Una Voce – Latest Issue

2024 December PNG Kundu


Exploring New Guinea in the 1930s

S Warren Carey AO In September 1934, any thought of going to New Guinea had never entered my mind. I was well settled in my geological field work in the Werris Creek region and...

From Cannibalism to Crocodiles

Daryl Binning OAM, ACS .... Missionaries to mud men, kudus to Kokoda, lap laps to lakatois—just some of the topics discussed by wantoks at the August luncheon meeting of the Western Australian branch of...

Jumbo on Parade

JOHN BARNES OAM In 1973, the South Pacific Brewery in Lae, where I was working at the time, set about hiring Jumbo, an Asian elephant from an Australian animal park and bringing it to...

LETTERS & REVIEWS

Memories of PNG A friend showed me the March 2023 edition of PNG Kundu, and I found it very interesting. Both my uncle, Bob Cole, and brother, Jim Sinclair, happened to be mentioned in...

MEMORIAL NEWS

2025—50th Anniversary of PNG Independence: How will Australia Acknowledge This? Not many Australians would have a good understanding of Australia’s history in PNG. This is because this history is not taught in schools. Many...

Memories of the Ok Tedi Fly River Development Trust

Nigel Robin Ette At the time of independence for Papua New Guinea, Western Province was undeveloped. It was the furthest province to the west, where high mountains take the Fly River to the sea...

Of Dolphins and Men (and women and children)

Chips Mackellar Ever seen that 1957 movie, Boy on a Dolphin, with Sophia Loren and Alan Ladd? The title song sung by Julie London stated: There’s a tale that they tell of a dolphin...

Our Time in PNG: and How I Became a Historian There

Ian Howie-Willis From the time I was five years old, I wanted to go to Papua New Guinea. That was in 1943, the year the Australian Army recaptured Lae, Salamaua and Finschhafen from the...

Papua New Guinea & Rugby League

Patrick Bourke It has been said that there are two religions in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Christianity and rugby league. Both have been introduced into PNG and have been taken up enthusiastically. PNG is...

PNG IN THE NEWS

PNG’s National Rugby League Bid PNG is reportedly set to join the NRL as its 19th team in 2028, following a $600 million expansion deal backed by the Australian federal government. While not yet...

PNGAA REPORT

Management Committee Update PNGAA 74th Annual General Meeting 2025 The 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia (PNGAA) require elections for the PNGAA Management Committee. Please see the notice to...

Remembering Prue Clarke OAM

ROBERT PARER Prue Clarke OAM, who passed in August 2022, wrote to me two years earlier about her parents, Agnes and Kendall ‘Ken’ Frank, and other interesting family members. Her mother, Agnes, worked at...

Taking Muriel Home—a Mother’s Legacy

Part Two: Rosalie Everest During my recent pilgrimage returning the ashes of my mother, Muriel Larner MBE, back to the Eastern Highlands of PNG, the most poignant moment took place around 3 am on...

The NGVR & PNGVR Association (PNGVR) Military Museum

Phil Ainsworth The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (NGVR) and the Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles Association (PNGVR) Military Museum was established in 2005 within the Wacol Military Heritage Precinct as a lasting tribute to...

The Saruwageds Revisited

Martin Kerr—Ex-Kiap 1964 Can I offer some clarification about the Saruwageds, and who crossed them and when? The role of New Guinea’s generation of ‘Europeans’ should not be dismissed as pure and destructive colonialism...

The Strange World of Lae, New Guinea in 1962

Ann Mallard I went to Lae to get married. My new husband, Ken Mallard, was an Australian I met on a ship returning from my first trip abroad. Neither of us had families who...

VALES

PERRY | TROY | WEARNE | YOUNG PERRY, Roland Lewis (Ron) 13 July 2024 Ron Perry grew up in Tucson, Arizona, USA during the 1930s Depression. Both his grandfathers died young. Their widows and...