The Bougainville Copper Project

27 April 2016

Mike Macey emailed:

Hello

I was on Bougainville in the early seventies, working for John Hornibrook in his Loloho workshop, we were supporting the destruction of the mountain to build the power station, we were taken over by Bechtel, there were several incidents while I was there.

The beer container went missing off the ship. Anzac day, pub was open early for all day drinking, police closed it down before 11 am because of the fighting, riot team flew from PM to sort it out.

Riots in the camp because of the food, Chinese cook took a lot of stick because of that.

Regards
Mike
email mike[AT]macey.com

RIP Bob Dean

We regret to advise of the passing of Bob Dean, on the 16th April 2016. Our condolences go to all of the extended Dean families, from Tassie to Lao and beyond.

Bob was born on the 13th May, 1942 in Tasmania. From 1958 to 1965 he was employed by the Phoenix Foundry, In Launceston including to complete his apprenticeship. He them ventured to the mainland and spent time as a tradesman with John Brown, Bechtel, EPT and Eglo. In 1970 he commenced a long association with Bechtel. This was on the construction phase of the BCL Crushing and Milling facilities. Bob adapted quickly to the Bechtel style of operation. He was popular with the American management and, with his calm, unflappable manner, he was an effective buffer between the management and the men. Amongst the mass of workers who attended the site each day Bob was always conspicuous with his silver hard hat. In those days there were hats of all colours and makes but I can remember that there was only a single silver hat. After Bougainville Bechtel sent Bob to Freeport for 6 months. He was then snapped up by BCL to assist with the commissioning of the plant. He spent many years from Foreman to Superintendent, managing the mill mechanical maintenance department. John Schmiter preceded Bob in this role. Malcolm Calvert was the head of engineering, based in B60. Other managers who operated near to Bob include John Tynan, Bruce Machen, Rudi Wiess and Fred Kastner. Bob and Bruce were tremendous mates. They had an interesting management style and it was a style that proved to be most effective. I was a maintenance planner and trainer for several years around this time so I was fortunate to observe at close quarters their significant achievements. I reported to John and Bruce via the Chief Planner, Pete Martin. In those days we did not have computers. The planning works were extremely labour intensive. Training was a critical function at Bob`s level. He took a keen interest in all matters, mill training. In later years, even some of the senior roles were localised but the maintenance times and the work quality associated with our shutdowns continued to improve. Testament to Bob`s achievements in the sphere of training was associated with a visit from a group of maintenance engineers from BHP, from Mt Newman. They sought an understanding as to why our liner change shutdowns were so time efficient. Come the mid-80`s a Repairman by the name of Jack Wesley was the maintenance planner. Jack possessed quite minimal formal education but it did hold him back. From the Mill Operations Dept, Bob worked next to Ross Holborow, Peter Colbert, Barry Deans and others. For much of the time Bob was in the Bougainville concentrator, Ted Petherick was the Mill Electrical Superintendent. (thank you, Ted, Ross, Ray Knight and Bob`s brother for getting the sad news through to my desk).

Bob and family departed Bougainville in1988. There followed a 4 year stint in Tassie with Southern Aluminium and Comalco. There was a 5 year appointment at Weipa and 3 years at Ernst Henry. His career drew towards a close with significant senior appointments in Argentina, Eqypt and in Lao.

Whenever he could Bob would hire people from his old Bougainville team. Mr Ray, Graeme Talbot and the badger, Peter Koglin, were some to benefit from this.

Bob and Maxine enjoyed the expatriate lifestyle and Bob made every endeavour to continue in such roles.

22 April 2016

Stuart Eccles sent these photos:

Hi, here are a bunch of photos my mum, Rita Eccles, who was a nurse on the mine, scanned recently. My dad, John Eccles, worked on the paper and many are shots of his trips about the island.

Cheers
Stuart Eccles
email eccles.stuart[AT]gmail.com

When arriving in Sydney in October 1972:

14 April 2016

Phil Wilson emailed:

Love the blog. I worked in Bougainville from 1974 to 1977, firstly for Blackwood Hodge and then for Buin Earthmoving.

I still look back at those times as one of the highlights of my life so far, what a blast. I worked on the construction of the road from Morgan Equipment to Tinputz and had a camp on the Pienai River, widened sections of the road between Arawa and Kieta, worked up at Bonis and Dios Plantations and worked on the road from Buin to Kieta.

I met many a character whilst there and have fond memories of the fishing club and the Sports and Social club. I often wonder what happened to many of those guys like Warren Haig "The Watcher", "The Sheriff", Sally Jenkins, Vic Caruana, "Carrots and bananas"', "The Dog" Ian Forrester, Ted Ragowski, "Rags", Wyn Spur as they all liked a cold beer on a hot day.

I would like to go back to the Island one day and see if any of the local blokes I worked with made it through the war as most of them came from the Siwai, Buin area. Such a pity that this beautiful place was ravaged as it was. Hopefully it can recover.

Thanks again for your perseverance over the years. It is great to read about other people's experiences there.

Cheers,
Phil Wilson
email phil_w[AT]live.com.au

30 March 2016

David Dioth emailed from Brisbane:

Hello Peter,

I would like to add my details to the honour roll.

I was with the Commonwealth Bank in Panguna in 1973, living in the dongas at Camp 1 (up the hill above the Bank Branch that was near the entrance to the mine) and then to Camp 6 at Loloho.

My details are below.

Reading your blog brings back good memories of my time on the Island. I have been able to show my children and grandchildren my time on the Island with the pictures on your web.

Thanks for great effort,

Regards

David. AKA Chimbu.

David Dioth
Moneywise Mortgages
21 Billiard Street
Bracken Ridge. Qld. 4017
Phone. 0732614900
Fax. 0732614911
Mobile. 0419704605
Email. david[AT]mwmortgages.com.au
Web Site. mwmortgages.com.au

Taim Bilong Masta

Back in 1983 (or was it 1984?), when I flew into Adelaide from Saudi Arabia to finalise a grain shipment to the Middle East, I took time off to visit the local ABC Bookshop and discovered a couple of dozen cassette tapes of the ABC radio series Taim Bilong Masta, produced by Tim Bowden and first broadcast in 1981.

It was the distillation of 350 hours of tape-recorded interviews with Australians and Papua New Guineans who had been involved with Australia's colonial administration which ended with self government and independence in 1975. The result was a superb 24-program social history, so evocative of a time and place, revealed through a tapestry of voices from those who lived through it. These were first-hand accounts of the pre-war history in the early 1900s, the masta-boi relationships, the gold rush and the exploration of the highlands. In it, Australian men and women who spent so many years living and working in Papua New Guinea before independence in 1975 could be heard again, telling their own stories.

Of course, I bought the whole set and for years after I listened again and again to those cassette tapes until they had worn out. If you ever see them on CD, please let me know as I would like to buy them.

Although nothing could ever replace those wonderful audio cassettes, I have found the book based on the radio series which contains 224 pages of informative text with many archival photographs, newspaper clippings and a detailed index. I add the book in pdf format to this blog for all of you to enjoy:

Click here to open TAIM BILONG MASTA in a separate window

Peter Goerman, Webmaster

P.S. During my time in Camp 6, the postcard shown below was one of the hottest sellers in one of those little "shops" run by some enterprising fellows in their dongas in Camp 6.

In one donga, they had even suspended both beds from the ceiling so as to have more floorspace in which to display their wares. And, of course, there were sly-grog places and others which showed flicks of both bad quality and taste (the term 'x-rated' had not yet been invented).

And a carpenter operated the ALI BARBER shop near the boozer which did a roaring trade as he was the only barber - well, hair-remover - in the camp. The photo below shows this webmaster BEFORE he had any damage inflicted on him.

P.P.S. Eventually, I did find mp3 replacements for those worn-out cassette tapes - click here.

28 March 2016

The Coconut Revolution - this video clip was first published in 2011

26 March 2016

George Day emailed from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada:

Hi, Peter

I worked for Camp Catering Services at Camp 5 Arawa from July 21, 1972 to August 12, 1973. I was the Camp Manager. Russ Gill was there with me. Joe Fragnito was the head chef.

I got married on Bougainville, January 31, 1973. I used Russ’s motorbike to take myself and my bride (Yumie Kono) to the District Commissioner’s Office to get hitched. Yumie and I lived in one of the saksaks up the hill from Camp 5.

I think Des Smith worked for Camp Catering at the main office in Panguna.

I had a friend, Hans Helgesson, who worked for PNG taking care of the radio communications system. Hans made me a cassette tape, Led Zeplin. I still have it. It works. So yesterday I was transferring Hans's tape onto my computer and got thinking about Bougainville. I did a search and here we are.

About ten years ago, here in Victoria, I met another guy, an Aussie, named Peter J Gibson who worked at the hospital in Arawa. He would have worked in Administration, I expect. He told me about the civil war.

I remember another guy, John Finch. I think he was second in command at Camp Catering. I think he stayed in Camp 6.

I still have a letter of recommendation from Bert Nightingale (M.F.W. Nightingale).

I’m Canadian and got the job with Camp Catering when I was travelling in Australia.

It would be great if I could connect with Russ Gill.

What a cool thing you have here. Thanks for doing it.

George Day
georgeday77[AT]gmail.com

Reply by Webmaster: Thanks, George. Can't remember you although I was there with you at the same time, hiring staff and setting up the office when CCS first got started in May 1972 (I had first come to Bougainville in 1970 as Senior Auditor with Bechtel). I was CCS's office manager (and, amongst other things, would've been making up your pay-packet ☺) until September 1972 when I transferred to their Sydney head office and handed the job to my friend Des Hudson ('Hudson' not 'Smith', but don't worry, George: first you forget names, then you forget faces; next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down ☺). Des and I briefly met again when he visited me in Burma in 1975, and in 1982/83 we were both working in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Yep, John Finch was at the CCS office in Panguna, right next door to me. He had been a long-time Territorian; short, fat guy, spoke Pidgin like a native, and was in charge of all things to do with camps and camp managers. Chances are the same magistrate, David Moorhouse, who naturalised me at his Arawa office as an Australian citizen in December 1971, also officiated at your wedding - (no, he didn't as evidenced by the Marriage Certificate you emailed later; your marriage celebrant was Bill Brown). Merv (not 'Bert') Nightingale and I remained friends until he died just a few weeks ago, on the 8th of February 2016, aged 88. Your radio communications friend, Hans Helgesson, is shown in the photo at the bottom left-hand side of this webpage - click here. He lived in a donga across from mine in Camp 1 and used to play music right throughout the night. I guess it was to drown out the noise from the dump trucks. His cassette player had this unique loop on top which pushed a series of cassettes up and then flipped and dropped them back into the player to play the reverse side. I have never seen a contraption like this ever again. Roy "Goldfinger" Goldsworthy had his donga right next to him; in fact TWO, one for himself and the other for his ham radio equipment.