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Papua New Guinea Collection
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A History in diary form of Civil Aviation in Papua and New Guinea

  • AU PMB MS 7
  • Collection
  • 1913 - 1935

Mr Ian Grabowsky, born in Finland in 1899, was actively associated with New Guinea aviation from 1931 to 1937 as a pilot and manager for Guinea Airways Ltd. Between 1962 and 1967, he compiled a history of civil aviation in New Guinea to the year 1935 for the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation (Australia). For further details of Grabowsky's career and his compilation, see Pacific Islands Monthly for February, 1968, p.14.

A detailed account of the development of civil aviation and the exploits of the early fliers in Papua New Guinea to 1935, drawing upon a wide range of published and unpublished material.
Reel 1: Introduction; Vol.1 - Chapter 1 The Discovery of Gold 1529-1925. Chapter 2 The Early Transport System (including a section on oil, administration patrols and recruitment of human transport). Chapters 3 and 4 Transport and the Goldfields 1926 (Chapter 4 includes A Wild Road Winds to Wau by Mrs Alice Allen Innes, 'mine hostess' at Salamau from 1927, recounting an incident recorded in her diary). Chapters 5 to 7 deal with Air Transport and the Goldfields from 1927 to 1929 respectively. Vol.2 - Chapters 7 to 9 cover air transport and the goldfields from 1930 to 1932 respectively. Vol.3 - Chapter 10 Great Discoveries of New Lands, New People, New Wealth, New Ventures and New Ambitions.
Reel 2: Vol.3 (cont.) Chapter 11 - 1934. Vol.4 - 1935.

Grabowsky, Ian

A brief sketch of the fate of 3000 Indian pows in New Guinea

  • AU PMB MS 1249
  • Collection
  • 1943-1945

Captain Singh, of the Dogra regiment, relates that the Indians "left Singapore on 5 May 1943 in seven parties each consisting of about 600 - three of the parties went to New Britain and the other four came to New Guinea", ie. Wewak.

Professor Hank Nelson gave the PMB a cover note on Singh's 'Brief Sketch', as follows: "Singh wrote another brief account of his time in New Guinea as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, 'The Experiences of an Indian Prisoner of War in New Guinea", The Infantry Journal, Vol.1, No.1, July 1949, pp.56-62. In the journal article he notes that the 'irony of fate reached its climax' when of the eleven Indians who survived with the Japanese until the end of the War, nine were put on an aircraft to fly them out of New Guinea and it crashed, killing all nine. Singh, who was not on the flight, was then the only survivor. From the 3,000 Indians originally landed in the Sepik in May 1943 another 191 had survived, liberated by advancing Australians before the end of the War. One of these men, Sepoy Bachan Singh, provided evidence for the Tokyo War Crimes Trials."

Professor Nelson adds that “a copy of Chint Singh’s reminiscences written in Wewak is in the UPNG Library and (I think) the Australian War Memorial.”

The document is a roneoed typescript, 61ppp., dated 4 Nov 1945. It was passed to the PMB by Professor Donald Denoon, who worked at the University of Papua New Guinea. At the time, the author was unable to be contacted. The author's son, Narinder Parmar, has since been identified.

Singh, Chint

Bougainville photographs

  • AU PMB PHOTO 16
  • Collection
  • 1990 - 1992

This collection of 34 photographs were taken by Fr. Franz Herkenhoff and Br. Bryan Leak between 1990 and 1992 in Bougainville.
The photographs document aspects of the Bougainville conflict as well as the people Fr. Herkenhoff worked and lived with.

Herkenhoff, Franz

Catholic Bishops Conference Correspondence, 1958-2012

  • AU PMB MS 1423
  • Collection
  • 1958 - 2012

This collection includes general correspondence between Bishops from the Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Diocese and with the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands

Correspondence

  • AU PMB MS 420
  • Collection
  • 1892 - 1896

John Green, an Australian, went to Papua in 1892 and worked on a plantation at Kapadi for about fifteen months before joining the Administration staff of Sir William MacGregor, Lt-Gov. of British New Guinea (later Papua). He eventually became MacGregor's acting private secretary and accompanied him on some of his arduous patrols. After a patrol to the Musa River in September 1895, Green was assigned to build a government station at the junction of the Mambare River and Tamata Creek to protect European miners who were prospecting for gold in that area. Green was murdered at the station in January 1897.

The letters, which are all to members of Green's family in Healesville, Victoria, begin in September 1892 when Green was in Cooktown en route to Port Moresby. Some of the letters are more than 100 pages long. They give a vivid idea of life in Papua when it was under British administration. See also Pacific Islands Monthly Dec. 1940, p.41; June 1941, p.30; April 1942, p.10 and the Bureau's newsletter Pambu July-Sept. 1972:28, pp.1-4

Green, John

Correspondence, diaries, notes, articles, speeches

  • AU PMB MS 600
  • Collection
  • 1942 - 1966

Edward L.G. Thomas, or Gordon Thomas as he was usually known, joined the Methodist Mission in New Guinea as a printer in 1911, and later worked as a planter, trader and oil driller in that territory. He was editor of the Rabaul Times from 1925-1927 and from 1933-1942. He was one of about 300 European civilians captured when the Japanese invaded Rabaul in January 1942 and one of only four who remained in Rabaul throughout the Japanese occupation.

Reel 1:

  1. General correspondence, 1946-66
  2. Correspondence re disposal of printing plant used to produce Guinea Gold 1946-47
  3. Correspondence re Fred Urban's war damage claims, 1947-48
  4. Correspondence re Queen Emma (Mrs Emma Kolbe), 1955
  5. Diary and other writings while prisoner-of-war, 1942-45
  6. Notes and papers collected while prisoner-of-war, 1942-45
  7. Articles, 1945-49 (Continued on reel 2)

Reel 2:

  1. Articles, 1945-49 (Continued from reel 1)
  2. Speeches and articles, undated (c.1946-49)
  3. Diary of trip on MV Bulolo to Papua and New Guinea, 1955

Thomas, Edward Llewellyn Gordon

Diaries and pearling logs

  • AU PMB MS 15
  • Collection
  • 1882 - 1905

Captain Hamilton (1852-1937) was born in Scotland and came to Australia at the age of 10. In 1882 - 1883 he made voyages from Brisbane to Vanuatu (at that time the New Hebrides), New Britain and New Ireland (Papua New Guinea) in labour recruiting vessels. For a dozen or so years from the late 1890s, he ran the Hamilton Pearling Co. with luggers operating out of Komuli in the Admiralty Islands and Gizo in Solomon Islands. This company also traded in copra, tortoise shell, black lip and green snail shell. Later, Captain Hamilton had big planting interests in the Solomons, mainly on Choiseul. He died in Sydney in November, 1937.

The papers copied on this microfilm are the most interesting and valuable historically of a large collection (in the Oxley Memorial Library) relating to Captain Hamilton's career. They comprise:

  • Diary of a recruiting voyage in the schooner Lochiel from Brisbane to the New Hebrides from September 20, 1882, to December 29, 1882.
  • Diary of a recruiting voyage in the schooner Jessie Kelly from Brisbane to the New Hebrides, New Britain and New Ireland from March to September, 1883.
  • Two reports on voyages in search of pearl shell in New Guinea and the Solomons in 1899-1900.
  • Log of the pearling lugger Nippon from April 20, 1901 to September 24, 1901, kept at the Hamilton Pearling Company's station at Komuli, Admiralty Islands.
  • Log of the Hamilton Pearling Company's station at Komuli from September 27 1902 to March 10 1903.
  • Logs and diaries kept by William Hamilton in the vessels Canomie, Ysabel, Gazelle and Kambin from January 1 1903 to November 14 1905. These concern the operations of the Hamilton Pearling Company in New Guinea and the Solomons.

For further details of Captain Hamilton's career and of his other papers in the Oxley Memorial Library, see the Bureau's newsletter 'Pambu' October 1968:3, pp.3-6.

Hamilton, William

Diary and photographs of Eleanor J. Walker

  • AU PMB MS 98
  • Collection
  • 1881-1893

Eleanor J. Walker was a member of the Methodist mission at Dobu in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea (then called British New Guinea). The mission was established in June 1891. For details, see George Brown, D.D., Pioneer Missionary and Explorer : An Autobiography, London, 1908, pp485-92.

The diary describes how the diarist came to join the mission and gives an account of her life at Dobu.

Walker, Eleanor J.

Diary kept at the Methodist Mission in New Britain and the Duke of York Islands, New Guinea, and related papers

  • AU PMB MS 1297
  • Collection
  • Jul 1912-Mar 1913

Sr Rhoda Ransom, born Maryborough Victoria, 29 Dec 1887, worked as a nursing sister with the Methodist Mission in New Guinea from July 1912 until March 1913 when she returned to Australia suffering from malaria and rheumatic problems in her legs.

• Passport, c.1949
• Diary, Jul 1912-Mar 1913
• Photograph of Sr. Rhoda Ransom
• Map of Duke of York and Ulu Island annotated by Sr Rhoda
• Postcards (36 items), some annotated by Sr. Rhoda: Methodist Mission in New Guinea and Fiji, together with some German New Guinea postcards.
See Finding aids for details. See also PMB Photo 14.

Ransom, Rhoda

Ellestan Dusting slides of Papua and New Guinea, New Hebrides and New Caledonia

  • AU PMB PHOTO 44
  • Collection
  • 1957-1959

This collection of 292 slides was transferred from the National Museum of Australia ‘Ellestan Dusting Collection’ to the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in 2010. The slides came in two wooden boxes: one labelled ‘Papua and New Guinea’; the other labelled ‘Cocos Islands, New Hebrides and New Caledonia’ (however, inside the second box, the labels are for New Hebrides and New Caledonia only). No information was supplied with the slides except for a few handwritten captions on those for Papua and New Guinea.

There are 139 photos taken in 1957 and 1959, during official visits to the Territory of Papua and New Guinea by then Australian Minister for Territories, Paul Hasluck. Ellestan Dusting served as Hasluck’s private secretary in this period. On the 1957 tour, Hasluck was accompanied by Netherlands Minister for Overseas Territories, Mr Helders. The images captured in this set include several photos of Hasluck, Helders and other officials, though the majority of photos are of services and infrastructure, people, scenes of daily life and photos taken in transit. The delegates visit Goroka, Madang, Rabaul, Lae and Port Moresby. Photos include sing-sing at Wau show, visits to schools, hospitals and cemeteries.

The 135 slides of New Hebrides were taken as Dusting accompanied a short official “Joint Tour” in conjunction with the French and British Commissioners. The tour started in Vila and then went up through the central islands, Pentecost Island and on to Espiritu Santo. The slides depict images of dancers from many different regions. They don’t necessarily indicate the island where the photograph was taken as dancers from other islands were often asked to participate in tour festivities. In addition to formalities of the tour, including the consecration of a church and the opening of a bridge, this collection includes several images of Girl Guides and Boy Scouts. Dusting had a lifelong involvement with the Girl Guides movement.

No information was supplied for the 16 slides of New Caledonia. These photographs depict images around Noumea in an unknown year. This set of images features landmarks such as Haut Commissariat / former Hotel du Gouvernement, Noumea port, Societe Le Nickel (SLN), South Pacific Commission / Du Pacifique Sud building, Noumea, Pointe de l'Artillerie and Cathedrale Saint Joseph de Cluny] as well as many natural features.

Dusting, Ellestan Joyce

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