Hi, My name is David White. I had the very great privilege to spend nearly two years on Bougainville between 68-71 working for CRA. I was initially located at Panguna in a Sac Sac (?) hut and then ran camp 2 an indigenous integration camp. I initially worked for Charles Stover as a mining clerk doing planimetering for a few weeks and then was given more interesting work drilling down on the coast checking foundation substructures for the new townsites. I wound up my tour by supervising a team of chainsaw boys clearing sites for transmission towers. We were ferried in by chopper and often had to walk out along some very perilous ridges carrying heavy equipment. On my second tour I came back as an accommodations officer working for Nick Quint. Nick , his wife and I started the Casa Manana, a coffee lounge up top and made some decent money supplying an alternative to the very heavy boozing that we all participated in. My only claims to fame were the winning of both the table tennis championships and the chess tournaments in one fell swoop. An accomplishment which was greeted with much derision from the drinking crowd in the Panguna canteen. I was on the island during the big strike and was almost witness to a group lynching of a number of scab laborers, not funny. I was also there for the big landslide and was very uncomfortable knowing that the bodies of the victims were being kept on ice alongside of our food supplies. My brother Ian White worked on Bougainville in purchasing for a number of years and married Jenny Collins , daughter of Dave Collins of Bechtels head of security. I am presently Chairman of 2 telecom companies in Madagascar and Director of a mobile operation in India, where I am stationed in New Delhi with my wife and two kids. The years on Bougainville have provided some of the best memories and enduring friendships that a person can wish for. I am happy to have found this site and will be pleased to send on some of my pictures.
David White
kingrat444@hotmail.com
