F. ASOPA ARCHIVES

Compiled by Keith Jackson

The ASOPA Archives offer a range of articles and papers about the Australian School of Pacific Administration, about education in Papua New Guinea and about matters of general interest related to PNG that might not otherwise find a home elsewhere.

Articles about ASOPA

The ASOPA Controversy, IC Cambell   Download the_asopa_controversy.pdf

Campbell writes on the bureaucratic high jinks that surrounded ASOPA’s establishment and near disestablishment in the late 1940s. “There was some justification therefore for Halligan's apparently bitter comment in 1949 that the staff was unqualified, that all they knew of PNG was what they had read in books or learnt from association with territory officers. It was, he wrote, ‘not understandable how so many experts in teaching Territorial Administration were produced in such a short time with no background.’

Stanner’s War, Geoff Gray   Download stanners_war.pdf

Dr Geoff Gray documents a fascinating insight into ASOPA’s predecessor, the  Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs as it tried to bring about a new deal for a post-war PNG. The main character, Bill Stanner, had hurried home soon after war was declared. He had recently completed his PhD at the London School of Economics. But his views, as they emerged, were in stark opposition to the prevailing mood in DORCA. Gray’s rivetting paper traces the nature of the conflict, the way it played out and the outcome, which favoured, in the end, neither Stanner nor DORCA.

ASOPA Landfall, Dorothy Shineberg   Download asopa_landfall.pdf

Professor Shineberg, who became Australia’s first Fulbright fellow, tells of her recruitment to and her three tumultuous years at ASOPA from 1947. She later became one of Australia’s outstanding scholars in Pacific history.

ASOPA Chapter 1, Bill Brown   Download asopa_chapter_1.pdf

This complete first chapter of Bill Brown’s New Guinea memoir tells of his coming to ASOPA. Afterwards, Bill rose steadily through the ranks in PNG’s Department of District Administration and was appointed as District Commissioner in Bougainville at a particularly exacting period in the island's affairs.

Looking for a Good Book, Reg Thomson   Download looking_for_a_good_book.pdf

In February 1949, Reg Thomson arrived at ASOPA to train to teach in PNG. At the time Alf Conlon was Principal and Camilla Wedgwood lectured on anthropology and education. Reg writes of his experiences at the School in a chapter of an unpublished manuscript, ‘Looking For A Good Book’. Reg, pushing 90, lives on the Gold Coast.

The Balmain Years, Cliff Turney and Judy Taylor   Download the_balmain_years.pdf

In extracts from a book about Balmain Teachers College, which provided the pedagogic component of the ASOPA cadet education officers’ course, the authors reflect on the vast gulf in educational philosophy between the two institutions. ‘ASOPA students were different from Balmain students in many ways. On the whole they were older, more sophisticated and more independent thinkers than the Balmain students.”

25 Years of ASOPA, Geoff Leaver (editor)   Download 25_years_of_asopa.pdf

Extracts from a magazine produced to mark the demise of ASOPA in 1972. It includes a wealth of material: Vic Parkinson on ASOPA in war and peace; a personal retrospective from outgoing principal Jack Mattes; Margaret Westwood on Charles Rowley; and Ralph Watson’s savage indictment of the Australian government policy that ended ASOPA.

End of A Unique Institution, Bill Goff   Download end_of_a_unique_institution.pdf

In the March 1998 issue of AusAID’s Focus magazine, Bill Goff records that, when the Centre for Pacific Development and Training finally shut its doors at the end of 1997, it was the end of an era that began with ASOPA and continued through the years of the International Training Institute.

Articles about PNG education

The Expatriate Legacy, Joseph Pagelio   Download the_expatriate_legacy.pdf

PNG’s Secretary for Education reflects on the legacy of expatriate teachers. “You were nation builders… As you worked alongside your PNG colleagues in the education system, and as you involved yourself in the community, you contributed to the building of the independent nation of PNG.”

Pragmatics and Pedagogy, Susan Gelade   Download pragmatics_pedagogy.pdf

A comparison of the ASOPA and E Course teacher training programs comes to the conclusion that the E Course offered much better value for money.

The E Course, Susan Gelade   Download the_e_course.pdf

Gelade’s definitive account of the E Course takes a rather pejorative view of ASOPA teachers in contrast with the Boys Own types who, bearing a curriculum instead of an elephant gun, brought the word to PNG. The article relies a bit too much on the anecdotal experience of E Course teachers, but is a good read.

Yokomo – Literary Icon, Jack Metta   Download yokomo_literary_icon.pdf

One of PNG’s leading journalists writes of the debate raging in PNG about whether some of literary icons of his school days should receive the country’s highest honour, the Order of Logohu.

Miscellaneous articles about PNG

Reminiscences of a District Commissioner, Harry West   Download harry_west.pdf

The long-term President of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, who first went to PNG as a young Army officer in World War II, reflects on his long relationship with PNG and some of the highlights of career as a field officer. 

Story of the PNG Flag, Hal Holman   Download story_of_the_png_flag.pdf

Hal Holman designed the PNG national crest, has sculpted the busts of each prime minister since Independence and – most controversially – was one of the people involved in the design of the PNG national flag. Here he tells his side of the story.

The Search for Private Dellar, Hal Holman   Download search_for_private_dellar.pdf

In World War II Corporal Hal Holman was posted with his unit to the highlands of PNG. In this story he tells of his search in the Bismarck mountains and Ramu valley for one of his comrades who had been cut off during a skirmish. Can they find Dellar? And will he be dead or alive?