Roger Arnold emailed from Thailand:

Hi Peter,

Stumbled on your great website, thanks for your effort setting it up. It was like stepping into a time machine reading through it. I was at Loloho from Jan 76 to Jan 77, just one year but it had an influence on the rest of my life, great memories.

I worked on electrical & instrument maintenance of the copper concentrator & ship loading section. I didn’t get far after leaving there, I spent a few years in Singapore, then Lhokseumawe Indonesia, then Kuala Terengganu Malaysia. Then drifted around Africa; Zambia, Skikda & Secunda. I have now lived in Rawai Phuket Thailand for the last 34 years with my wife Sunee, maybe because it’s similar to Bougainville, hot, jungle & lots of coconut trees.

Names I remember from Loloho are Kevin Lynch, Ralph Burger, Peter Jones, Luigi & Stuart Sherratt. I travelled with Stuart Sherratt from London when we first went to work there; we went on safari in Peters land cruiser & did the volcano trip. Stuart’s daughter Catherine made an entry to your site - click here - ; she was born in Bougainville & also has happy memories.

I’ve got a stash of photo’s of Bougainville back in Wales, next time I’m there I’ll send them off to you, they might be a good addition to the website.

Love to hear from anyone who remembers me.


Chok dee.

Roger Arnold.
Roger.sunee[AT]gmail.com

 

From the ABC News of 9 January 2015:

*Bougainville President angry at PNG attempt to buy mining company shares*

The Papua New Guinea Government wants to buy Rio Tinto's shares in the Australian company Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), according to Bougainville's President.

Such a move would be "completely unacceptable" to Bougainvilleans and would be "potentially a source of conflict", according to a series of leaked letters obtained by the ABC.

BCL once operated the Panguna mine, which sparked a decade-long civil war in 1989 and remains a source of tension between the autonomous island of Bougainville and the PNG mainland.

Rio Tinto holds 53 per cent of shares in BCL and the company still holds an exploration licence for the now-derelict mine area.

The ABC has obtained correspondence between the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) President, the PNG Government and Rio Tinto regarding BCL's future.

"I refer to the Monday 8 December discussion in Kokopo with you [PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill], and other ministers concerning proposals for National Government to purchase Rio Tinto's equity in BCL," Bougainville President John Momis wrote to Mr O'Neill, two days after the meeting.

"You emphasised a need for urgent purchase for fear Rio Tinto might otherwise sell the equity to some other entity."

He also voiced concerns in a separate letter to Rio Tinto's managing director Sam Walsh.

"[PNG State Enterprises] Minister Ben Micah has advised that following a series of meetings with Rio Tinto, PNG wishes to purchase Rio's equity in BCL and is seeking ABG agreement," Dr Momis wrote on December 4.

It is no secret the mining giant is considering its options, launching a review of its stake in BCL in mid-2014.

On December 10, Rio Tinto's chief development officer Craig Kinnell assured Dr Momis that no deal had been done.

"The review has not reached any final conclusions, but as you would expect Rio Tinto has engaged further with interested parties since we met earlier this year," Mr Kinnell wrote to Dr Momis.

The PNG Government said its main priority was to rebuild Bougainville's broken infrastructure and deliver services, but confirmed it was involved in talks about a sell-off.

"There has been some discussion between the ABG, the National Government and Rio Tinto about the possible divestment of Rio Tinto's interest in Bougainville," Mr O'Neill told the ABC.

"But again this is a decision on which the land owners and the people of Bougainville will have to guide the National Government.

"We have no interest in owning the mine or reopening the mine."

Dr Momis has warned Mr O'Neill of the possible consequences of a deal that was perceived to favour the mainland.

"Given the tortured history of the Panguna mine it would be completely unacceptable to virtually all Bougainvilleans if that 53 per cent equity were to be transferred to the National Government," he said in a letter to Mr O'Neill.

"It would be political suicide for the ABG, and potentially a source of conflict, if the ABG were to agree to the National Government becoming the majority shareholder in BCL."

The suggestion of conflict is a serious one, considering the large number of weapons still on the island and the highly factionalised population.

The once-lucrative open cut mine has been abandoned for more than two decades and will need an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion investment to restart operations.

Some commentators, including Matt Morris, an associate with the Australian National University's Development Policy Centre, have questioned PNG Government's interest in Panguna, given the nation's current financial state and its poor track record managing other mines.

"I think the main questions are why does the Government want to buy the mine, what is the value added that the PNG Government would bring to a shareholding in BCL and thirdly what would be the political implications?" Mr Morris told the ABC.

"The last year has been a pretty awful year for the PNG Government's finances with the collapse of the commodity prices and that's led to rising debt levels and the PNG Government's had to cut back on expenditure for things like health and education and infrastructure.

"So it's not really clear how the Government would go about finding the funds to purchase the company or where it would find or borrow the billions of dollars that would be required to reopen the Panguna mine."

In addition to operational costs, any restart at Panguna would have to deal with demands for compensation from locals and expectations of an environmental clean-up around the mine site.

But the potential revenue it could bring is central to Bougainville's political future.

As part of the peace agreement that ended the civil war in 2001, Bougainville will hold a referendum on independence from PNG some time in the next five years.

Dr Momis told Bougainville's Parliament in December that "real autonomy" would only come when the island became financially stable and that would probably mean a large-scale mining project.

"If Rio's decision is to divest itself of the equity then the ABG's considered view is that it is most unlikely that any potential responsible developer will be able to find the $US6 billion to $US7 billion needed to reopen the mine," he said.

"It is therefore most unlikely the mine will reopen in the foreseeable future."

 

John Hewitt emailed from the U.K.:

Hello Peter

I have about 100 photos of our time on Bougainville, which you may be interested in seeing and/or putting on your Bougainville website.

They include some aerial shots I took when I flew down into the bush to pick up Paul Scott from one if his school inspection visits. You may remember Paul, he was the Headmaster at Tupukas Primary School School and then went on to be the schools inspector for Bougainville and some of the islands. His wife Anne was also a teacher at the Arawa Primary school. Paul, Anne and their children were our next-door neighbours in Arawa, and we are still in touch.

The photos include some decent shots of the Queen's visit accompanying Princess Anne and her 1st husband on their honeymoon, along with Prince Philip and Earl Mountbatten. We were lucky enough to get seats in the grandstand and watched the SingSing. There are some of the mine etc as well.

The photos are taken from slides and are too big to send more than 2 or 3 per email, so I wondered if you would like me to put them on CDs and post them? If so please let me have your postal address and I'll get on to it.

Kind regards
John Hewitt
Ex Maintenance Controller (Crushing) 1973/74.
Sheffield
England.

 

Footnote from the Webmaster: Yes, please, John, mail your CDs to my address at PO Box 233, Batemans Bay, N.S.W. 2536, Australia as I would be very happy to add those photos to the website.

 

... and here they are!

 

Air niugini's in-flight Magazine PARADISE

The world has never seen an in-flight magazine quite like it. Seat pockets were empty after every flight and AIR NIUGINI could not meet the written requests for back copies from those who had seen and heard about it.

So, they put together the handsome hard cover volume "Best of Paradise" comprising what they thought were the top stories from the first two years of publication. It sold like a bestseller and soon a second volume, "Paradise Plus", was published.

I have a copy of both and whenever I feel a bit "homesick" for New Guinea, I page through them and look at the pictures and read the stories. If you are lucky, you may be able to find a preloved copy on ebay.com.

 

Hepi Krismas na Hepi Niu Yia

 

We have outsourced this year's Christmas Greetings to keep costs down.

To all those ex-Bougies who are still hanging out in Kalimantan "Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru"; to all our friends in Papua New Guinea "Hepi Krismas na Hepi Niu Yia"; to everyone else a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

---

 

Christmas Party on Loloho Beach more than 40 years ago:

---

Please take some time out from all the merry-making and reflect on the many things you can be grateful for! And ponder again the age-old question,

"Why is a Christmas tree better than a man?"

Here at last is the answer:

It's always erect,
Stays up for 12 days and nights,
Has cute balls,
And even looks good with the lights on!

A very Merry Christmas to you all!

(This Christmas I'm putting Mistletoe in my back-pocket
so all the people who don't like me can kiss my ass!)

Your webmaster
Peter Goerman

 

---

 

And here's one for all you hopeless romantics out there to get you into the Christmas spirit of things:

A couple were Christmas shopping. The shopping centre was packed, and as the wife walked through one of the malls she was surprised when she looked around to find that her husband was nowhere to be seen. She was quite upset because they had a lot to do and she became so worried that she called him on her mobile phone to ask him where he was.

In a quiet voice he said, "Do you remember the jewellers we went into about five years ago where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we couldn't afford, and I told you that I would get it for you one day?"

The wife choked up and started to cry and said, "Yes, I do remember that shop."

He replied, "Well, I'm in the pub next door."

AIR NIUGINI Inflight Video

 

Paul Wilcock emailed from Wollongong:

What an amazing site. I have got goose bumps. I worked for M.K.F @ Camp 5 1969/70 as a welder fitter, just a mere callow youth of 21.

Looking forward to your reply.

Kind Regards
Paul Wilcock
email barbarawilcock[AT]yahoo.com.au

 

Hans Ohff emailed from Adelaide:

I've just come across this blog. As the Project Manager for EGLO Engineering, I was responsible for the underground piping and mechanical installations (Jan 1971 to mid 1972) at the Panguna mine site.

Marianne, my wife, and I have fond memories of the project that determined my career in the engineering & construction, and naval (submarine) shipbuilding industry.

I’ll jot down some of the memorable Bougainville episodes over Christmas.

Regards,
Hans Ohff
email hans-j.ohff[AT]adelaide.edu.au

 

Alan Lymbery emailed from Wagga Wagga:

Peter,

I have had a look at your Bougainville website a couple of times now; well laid out, well done.

Could you please add my name to the “Honour Roll”? I worked for Hastings Deering 1969/1970 and ran the parts sales counter.

Originally our facility was part of the Morrison-Knudsen workshop/office complex at Camp 5 - incredibly cramped & untidy.

We later built a large warehouse further down the road on the way to Loloho where we lived. From memory ours was the first building at that site. Morgan Equipment & I think Goodyear or a tyre facility followed soon after.

All the best
Alan Lymbery
10 Eyre St. Lake Albert.
Wagga Wagga, N.S.W.
Australia. 2650.
Tel. Home : 61-2-69264192.
Mobile :61- 0412 380339.
or 61-0450 389737
Skype: lymbery001
email lymbery001[AT]bigpond.com

PS. I see on your property-for-sale ad - click here - that you intended to spend some time in Kalimantan. Did you make it? I spent 27 years in Indonesia. I have been from Aceh to Timor and most places in between; some islands were not even on the map. I have been all over Borneo, lived in Balikpapan a few times where I was married and my daughter was born there. Lots of memories.

 

John Hewitt emailed from the U.K.

Dear Peter

I stumbled across your website some years ago, whilst looking at news that BCL was possibly going to open again, and our time on Bougainville all came flooding back, after more than 40 years!! Like yourself, I have never forgotten the times my wife & I had on Bougainville, so I started to write this and then got waylaid, but it was always there in the drafts section of my emails. I recently saw a programme on Sky TV about the Ertsberg and Grasberg mines in Irian Jaya, and realised that those mines were pretty much like Bougainville, and indeed, Bechtel Pacific no doubt used the experience of building those mines when they built BCPL., so I decided to finish this and send it off as I thought you might be interested in our story.

We are POMS, who emigrated to Perth in 1969 and very quickly had 2 daughters, in 1970 & 1971.

I was working for Alcoa of Australia in their Jarrahdale Bauxite mine as a Maintenance Controller, looking after the PM of their fleet of Cat 992's, 769 Dumpers and 660 scrapers which had been mated to a specially made (Alcoa) aluminium 100 tonne bottom dump body in place of the normal bowl arrangement.

I saw an advert for Maintenance Controllers in the crushing section of the BCPL mine, applied for it, went to Hamersley Iron's offices in Perth for the interview and got the job. Shortly afterwards, in January 1973, I flew up to BCPL leaving my wife Linda & 2 girls due to follow on in 3 months time after I had been allocated a house.

I was met at Kieta airport by my new boss, Pete Martin, who was Chief Maintenance Controller Crushing, Screening, Milling and Floc section and travelled to site the following day with him & John Tynan who, along with Bill Wordsworth, was a Maintenance Engineer in the same department. My outstanding recollection of that particular journey to work was looking out of the Land Cruiser window as we went over a stream bridge, to see a nubile young Bougainvillean girl getting bathed in the stream!

I lived in the single quarters at Karawong (?) House but Pete's priority was to get me a house in Arawa ASAP, which he did after just 2 weeks on site, so I had to break the news to Linda that she would be flying up there very soon.

I had 2 weeks to get the house clean, and boy did it need it - locals had been living in it prior to me getting it and I remember spending every evening and a full weekend down in Arawa, scrubbing every square inch of exposed surface!.

Linda was left in Perth to arrange letting the house out and liasing with Wridgways the removals people BCL used to pack up and ship our stuff to Bougainville. She left Perth at midnight, with a 3 year old, a 22 month old, 7 suitcases and a pushchair. She flew to Melbourne, was booked into a hotel during the stopover whilst waiting for the Brisbane flight, then on to Moresby where she got on the flight to Kieta. Just out of PM the flight was diverted to Rabaul due to bad weather at Kieta, so she overnighted in a Rabaul hotel, with a departure time of 05.00 the following day.Fortunately there was an Aussie woman who was going back to Bougainville after leave and she helped Linda with the kids and luggage.

The plane was being held for Bougainville passengers and everyone had to rush, so it could get to Kieta, offload and turn around back to Moresby to collect the next batch of passengers for Bougainville. I can tell you my wife was less than impressed when I met her at the airport!!

I enjoyed my job and time on the island, but unfortunately Linda got hepatitis and malaria just before Christmas 1973 and I had to have almost 2 months off work to look after her and the children, so we decided to leave which we did in July 1974. I remember that John Tynan tried very hard to get us to stay on but Linda had had just about enough and wanted to get off the island, so we did leave and went back to the UK.

Just before we were due to leave, we had a weekend at Loloho, in one of the Wowic cabins, which was fine, except that at 3am on the Saturday morning, Linda woke up to see a local standing at the bottom of the bed, just watching us. She screamed, I woke up and set off after him, but he had prepared the way out and got away. We then realised that one of the window catches between the bedroom and sleepout was faulty and wouldn't lock, and this guy had cut through the fly wire on the sleepout, got into the cabin, unlocked the door and then went looking around. We were very lucky, as both of our girls had very short hair and being asleep, looked like boys, so he didn't touch them. I got in touch with Peter(?) Quodling, the Admin Director and told him what had happened and that I thought it was one of the cleaning or maintenance staff, and they did investigate and catch the guy afterwards. On the Saturday morning we went to Toniva and was talking to a woman in one of the shops, telling her what had happened and she went white, as she had had a similar experience, but thought she was dreaming, because he had gone when she awoke! She realised it wasn't a dream after all!

At the time, the mine was were making so much profit (and I believe we were also enjoying a tax holiday from the original agreement with the government) that I was told to spend as much money as I could on spares etc., to ensure we had enough spares and consumables to keep the plant going and I bought all sorts of kit; gearboxes, motors, couplings, wear parts, conveyor rollers and belt etc. I was like a kid in a sweetshop!! I remember drawing up PM schedules for crusher, screen, conveyor and wear parts maintenance and loved every minute of it.

I also saw a TV programme some years ago called "The Forgotten War in the Pacific", which covered the situation on Bougainville, from the days when the first exploration teams went in looking for minerals, to the time of the uprising. If you ever get a chance to see it, I would recommend it, as it show how the so called rebels had become so ingenious at living with the aftermath of the war, utilising whatever they could cannibalise from the mine. It was such a shame really to see the effects of the war. I know BCPL didn't have the best ecological record and did loads of damage, but there was a chance to get some proper investment into the whole PNG Region, but it was squandered.

We were very lucky in one respect as we moved next door to a couple from Brisbane area, Paul and Anne Scott and their 3 children. Paul was a schools inspector for the government and had lived on Bougainville for a good few years. Anne was a teacher at the Arawa school and they were really helpful, especially after Linda fell ill. We became good friends and Paul bought our house, just outside Perth W.A? (unseen) as an investment property, as we decided for family reasons, to go back to the UK rather than Perth. We had lost touch, but I found them again via the Internet and corresponded. Sadly Paul died a few years ago, but we are still in contact with Anne.

I know it's probably changed out of all proportion but I would love to be able to go back and see the place again. I found it a fascinating place and loved the history.

I hope you found my recollections interesting, and would appreciate your comments

Kind regards
John Hewitt
Sheffield
England.
jhewitt19[AT]hotmail.com