Sean Dorney has been reporting on the Pacific (with a particular focus on Papua New Guinea) for over four decades. His book "Papua New Guinea: People, Politics and History Since 1975" deprives Australians of their best excuse for not knowing about what goes on in Papua New Guinea.
It begins with an overview of the country's history until Independence in 1975, and then traces the major themes that have resonated through its first twenty-five years as a nation: corruption, rich resources, political volatility and uncertainty, lawlessness, a troubled border with Indonesia, and - of most interest to me - the war on Bougainville, which led to the extraordinary engagement of the Sandline mercenaries.
Not long after the ABC made Sean Dorney redundant in 2014, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. It has severely limited his ability to type. Whereas once he was a ten-fingered typist, he is now down to two fingers, and even that is laboured. However, his legacy, "Papua New Guinea: People, Politics and History Since 1975", will live on - and so does he, aged 72, in Townsville.
