A rare find

 

I was searching on YouTube for a copy of Liz Thompson's video "Breaking Bows and Arrows" - click here - when I came across this equally fascinating 45-minute clip of an 84-day voyage in an open dinghy from Sydney to Port Moresby via Thursday Island in 1978.

What makes this video so special for me is that it shows both Thursday Island and Port Moresby's Royal Papuan Yacht Club the way they were when I used to live and work there in the 'seventies.

This is for you, Hubert in Cooktown, and all those who shared my time in Port Moresby in the days when we were still young and full of hope.

 

P.S. If you're interested in more of Malcolm Douglas's videos, click here.

 

 

"A special place where many had their golden years"

 

That's the byline Bob Jackson gave his excellent collection of over 450 images of Bougainville Island and what was once Bougainville Copper in the 70s and 80s, many his own and others culled from different sources (including my own website, I noticed).

It's a wonderful labour of love created, as Bob writes, "as an old man's project to give continuing access to these images and maybe a happy memory or two to those who also spent time on this remarkable island".

I enjoyed flicking trough those stunning photographs which brought back many happy memories, Bob! I hope by adding your website to this blog, many more viewers will be introduced to it by clicking here.

And here's more ...

 

Colonists For a Day

From the Film Australia Collection. Made by Film Australia 1993. Directed by Alec Morgan

 

Papua New Guinea was Australia's brief and only attempt at colonisation, lasting from 1906 to 1975. It was marked by the colonists' incompetence and inexperience and the inevitable cultural clashes between the tribal clans and their administrators. This documentary combines eyewitness accounts from both colonists and Papua New Guineans with archival footage that was filmed by the colonists as they ventured into the unknown tribal lands of the interior.

 

Kieta then and now

Kieta in the 70s

 

If the rain, the mud, the dust, the heat, and the sheer boredom didn't get you down, it was the unrelenting routine of working ten hours a day six days a week. Was it any wonder we dreamt of escaping down to Kieta for a scent of the big wide world beyond?

Once we had, by hook or by crook, hitched a ride to Kieta, our first stop was the waterfront shop of Greens, a veritable Aladdin's cave of desirable merchandise, from t-shirts to bilum bags to postcards depicting Highland 'meris' suckling their babies on one side and a pig on the other. Then it was time for liquid refreshments at the Kieta Hotel, the unpretentious yacht club, and, much later, Arovo Island.

Kieta Yacht Club

 

Then, Kieta had a population of just over a thousand. There were thirteen trade stores, a supermarket, cinema shows at the Kieta Club and the nearby high school, two hotels (including the newly opened Davara at Toniva), a deepwater harbour, three banks and enough traffic to cause city-style congestion.

What's left of it today? Nothing! Except for the memories which will stay alive for as long as we stay alive! You know, I'd rather look back on life and say, "I can't believe I did all that" instead of "If only I had".

 

Kieta today

 

We only live once, but we can live in such a way that at the end of the journey, we will feel as though we have lived a hundred lives.