Fond memories still endure

Over the picturesque, green jagged terrain of Bougainville’s Crown Prince Range, the Panguna mine has sat idle for more than 30 years.

It is a mine with a chequered and somewhat haunting past due to its association with some of the island’s darkest days. Tracing its history takes us back to 1966 when intrepid geologists confirmed the existence of vast copper and gold ore deposits in the Panguna valley. By 1972 the mine was in full operation under Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a subsidiary of mining giant Rio Tinto, formerly CRA.

On the 15th May 1989, production came to a halt as a result of militant activity which escalated into a civil war. Land rights and the distribution of Panguna mining profits were among some of the issues central to the hostilities.

In the 17 years prior to 1989, the mine produced concentrate containing 3 million tonnes of copper from one of the largest concentrations of copper phosphate anywhere in the world. In addition, Panguna also yielded 306 tonnes of gold and 784 tonnes of silver. The mine had a production value of 5.2 billion Kina and accounted for 44 per cent of PNG’s exports during its period of operation.

Around 1.2 billion Kina was contributed in taxes, duties, dividends and other payments to the PNG government, the former North Solomons Provincial Government and Panguna landowners which represented about 62 per cent of the net cash generated by the project.

During the mine’s life, Bougainville Copper also trained some 12,000 employees, including around 1,000 full trade apprentices and some 400 who completed tertiary studies. This upskilling enhanced the capacity of the national workforce and benefited other areas of the economy after Panguna’s closure. The practices put in place by Bougainville Copper continue to positively impact the global mining industry to this day.

To read the full article, click here

 

Taim Bilong Masta

This book is freely accessible from the ANU Open Research Library - click here

 

Long after I had left New Guinea and on one of my frequent business trips from Saudi Arabia back to Australia, I was killing a bit of time in the ABC Shop in Adelaide's Rundle Mall when I found a set of twenty-four audio cassettes labelled "TAIM BILONG MASTA - Australia's Involvement with Papua New Guinea".

Of course, I bought them right away and for years I listened to them over and over again as, in the absence of any proper television or radio reception in the world's biggest sandbox, they had become my daily nightcap to drown out the howling desert winds.

I believe the creator of those tapes, ABC presenter Tim Bowden, is still around but not so those twenty-four precious cassettes which over the years, just like myself, had become warped and worn. In later years, I did buy the book by the same name but there's nothing quite like listening to those old familiar voices and I had been searching high and low for those recordings but without success - until now!

A kindly soul, Kieran Nelson, who grew up in New Guinea, worked for the Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation (PNGBC) and now lives in Brisbane, undertook the enormous labour of love of putting all twenty-four cassettes onto youtube for our continued listening pleasure:

 

mp3 files:

Episode 1 Never a Colony

Episode 2 The Good Time Before

Episode 3 God's Shadow on Earth

Episode 4 The Loneliness and the Glory

Episode 5 On Patrol

Episode 6 Sailo

Episode 7 The Boat Came Every Six Weeks

Episode 8 Masta Me Like Work

Episode 9 The Violent Land

Episode 10 Moneymakers and Misfits

Episode 11 Wife and Missus

Episode 12 Growing Up

Episode 13 Into The Highlands

Episode 14 The Promised Land

Episode 15 First Contact

Episode 16 Gold

Episode 17 The Good News

Episode 18 The Mission Rush

Episode 19 You Had To Be Firm

Episode 20 Across the Barriers

Episode 21 Courts and Calaboose

Episode 22 War

Episode 23 A Reason For Being There

Episode 24 Going Finish

 

P.S. ... and while I have your attention, I might as well give the 1950s feature film "Walk into Paradise" a much-deserved plug:

If the trailer whetted your appetite, then click here and lash out on this cinematic treat. At only $15 it's the best souvenir you're ever going to get from New Guinea.

Meanwhile, watch the full-length movie here, before it disappears again.

 

 

Island in Transition

To stay alive, this blog is undergoing a slow transformation from being a voice for those who built the mighty Bougainville Copper Project in the early 70s to a general collection of 'New Guineana'. Why? Well, many of those who worked on the project are already dead or - if past performances are anything to go by - in the process of drinking themselves to death. Some others who could still write can't because they never learned how - and you better believe it because as a tax agent in Camp 6 and later in Camp 1 I also became something of a scribe for those who wanted to communicate with their wives and sweethearts but couldn't. They came to me to read out their letters to them or to pen their replies - and I believe I kept many out of mischief by toning down their replies by several degrees! Anyway, here we go with another piece of 'New Guineana':

Click on image to enlarge

 

In A Savage Land

A rare movie. Enjoy!

 

Tok Pisin

 

Drums on the Sepik

To stay alive, this blog is undergoing a slow transformation from being a voice for those who built the mighty Bougainville Copper Project in the early 70s to a general collection of 'New Guineana'. Why? Well, many of those who worked on the project are already dead or - if past performances are anything to go by - in the process of drinking themselves to death. Some others who could still write can't because they never learned how - and you better believe it because as a tax agent in Camp 6 and later in Camp 1 I also became something of a scribe for those who wanted to communicate with their wives and sweethearts but couldn't. They came to me to read out their letters to them or to pen their replies - and I believe I kept many out of mischief by toning down their replies by several degrees! Anyway, here we go with another piece of 'New Guineana':

Click on image to enlarge

 

Tripping and Trading on the Sepik River

To stay alive, this blog is undergoing a slow transformation from being a voice for those who built the mighty Bougainville Copper Project in the early 70s to a general collection of 'New Guineana'. Why? Well, many of those who worked on the project are already dead or - if past performances are anything to go by - in the process of drinking themselves to death. Some others who could still write can't because they never learned how - and you better believe it because as a tax agent in Camp 6 and later in Camp 1 I also became something of a scribe for those who wanted to communicate with their wives and sweethearts but couldn't. They came to me to have their letters read out to them or for me to pen their replies - and I believe I kept many out of mischief by toning down their replies by several degrees! Anyway, here we go with another piece of 'New Guineana':

Click on image to enlarge

 

An unexpected visit

Reminiscing about Bougainville after a hard day's work on the cottage

I was kneedeep in the renovation work on our little guest cottage, when a car drove up, and a chap got out, cast his eyes over all the activities, and casually remarked, "This looks interesting." Annoyed by this intrusion, I briefly looked up and asked, "What is it to you?", suppressing at the last minute a muffled "Dickhead".

Undeterred, the man continued, "Roy is the name. Roy Goldsworthy. How are you, Peter?" Roy Goldsworthy? The Roy Goldsworthy a.k.a "Goldfinger" from my time on Bougainville? I gave the man a second look and, yes, through the ravishes of time I could detect the old debonair, easy-going Roy of almost fifty years ago when we were 'inmates' across the hallway at Camp 1. He'd emailed me some years before - see here - but I hadn't seen him 'in the flesh' since 1972.

 

Camp 1 on a rainy Sunday afternoon; the guy in yellow was with Ericssons - what is his name? ; the chap in the lower right corner is Roy "Goldfinger" Goldsworthy fixing up the shoelaces on his thongs!

The always debonair "Goldfinger" - the only man with two dongas: one for himself, one for his ham radio (by the looks he ought to have had a third for his girlfriends!)

 

What a pleasant surprise! Roy had flown from his home in Kuala Lumpur to Perth for some medical treatment, then across to the east coast to visit his brother in Canberra, after which he'd hired a car to come the 120km down the mountain to surprise me!

Roy fixing the wiring

Roy on the right, and my other helper, Troy, on the left

And, being the same old easy-going Roy, he immediately gave me a hand with the renovations. As an - albeit retired - electrical engineer, his expertise was very much needed for the electrical work and the tricky wiring of an overhead fan. He even fed the not-so-wild ducks in the morning!

With the guest cottage far from being habitable, we bedded him down in the library, but even after his departure three days later he still gave me much-needed advice by email - see here.

The guest cottage is all fixed up now and ready for another visit, Roy! Next time come with Pearly and stay longer so that we can show both of you our beautiful South Coast!

 

---

 

P.S. Since Roy's visit I've had a close look in the mirror myself and I must confess those fifty years have left their marks on me as well. They are a result of living so long and every wrinkle and scar has a story to tell which would be a bestseller if it was ever written down. Lucky for Roy, he still recognised me by my thick German accent.

 

Sepik - Adventure in Style

To stay alive, this blog is undergoing a slow transformation from being a voice for those who built the mighty Bougainville Copper Project in the early 70s to a general collection of 'New Guineana'. Why? Well, many of those who worked on the project are already dead or - if past performances are anything to go by - in the process of drinking themselves to death. Some others who could still write can't because they never learned how - and you better believe it because as a tax agent in Camp 6 and later in Camp 1 I also became something of a scribe for those who wanted to communicate with their wives and sweethearts but couldn't. They came to me to read out their letters to them or to pen their replies - and I believe I kept many out of mischief by toning down their replies by several degrees! Anyway, here we go with another piece of 'New Guineana':

Click on image to enlarge

 

This should bring back memories:

... and so should these old photos: