23 November 2019
Laua Avanapu, an entertaining novel of plantation life on Bougainville Island
The author, Nari Elspeth Hamilton WATKINS (née Campbell), was born in Rabaul where her father, Cam, was the manager of the first Commonwealth Bank there. After two years the family moved to Raua Plantation, an isolated property in Bougainville, where she was the first white child ever seen by many of the people. Nari was eventually sent to boarding school in Melbourne. She was 17 when war came to Bougainville. With the Japanese invasion expected, Nari found herself heading south on the MV Macdhui, with other expatriate women and children being evacuated, leaving her parents behind on the plantation.
On arrival in Australia however, Nari heard a radio report that the Japanese had invaded New Britain and were expected to move on to the Solomon Islands. She decided to join the war effort instead of going to school; but a girl had to be twenty-one, or have her parents’ permission to join up. Nari ran into the engineer of the old steamer who used to visit the plantation every six weeks and got him to convince the draft board that she must have been easily 21 and she was in. In the service Nari learnt to drive trucks, eventually driving around important personalities, most notably Bob Hope.
Because of her knowledge of Bougainville she was drafted from the WASBEES for a time to service in intelligence in Townsville to help with the battle of Bougainville, during which time her parents escaped the Japanese by American submarine. Nari was then sent to India with the WASBEES where she met and married an Englishman, Captain Peter Forster. With her parents they returned to Raua to rebuild it after WWII. A son, Michael, was born but unfortunately Peter was killed in an accident a few months later. Later, after her father’s death, a family home was set up in Moss Vale and Nari returned to Raua to run the plantation.
Farnborough, a dairy farm, was later bought for the family in Moss Vale. Nari travelled between the two but eventually returned to live full-time on Bougainville. She met Les Watkins and they married in 1960, with Diana born in 1961. During this time Nari wrote this semi-fictional and quasi-autobiographical novel, Laua Avanapu. Nari and Les contributed to developing PNG as independence approached, with Nari very involved in matters cultural. A home in Moss Vale meant that time could be divided between the two places. Nari returned to Bougainville for one last time after Les passed away in 1982. She spent the last two years with daughter Diana and her husband Toby on a farm in Wallendbeen, near Cootamundra. Nari passed away in 2004, aged 78. She is survived by Diana, Michael and four grandchildren.
22 November 2019
A really great video clip of the "old" Bougainville by Bob Jackson
Bougainville Island is a place in Papua New Guinea where many Europeans came to live and work. The island was beautiful and its people were peaceful and friendly. The mining company was generous to its workers and supportive to the the islanders. In 1988 things changed but this video only deals with life before that. Many of the former workers still regard their "Bougainville years" as their best years.
Years ago, Bob Jackson had emailed me,
"Hello Peter I have looked for years for a web site featuring the "expat workers" view of Bougainville, it was a very pleasant surprise to find yours. I was in Spain at the end of a "too long" holiday, was bored and searching for something familiar, finding it brightened my whole day. I was a BCL "power house pom" originally hired from Kalgoorlie West Australia (after travelling out overland) . I went there as a single man in 74 to work as an instrument technician in the power house at Loloho, after a couple of years I transferred to Operations as an "assistant unit controller". I was in Loloho Camp 6 during the first night of the "74 rock festival" and electrified my donga window flyscreen in the hope of "staying alive". We had valiantly emptied our beer fridges to "save the amber fluid". The next night we camped in the power house smoko room after welding up all the doors (but one). We took up guard duty at the front gate armed with 24" stilsons and a length of water pipe, fortunately the riot squad were between us and the rioters so our weapons remained unused. After a little over three years I left, had a couple of cruises and ended up in Brazil (intending a big S.American trip) but after Bougainville I didn't enjoy it much. I went to UK got married and returned to Bougainville (after a two year absence) to the same job, and living in Arawa Section 6/28. My first child was born in the Arawa hospital in 82 my second child in 85 in Brisbane (after an emergency medivac from Bougainville). I stayed in the power house until Dec 88 ending up as a shift supervisor. I left before the troubles really got started and as such have few bad memories of Bougainville. Hash house harriers. I first ran with the Loloho Hash House Harriers and on my return joined the Arawa Hash. In the early days Arawa Hash hired a DC3 for a combined run with the Honiara Hash. Later we had 4WD trips to Sohano Island (the old Bougainville District Office) and every one slept in the old District Commissioner's House (or camped on his lawn). I was a shift worker and as such missed many runs but those I did gave me a buzz which kept me going until the next one. The adventure, the running, the beer, it worked for me! I moved to (and still live) in a house half way between Brisbane and the Gold Coast in a place that I bought on a five day visit from Bougainville. Since leaving Bougainville I've had about thirteen years in local government (working in electrical design). That's about it (apart from the inevitable divorce and re-marriage a few years ago). Keep up the good work with the web site!", |
which I had placed on the Bougainville Copper Project comment page.
Bob has just now added this evocative narrative on YouTube, evocating all our love for a place and time long gone! As he said, "The adventure, the running, the beer, it worked for me!"
21 November 2019
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