Greetings from PommylandJust found your site and another covering Bougainville. Worked there 71/73 as a Training Officer setting up the first Supervisory/Management courses. Had emigrated to Oz in 69 and worked for Ford Australia and Ciba Geigy in Sydney then got recruited by Maurie Pears (Training Manager with BCL and noted poker player) to develop programs for Supervisory and bottom end management training at Panguna. Returned to UK after PNG and have never forgotten the people or the job. Retired in 1992 to play golf and all that but thanks to a few websites particularly the Australian Institute picture site am able to light up the memory box again. Am saddened by what developed in Bougainville. Will plough my way through your wonderful site.
Kind Regards and Thanks
Tony Kearsley
Cheshire UK
P.S. Thanks for your prompt reply. Sure go ahead and use my email, you will be interested to know that a few minutes after sending to you I clicked into another part of your site and found the name of Lansell Taudevin who was the Company Psychologist and who I knew, I emailed him and astonishingly got a reply within a few hours !! I was Extension Training Officer, worked out of the new training centre after it was built and originally lived in a block in Panguna until my wife and family arrived from Oz then moved into a house in Arawa. I was there for about two years then went back to UK for a leave and my wife would't return. I came back for a few months then terminated and returned to work in the UK, got divorced, went out to work as Personnel Manager for British Aerospace in Saudi Arabia and met and eventually married a nurse who was working out there also. Some years on I did a job assisting with a recruitment for a UK firm who were trying to find a training manager for Burns Hudson - could not. They offered me the job and I thought about it for quite some time before deciding not to take it. Probably wish I had done now. Would love to go back but guess this is highly unlikely now. Thanks again for the response.
Update received February 2009:
Out of contact for so long, now living in Kuching, Sarawak, we have been here since Dec 08 and settling down well. Haven't been on to the BCL website for ages and it was really good to browse around and pick up on the new posts, really enjoyed looking at the pics by Peter Marshall showing some of the old places, the amazing thing was that the picture of him and Nancy really turned me over, Nancy is the absolute image of a local girl who used to work as a typist for us in the Mine Training Centre. Doubt if anyone will ever get in touch with me via the BCL web pages but is there some way I can update my location and contact details ? My new email is redvet8[AT]gmail.com
