Warwick Cuneo emailed from Sydney:

 

I’ve looked at your website many times over the years since my wife and myself left Bougainville and not written: for my own reasons, but we had Beverly Jager visit with us in Sydney, Australia. Bev and Dieter both were with us in 1978-odd and again, shortly before Dieter’s death in 2011, if memory serves correctly.

Both my wife Vesna and myself, Warwick Cuneo, lived and worked on Bougainville, for Bougainville Copper, from 1970 until 1975.

Today, 3rd. November 2014, we have visiting with us Colleen and Graham Hoskins, with whom we’ve kept touch since Graham and Colleen returned from Bougainville in 1978, or thereabouts. Graham arrived in Bougainville in late 1969. Graham was an employee of Thiess Bros. and when Thiess finished their construction time in the Snowy, Graham was offered a place on Bougainville and Colleen arrived three months after Graham, from the Talbingo site. Colleen also worked for Thiess.

Some of the information Graham, Colleen and ourselves have seen on your site isn’t particularly informative: that’s not meant in an entirely negative way, but more to ‘put the record straight’. I might mention also that none of us is really computer-literate as some of the younger people on the site seem.

Talking with Graham as I write, one of the bits of ‘scuttlebutt’ concerns Graham’s boat, the St. Joseph.

As an aside, both Vesna and myself spent many, many hours aboard Graham’s first boat, a 23-foot Hartley design, fishing ‘off the reef’ around the Zummes (spelling?), Two-tree island, Puk-Puk and Arovo, to name a few. The fishing was magnificent and probably a subject for keener fishermen than myself!

About early 1974, Graham and Colleen negotiated purchase of the MV St Joseph from the Catholic mission, at Toniva through a Bro. Michael there. The Hoskins first looked the craft over Kieta harbour, having sold the Hartley, which went down to Choiseul with its German owner.

The St Joseph had been a mission workhorse since about 1946, having been bought by Bishop Wade from the US navy 1945. The US navy used her in the Sepik area as a pickup boat for wounded. Due to her shallow draught, it was possible to run her bow ashore for loading. Her original commission was to the Australian Army as defence boat AM 2092, armed with twin Browning machine guns, mounted at the bow and stern. She was originally engined with two Packard-built Merlin aero engines of 2-3,500HP each engine, drinking 100 gallons petrol (4500 litres approx.) at speed, which was 27 knots cruising and 50+ knots full throttle. The Merlin was, of course, the engine of the famous Spitfire and Mosquito aircraft. The Packard versions of the Merlin were built under licence from Rolls-Royce. For further reference, Ron Drane’s PT boat site is good.

As received by the Hoskins, the St Joseph had been re-engined with two Gardner LW4 4-cylinder diesels: Graham relates that she was commonly run at 1200 RPM., giving about 10 knots, 3.5 gallons per hour consumption. Graham actually spent time at Halvorsen’s slip in Ryde, with Harold Halvorsen, who identified her as ‘one of theirs’, one of 12 which went to the Australian Army, out of a total build of 59. She was skinned with double diagonal Oregon planking, with canvas in between layers.

From 1946 onwards, she travelled as a sort of flagship for Bishop Wade of the Chabai mission, visiting outlying mission stations as far afield as Rabaul and the Carteret Islands and of course, what was then the British Solomon Islands.

For myself, I well recall ‘conning’ the St Joseph outside the Bougainville Reefs, steering by the compass card. Relative to many other recreational craft, she was huge at 65 feet long and 15 feet beam, with 4 feet draught. I’ll leave the conversions!

She had twin cargo derricks and a hold and Graham advises that he found a ‘log’ in the bilges, which set out that baroness Von Trapp, of Sound of Music renown, had travelled on the St Joseph at one time.

Having left Bougainville in 1975, I ‘missed the boat’ back to Australia with Graham and crew Peter Finch and Dick (surname), who actually sailed the St Joseph through the Coral Sea to Cairns, in 1976 or thereabouts. Note that all dates are as related to me by Graham and Colleen, pretty much ‘off the cuff’ and might be the subject of more detail. We believe Dick did in fact write of the voyage in some of the boating press. In retrospect, maybe it was a good idea that I’d missed the boat, as I can’t cook and am not exactly the stuff of seafarers, although I don’t get seasick.

The saga of the St Joseph ends with her eventual sale to a Brisbane buyer, who planned to take her to the Swain Reefs off Bowen in North Queensland as a mother ship for general storage of fish catch. Her transit to Bowen wasn’t without drama, as a cyclone had her reported missing South of Bowen and she was the subject of an air-sea search. She eventually arrived in Bowen a little the worse for wear, having lost her radio. The cyclone was still in the area and hit Bowen some time later. The ensuing excitement caused two trawlers to drag their anchors, entangling the St Joseph and all three are now at the bottom of Bowen Harbour.

RIP St Joseph.

 

 

Comments from the blogmaster:

Books can console us in our griefs, distil the wisdom of the ages, help us understand the world around us - and even make us better people. Books can be monuments to high achievement, can call into question our most fundamental assumptions or suggest ways we can transform our lives. But they can also provide distractions, escapism and pleasures as straightforward and comforting as a bar of chocolate.


Here is a 'bar of chocolate' I found in my favourite "bookshop", Vinnies, when I drove into Batemans Bay yesterday. I simply couldn't resist it as it tells the story of a French soldier, explorer and statesman who gave his name to an island which left a transforming mark on my life.

Storms and Dreams: The Life of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

Louis-Antoine Comte de Bougainville (1729-1811) is best known for his circumnavigation of the globe from 1766 to 1769. Throughout a long and distinguished life however, he participated in many of the turning points of world history: the birth of the United States, the fall of French Canada, the opening of the Pacific, the French Revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, the crowning of Napoleon and the modernisation of France. Bougainville was also a witty and charming courtier, becoming one of Napoleon′s senators.

A true Man of the Enlightenment, he was gifted in navigation, seamanship, soldiering, mathematics, longitude and latitude - many of the arts that made his age one of most productive and creative in modern history. John Dunmore, a distinguished historian and an expert in French Pacific exploration, brings the man and his era to life in this vivid and elegantly written biography.

Paul Wagum emailed from Papua New Guinea:

Hi Peter, thank you very much for hosting this site.

It has enabled me to link up with my former colleague and mentor Mrs. Carol Allen who now lives back in the US (Utah).

Carol was the Chief Photographer at BCL from 1974 to 1981. She virtually worked herself out of her job by developing me to the point where I localized her when I was promoted to Staff Photographer.

I will see if I can post some photos because most of my collection were lost during the conflict. Most were either in prints or slides and there was no way of sustaining them especially when I remained on the island and we were shifing locations. I was also at home when the rebel elements prevented us from returning so most of the equipment (cameras, both still and video, enlargers) and my personal stuff that was kept in the office were either looted or were burnt when the building was set on fire.

Keep up the good work.

Paul Wagum
email administration.mgr[AT]jomik.com.pg

MV ISLANDER QUEEN

 

Ralph Christen of Sohano Island, and son of Urs Christen, ex-Morgan Equipment Birimpa, is proud owner of MV ISLANDER QUEEN, which will be operating out of Buka Passage.

 

Robert Webb emailed from Canada:

Hello Peter,

I was on the Bougainville (TPNG) mine website and your email was listed as the webmaster. I understood you were building a sort of record of the survivors of the early build days. It does make one feel old when I look at the Panguna mine pictures today. When I last saw it, it was brand new. There is a picture of a steam turbine rotor rusting in the weather. Since it would be virtually impossible for non-skilled people to open the turbines................... I believe I was there the day that turbine failed and was on the crew that took it out.

I am still hard at the mining thing. These days up in Canada's North,

Cheers,
Robb
RR #1, Site 7A, Comp 4
Kaleden. B.C. V0H 1K0
Phone: 778-515-4559>
Cell: 250-488-0813
email omr[AT]shaw.ca

PNG's Mount Tavurvur volcano erupts back to life

A major volcanic eruption in Rabaul on Papua New Guinea's East New Britain Island has left the local community concerned for their safety, as residents flee and businesses close. The eruption came from Mount Tavurvur, which destroyed the town of Rabaul when it erupted simultaneously to nearby Mount Vulcan in 1994. Authorities said the most recent eruption began in the early hours of Friday morning.

"An eruption commenced from Tavurvur form between 3:30am and 4:00am," a bulletin from the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory said.

"The eruption started slow and slowly developed in a stromblian eruption with incandescent projections accompanied by explosion noises and ongoing loud roaring and rumbling noises.

"Stronger explosions are generating air phases and rattling windows."

A strombolian eruption is characterized by short-lived, explosive outbursts of fluid lava ejected tens or hundreds of meters into the air. Local resident David Flinn described the eruption of lava and rocks as savage and said lightning strikes could be seen amongst the ash cloud. He said the volcano is currently emitting light steam and occasional booms, with about one centimetre of light brown ash covering surrounding areas. Mr Finn said locals on nearby Matupit Island, about one kilometre from Mt Tavurvur have fled and yachts have left the harbour. Authorities have not yet issued an evacuation order for Rabaul residents.

Schools and some shops have been closed, but Rabaul Hotel employee Susie McGrade said locals just want to get on with their lives. "People still live here, we have to get on with our daily lives," she said. "We're up on the roofs, cleaning off the ash, we've got to save our property, try and get back to normal, so what can we do? We've got no where else to go."

It is yet to be confirmed whether the eruption will disrupt local or international flight plans.

Rabaul was the provincial capital in 1994, but after the town was destroyed by volcanic ash the capital was moved to Kokopo. By comparison this eruption is a relatively small event.

Mount Tavurvur is considered one of the most active volcanos in the region, most recently erupting in early 2013 and recording other erruptions in 2011, 2010, 2006, 2005 and 2002, since the major 1994 explosion.

Bougainville News

To read the latest news from Bougainville, click here

 

In the beginning

The MV Craestar, CRA's vessel, alongside the wharf in Kieta. Converted from a Japanese tuna fishing vessel into an exploration ship by the addition of an assay lab in the fish hold and a helicopter landing pad at the stern, the ship was used extensively used between 1967 and 1970 as a base for mineral exploration programs in the Solomon and Trobriand Islands and along the coastal belts of Papua New Guinea.

 

In the grey light of a tropical dawn on 6th July 1968, fifty men assembled at the government wharf, Sohano, on the south coast of Bougainville Island. They were members of the Royal Papua Nugini Constabulary, and they were armed with long wooden pick-axe handles. An inspector from Melbourne and a sergeant from Mt Hagen, with shotgun and side arms, led the uniformed force. In overall charge was a young Australian civilian Patrol Officer, known in PNG as a “Kiap”. Tied to the wharf behind the group, with its bizarre outlines becoming clearer as the sun slowly rose, was the MV Craestar, a 40 m exploration ship owned by Conzinc Rio Tinto of Australia Exploration (CRAE). From the Craestar, three company geologists in high-visibility vests and armed with geology hammers and -80 mesh sampling sieves joined the police group. By the time the sun had hauled above the horizon, all had boarded open-topped trucks or light four-wheel-drive vehicles and were bouncing along the rutted coast road. They faced two hours driving on ever smaller tracks followed by a two hour trek along jungle paths before they arrived at their destination – a group of villages deep in the interior, about 10km SE of the CRAE copper-gold prospect of Panguna, then at advanced feasibility stage. They were expecting trouble.

Read the rest of the story here.

 

Pam and Ed Davis emailed from New Mexico:

Hello,

I was doing some research today and came across your website on Bougainville. It brought back happy memories as well as sadness to see the "aftermath" pictures.

We were on Bougainville from 1978-82. My husband, Ed Davis, worked for Morgan Equipment during that time. We actually married in Arawa in the backyard of Christian Werner's home on June 24,1979 and celebrated our 35th anniversary this year.

After we left Bougainville, we moved to Anchorage, Alaska where my husband worked in the North Slope oil fields on a contract to maintain the equipment of ARCO oil company. We moved to Texas in 1984 after our children were born in 1983 (boy/girl twins - now 31). Then we moved back to Alaska in 1988-90. Finally moving back to Amarillo, TX in 1990. We remained there until 2008, when I took a job in New Mexico. Ed retired officially in 2005 and I retired this year. We are still living in Hobbs, New Mexico and enjoying life in the desert.

Ray Klein and his wife Jenny visited us 2012. Ray worked for BCL during the late 70's too. They live in Karana Downs, Queensland.

We have often thought of returning to Bougainville for a visit, but I understood the infrastructure was no longer in place. I doubt we will ever return except in our memories. Thanks for the pictures on your site. Do you know a way to find out if any of the Bougainvillians are still living? Peter Pana worked at Morgan Equipment for my husband and he and his family lived in an apartment at our house in Arawa. His wife worked for PNG bank.

Great to see so many of the old friends still around.

Pam Davis
email wontok2[AT]gmail.com

Holiday Accommodation on the South Coast of New South Wales

 

Click here

10% Discount for all Bougainville expats!