Crocodile Prize - Sponsors

Ol sitori bilong yumi hia

An initiative of PNG Attitude & the PNG Post-Courier

The national literary contest
for Papua New Guinean writers

Steamships Prize for Short Stories
The Russell Soaba Award
Moore Printing Prize for Poetry
The John Kasaipwalova Award
PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum Prize for Essays & Journalism
The Sean Dorney Award 
Ok Tedi Mining Prize for Women's Literature
The Dame Carol Kidu Award 
British American Tobacco (PNG) Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Literature
The Sir Paulias Matane Award 
Cleland Prize for Heritage Literature
Chalkies' Yokomo Prize for Student Writing
AustAsia Pacific Health Services Writers Forums

Read more about our awards and our sponsors:
Steamships Short Story Prize
PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum Prize for Essays & Journalism
Cleland Prize for Heritage Literature
Ok Tedi Mining Prize for Women's Literature
British American Tobacco Prize for Lifetime Literary Achievement
Chalkies' Yokomo Prize for Student Writing
AustAsia Pacific Health Services Writers Forums

Contact Keith Jackson here  for further information on naming rights

SPONSORSHIPS

Premium Gold - K2,000
MRSM Group of Companies
ourportmoresby.co

Silver - K1,000
Paul A Povey
Star Mountains Institute of Technology

Bronze - K500
Corney K Alone & Tanya Zeriga- Alone

Donors (any amount)
Australian High Commission, $2,500
Michael Ahrens, $1,000
Bob Ellis, $1,000
Ed Brumby, $500
Frank Hiob, $500
Keith Jackson, $500
Eric Johns, $300
Dr Lance Hill, $300
Sue and Kev Ellison, $300
Stuart Hoare, $250
Sean Dorney $200
Paul Dennett, $200
Murray & Joan Bladwell, $100
Don Hook, $100
Graham King, $100
Henry Bodman, $100
John Groenewegen, $50
Norma McCall, $50
Paul Oates, $50
David Wall, $30

Contact Keith Jackson here for further information

What eminent people say about the Crocodile Prize

HON CHARLES ABEL MP
Papua New Guinea Minister for Trade
I hope that many PNG-based companies will be able to offer support to this important contribution to our national culture.

IAN KEMISH AM
Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea
In endorsing the Prize, I would encourage commercial and other organisations in PNG to support it in any way they can

SIR PAULIAS MATANE GCL, GCMG, OBE, KStJ
Former Governor-General
We want PNG to have a flourishing literature [and] I hope donors and businesses throughout PNG will get behind this important project

MARI ELLINGSON
Director-General, Office of Tourism, Arts and Culture
I cannot really overstate the value of this project for PNG

SEAN DORNEY AM MBE
Award-winning Journalist
I would encourage all potential sponsors to support this most worthwhile initiative

DAME CAROL KIDU DBE
Former Minister for Community Development
There are many reasons why companies operating in PNG should support this Prize – but the one that most appeals to me is that it will assist define a coherent PNG identity

BLAISE NANGOI
Editor-in-Chief, Papua New Guinea Post-Courier
The Prize requires the assistance and support of companies operating in this country. I ask you, please, to support the Prize in any way you can

LAPIEH LANDU
Winner, 2011 Dame Carol Kidu Award for Women’s Literature
You have not only given us an opportunity to express our writings but also assisted PNG in the preservation of its national treasure, our culture

 

 

 

Comments

[Martin Hadlow]

Keith - As you and your readers will be aware, several Australian servicemen who were taken as POWs by the Japanese during World War II have just visited Tokyo and have been given an official apology by the government of Japan.

Interestingly, the Japanese authorities also told the group that they are now returning to Canberra the POW records which the Australian government had been offered in the 1950s but had, astonishingly, rejected.

Perhaps these are the key papers and cards to resolving the Montevideo Maru issue as it relates to the names of the Australians aboard the ship?

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/japan-apologises-to-aussie-pows/story-e6freooo-1226015885813

[Martin Hadlow]

Keith - Another interesting source of information on the Montevideo Maru is the National Library of Australia's outstanding image bank, known as PictureAustralia.

Go to www.pictureaustralia.org and, on the 'search' page, enter the name Montevideo Maru.

There are currently 47 images available on-line, including photographs taken at a Montevideo Maru commemorative service at Vulcan Beach in New Britain in 1946.

Poignant photographs of Australian soldiers who lost their lives when the ship went down are also included, as are images of men of the 2/10 Field Ambulance Detachment and other units captured in Rabaul.

The photo captions also indicate which men are believed to have been executed in the Tol plantation massacre.

I also came across this montage of design drawings of the Montevideo Maru itself -

http://cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/106138

Lest we forget.

[Martin Hadlow]

Keith - Your readers might be interested in reading a Montevideo Maru nominal roll now available on the Australian Army History Unit website.

An explanatory note indicates that this roll was compiled by the Japanese in Rabaul and that it is "the first translation of a Japanese roll that was sent to Australia by Major H S Williams of the Recovered Personnel Division on 3 Oct 1945".

The roll contains a list of service personnel (including service numbers and units), civilians (along with their occupations), and missionaries (including their religious denominations) lost on board the Montevideo Maru

It is available here:
http://www.army.gov.au/ahu/Montevideo_Maru_Roll.asp

[Peter Turner (PNG Ex Kiap)]

I visited the Bitapaka War Cemetery in East New Britain in the early 1970's and examined the place minutely. Most of the cemetery is occupied by Indian soldiers graves, carefully separated into Hindu and Muslim areas.

Of interest was the small section containing the matmat's of those killed in the 1914 expedition, and some who died in Rabaul in later years.

A smaller section contains the graves of Australian, New Zealand and Fijian soldiers killed in the Bougainville campaign, including the Fijian VC winner.

I discovered the names of three Turners listed on the wall commemorating the missing. The three had consecutive NX numbers. There was nothing to indicate where or how they died, except they all listed the same date of death, 1 July 1942.

I researched the names and discovered that the three brothers, aged 19, 22 and 26, were distant relatives from Willoughby in Sydney who had all joined up together, trained together and were members of No 1 Independent Company.

I knew that No 1 Independent Company, the name given to Australia's special forces or commandos early in World War II, had operated in New Ireland and East New Britain during the early stages of the Japanese invasion and those who were not killed in action escaped to Rabaul.

Most were subsequently captured and, in late June 1942, shipped off to Hainan with the Lark Force enlisted men, New Guinea Administration officers, and the pre-war expatriate population of the area on the Japanese passenger ship, Montevideo Maru. The ship was sunk on 1 July 1942 off the Philippines by a US submarine.

Putting two and two together wasn't hard. and I realised that my 3rd or 4th cousins had perished in that disaster.

I look forward to the day when the Montevideo Maru martyrs receive the same degree of recognition and commemoration as the Fromelles diggers and the Centaur victims.

We will remember them. Lest We Forget.

[Jeanette Robb]

My great uncle (Ray) Ernest Raymond Guffie (VX37432 2/22nd) was lost on the Montevideo Maru. I didn't know him but I have photos & letters. I have been told he was a lovely man. He deserves to be remembered

[Håkan Gustafsson]

My uncle Göte Gustafsson was an ordinary seaman on board MS Herstein loading copra in Rabaul and he was one of the men on board Montevideo Maru.

My grandfather had some old letters from the Red Cross which he got letters 3-4 years after the sinking.

[Robert Williams]

My uncle Spr Francis Gordon Williams TX4411 Fortress Engineers (age 22) from Lenah Valley in Hobart was lost on the Montevideo Maru. His brother, my father, now deceased, never got over the loss of his brother and mate. He would be so happy to see all the efforts being made to recognise the sacrifice of so many. We as family members are carrying on the memory. I have pictures and letters that Francis wrote my father from Rabaul. Robert Williams, Perth, WA.