There was none of that "sophisticated, high living" in Camp 1 or Camp 3 at Panguna, or in Camp 6 down the coast, or in any other of the single-men's camps. If you were early enough at meal times, you might be able to eat your meal before the long table - and the floor underneath - was littered with food left-overs and the air was thick with sweaty workers in singlets yelling at the top of their voices.
As for women, the only ones seen in the camps were waxed-to-the-point-of-martyrdom PLAYGIRLS OF THE MONTH, depicted on centerfold posters torn from PLAYBOY magazines and stuck to the inside walls of the dongas - and ceilings, too! High living indeed!
P.S. As one "old-timer" wrote after reading this (WARNING: Strong language!): "That brings back memories!!! I am not sure where the photo was taken, but more in line with the nobs in the Pink Palace. Before that there were a bevy of single girls, just after there were reports in the Aussie papers about the conditions in the mine and the huge number of well-paid men working there. There had always been adverts for female staff, secretaries, medical, and the like, but after the report in the papers the positions filled quickly, not by beauties but ranging from Plain Jane to awful, all at the end of their tether and looking for a "good catch". They lived in the wire-fenced and guarded compound just above the Bechtel office known as the "Fur Farm". Don’t know how they amused themselves; we saw them at the odd hash house harrier do but never in the camp boozers. Just above them and below the helideck on the hill were the contractors' married quarters. The rubbish boys would go through all their rubbish - after all, they had nothing and expats threw away a lot of stuff - and when they found used sanitary pads they'd wrap them around their arms and act like wounded soldiers in the movies. It used to send the women crazy who complained to the maintenance foreman."
