Peninsula: Maxell R Hayes
On arriving in Rabaul in 1959 my wife and I were quickly introduced to the local currency, particularly at the native markets, and found it to be known as ‘tambu’ or sometimes as ‘tabu’....
Murder trial of Aro of Rupamanda: Graham Hardy
On 10 April 1957 a tribal man named Aro from Rupamanda, close to Wabag Government Station in the Western Highlands District of the Territory of New Guinea, murdered his two wives. He immediately afterwards...
Pat Dwyer: Justice v. The Law
Sometime during 1962 I spotted a Karamui archer aiming at a chook. Good shot sir, right through the neck. ‘O, sori. Kakaruk bilong Sergeant Anki.’ Donning my police hat: ‘You’re nicked.’ Dissuaded the Sergeant...
A family matter: Chips MacKellar
(Originally published Una Voce, March 2000, and reprinted in Tales of Papua New Guinea, page 177) Chips Mackellar was at the Ela Beach Court House for five years. He said this story would be...
Forgotten murders—Still a mystery: Jim Toner
(Published Una Voce, September 1997, Page 38) 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 Forty years have passed since...
Tiger and the village pigs: Paul Oates
Not long after I returned to Kabwum from working on the Yalumet/Derim road, we received word that a mature age Assistant Patrol Officer would be arriving from Lae. Jim Soul and his wife and...
International incident: Jim Toner
(Published Una Voce, September 1999, Page 23) 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 As a variation on memoirs...
To the Admiralty Islands: Ted Rhoades
I applied for the position of overseer on a copra plantation with a firm called Edgell & Whiteley Ltd. The plantation was situated in the Admiralty Islands, part of the then Australian Territory of...
