Taubada: an autobiography, Papuan experiences, 1925-1947.
- AU PMB MS 1314
- Collectie
- 1925-1947
Biographical note by Trevor Middleton, son of Stanley Middleton.
Stanley Guise Middleton initially travelled to Papua in late 1925 or early 1926 aboard the Marsina to take employment as a book-keeper at the Tahira Copper Mine at Bootless Inlet, near Port Moresby. However, soon after taking up his new position the mine was fore-closed and Middleton found himself unemployed in an unfamiliar town and country. Middleton was introduced to the ‘administration’. Within 24 hours of ‘joining up’ he was medically examined and passed fit for appointment. He was gazetted as a Patrol Officer of the Armed Native Constabulary, Justice of the Peace, Magistrate for Native Matters and other appointments consistent with the duties and responsibilities he would be required to perform as an officer of the Papuan Magisterial Department under the benevolent Sir Hubert Murray.
Middleton stayed with ‘The Administration’ until the outbreak of WWII. During this time he made many patrols and kept detailed records. He was an accomplished ‘touch typist’ and carried a battered portable typewriter with him on patrol. Consequently all his patrol reports were neatly typed. With a view to the future he amassed and kept carbon copies of all reports, together with a personal journal and a huge collection of irreplaceable photographs of the Papuan tribes-people he had dealings with.
In late April/early May 1940, while stationed in Port Moresby, Middleton’s wife became ill with what was initially diagnosed as Dengue Fever, but which was subsequently re-diagnosed by a visiting Oil Company Doctor as Rheumatic Fever. Middleton hastily packed all the family’s belongings and stored them in the old rice mill on the Port Moresby harbour foreshore, before embarking with all his family aboard the Macdhui for what was a storm tossed voyage to Brisbane. Mrs Middleton died within 24 hours of the vessel docking at Brisbane.
It is appropriate to note that the referenced rice mill was considered to be a secure, locked and guarded storage facility that was made available for ‘field officers’ going on leave back to Australia. Middleton recorded his return to Port Moresby in his autobiography:
In May 1942, at the height of the Coral Sea Battle, I was posted to Port Moresby on special intelligence duties. I was delighted at the prospect of seeing again our personal goods and chattels stored in the old rice mill, my greatest worry being that they might not have escaped the savage Japanese air attacks then at their height. They had escaped the Japanese but not the fury of one of the worst acts of vandalism in Australia’s history, one that is still remembered by the unfortunate pre-war residents as ‘The Rape of Moresby’. It was perpetrated by the Australian militia forces on the innocent, defenceless people they had forcibly evacuated to mainland Australia when the militia took charge of the town. In our case locks on the doors and the metal boxes had been ‘jemmied’ off, lids ripped off the tea chests, suit cases broken open and the contents of all stolen or destroyed. Evidence of the deliberate and wanton destruction was everywhere: a heap of glass and crystal fragments where the items had been thrown against the wall; crushed children’s toys; the remains of Mattie’s frocks and dresses, including the gown she wore at the last ball she would ever grace; the remains of framed family photographs. Missing, probably stolen, were my personal papers including certificates of births, marriages, family records and data, 16 years of patrol diaries, articles and some stories I had written, boxes of photographs I had taken while on patrol, whole sheets of stamps of varying denominations post-marked on their ‘First Day of Issue’ (very valuable to philatelists), and all items of furniture, linen and napery. I rescued two items only, a cocktail shaker wedding present and a coloured photograph of Owen; the latter nailed to the wall in a small room being used by the two army guards on duty.
In 1948 Middleton left Papua for Perth where he took up the position of Commissioner for the Department of Native Affairs, later renamed the Department of Native Welfare, a position he held until his retirement in 1964. In the period 1969 until 1990 Middleton set about writing recollections of his early life and his experiences in Papua, but his work was hampered by the loss of his Papuan documents, as noted in his autobiography:
One expects losses during war and, vandalism notwithstanding, I could have lived with the loss of most of our ‘stuff’, but diaries and unique photographs cannot be replaced. At least those of mine could not because they belong to times and people and, in some instances, places which no longer, nor ever will, again, exist. They were collected and kept for a purpose – to one day convert them into a book that would enable interested people to have some idea of what life was like in days that are already old. Having to rely on one’s octogenarian memory is, at best, inadequate.
In the work which follows my main problem, because of the loss of my diaries and papers, has been the fixing of times and dates and, as a consequence, the preservation of continuity and chronology of events. Some names also have escaped my memory. However I give assurance that facts, as outlined herein, are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief and nowhere exaggerated or distorted for any purpose. Half a century ago things in Papua were very different to what they are today.
After Stanley Middleton died in early 1991, his memoir, “ raw typewritten pages, complete with cut-and-paste inserts and corrections, over-typing, inked corrections, and side-bar notes”, was transcribed by his son, Trevor Middleton, and submitted to Fremantle Press and to Professor Geoffrey Bolton to be considered for publication. That version of the manuscript was lost. Trevor Middleton transcribed a new version, re-named Taubada, which he posted on a website for his family, and which he has made available to the PMB for preservation.
Printout of “Taubada: an autobiography. Papuan Experiences, 1925-1947”, by Stanley Guise Middleton from digital documents supplied to the PMB by his son, Trevor Middleton, as follows:
Chapter VI Papua ― a New Life, n.d. (10pp.)
Chapter VII:2 The Turama Patrol, n.d. (7pp.)
Chapter VII: 3 No title, n.d. (3pp.)
Chapter VII: 4 Errol Flynn, n.d. (2pp.)
Chapter VIII In the Gulf Division [1929+] (5pp.)
Chapter IX In the Mountains: The Mondo Police Camp [Central Division], n.d. (6pp.)
Chapter IX: 3 In the Goilala, n.d. (4pp.)
Chapter IX: 4 No title, n.d. (3pp.)
Chapter IX: 5 The Loloipa Patrol, n.d. (3pp.)
Chapter IX: 6 The Aiwarra Patrol, n.d. (4pp.)
Chapter IX: 7 The Karuama Patrol, n.d. (5pp.)
Chapter IX: 8 The Mount Victoria ― Port Moresby Patrol, n.d. (6pp.)
Chapter IX: 9 The Kunimaipa Patrol, n.d. (5pp.)
Chapter X: 1 Ioma [Mambare sub-district, Northern Division], 1934-35 (4pp.)
Chapter X: 2 Flying in Papua, 1937-1939 (6pp.)
Chapter X: 3 Kokoda to Port Moresby, 1939-1940 (4pp.)
Chapter XI The War Years: “There’s a War On”, 1940-1945 (5pp.)
Chapter XII: 1 The Aftermath: Return to Papua, 1945-1947 (2pp.)
Chapter XII: 2 Western Australia:“Middleton’s New Broom”, 1948-1960 (5pp.)
Middleton, Stanley Guise
