Early Teaching Postings
Ken McKinnon AO Arriving in Port Moresby in 1954 after three months at the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA), I began my career in the Department of Education of the Territory of Papua...
Issue: 2022 4 December PNG Kundu
A Thousand Miles to Freedom
Eighty years ago, in what was one of the longest and most arduous rescue trips in the Pacific war zone, five civilians, survivors of a party of twenty-nine, got clear of the Japanese at...
By Air & Sea: Dramatic Rescues in the South Pacific
The Age, Melbourne, 14 February 1944 Preparing to bail out as his damaged Kittyhawk fighter laboured across the South Pacific, Squadron Leader Ian Loudon of Port Moresby and of an RAAF fighter unit in...
First Flight to Tadji—Remembering the Liberation of Aitape
Rob Parer CMG, MBE 18 April 1944 was the day that General MacArthur’s liberation force took Aitape and Hollandia, the largest amphibious operation of the South Pacific War. Within 42 hours of the landing, No....
PNG Ports: Built on the Scars of War
With thanks to the PNG Ports Corporation who posted the following 80th Anniversary Tribute to the MV Macdhui on Remembrance Day, 23 July, this year in PNG. Towards the west of Fairfax Harbour, near...
The Pacific War Buna-Gona 1942
I’m putting you in command at Buna. Relieve Harding . . . I want you to remove all officers who won’t fight. Relieve regimental and battalion commanders; if necessary, put sergeants in charge of...
