PNG ATTITUDE

The crowded life of a Governor-General

Sir Paulias Matane

My usual bedtime is 8.30pm and I wake up to go to work just after 2am. I use the time between 2am and 5.15am to work in my study answering emails, reading manuscripts, and writing Forewords for many books.

Since retiring from the Public Service (but not from public service) on 1 January 1986, I have helped Papua New Guineans to write books. Forty of those people have published their first books here and overseas; six have published second books; and four have published third books. Last week, after reading through three manuscripts by two new authors, I recommended their publication. My estimate is that by the end of 2009, there will have been more than 50 books by PNG authors.

Two days ago I went with the vice regal party for a very busy schedule in East New Britain. We arrived at 11am and went straight to the first meeting with six provincial leaders. I then had a lunch meeting before leaving for my village at 1.35 to meet with students and teachers of my old school and then with the members of the school board who I briefed on my plan to redevelop the school. The idea is to build five double storey buildings each with six classrooms and eight offices. I hope building will start early next year. The school will be used not only by children but village people as part of a Global University for Lifelong Learning. We left for Kokopo at 4.15.

Yesterday was another busy day. At 9.30am, we arrived at the Kokopo Business College where I was guest speaker for the 144 people who graduated with certificates after two years of accounting and business studies. We left just after 1pm and between 2.30 and 4.20, I met with six provincial leaders at the Governor’s office to discuss some important matters including an autonomous government for ENB, a plan to give city status to the quickly growing town of Kokopo and the need to register clan land.

This morning after breakfast, I met with a successful businessman to discuss issues including his request for me to open his new Kokopo Beach Bungalow. At 9.45, we left in a Hertz rental car for a meeting and at 11.10 drove to the airport for another meeting with two provincial leaders before we departed for Port Moresby at 1pm. It looks as if I will be at this desk until 7.30 before I go to bed.

Tomorrow I will lead a group of over 100 walkers for the last Governor-General’s Monthly Health Walk for the year. We will gather at Government House at 4.45am and, after some warming up, set off at 5am on the dot to climb Touaguba Hill before we return just after 6 for refreshments and a Christmas cake. I’ll then depart for work just before 7am.

PNG ATTITUDE thanks Sir Paulias for allowing readers to share this glimpse into his life. At 78, the Papua New Guinea Governor-General has a schedule that would daunt a man half his age.

Tongan Tonsils gets top Pacific affairs gig

'Alopi Latukefu (aka ‘the Tongan Tonsils’) has been appointed chief of staff to the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs, Duncan Kerr. ‘Alopi is the son of Dr Ruth Fink Latukefu and the late Rev Dr Sione Latukefu, both of whom were active in Pacific academia during their twenty years’ service with the University of Papua New Guinea. Ruth, of course, was also a celebrated lecturer in Anthropology at the Australian School of Pacific Administration.

Announcing the appointment, Duncan Kerr said “Mr Latukefu has served with distinction as my Pacific Adviser and I am confident that, in his new role, he will further advance the Government’s focus in the Pacific region. He brings to the role knowledge and personal experience of the Pacific, the information economy, private sector development, and international development generally.”

‘Alopi is also leader of Alopi Latukefu & Palermo Express, a five-piece ACT-based jazz and funky lounge band. One critic has written that “Latukefu's oaken voice mines the soft sensuality of Pacific Romanticism with the rhythms, melodies and skat of the Jazz world.”

And another: “Alopi Latukefu leads this smooth jazz funk band. You will immediately warm to this charming man, the moment he steps on stage, with his engaging smile, smooth looks and a voice like velvet, as it caresses the many soulful jazz tunes in his vast repertoire.”

Quite an acquisition for the Parliamentary Secretary.

Encounters: Ray Whitrod and Bob Cole

In 1968, after a 30-year career in Papua New Guinea, Police Commissioner Bob Cole, who has just died on the Gold Coast, was ready to retire and return to Australia. As he searched for experienced police commanders who could replace him, he sought advice from Ray Whitrod. In an oral history for Film Australia, Whitrod tells the story....

Ray Whitrod: I had been going to these commissioners' conferences for a number of years and I'd grown very pally with the Commissioner of Police from Papua New Guinea, a chap called Bob Cole. He wasn't a proper policeman. He'd been what we call a kiap, a government patrol officer in New Guinea, but he was the Commissioner up there, and he used to come down to our conferences and in a sense he was a bit on the outer like I was, in that we weren't regular, standard State police forces. So we got very friendly.

And one day he rang me up from Port Moresby and said, 'Ray, my wife says I'm getting too old to stay in the territory. I'm fifty-five. It's the usual retiring age for kiaps. My superannuation is ready. She wants to go south to be with her grandchildren. I need to give up'. But he said, 'The force is coming along slowly and I don't want to leave without making sure it's in good hands. Can you find me somebody who'll replace me?'

And I said, 'Sure, Bob, it's an interesting, challenging job in Papua New Guinea . I know a number of young assistant commissioners, who would jump at the chance to do some years in New Guinea'. So I rang around to all my assistants, people I'd met at various conferences and so forth. None wanted the job, partly because independence was coming in New Guinea, partly because their wives refused to move, partly I think because in the eastern states they had a larger income than they should have had and they didn't want to go.

So I rang up Bob and Bob was crestfallen about this and said, 'Look mate, I've gone ahead and I've made accommodation arrangements down on the Gold Coast. I really can't get out of leaving'. So I said, 'Bob, I've been here fourteen years now. I've got a good assistant. I'll come up and take your place'. Then I went and told Mavis, 'We're going to New Guinea '. [laughs] Of course she was a bit staggered by this. We went up to Port Moresby , at an age when Bob Cole was leaving to come south.

Interviewer: Could you sum up for me what the New Guinea experience was like?

Whitrod: Well, it's a short story because it was stupid of me to go in the first place.

Source: Australian Biography, Film Australia, Ray Whitrod (1915-2003)

PNG great, Bob Cole, dies on Gold Coast

Yesterday Papua New Guinea lost one of its greatest servants and Australia lost a pioneering officer whose association with PNG began before World War II.

Former pre-war kiap and PNG Police Commissioner Bob Cole OBE MC died on the Gold Coast. His PNG career spanned the years 1938 to 1968 and he served in the Sepik, Bougainville, Western Highlands and Southern Highlands Districts, attaining the rank of District Commissioner before being appointed Commissioner of Police.

In Una Voce, the journal of the Papua New Guinea Association, in March 1993, Bob wrote a story about his late wife Kay’s introduction to New Guinea. Some extracts.

We were married in 1943, during the War, and after I had spent three years in the Middle East writing her letters. We married within a week of my return to Australia and only had two weeks together before I reported to Melbourne and then New Guinea two months later. These separations were the pattern until the end of 1943 when I was discharged. After the war we had a wonderful ten months together before deciding that I should return to work, which meant New Guinea where the Provincial Government was in operation.

Bougainville was my posting and there being no married accommodation available I was not able to take Kay with me when I returned. I was required to build my own residence before a permit would be granted for Kay to join me and this did not worry me very much because I knew I could knock up a suitable house within a few weeks, and so off I went to get started, giving Kay an assurance that she would be with me within a week or two and that the Territory people would look after her all the way to me.

I landed at Sohano at the end of November 1946 and was sent to Buin where I arrived two weeks later, and where Jimmy Hodgekiss was in charge as ADO. Jimmy did not like crowded stations (we had a Patrol Officer, Jim Humphries, and an EMA, Alan Pinkerton) and now me, who intended bringing a woman to the station. This was too much for Jimmy so he went bush to start Boku and left me in charge at Buin to build the house for my wife.

The house was built by the end of December, native materials throughout except for the floor which was constructed from Japanese bed-boards salvaged from the huge overgrown Jap army camp in the bush nearby. These boards were better than limbum, but only just, because they were very thin and gave way frequently underfoot. Our furniture was patrol issue to start with, no refrigerator, and a camp stove salvaged from the same Jap camp. Upon completion I convinced Raleigh Farlow, the District Officer, that it was suitable as a married quarter and he notified Moresby to this effect and asked for approval for Kay to join me.

Passages to Papua New Guinea, on aircraft, were at a premium in 1946 and baggage allowances were very limited so when Kay did get a seat on 27 January 1947 she filled her handbag with cutlery and the allowable baggage space was used for linen in addition to her own clothing. I remember Treasury hit me for £10/13/6 to cover excess baggage, and duly collected it.

You can read this wonderful story in its entirety here.

Photo: Bob Cole (centre), as Honorary Colonel, Papua and New Guinea Rifles, with Col JK McCarthy and Lt Col H Green

PNG leader praises “wonderful” Una Voce

A couple of weeks ago in these Notes, I mentioned that the most recent issue of the PNG Association journal Una Voce was being distributed and suggested you might join the Association (just $20 here) so as to obtain this quarterly publication.

I have just received this letter from PNG Governor-General, Sir Paulias Matane, a PNGAA member and Una Voce reader, which may spur you into action.

We send to you sincere greetings from Government House, Port Moresby.

I write this to express my sincere thanks and appreciation for the wonderful PNGAA journal. I read the various contributions with a great deal of interest because, apart from other things, they bring back memories of the past events in PNG, particularly during the colonial days.

It is encouraging that many Australian former employees still have nice feelings and memories of their times here. Some have written books about their activities. I would like those of you who may have not written books about your experiences here should do the same as people like Dame Rachel Cleland and others.

It is encouraging and gratifying to read that members of PNGAA are going to do something for the catastrophic Cyclone Guba that devastated the Oro Province last year. Congratulations.

When I read the first Letter to the Editor from Alan McLay in the current PNGAA issue about Fred Kaad’s tribute to Harry West, my mind went back to the time when I knew them as District Commissioners. They probably do not remember me. I was also interested in saying that Alan married a Tolai lady, Nellie, in 1982. I mention this because she and Alan helped to organise a fund raising dinner on 15 November (at the Melanesian Hotel in Lae in the Morobe Province) for the Morobe Bikers’ Charity Club, or MBCC. I was the main guest. The vice regal party paid for two tables.

What is MBCC, you may now be wondering. It is a charity club, formed and registered in 2003 by unemployed youths, some of whom were prisoners before but have changed to become useful citizens of PNG. There are over 300 members of the Club.

Some of the routes they had followed since the Club was started were: Madang to Lae; Goroka to Lae; Lae across the mountains to the Gulf Province, to Port Moresby where they worked for 3 months to raise money before continuing to Alotau and back to Lae.

After the fundraising dinner, ten members went by truck to Enga Province. They started riding at Porgera on 17 November, then to Laiagam, Wapendamanda, Mt Hagen, Kundiawa, Chuave, Goroka, Kainantu, Watarais, Nadzab and then to Lae where they will arrive on 1 December, World AIDS Day, to address the crowd.

On the various stops, they carried out awareness on HIV/AIDS; Violence Against Women and Children; Law and Order Problems; Consumption of Alcohol and other Drugs by young people; etc.

I am so much impressed with their initiatives and that’s why I support their activities. I had made a public call for youths in other parts of PNG to do the same as MBCC members. I will continue to raise this issue.

I thank you and the leaders for your plans for the future PNGAA as recorded under What’s Next in the PNGAA – Building on the Legacy. I can only see good things coming.

The other very interesting items include Those Early Days Had Their Moments by Jim Eames; Emirau by Warren Martin; The Murder of Errol John [Jack] Emmanuel by Derek Bell. This really shocked most of the people as this kind of killing was new to many of us at that time. Jack was a very good and peaceful man. We missed him. The other that stands out is Extract From ‘Bilong Gut Taim Bipor by Henry G Eekhoff.

The Ian Boden story, as told by himself

As told to Malum Nalu

 

 “I came [to PNG] as a relieving radio announcer for three months. I was supposed to be going to Rabaul. 9RB was the furthest-flung station of the ABC empire. It was the kind of station where you had to be a jack-of-all-trades, from playing records to trying to train PNG staff. We had quite a collection of Tolai announcers, young guys. At least three of them are still alive. One is Anton Kaut, he was probably the youngest. The others were Jack Ainui, Robin Popat and Nelson Bale. They were the core of the presenting staff outside Port Moresby.

“We had programs like Blue Hills which ran twice a day, classical music and religious programs. It was very much European-oriented. The town itself was like something out of a page by Somerset Maugham. It was quite remarkable. It had everything going for it. We were in a hostel on the top of Namanula Hill. That became the ABC Hostel. I built myself a bush material house, and lived there: ‘Boden’s gone troppo’.”

“I [later] became principal training officer of the NBC. That’s how I came into a training role with people like Justin Kili, Memafu Kapera and so on. They were already accomplished broadcasters. Apart from that I was involved in producing a lot of radio drama, taking part in a lot of radio drama by people like Peter Trist, who was a very good producer, and lots of people who are very well known today.

 “I have to say that after all these years, nothing has changed (for me). I still feel the same way about the country and its people. I know there are problems. I think we become bogged down and we fail to see the very real achievements that are being made. I suppose the ultimate goal of young Papua New Guineans is to see personal development opportunities, and through their contributions, ensure the development of the country.”

Ian Boden: broadcaster & friend of PNG

Ian Boden would have been as surprised as anyone at the headline. ‘Aussie giant of PNG journalism dies’. Ian was not a retiring man, he was unassuming, outgoing and friendly. But there was nothing about him that sought gianthood. Ian loved PNG, he loved its people and he sought little more than to be there and to do what he could do for the place.

Ian was a journalist and broadcaster in PNG for 45 years. He went to PNG with the Australian Broadcasting Commission as an announcer. After a secondment to the BBC in London working in current affairs, he returned to PNG after 18 months to be appointed principal training officer with the PNG National Broadcasting Commission.

He later worked as director of information with the Public Services Commission before becoming press secretary to Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu from 1988-92.He joined The National newspaper in 1995 as editorial writer and columnist and became executive editor. In 2003 he joined Divine Word University in Madang as a journalism lecturer while he continued to write the editorial and Column One for The National. Ian had been ill for some time before he died yesterday morning at the age of 67 at Madang’s Modilon Hospital.

Ian had moved to PNG from Australia in 1962 as a relieving announcer on the ABC 9PA for a three-month stint that extended for the rest of his life. He is survived by his widow Delma and their three children, Roland, Russell and Emma who now all live in Australia. He also adopted his wife's children from a previous marriage.

Tru, we're bringing Joy to the world

One of the great things about writing this blog is that, more often than you might expect, it helps to bring together people who haven’t seen hide nor hair of each other in decades. For example, just yesterday – at a meeting of the PNGAA History and Scholarship Committee - chairman Riley Warren mentioned how a next door neighbour he hadn’t seen in 30 years, spotted his name in ASOPA PEOPLE and got in touch with him.

And then I got home to see this in my email in-tray…. “Greetings Keith, I am trying to locate Charlie Davie, he was a cadet patrol officer in Goroka 1966-68. Any assistance and help would be very much appreciated, as time is moving and I wish to meet up or talk to him. Regards. Joy.”

If you know anything about Charlie’s whereabouts, you can contact Joy here.

Riley Warren to retire after topline career

Riley Warren AM, 1971 ASOPA graduate and former headmaster of Lae International High School, is to step down as headmaster of Macarthur Anglican School this year, having held the position since 1989. Riley, who also served as the principal of schools in Darwin and Alice Springs. was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his outstanding contribution to education.

Riley is also chair of the History and Scholarship Sub-Committee of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia.

Macarthur is a co-educational pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 Christian school located on 120 acres in a rural setting at Cobbitty, near Camden in NSW. It has been described as energetic and innovative and offering a strong academic education. Under Riley’s leadership it has developed an international focus. Overseas tours are a regular feature of school activities, and a Christian outreach team of students and staff travels to Thailand each year. Macarthur has sister schools in Tanzania, Hungary, Indonesia, Japan and Canada.

The school will hold a service of thanksgiving for Riley’s work of on 30 November before he retires at the end of the current school term.

Searching for John Sutherland Anderson

Susan Philpott

I recently met the younger sister of John Sutherland Anderson who taught in or near Madang in the 1960s and returned to PNG (Madang Teachers College) in the 1980s only to be killed - shot by raskols. He was planted there in September 1987.

John’s sister had no other living family. She is still grieving and can find no information. Foreign Affairs told her that there were no records of her brother ever having been to PNG! She knew nothing of his probable attendance at any ASOPA course but believed he was recruited through the Department of Education in Western Australia (who knew he had gone to PNG).

Are there any records of this teacher? Does anyone remember him? Does anyone recall his murder and any police action? I have his sister’s phone number but thought I would find out if there is any information about John before raising her hopes.

If you have any information about John Anderson you can contact Susan Philpott here.

Hal Holman OL, OAM – honoured by Australia, now by Papua New Guinea

Tomorrow may be a big day for Papua New Guinea but it looms as an even bigger day for Hal Holman, because the man who designed the PNG Coat of Arms, who had a significant input in the design of the national flag and whose art and sculptures derive their beauty and energy from PNG is to become an Officer in the Order of Logohu.

The award is given for distinguished service to PNG, and it is beyond argument that Hal Holman has provided this – from his experience as a commando in World War II to his work as an official artist in the years around Independence to his contribution to public art in PNG since.

Hal Holman returned to Port Moresby in 1962 for what was intended as a brief visit. Instead he joined the Department of Information where, among his colleagues, was a young journalist named Michael Somare. Since then many PNG commissions have come Hal's way including a large bronze of Queen Elizabeth II, bronze busts of the six prime ministers of PNG since Independence and an eight-metre high stainless steel Bird of Paradise adjacent to Parliament House in Port Moresby. These are among many other Holman sculptures and works of art in the city.

Hal was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2004 for his services to the arts as a designer and sculptor. The most recent PNG award gives him the unusual honour of being recognised by both countries. To suggest that Hal is delighted would be a grotesque understatement.

You can read Hal’s story of how PNG got its national flag here.

And something of his war exploits in the New Guinea highlands here.

And you can find out how you can acquire one of his works of art here.

Memories of Port Moresby theatre

In those days when we were all very young and called ourselves Territorians, Klaus Pinker was a leading light in Port Moresby dramatic circles, even establishing his own theatre company. He also acted, designed sets and conducted classes in stagecraft. Last night, aged around 80, he popped up in a new play at the Noosa Arts Theatre.

Klaus, who has lived for years on the Sunshine Coast, is known in the region for his theatrical and choral performances, his music appreciation classes and his promotion of the arts on community radio. Before going to PNG I n the sixties, he had played roles in the TV series Homicide and Hunter.

Last night, for the first time in 40 years, I saw Klaus in Frank Wilkie’s new play Newsroom (written under the mentorship of David Williamson) playing the minor but significant character of Ed McLaren with an unlikely German elocution. Klaus also designed sets for the production.

It was love at first sight

Bill Welbourne

It was love at first sight. Forty-seven years ago I was a car salesman and I walked into the NRMA office to perve on all the good looking ‘sheilas’ they employed… one caught my eye instantly. She glanced up and quickly put her head down and pretended to type. I knew I would be back.

I told my mother that I had met this stunning girl that I wanted to marry. ‘Oh! And who is she?’

‘Ah! I don’t know. I haven’t asked her out yet!’

Two weeks later on a very wet Saturday morning I got my chance and called her over to the counter.

‘Would you like a lift home?’

She looked outside at the sky and replied, ‘Have you got a car?’ And so began a long inseparable journey.

Download Bill Welbourne’s full tribute to his wife Pam, who was buried yesterday at Mount Gravatt Cemetery in Brisbane.   Download pams_obituary.pdf

Pam Welbourne - courage in adversity

On 15 December 1962, at the end of his first year at ASOPA, Bill and Pam Welbourne married. Bill later wrote: “No girlfriend matched my former heartshakers until I met a sweet office girl, Pam Harland, who worked for the NRMA in Newcastle. Just before I got my gong for ASOPA, I plucked up courage to talk to her and we've been together since.”

Throughout their married life, Pam – who suffered disabling asthma – experienced ill health, becoming progressively bedridden. Bill adopted a mature approach to this predicament – sticking by Pam and caring for her as long as he could while at the same time trying to lead as normal a life as possible. When things were difficult, and they often were, Bill never once complained.

Surrounded by her family, 65-year old Pam – blind and in pain - died at 8.30 on Sunday night. It had been a very long road.

Bill and Pam lived in Rabaul from 1963-69. After Bill went on study leave to complete an economics degree at Queensland University, they returned to Port Moresby in 1971. Bill became a projects officer in the Lands Department and was later secretary to the Commission of Inquiry into Land Problems. With Independence around the corner, Bill was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Committee for PNG Independence.

In 1976, with their daughter Julie-anne very ill with a brain tumour (she died in 1978 aged 8), Bill and Pam decided the time was right to “go south” and Bill accepted a teaching appointment at Brisbane Boys’ College where he remained for 22 years until Pam’s health declined to a point where he took early retirement.

Family and friends are invited to attend a celebration of Pam’s life at 12 noon this Thursday 11 September in the Chapel within the grounds of Mount Gravatt Cemetery.

Welbourne, Pamela Joy. Late of Mount Cotton. 27-7-1943 - 7-9-2008. Dearly loved wife of Bill, Mother of Tony, Andrew, Julie-Anne (dec'd) and Angelique. Special Grandma of seven wonderful grandchildren.

Netball as a slice of life – the Gima Crowdy story

Gimanama (Gima) Crowdy is President of the Sydney PNG Wantoks Club. The club was established by Papua New Guineans who are residing or studying in Sydney and is probably the most socially active of Australia’s PNG associations. And when you read Gima's story, you'll understand why.

In July, Gima – who is also assistant coach of the Gosford Netball Association’s State League Team – was asked to give the address at the annual presentation dinner. Some extracts….

I am the eldest of two girls and three boys.  My dad was a senior sergeant with the police force and my mother was a worker. We grew up in Port Moresby, with regular visits to my parents’ villages, about 120 km out of town on rough dirt roads. Females are the main working forces in the family. Part of my culture, is that we learn this early in our lives. We love our food, there are always big feasts when someone was leaving or coming home. We have respect for our elders, if someone was talking there was dead silence. I got a shock when I coached the first junior teams in New Zealand and here, they were all talking – really different backgrounds.

I come from a sporting background with my father and uncles represented PNG in soccer, cricket and darts and a couple of my aunties were PNG netballers. I played netball at school. Then I played in a lower grade team with my mother and aunties and took out the grand final. I was selected in the PNG Junior Squad then played in the PNG Open Squad after competing at the national championships.

In the village, girls play barefoot, on the beach or on dirt courts, with coconut leaves as boundary lines. When I was back there a couple of months ago, the girls were playing with a flat soccer ball – when the boys weren't stealing it!

When I was 20 I started work and became the breadwinner for my family because both my parents separated and left their jobs. This kind of introduced me to motherhood and focused me more on netball as it was a form of release and I could set positive achievable goals.

In 1991, I earned my first overseas travel to Sydney for the World Netball Championships as a reserve. I then played for PNG at the South Pacific Games. In 1995, I got into the national team for the World Netball Championships in Birmingham, UK. We came 15th out of 28 teams and one of my best memories is playing against Australia. We got hammered pretty badly but developed mental toughness. The experiences gave us strength to go a bit further and push ourselves harder.

We flew straight from these games to Tahiti for the South Pacific Games where we lost to Fiji for the gold medal. It sounds pretty great going to different countries but there were lots of hardships getting there. Players and officials raised all the money. Very few families had cars and, after training if we missed our usual bus, we’d get off part way and run another 5 km home.

I was working at that time so got sponsored. I have a huge extended family and they would give me travel money. I’d use half to do a raffle at work, sell ice blocks, cigarettes and betel nuts which were fast money making. I’d use the other half together with my pay to provide my family with fees and food.

In 2001, I came to Sydney and played in their Eastwood/Ryde state league team for three years and did junior coaching. We moved to Umina in 2005 and I joined a local association, playing for and coaching the Ettalong Eagles. Netball has always been more than a sport for me – it was my only experience of the world outside PNG.

Netball can provide independence, confidence, organization and social skills – it is so much more than a game, and I believe it has a strong role to play in development for women in the Pacific. It is easy to forget in the privileged world we live in here in Australia about how netball is played by our closest neighbor – Papua New Guinea.

Seeking Jeffrey Matthies: Rabaul 1970s

John Hocknull

As a result of a story the ABC did on me and a subsequent follow up to be aired on the 19 September, the Corporation has asked if I could use my contacts to find the father of a woman born in Rabaul. Here’s her story:

“My name is Jodie and I was born in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea in 1971 and left for Tasmania in 1973 with my mother due to PNG's Independence. I have never seen, met or talked to my father and am hoping and wondering if you can help?

“My fathers name is Jeffrey Matthies. Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot about him but, I do know that I have an Aunty Jess and an Uncle Elvis amongst others. My father and his family would know me as Natasha Joanne and my mothers name is Susan Irvine. I have been looking independently but any help is good help!"

Anyone with information can contact me and I'll pass on the contact to the ABC. Any assistance would be appreciated.

John is the Director of Education Development Office Management Services and you can contact him by email here.

The unsung heroes of PNG assistance

Occasionally in ASOPA PEOPLE we discuss development projects in Papua New Guinea that are not the initiatives of institutions – whether governments or major international aid bodies - but private projects, conceived and developed by individual Australians who feel they should do what they can to assist the people of PNG.

There are many such projects, and often their progenitors go unrecognised. I’d like to change that, and get some official recognition for these efforts. But that’s a challenge for another day. In the meantime, we can provide simple acknowledgement here.

Previously in these Notes we’ve mentioned the doctors who travel to the Simbu Province each Christmas to provide ophthalmological services; Colleen Neville’s efforts to raise funds for the Alotau Hospital; Friends of Rambutso, providing assistance to a remote island in Manus Province; the team of ex-broadcasters who helped establish a community radio station in Bougainville; and other people who gather and containerise books, medical equipment and other materials for schools and hospitals in PNG.

Today I want to tell you about another project of this ilk. The Oro Community Development Project was established after the loss of life and destruction caused by Cyclone Guba in November 2007. Following the catastrophe, a group of Australian educators decided to work with people in the Province to provide sustained and targeted assistance in the areas of education, health and agriculture.

The initial undertaking includes support to Hohorita Primary School, Gona Primary School and St Christopher’s Mechanical Training School. When improvements have been achieved in these schools, the project’s focus will shift to other areas. In addition, planning is well advanced for specialist teams to visit Oro later this year to deliver mentoring and other professional services.

The objectives of the Oro Community Development Project are to improve access to quality education and community health and to improve agricultural practices. It was launched in Sydney in February by PNG High Commissioner, Charles Lepani. Since then, support bases have been activated in Australia and PNG, a detailed on ground assessment made and planning meetings held at ANU. The Project was legally incorporated in June, with Riley Warren AM [left] accepting the position of inaugural President.

Three Sydney independent schools have already raised funds and, while it is still early days, $1,500 has been pledged to St Christopher’s Mechanical Training School for the purchase of tools and textbooks for 25 students. Elijah Sarigari is coordinating activities in Oro Province and John Kleinig has assumed responsibility for operations in Australia.

The partners in the Project are the PNG Anglican Diocese of Popondetta, Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School, Reddam House, Shore Preparatory School, William Clarke College, St Paul’s College, University of Sydney, Modern Teaching Aids and many individual people in PNG and Australia.

Quite simply, I find this stuff inspirational.

Don’t forget to participate in the PNGAA consultation. Discussion paper and questionnaire here. Download pngaa_consultation.pdf

PNG advocate dies of heart attack

The chairman of Transparency International in Papua New Guinea, Mike Manning OL OBE, died suddenly yesterday. Mr Manning, 65, was visiting Rabaul when he had a heart attack.

“Mr Manning was a passionate anti-corruption campaigner,” said the Secretary of Transparency International PNG, Lawrence Stephens. “He brought energy and drive to the organisation and worked tirelessly for the cause of TI. He served with distinction and was recognised by his peers when re-elected to TI’s global accreditation board.”

Mr Manning had been Director of the PNG Institute of National Affairs and Executive Director of the PNG Growers Association. He ran his own agricultural consultancy business. He was also director of a number of non-government organisations including Peace Foundation Melanesia. He lectured at the University of PNG and wrote extensively on the economy and development issues and had a regular column in the PNG press.

“The people and country of PNG have lost a leader who served with tremendous distinction and commitment. He will be missed by all who knew and respected him,” Mr Stephens said.

Editor finds business fame at last

The besuited cove looking corporately serious in this photo is your editor, being interviewed at his desk for the current issue of BRW. Tony Blackie wrote the story, which is about how business firms – even small ones – can effectively lobby government if they follow a set of very simple rules. Since this article is off subject for ASOPA PEOPLE I won’t take it further, but if readers want to share my tips for more effectively dealing with government, email me at my office here.

You too can be a friend of Rambutso

We have mentioned Friends of Rambutso (FOR) in these Notes previously. It’s an organisation set up to raise funds to work alongside the villagers of Rambutso Island in Manus Province. It’s a small, energetic organisation that seeks to help improve the quality of people’s lives through the delivery of community based health, education and conservation initiatives.

FOR will hold a film night at Sydney’s Cremorne Orpheum on Friday 25 July to raise funds for the shipment of six pallets of schoolbooks to Rambutso, the installation of solar lighting for 12 community study halls and the construction of 24 community water tanks. It’s one of those projects that does so much to assist Papua New Guineans and which, in a very practical way, builds close relationships between Australia and PNG.

Now FOR is holding a charity movie night in Sydney on Friday 25 July. It kicks off with drinks at the Cremorne Orpheum at 7.30. The first feature is Rambutso - The Movie, a documentary about FOR’s activities in Manus. Then, for ardent movie buffs and Heath Ledger fans, Batman - The Dark Knight kicks off at 9.15.

Cost is just $20 (drinks not included). Book your tickets online here, or alternatively send an email to Ruud Dautzenberg of FOR here.

Photos: Rusty water tanks and dilapidated libraries are the target of action by Friends of Rambutso

 

Gough Whitlam at 92 – and unrepentant

They’ve got me into an argument or two in the past, but my views on the Whitlam Government (1972-75) and on Gough Whitlam himself have remained pretty constant down the years. While his government included the normal number of incompetents, it wasn’t nearly as bad as popular mythology has it, being responsible for some great and lasting reforms that continue to benefit Australians 35 years later.

The Trade Practices Act, a national health care system, the vote for 18 year olds, free university education, sewage to neglected parts of our cities, an end to adversarial divorce laws, public funding for non-government schools – all Whitlam government initiatives. And, of course, in the context of these Notes, it was under Whitlam’s administration that PNG became independent in September 1975.

The debate continues about whether he got the timing right or not. For my part, I have no doubt he did. And on the occasion of the great man’s 92^nd birthday yesterday, I once again had the pleasure of speaking with him about PNG, his visits there and his role in its independence. It’s a subject Gough is always willing to expatiate upon with great relish.

Gough is now a very old man, wheelchair-bound and experiencing periodic bouts of ill health, but his mind and recall are as sharp as pins – and his famed wit, that got him into so much trouble when he was prime minister – remains as acute as ever. “It’s a sign of the times that Australia now has a Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister”, he said. "In the US, they're looking forward to having an English-speaking president.”

Of course, Gough believes he got the timing of PNG independence perfectly right, and so does his Territories Minister at the time, Bill Morrison, who’ll be 80 this year, and with whom I had a long conversation yesterday. In fact I’m going to write to both of these key Australian political figures in the nationhood of PNG and ask if they’d like to join the Papua New Guiinea Association. I’ll write to Andrew Peacock, too, to complete the trifecta and balance the ledger.

Photo: Whitlam Institute

Obituary: Helen Rousseau, 1936-2008

Ken McGregor

Helen Rousseau was a linguist and a luncher: the first Australian woman to be awarded a Japanese government scholarship to study in Japan after World War II and the manager of what is perhaps Sydney's longest-running luncheon club.

Rousseau, who has died at 72 after fighting breast cancer for five years, was born in Waverley. She topped the NSW Leaving Certificate in Latin and French and went on to graduate from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts.

After winning her Japanese government scholarship, she studied at Tokyo and Kyoto universities. On her return to Australia, she became public relations officer for the Japanese consulate in Sydney and began teaching Japanese, an occupation she was to later reignite. She co-wrote a book on the geography of Japan.

On a holiday to New Caledonia, she met Gerald Rousseau, a building contractor, accountant and member of the local parliamentary assembly.. They married in Sydney in 1965, before going to live in the French colony. From Noumea, Helen became a lively print media correspondent for The Australian Financial Review, The Bulletin and Pacific Islands Monthly.

Returning to Australia, Helen taught Japanese; promoted the Sydney Opera House, heritage houses and the wine industry; and with Gerald, managed the PIM Lunch. Begun in 1965 by Stuart Inder, then editor of PIM - and today still an occasional patron - this lunch has used a dozen city venues. Most recently the club has met in a separate room adjacent to one of Sydney's restaurant ‘secrets’, the Law Society's hideaway eatery in Phillip Street.

Rousseau nurtured a wide range of luncheon followers, from island traders and plantation eccentrics to bureaucrats and other government officials, politicians, media, and food and wine buffs.

Source: ‘Supporter of networks and Japanese culture - Helen Rousseau … lady who lunched by Ken McGregor, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 July 2008

High achievers in PNGAA’s new recruits

The Papua New Guinea Association signed 28 new members in May and June as the resurgence of interest in PNG affairs among former residents of PNG continues. The bulk of these people were from NSW (13) and Queensland (8). Former teachers (10) were the predominant vocational group.

The new members include a number of people born in PNG. Noteworthy amongst these is Peter Healey from Blaxland, NSW, who was the first white baby born in Kundiawa way back in 1956. They also include Richard Gault, now 85, who arrived in PNG in 1946 on the first civilian ship after World War II, the Reynella, and had an exotic life trading crocodile skins, trochus shell and scrap before running a plantation in the lower Warangoi (Gazelle Peninsula) for 20 years.

The PNGAA also benefits from former expatriates who moved on to significant careers after they left PNG: Murray Bladwell, who became a Ministerial adviser in Queensland; Ed Brumby [right], still in harness as GM International Relationships with the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance; Don Cairns, Australia’s former Consul-General in Mumbai; Dr Chris Owner, director of clinical sciences at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Virginia, USA; and Barry Kneen, former chief licensing commissioner in NSW.

I welcome all these and the other new members, making special mention of the key organiser of the recent highly successful PNG chalkies reunion in Brisbane, Colin Huggins. If you haven’t joined the Association yet, you can do so for just $20 – it’s the only way you can get your quarterly copy of the must-have journal Una Voce – by completing this web-based membership form.

Friends of Ribung Ilu sought

Paul Oates has received a request from Robert Ilu – who works with Air Niugini in Port Moresby – seeking former friends of his father, Ribung Ilu, who was a Field Officer in the department of Distyrict Administration and is now Deputy President of the Tewae-Siassi Council. Ribung has not been too well recently and would like to hear from some of his friends from the past, namely:

Mike Gough, who lived in Madang. Mike was originally from New Zealand and departed PNG in 1977. His father was a correctional service officer at Vanimo).

Cathy Brown of Sydney and wife of a Dr Brown. Cathy previously lived in Wau, Lae, Tari and Wewak.

Peter Farrey , a retired Australian Army Major and ex kiap. Last contacted in Bahrain).

Allan Ross, Brian Duffy, Fred Heins and Rod Ford  all of who were in Wewak.

Robert has requested that if anyone knows of these people, could they contact him at this email address: eng.ame1@airniugini.com.pg

Peter Kili, leading PNG journalist, dies

Papua New Guinea has lost another fine journalist. Following the recent deaths of media pioneers Sam Piniau and Luke Sela, Peter Kili – of the ubiquitous Kili media family – died at Port Moresby General Hospital on Tuesday. Mr Kili, from Masum village in Buka is survived by his wife and three children. The PNG Media Council yesterday paid tribute to him as one of PNG’s “outstanding journalists”. Council vice-president Michael Asagoni said that the loss of Mr Kili to his family was also a loss to the media industry in PNG.

Mr Kili hailed from PNG’s greatest media family.  Justin, the eldest brother, has 36 years of service in the industry and is executive officer of the PNG Media Council. Younger brother Augustine works for the television station EMTV.

Peter Kili started his career in journalism in the 1980s after graduating with a diploma at the University of Papua New Guinea. He began with Niugini Nius and then proceeded to the Post-Courier and The National newspapers. The highlight of his career, which earned him great credibility, was his exclusive reporting during the years of the Bougainville crisis. He was dispatched by the Post-Courier and accompanied members of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, taking exclusive pictures of what the rebels were doing.

Mr Asagoni said Mr Kili had been one of PNG’s outstanding journalists, a role model whose contribution would be missed.

The bizarre bone man of PNG

 

As the lone survivor of a Japanese infantry unit in PNG during World War II, Kokichi Nishimura swore he would bring his dead comrades bodies back to Japan. Sixty years later he’s still trying. And it has cost him, well,  everything.

In 1979, he shocked his wife Yukiko when he told her, after 35 years of marriage and four children, that he was leaving. At 59 years of age he turned over one of Tokyo's most successful engineering works to his oldest son, and boarded a plane back for PNG.

 

"I'll be gone for a long time, probably years," he said. The object: to collect bones. Nishimura spent 26 years doing just that - at the cost of his business, his life in Japan and his relationship with his sons and wife, whom he never saw again. "I heard she died a few years back," he says, adding he couldn’t recall her name. And his sons: "They are nothing to do with me." Today, Nishimura lives with his daughter in a densely packed Tokyo suburb in a bland house, but for the propeller of a US B-24 bomber stuck in a garden of well-trimmed shrubs.

The remains of 1.2 million Japanese soldiers are scattered across Asia. At an age when most men consider retiring, the 60-year-old set up base in PNG, living in tents and makeshift huts as he searched for bones. In a quarter-century of digging, armed with a metal detector and hand tools, he found the remains of 350 men, including former members of his 144th Infantry Regiment. It became an obsession, consumed his life not to mention $4 million. Skulls, femurs, gold teeth, rusting knives, swords, buckles, spoons…..

In Papua remain the bodies of 78,000 of 128,000 dead Japanese troops. Nishimura continued to dig until last year, when, at 87, his frail body forced him to return to Tokyo. Before he left, he fought hard against one last indignity: skeletal remains dug up by locals displayed in stalls for tourists and offered for sale. "I asked the people: 'What if it was a member of your family. Would you treat them like this?' It was the worst possible way for Nishimura to leave the country.

Before he dies, the veteran has two missions. He wants to help build a new city at the mouth of the Sepik, which, he believes, will help lift PNG out of poverty. And he wants to visit all the graves of the 365 troops in the 144th Infantry Regiment. So far he thinks he’s visited more than 330. "I'm not sure how many. At my age, things begin to fade."

Source: ‘Finding Papua war dead a vet's life’ by David McNeill, The Japan Times, 2 July 2008

Death of PNG law education pioneer

Prof Bruce Ottley reports the death of Prof AB Weston last Saturday in London at the age of 86.  Prof Weston was Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1970-74 and was responsible for changing its direction and diversifying its scholastic mix by hiring academics from a number of countries, one of whom was Prof Ottley himself . “When I joined the faculty in 1972,” Prof Ottley says, “we had people from Australia, England, Nigeria, Poland, Canada, the US, Tanzania and Guyana.”

Prior to joining the law faculty at UPNG, Prof Weston had been the first Dean of Law in Tanzania. He was also President of the Australasian Universities Law Schools Association in 1972-73, a matter of personal distinction and a great honour so early in the history of UPNG.

On a personal note, Prof Weston was a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta in the 1960s and, as such, a contemporary of my father-in-law Prof Henry Lowig, who was Professor of Mathematics there.

Kundiawa, Goroka and Frank Hiob

David Craig

Early in 1959, I attended what I believe was the first ASOPA short course for teachers selected for secondment to Papua New Guinea. I had been teaching in NSW for four years before applying for secondment. A distinguishing feature of our course was a very infectious influenza which swept through the school and caused the cancellation of our bulk travel booking from Sydney to Port Moresby. We were given a week’s vacation before boarding a special charter flight brought down from Townsville. We left Sydney at 2.30 am and were nearly turned back from Moresby as dusk was approaching and there was no night landing available. Fortunately we made it as the sun was setting.

I was appointed to the Henganofi Primary T School as head teacher. As I arrived, I received the news that much of the school had burnt down and one of my first tasks was to organise its rebuilding. Luckily I had an excellent Tolai couple on staff who understood building and after a few weeks we had comfortable classrooms and a dorm.

In 1960 I was appointed as head teacher of Kundiawa Primary T School, which was situated at Gon on the western edge of the station. Kondom, the paramount luluai and prominent Chimbu leader, had demanded a ‘master’ who could speak English for the school. At that stage I was the only Government expatriate teacher in the Eastern Highlands outside Goroka, except one at Kainantu. The following year some of the E course graduates from Rabaul arrived in the highlands.

My main reason for writing is to contact Frank Hiob, a Bathurst Teachers College and ASOPA graduate who taught at the Goroka Technical School in North Goroka in 1960. Des Peisker, who was mentioned in one of the ‘Missing Person’ requests was head teacher at the time. I got to know Frank on my infrequent weekends in Goroka and we spent a Christmas holiday backpacking together in Asia . This was before ‘back packing’ was in our vocab. We flew to Hollandia and went by Dutch cargo boat to Singapore and overland to Penang. We went 3rd class rail to Bangkok and flew to Hong Kong before returning to PNG.

I read with interest your tale of how you received a nickname after an episode at the Chimbu Club. The club must have changed from when I was at Kundiawa as it was very family oriented with film nights and weekend BBQs. I was secretary for quite a while.

My memories of my two years at Kundiawa are very positive as I met my wife of 46 years there. She was teaching at Ega Lutheran Mission in Kundiawa. We are now retired in Adelaide but spend 3 or 4 months a year in Asia doing voluntary teaching of English.

Congratulations on your election as president of the PNGAA. I have been a member for many years and find it extremely interesting.  Ross Johnson, the treasurer, was the kiap at Henganofi when I was posted there.