ASOPA PEOPLE

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.

Harley Dickinson, kiap, MP, dies at 70

 

Budapest, Thursday: Bob Stensholt, himself a member of the Victorian Parliament, albeit of the Labor persuasion, advises me of the death last month of former patrol officer Harley Dickinson at the age of 70.  Harley was educated at Geelong College and the Australian School of Pacific Administration.

 

He pioneered the exploration of Mt Fubulan in PNG in 1958 as a patrol officer. From 1958-70 he served respectively with ranks up to district officer. The Victorian Parliamentary record of his subsequent career seems to me a little confused but I quote it verbatim: “Officer Papua-New Guinea Constabulary, Office of Programming and Co-ordination 1970-1971; officer OK Tedi and Bougainville copper projects, Department of Law 1971-1976; resident magistrate, visiting justice and coroner Boroko, Popondetta and Mendi district courts, district supervising magistrate Southern Highlands Province, chairman Highland District Land Disputes committee”.

 

Harley returned to Australia in 1976 as assistant secretary of the Victorian Chamber of Manufactures. In 1982 he was elected as the Liberal Member for Barwon in the Victorian Parliament, holding the seat for more than ten years until his defeat at the 1992 election.

The 1959 short course reports in

David Craig

I have just discovered your ASOPA blog and enjoyed it very much. I hope you don’t mind but I think the Chronology could mention the following ‘happening’:

1959 - The first short course (orientation) for experienced teachers seconded from Australian states to teach in PNG for two or four years was held. Although I don’t know the numbers there was quite a group of us combined with a group of first time Cadet Patrol Officers. I missed out on a lot of after-hours fun as my home was in Sydney and I didn’t live in with the rest of them in the guest house down the road.

I successfully applied for secondment from NSW after training at Bathurst (1953-54) and spending four years teaching in a one teacher school at Pine Ridge. I spent one year at Henganofi and two years at Kundiawa, both in the Eastern Highlands. Also met my wife of 46 years, Ruth, at Kundiawa, where she was a teacher at the Lutheran Mission. We have lived in South Australia since we returned to Australia.

I wonder could I put out a call for information on a missing friend. Frank Hiob trained at Bathurst and ASOPA and then taught at Goroka Technical School but went finish in January 1961 after we had done a trip to Dutch NG, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong. I believe he returned to PNG later while I returned to Australia at the end of 1961. Have lost touch with him.

Keep up the good work. The blog is certainly interesting reading and a vital link with the ‘good years’.

See ‘’Missing People for David’s contact information. The ‘ASOPA Chronology’ has been updated. - KJ

Always go back: a return to Karkar

Hilary Langford

From 1969, David Keating spent three idyllic years on Karkar Island. It was his first posting as headmaster and he’d started the high school. It had been a very productive time in his life.

Now it was April 2008. The ship had anchored off Karkar and David and I were first to clamber down the steps to the waiting Zodiac. On the beach, planters Paul and Barbara Goodyear waited to take us to the high school. David asked to go via the now little used airstrip, where, before the South Pacific Games, he used to train for the 800 and 1,500 metres.

Then to the school. We were escorted to the Library where the Board of Governors was waiting. Ken Fairweather MHA, Member for Sumkar, made a welcome speech. The school had experienced some very tough years, he said. Things had been bad. “The school cannot get any lower than it has been in the last few years. We are determined to turn things around! But enough of this! This is not my day. Today is David Keating’s day!”

Principal, Ben Tamilong, also welcomed us. He was an ex-student of the school, and in his speech he announced the new library was to be named ‘The David Keating Library’.

In response, David reminded the Board of his early history on Karkar. Together with the villagers, he spent two months building the first bush materials school. “Difficult times create strength,” he said, “there are benefits from having to overcome adversity”.

Meanwhile, the school had assembled on the front lawn. Clothes, all colours of the rainbow, greeted us. A stage with intricately carved posts had been decorated with palms and flowers. The 620 students sang the national anthemand pledged themselves to PNG.

After speeches by Ben Tamilong and Ken Fairweather, a representative from David’s first class, Kubul Kakema, spoke. He’s now a teacher at a Kudoka Primary School. He described how frightened of David the students were. “He was the best Headmaster of this school,” he said.

David said how pleased he was to be visiting the school he started in 1969. He was delighted the school logo and motto were the same. He reminded them why the motto was selected. ‘Bares Dabai’ [‘Strength in Unity’] triggered an eruption of delighted laughter from the students.

As we walked towards the sports field with another of David’s legacies, the athletic track, we passed the Manual Arts Block. Outside was a huge sign: ‘Ba Dave Keating. Welcome to Karkar Island. Pioneer Headmaster of Karkar High School’. ‘Ba’ means ‘Father’, a traditional honorific for someone of distinction. Another surprise on a day of surprises!

That evening, back on board ship, we were asked to talk to the other passengers about our day. They were interested, amazed and probably a little envious. Many expressed an interest to assist with donations of books for the Library. Exhausted, but too excited to sleep, we tried to unwind. We finally retired after midnight!

You can read the full report of David Keating and Hilary Langford’s return to Karkar here...  Download always_go_back.pdf 

Remembering the pugnacious Jim Leigh

  I was leafing through the Pacific Islands Monthly for May 1963 when I happened upon this photograph. It shows the then station manager of Radio Rabaul, HH ‘Jim’ Leigh, posing in a studio with some staff members and two tape recorders. Jim was to become a rather bellicose and impetuous Controller of Broadcasting with the Department of Information. He plucked me from the ABC and into his managerial ranks in 1969.

One of my tasks as the new manager of Radio Bougainville in 1970 was to recruit and train young Bougainvilleans to work as announcers and producers. I was under special orders to hire people from the dissident (secessionist) villages around Kieta.

Jim Leigh, who later became general secretary of the Queensland National Party, called me on the radio-telephone from Port Moresby to proffer some unsolicited advice on how to conduct selection interviews.

“Father,” he said (he called everyone father), “there are only three rules for selecting staff, and I want you to note them carefully.

"One. Be rational not emotional. Got that, father? Over."

I agreed I had got that.

"Two. Put ‘em under pressure, real pressure. Know what I mean, father? Over."

I affirmed I knew what he meant by real pressure.

"Three. Check their references. Over.”

As chance had it, Jim was in Kieta for his annual inspection of the station at the time I’d scheduled a number of interviews.

The inspection included intense scrutiny of the S-bend of the toilet, since Jim had recently had hepatitis and blamed unhygienic radio station latrines for this misfortune.

He’d been unsettled by his arrival in Bougainville. The DC3 undercarriage warning light had triggered and there was some anxiety before an ultimately safe landing at Aropa airstrip.

"Head between my legs, father. Thought I was gonna kiss my arse goodbye. Know the feeling?"

I stated that, while the feeling was not known to me personally, I had a vivid imagination.

Early next morning was interview time. The first was with a young hopeful from one of the dissident villages near Kieta.

Jim reminded me of his three rules for conducting effective interviews - rationality, pressure and references – and told me he'd sit in to see how I conducted the session.

I was unimpressed by this, but he was the Controller and I was his subordinate and that was that.

The first applicant was a strikingly beautiful 18-year old woman.

As she walked into my office, Jim simpered, “And what's your name, my dear”.

“Perpetua Tanaku,” she replied, “but my friends call me Pepi.”

Then she added, “You can call me Pepi.”

“Pepi,” Jim sighed.

“Pepi is short for Perpetua,” she breathed. “It comes from the English word 'perpetual' which means ….. everlasting."

References on my desk in front of me, I was just about to ask the first rational question that I hoped would put Miss Tanaku under real pressure when Jim leapt to his feet.

"You're hired," he said.

Photo (left to right): Matthais Tiamani, Jim Leigh, Nellie Exon, Joe Gohan, H Vue and Danes Tagi.

Vale John Biltris – friend of the Gumine

John Mansell Biltris died on 20 March 2008 in Melbourne. He joined the PNG Administration as a Cadet Patrol Officer on 27 February 1961 and served at Gumine in Chimbu thence in various parts of PNG in local government positions. He became town clerk of Lae in 1972 and returned to Australia in 1974.

John was diagnosed with bowel cancer three years ago and underwent treatment. The cancer had unfortunately spread to his lungs and liver, and he was due to commence further treatment at the start of 2008. He decided to make a farewell visit to Gumine first.

The people of Gumine, south of Kundiawa, were a big part of John's life. He had visited them a couple of years earlier and then financed a reciprocal visit to Melbourne of John Dai, the son of traditional leader Kuman Dai, and his wife Helen. Between them, the two Johns organised some small civic projects around Gumine. John was regularly shipping books for the school and clothing to the area.

During his retirement, John enjoyed indulging in one of his favourite pastimes, garage sales, and never ceased to amaze his family with the treasures he scored. It was at garage sales that John collected many of the books and other items he sent to the people of Gumine.

John returned to Melbourne from his last visit on 13 January and was admitted to hospital the next day. He was courageous in his battle and was determined to overcome his illness, but unfortunately remained in hospital until his death.

John is survived by his wife of 42 years, Barbara, his two children, Andrew and Fiona, and two granddaughters, Jaymie and Danielle.

Graham Pople writes: “John’s loss is a huge loss for the people of Gumine. He will not only be missed by his peers, he will be missed by the people of Gumine who held him in high esteem. On his last trip to PNG, John was in agony and couldn’t sleep well due to his cancer but was determined to complete his trip, stating that he knew it was his last.”

ASOPA, TPNG and then the world

In the half decade after Papua New Guinea attained national independence in 1975, thousands of Australians voluntarily relinquished their positions and moved to other locales and other roles. Most of them too young to retire, they went on to have second careers. Most of their stories are interesting and some are spectacular, and occasionally we relate one of them on ASOPA PEOPLE.

When Chris Owner left PNG in 1977, he decided to live and work in the United States. He returned to university and obtained a PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle. He now lives and works in Virginia, is married with four children and a grandchild, with another on the way.

He's now the Clinical Sciences Director of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington DC. The AFIP is a US government institution concerned with diagnostic consultation, education, and research. The unique character of AFIP rests in the expertise of its diagnostic pathologists, whose daily work involves cases that are difficult to diagnose owing to their rarity. AFIP was very busy, for example, during the anthrax scares post 9/11.

“Life has been very kind to me and my brood,” Chris says.” The only downside is that I don't see [brother] Mike often enough. His eldest son Tim lives near me and plays for the Virginia orchestra. I hope that if any of the ASOPA folks make it here they will let me know and will come and see me.”

If you’d like to get in touch, you can email Chris here.

Top PNG honour for veteran broadcaster

I recruited Justin Kili to his first job in the media at Radio Bougainville in 1972. After a stellar broadcasting career, Justin is now executive director of the Media Council of PNG and has received a second national award to add to his MBE.

Justin was promoted to Officer of the Order of Logohu in the PNG national honours announced on New Year’s day by Governor General, Sir Paulias Matane. The citation was “for services over 35 years to media work, promotion and publication of PNG music and providing and promoting International primary education to PNG children.”

Unfortunately, not long after the award was announced, Justin was seriously injured in a freak motor accident and has spent most of the last three months lying in bed. “The accident rendered me a cracked dislocated hip and pelvis,” he says. “But the doctors said it was nothing they couldn’t fix. So they strapped a metal contraption, steel braces, drilling four holes in my hip and hooking four metal pins to fix the problem.”

His doctors removed the braces last week, and Justin immediately went back to work. He’d missed out on the investiture ceremony at Government House for his new award, but will now receive it from Sir Paulias in June.

Footnote: Justin has just completed a draft submission to the PNG Government for funding to start a newspaper in Bougainville. His proposal has the strong backing of Bougainville’s President Kabui and the people of the autonomous province. Justin promises to keep us informed of progress.

Piniau honoured as NBC gets funds boost

In the biggest boost to broadcasting in PNG since the halcyon days of the great Sam Piniau OBE in the 1970s, the PNG Government has allocated K21 million to the National Broadcasting Corporation for the rehabilitation of its radio network and a further K12 million for the pilot phase of a proposed national television project. Communication and Information Minister, Patrick Tammur, said the contributions were positive signals for the NBC network to move forward.

As NBC Chairman from 1973, Sam oversaw a huge expansion of the NBC that took its radio stations into every Province and significantly boosted the skills of the national broadcaster. Thirty-five years later, however, the broadcasting system, where it is working at all, is decrepit.

The PNG Government’s announcement comes as Sam Piniau’s relatives prepare to celebrate his life at a large ceremony in Rabaul. “In September 2008 the family is hosting a feast to commemorate Dad’s life,” says eldest son Harold Piniau, a bank manager. “It will also to complete the Tolai tradition of saying ‘thank you’. This process involves a lot of preparation like breeding pigs and growing garden foods leading up to the event.”

The tentative date for the feast is Thursday 18 September when it is expected many hundreds of the Tolai people will turn out to mark the life of a man who, after doing much for his own country turned his attention to the welfare of his own people in the Gazelle Peninsula.

When I was in Rabaul late in 2006, just before Sam died, he talked of his family and children and told me how proud he was of them. I’m grateful for the two days Sam and I spent together, he and Dulcie perfect hosts. I did not realise then that he’d been very ill, and Sam was too dignified to mention it. In retrospect, it was great good fortune that took Ingrid and me to Rabaul at that time - otherwise Sam and I would never have seen each other again.

Sam died of metastatic lung cancer on 20 February 2007. “In his final moments he wrote down his last words of what he wanted done,” writes Harold. “He prepared himself before he departed us. His last moments with us were indeed very sad. Amongst other things, I knew Dad as a very humble man. His passing has basically changed my life in terms of my spiritual relationship with God and also my outlook on life in general, especially not taking life for granted any more.”

Any of Sam’s friends who wish to contribute to the final celebration of his life in September can do so by arranging a telegraphic transfer with your bank to the following address:

Beneficiary Name: Stella Piniau
Account Number: 880482
BSB: 8907
Bank Name: ANZ Bank Wewak
Bank Swift code for ANZ PNG: ANZBPGPX

Vale Bert ‘Whyte’ Edwards

I first met Bert Edwards in Goroka in 1963 not long after I arrived in Papua New Guinea. He was in his early forties which, to a 19-year old, already put him in the veteran class, but the age gap was quickly overwhelmed by Bert’s warmth and invariably good nature. In addition, his daughters were considered the prettiest women in town.

Bert, who has died on the Gold Coast at the age of 87, went to PNG as a teacher in 1962. His first posting was to Asaro Primary T School and he later served in Goroka and Port Moresby before leaving PNG around the time of Independence in 1975. His son Jon was born and still lives in Goroka, working in the coffee industry. Bert’s daughter Laura was a teacher in PNG from 1967-77, having been a Cadet Education Officer at ASOPA in 1965-66. Laura is now married to former Asopian David Keating.

Bert is survived by five children, ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Vale Les Hiatt – boxer & anthropologist

Ruth Fink Latukefu reports that Professor Les Hiatt - respected anthropologist, former dentist and ex amateur boxing champion – died earlier this month at the age of 76. In his work, Les was characteristically iconoclastic and hard-hitting in his understandings and views of Australia’s Aboriginal people.

Lester Richard Hiatt was born in Gilgandra on 30 December 1931 and attended Hurlstone Agricultural High School and from there the University of Sydney where he completed a Bachelor of Dental Surgery in 1953. He practised dentistry in Drummoyne and Bourke before embarking on the study of anthropology in 1956. In 1963 he was awarded a doctorate from ANU for his thesis on the Gidjingali/Maringarr people of northern Arnhem Land.

From 1962-91 Les taught and researched in Anthropology at the University of Sydney. Other appointments during this time included Visiting Professorships at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University.

He also held the honorary positions of president of the Anthropological Society of NSW and chairman of the Committee of Inquiry into the Role of the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee.

Les was a foundation member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and was the Institute’s president and chairman from 1974-82. From 1998 Hiatt was been an honorary visiting fellow at AIATSIS.

His publications included Kinship and conflict (1965), Australian Aboriginal mythology (1975), Australian Aboriginal concepts (1978), Aboriginal landowners (1984), Arguments about Aborigines (1996) and People of the Rivermouth (2002).

You get a lot less for murder, Albert

Sean Dorney

Last week, Albert Asbury closed his innings at the ABC after 50 years. Stories about Albert's exploits as a newsman in both Queensland and Papua New Guinea are legion. He went to PNG in 1969 and became the ABC's political correspondent. In late 1973, Albert was appointed the first news editor of the new National Broadcasting Commission.

Albert covered the early political career of Sir Michael Somare and became a trusted confidant of the major identities of the day including PNG's first Governor General, Sir John Guise. In September, 1975, Albert was amongst those awarded the PNG Independence medal. Years later, he sent me the medal and asked me to hand it back personally to Somare in protest at Sir Michael's disastrous appointment of a thoroughly unsuitable person as chairman of the NBC.

In his years as the ABC's political correspondent in PNG, Albert regularly flew around the country in light aircraft covering the news. PNG is one of the most dangerous places in the world to fly and on one occasion, Albert was on a media plane carrying Australian journos when the pilot became violently ill with food poisoning. They were flying from the Trobriand Islands to Port Moresby and Albert, with no formal flight training, took over the controls. He radioed ahead for an ambulance and with his nervous colleagues quaffing OP rum, Albert steered the plane over the Owen Stanley Ranges and with the guidance of some mumbled instructions from the semi-conscious pilot, brought it down safely.

Albert had a speed boat in PNG and entered his daughter, Ingrid, then only 11, in a water skiing  marathon. In practice for this Albert used me as his spotter. Unfortunately, one Saturday morning, his spotter, suffering from a severe hangover, fell asleep in the boat. We had shot out of Moresby's Fairfax Harbour and were in the open sea off Ela Beach. I remember passing a Japanese fishing boat and thinking about sharks before dozing off. Minutes later, Albert barked, "Where's Ingrid?" She had fallen off and was nowhere to be seen.

Albert spun the boat around and, after a frantic dash, we found her about two kilometres back. Ingrid, now a Queensland Industrial Relations Commissioner, has, amazingly, forgiven me. She says at the time she could not believe it. She was waving and waving but the boat just keep going until we disappeared in the distance.

Before leaving PNG in 1975, Albert filled in for several months as the ABC's correspondent. Back in Queensland, Albert became the news chief of staff, a job he filled with distinction for the past 32 years.

[Photos: Top - Albert Asbury today. Lower - Port Moresby newsroom early seventies – Sean Dorney, Bruce Bertram, Albert Asbury and Bob Lawrence.]

The spy who ran into me

Martin Hadlow writes: “This morning I was in a Harvey Norman shop in Brisbane and recognised one of the customers. I approached him and asked: ‘Are you John from Kieta?’ It was he - John McGregor.”

In the middle of the computer store, both men got down to some serious reminiscing. John [left] regaled Martin with tales of his time as an intelligence officer in Kieta in the early seventies and boldly revealed his nickname of the time, 006½. Distant days from the time in 1972 I accosted John in a Kieta tradestore, hailing him with a loud “monin tru 007”, whereupon said spy ducked for cover behind boxes of tinned meat, wildly flailing arms cautioning me to silence.

John ‘went finish’ to north Queensland in 1975, buying a large boat and spending the next 25 years carting tourists around the Barrier Reef. He’s now managing director – and has been for 19 years - of a Brisbane-based computer firm mischievously named Smallpond, which among many other things hosts the Ex-Kiap website. Smallpond's marketing blurb is pure ex-kiapitan: “The Captain’s Web [see logo, right] prides itself in honest assessment of your internet circumstances - this may not be advice you wish to hear, but it will be based on 19 years of practical experience.”

John is now contemplating a return north to live in a small village in the Cairns hinterland. He remains married to Julie and they have three children. Martin comments: “John is now grey of hair (aren't we all) and, clearly, judging by his girth, has been continuing to put away more than a few beers.” Haven’t we all.

Good to hear news of our erstwhile comrade.

Territory continues to weave magic spell

Siebrand Petrusma: I had a great time with you and the others at Mido on Tuesday. It was very special to meet up with the Donnisons after almost 47 years and I very much appreciated their coming. There is still much to catch up. It never ceases to amaze how even a few months of Territory association leaves lasting friendships. There obviously is something very special about these associations. Look forward to ongoing contact.

Keith: Norm Donnison, the famed ASOPA education lecturer, had two sets of twins in his six children. Norm was accompanied by his young family when setting up the first E Course in Rabaul in 1961 and they befriended the Petrusmas, who also went on to have two sets of twins. The other day the two families met for the first time in all those years: Siebrand and the Donnison kids Phil and Suzie (twins) and Gwennie (half a twin).

Colin Huggins: As you have noted since you first introduced the Vintage newsletter and then The Mail, there is something about Asopians. The emails of good wishes I received before going to hospital for back surgery were amazing. I truly was overcome with emotion. Please convey my heartfelt thanks to all.

Keith: Colin had speculated that “oysters, prawns and smoked salmon are not on the hospital menu - not to mention the absence of wine” and I sympathetically responded that it was “possible the enforced diet will be good for you, but remember, a man cannot live on anaesthetic alone.” Other people clearly had more empathetic ways of bringing tears to the eyes.

Diane Bohlen: It has been raining all day, so here comes another ASOPA video to watch on YouTube. It’s called ASOPA Classes 1958-75 and is a collection of old class photos. Unfortunately I haven't got every year. Hope you enjoy.”

You can find the latest ASOPA addition to YouTube right here.

The man who took Jeff Kennett’s seat

“Greetings from the past,” the communication from Bob Stensholt begins. And then, “I remember Mosman with some fondness.” The Mosman Bob refers to is the International Training Institute, ASOPA’s successor organisation. Bob was a frequent visitor to Middle Head during the eighties, when I was there, latterly as acting principal, in his role as assistant director general of Australia’s aid agency, AusAID, from 1984-97

But for Bob, as for the rest of us, life has moved on. He is now a Labor member of the Victorian State Parliament, having taken Jeff Kennett’s old seat of Burwood in what he terms “dark blue Liberal territory” eight years ago.

Before politics, Bob had a diverse career as a diplomat, manager, company director, university lecturer, teacher, community worker and international consultant. He now chairs the Parliamentary Public Accounts and Estimates Committee and is a frequent parliamentary contributor especially on economic matters. He continues to nominate international development issues as one of his major interests.

Bob had stumbled upon the ASOPA website and if you want to stumble over his, you can find it here.

Beautiful woman, two men & a baby grand

Siebrand Petrusma - veteran of the first E-Course, former CEO of the Bible Society and thorough gentleman – made it to Sydney from Tasmania this past week. And he brought with him a fascinating story about his late wife Carol, a baby grand piano and the most famous of Australia’s classical composers, Peter Sculthorpe.

Carol, from a Tasmanian family of long vintage, and an accomplished musician and singer, went to PNG with Siebrand in 1961, leaving her baby grand with mum and dad. While Carol and Siebrand were fighting the good educational fight at Agarabi in the Eastern Highlands, mum and dad, finding themselves short of a quid and needing a new motor vehicle, flogged the piano. Or to be more precise, they put an ad in the paper advising the community that said piano was for sale. This intelligence was not communicated to Carol, perhaps for obvious reasons.

A 30-something Launceston boy – who, as a child had been severely reprimanded by his piano teacher for not practising, so took to writing music under the bedclothes with a torch – saw the ad, saw the piano and concluded that “it was asking me to play it”.

The young man was Peter Sculthorpe, now approaching 80, one of Australia’s 100 Living National Treasures, one of only four Australians to be made life members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and much honoured in this country as perhaps our greatest composer ever. He has composed at Carol’s piano since.

This morning Siebrand visited the Sculthorpe home in Sydney to see the baby grand. And Peter Sculthorpe sat at the keyboard and played for Siebrand the first piece he had ever composed on it.

Photos: Carol Petrusma with twins Tim and Heather at Taurama Base Hospital, Port Moresby, 20 March 1969 [PNG Post Courier]; Peter Sculthorpe [University of Sydney]

Ex PNG folk honoured on Australia Day

It really was a quintessential Australian summer’s day. Hot, sunny and bright. An embryonic sea breeze wisping up. Ingrid and I took a bus, alive with chatter and thick with the aroma of suntan cream, from Cremorne to Manly, and then walked along the beach promenade from South Steyne through North Steyne, and then up the Queenscliff headland. Down below at Freshwater there was a surf carnival.

They’d finished the belt and reel and were lining up the surfboats, which began to race as we watched. You understand clearly what it feels like to be an Australian at such times. The surfboats were racing nine at a time, and the surfers at the northern end of the beach were being herded away by inflatable rescue boats (or ‘rubber duckies’ as my son Simon  [left], IRB Captain at Freshwater, calls them, providing the correct technical appellation). Freshwater has hosted a surf lifesaving carnival for clubs from beaches throughout the continent each Australia Day since 1912, Club president John Swan told me.

The morning papers were laden with the names of people receiving Orders of Australia, and I was pleased to see some former PNG colleagues receiving honours. Both, as it happened, had been at the University of PNG. Prof Alan Gilbert, now at Manchester University, was awarded an AO for services to tertiary education, including the promotion of learning in developing countries. And Dr Diane Langmore [right], now a senior fellow at ANU,was awarded
an AM, specifically for her editorship of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, which I have drawn on heavily from time to time in researching the lives of a number of ASOPA identities.

As a footnote, I might add that Ilona Lee of Rushcutters Bay also received an AM, in her case for community service. I mention her name because she was nominated by my wife Ingrid, who was as delighted by her friend's success as the recipient herself.

Xmas wishes from some of our friends

Allan Jones

For me this year has been ‘steady as she goes’. I continue my involvement with volunteer tasks and self-improvement. No overseas spinning but several brief trips within SA to places not visited for some time, e.g. Port Lincoln, Mount Gambier and Morgan. Droughts, bush fires and water shortages have us all much aware of global warming and how best to respond to this challenge. Go PNG’s Kevin Conrad. 'USA, if you won't lead, get out of the way!' My best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

David Keating

Personally and professionally, 2007 has been busy, productive, successful, and filled with fun and joy.  It has been a consolidating year for Hilary and me. We have undertaken a number of consulting activities together. The work in PNG was definitely the highlight! Together, we purchased a unit in Kangaroo Point, where we have located both our offices. This is working really well. It is close to the ferry that crosses the river to the city, and is only a 3-minute walk from where we are living. We hope that 2008 will bring abundance in everything, especially joy, success, and good health.

Barry and Janine Paterson

This year Barry has continued as Theology teacher at Wontulp-Bi-Buya College thanks to the generosity of the supporters of the Bible Society of NSW. He is also Priest-in-Charge of St Peter’s Anglican Church at Kewarra Beach, which is on the north side of Cairns. As if that wasn’t enough he was elected as Secretary of the Mossman Community Centre. His New Year’s resolution is to rightsize his commitment to the College and concentrate more on the parish and the community of Mossman. While Barry is rightsizing Janine is flying higher than ever. She is now the Community Development Officer at our Mossman Community Centre. She presents a weekly radio program on community issues, supervises offenders who have community service orders, administers the emergency relief program, looks after the day-to-day working of the centre, encourages community members to use the facilities of the Centre and reaches out to the community to provide support by the Community Centre, to name just a few of her tasks. She is also involved in the world of lapidary (rocks) where she fashions beautiful pieces of jewellery from our amazing Australian semi-precious stones. She also graduated with a Certificate in Theology and Ministry from Trinity College in Melbourne and has continued to provide administrative support to the Bishop of the Torres Strait Region of the Anglican Church. We are richly blessed and we hope you are too.

Colin Huggins

As an ex-Chapter member of the 2007 reunion it has been for me a wonderful pleasure of getting to know my colleagues, if for only one thing - and this has been an eye-opener - never once were there any disagreements. All members worked as a team of one for the success, I believe, we attained in Brisbane. Cheers and beers plus oysters and prawns and Swiss delicacies! Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2008.

Yu husat? Masta Kis o husat?

Each year the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust, through its chairman Rodney Cavalier AO, former NSW Education Minister, hosts a gathering of friends in the Members’ Pavilion overlooking the ‘sacred turf’, as Rodney calls it. Yesterday I was privileged to attend this event.

Over the last 20 years at various times I have been mistaken for various public figures who have wild hair, thick glasses, generous girth and roguish features. After the 1983 election, where I had waged a vigorous but ultimately unsuccessful campaign in the Labor interest, I had reason to visit Orange – some hours drive west of Sydney - and was enjoying a pre-prandial beer when I engaged the attention of a group of women on the other side of the horseshoe-shaped bar. They quizzed me on the election campaign and I marvelled at being recognised so far from home. Fame, I mused, spreads like honey. When the conversation was over, the group said in unison “Thanks Mr Combe’. And I realised I had been taken for David Combe, then Labor national secretary and the architect of Bob Hawke’s winning election campaign.

Then, some years ago, attending a function at the National Trust, I saw across the room my former opponent at the polls, Jim Carlton. He signalled me to join the group he was with and proceeded to introduce me as Federal Minister Laurie Ferguson, to whom – on a murky night – I bear a passing resemblance. My immediate dilemma, though, was whether to embarrass Jim before the group or to pretend to be Laurie. I chose the former, although the look on Jim’s face made me immediately regret the decision. I have been mistaken for Laurie many times since.

But yesterday, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, I was mistaken for Rodney Cavalier four times. A maiden Cavalier identity error and a standing record for a single day.

I must say that, on three of the four occasions where people robustly addressed me along the lines of “Good to see you, Rodney, how're you keeping?”, they were approaching me from behind – where, for all I know, there may be a passing similarity. But in the fourth case, much to my surprise, the engagement was full frontal.

I quickly decided that the appropriate strategy – given that the poor chap had no proper excuse (like “well, you do share a post-cranial similarity to Cavalier”) – was to pretend to be Rodney, wish the fellow well and tell him to have a drink on me (that is to say, Rodney). Whereupon he departed, appearing well satisfied with the encounter. God knows who he thought Rodney was when the great man got up to speak. An impostor, I presume.

Upon recounting this tale to Rodney later, he mildly observed that I clearly had the ability to walk backwards into any cricket ground in the land and get preferred treatment. I thought that was a useful idea and will now consider my options.

Photo: Rodney Cavalier, David Combe, Laurie Ferguson or Keith Jackson on the ASOPA reunion Brisbane River cruise

One of the most famed CPOs ever

Air Commodore Gordon Henry Steege DFC DSO turned 90 a couple of months ago. He remains ramrod straight and his conversation is vivid and entertaining, especially when he’s discussing his exploits in North Africa flying Gladiator biplanes against the Axis forces – his hands cutting through the air to illustrate the weft and warp of aerial combat.

On 18 February 1941, Steege attacked four enemy aircraft in succession over Libya. Army sources confirmed he had shot down three of them in this single engagement. He later flew Kittyhawks against the Japanese in New Guinea and became an accredited fighter ‘ace’ having shot down eight enemy aircraft. By the end of the war, having risen steadily through the ranks, Steege was Director of Operations at RAAF HQ in Melbourne.

Then, late in 1946, thirsty for adventure, he resigned his commission and became a cadet patrol officer in PNG, rising to the position of Assistant District Officer four years later, when he resigned to rejoin the RAAF as a Wing Commander during the Korean emergency.

He spent time in the sixties commanding RAAF bases at Amberley, Butterworth and Edinburgh,  retiring in 1972. Since then he’s lived in Palm Beach, NSW, and regularly attends PNG Association functions [right].

Tony Voutas - Kaindi to chang zhu de

In 1964 Bill Bloomfield was elected to the first PNG House of Assembly. He’d traversed the Kaindi electorate asking voters to put the man they wanted as number one on the ballot paper and Bloomfield as number two. He won at the eighth preference count. To this day there are probably still Kaindi voters who believe both their man and Bloomfield were elected.

By 1966 Bill Bloomfield was dead, unhappily becoming the first PNG politician to die in office, and his place was taken by a young patrol officer called Tony Voutas who had just picked up a degree in Indonesian studies at ANU. He had visited every one of the 80 polling places in Kaindi telling everyone to put him first and allocate no preferences. He won easily.

In the next few years Tony Voutas became one of the founding fathers of the Pangu Party and an adviser to PNG’s first prime minister, Michael Somare. Tony Voutas was a prominent, indeed an eminent, figure in PNG in the sixties and early 1970s – and then he was gone. So what became of Anthony Constantine ‘Toni’ Voutas?

Well it turns out that Tony Voutas is a chang zhu de, or long time expatriate, in Beijing. He’s been in China for nearly 30 years and is Managing Director of his own company, Asia Pacific Access. APA consults to multinational companies doing business in China, its services including relocation, cross-cultural training, human resource management, business set-up and remote site investigation in China.

“I first came to China in 1974 on a semi-official PNG delegation,” he says. “At the time, which was before PNG's independence, I had completed two terms as a member of the PNG parliament and was serving as the PNG prime minister’s chief adviser.

“I am fascinated by the intricacies, variations and dynamics of the culture. While Chinese culture has had such a long and rich history, nowadays you may find layers of culture ranging from traditional to ultra-modern within the same family, even within the same person. On the weekends I still love to have picnics around the Ming Tombs or amidst the serene stupas of Silver Mountain - after decades I still haven't grown tired to exploring China and learning about its vibrant culture.”

Photo: Tony Voutas' election photograph [Pacific Islands Monthly, October 1966]

The Pacific gets a strong voice in Canberra

The first Rudd ministry sworn in at Government House in Canberra today included an interesting appointment that bodes well for the Federal government giving greater attention to affairs in Australia’s neighbourhood than has been the case for many years.

The naming of Duncan Kerr as parliamentary secretary responsible for the Pacific was nominated by prime minister Rudd as a key appointment that will “help rebuild the fabric of personal and political relationships with the governments of the South Pacific”.

Mr Kerr has held the Tasmanian federal seat of Denison for more than 20 years. In 1993 he was Australia's Attorney General under Paul Keating before becoming Justice Minister, holding that portfolio until 1996. In the 1980s he was the dean of law at the University of PNG.

At a press conference last Thursday, Rudd said: “If you notice anything about our relations with the South Pacific in recent years, they’ve gone through one rocky patch after another. It’s not the time for an extensive policy discussion as to why that’s been the case.

“I would suggest having a dedicated parliamentary secretary and someone with such extensive experience as Duncan charged with that responsibility will help rebuild the fabric of personal and political relationships with the governments of the South Pacific.

“Duncan has previous experience in PNG. Duncan also was responsible for early advice way back in the early part of the decade about emerging problems in the Solomon Islands which I’m sure some of you here would recall for its prescience.”

We got on with the job and were grateful

Every group, if it is to be cohesive, needs a melder: that special person who values the group of work colleagues beyond its working life and supports it into the often richer times that follow. Who operates in a role that brings the group together – not once, but many times - to remember the good, laugh about the bad and forget old enmities, the trivial causes of which have long since dissipated. Roy Clark is a melder.

Roy’s specific area of meld is academic staff of the former Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education, now a campus of Sydney’s University of Technology. An official publication has it that “the Kuring-gai staff network has developed from the strong commitment of former staff members to stay in touch with colleagues and their professional lives”. But we all appreciate that commitment of itself is and achieves nothing. It’s the person exercising that commitment who maintains the relationships. And Roy is one such person.

Because Balmain was ASOPA’s, for want of a better and more acrid word, mentor; and because, in time, Balmain begat Kuring-gai; and because, in time, so many ASOPA lecturers continued and ended their careers at Kuring-gai, the affiliation between the two places was and remains very strong. In a recent letter to the network, Roy writes of his first brush with those weatherboard huts on Middle Head:

In 1965 I was appointed to Balmain Teachers College and was, within an hour of signing on - not a minute too soon after I took a quick look around the old Balmain college - and I was then sent over to the Australian School of Pacific Administration to train (Australian) science teachers for PNG in old army huts on Middle Head, Mosman. Incidentally without doubt the best place I ever worked; it was the mix of State and Commonwealth staff and the freedom allowed by the Commonwealth Principal, Jack Mattes, a lawyer. Jack took the view we were the professionals and he expected us, and left us, to get on with the job. I believe everyone did get on with their job and were grateful for the opportunities we were given there, even if the facilities were only basic.

Thanks for the memories, Roy.

Karkar exploder temporarily laid low

Bill Wilson once told me the story of a thirsty Catholic priest on Karkar Island who experienced profound disappointment upon recovering from a protracted binge to find he’d consumed the church's entire supply of altar wine. The situation was saved by the local doctor ("a mad, mad Irishman," recalled Bill), who creatively developed a substitute using fruit cordial and surgical spirit, not an unknown act of pharmacology on outstations where the good stuff had been too greedily consumed.

At the time, Bill was working on Karkar with a tuberculosis control team. "The white population was mainly young, single, male and thirsty," he recollects. "A favourite Sunday pursuit was roaring around the island on motor bikes blowing up dunnies. I was introduced to the pastime and given the honour of carrying explosives and detonators while riding pillion behind a plantation assistant on a big AJC bike.”

As a medical assistant [liklik dokta], Bill spent time training to be a teacher at ASOPA only to find that his greater love was health and health education. Upon returning to Australia to live and work in Canberra, he dedicated himself to improving indigenous health as an officer of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands Commission.

Earlier this year, Bill – who is the longest serving member of the Australian Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs – was honoured by becoming a life member of that organisation.

Now Bill’s wife, Anita, informs me that our brother is in hospital having had a triple bypass yesterday. He was in good spirits before surgery, says Anita. “We have been to see him in ICU and all is well so far… There’s a challenging road ahead with lots of physio/cardiac rehab but everyone at the hospital has been great and very caring.”

I encourage you to send a message to Bill through Anita by emailing her here.