This collection consists of two reports written by Carl Franke, Cadet Agriculturist, for the Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries (DASF), Territories of Papua and New Guinea, during the period 1947-1948. The first report, ‘Report On – General description of; native agriculture in; and rubber production at Kokoda – Sub-district of the Northern District of Papua’, describes climate (including rainfall), population (including social, spiritual/sorcery), vegetation, religious missions, effects of war, land use systems, food crops, livestock, health and nutrition, trade and economics. It reports on Kokoda sub-districts: Autembo-Wairopi-Hungiri, Biagi, Wawanga-Managalasi and Chirima. It also reports on a government rubber plantation at Kokoda, noting that pre-war records were destroyed during World War II. It describes the processing stages, including preparing land, tapping, standardising, coagulating, smoking, drying or curing, and packing.

The second report, ‘A Report on the Agricultural Potentiality of the Goilala Sub-district of Papua’, describes the location, including communications infrastructure, population, language groups, climate (including rainfall), customs, kinship and marriage, social organisation, chieftainship, politics, diet and feasts, sorcery, religious missions, health and nutrition, land use and tenure, gardens, crops, and economics. The report also includes Franke’s patrol diaries.

Both reports contain photographs and hand-drawn maps.

Alfred William Martin (1844-1928) was born in Clarence Plains, Tasmania, first son of William Martin (1805/6-1878), a convict transported to Tasmania, and Hannah Braim (1825/6-1860). Alfred William Martin was educated at Kettering Grammar School in Northamptonshire while his parents were revisiting England. Returning to Tasmania, Martin became a seaman, despite his good education, firstly on the ship Gem sailing out of Hobart and then, while still in his teens, on a whaler, Southern Cross, Capt. Mansfield, sailing out of Hobart to whaling grounds off New Zealand, NSW, and the New Hebrides. He then sailed on the Thomas Brown, Capt T.H. Brown, a freighter working between Melbourne and Adelaide. Subsequently Martin sailed a schooner, Jeannie Darling, 80 tons, owner Darling formerly a boat builder in Hobart, carrying timber and other goods between Melbourne and Schnapper Point (Mornington).

In Melbourne Martin joined the crew of a Brigantine, El Zéfiro (300 tons, Callao), Capt Manuel Diaz Garcias of Peru, smuggling opium to the China trade via Gilolo Island, Surigao and Manila; smoking bêche-de-mer at Ponape; trading in the Marshalls, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji; trading for sandalwood in the New Hebrides; sailing onwards through the Banks Islands, Santa Cruz, San Christobal, Malaita, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and back to Manila via the Moluccas and Celebes. El Zéfiro then sailed for Bougainville, reinforced with Bougainville warriors carried out a blackbirding raid in Aoba (Ambae) in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), then sailed on to South America, touching at the Marquesas and Galapagos Islands, selling the New Hebridean slaves at Mollendo in Peru.

Alfred William Martin gave the manuscript to his granddaughter, Clara Ella Simm (b.1897), who he had brought up as a child after her father, William Simm (1855-1901), died in a flu epidemic in Launceston. When Dr Macnicol received the manuscript from his mother, via his sister, it was in a bundle tied with string. Dr Macnicol passed the manuscript to a conservator who repaired torn and fragmented pages. Dr Macnicol top-numbered the pages consecutively in pencil and transcribed the manuscript. He passed the transcript to Rafael Pintos-Lopez of Michelago, near Canberra, who submitted the transcript to Professor Brij Lal for assessment.

Untitled incomplete manuscript written by Alfred William Martin of Tasmania, written possibly in the 1890s relating his Pacific voyages and adventures in the 1860s, Ms. (gaps), re-paginated, pp.1-202; together with transcript of the manuscript made by Dr Peter Macnicol, Ts., pp.1-251.
See Finding aids for details.

‘The Times of Papua New Guinea’ newspaper (also ‘The Times’ and ‘The Times of PNG’) was launched in September 1980 and ran until 1995. It was published by Word Publishing Company, Boroko, Port Moresby. Franz Albert Joku was editor from 1980-1995. Published on Fridays from 1980, a second edition, ‘The Mid Week Times’ was introduced on Tuesdays from August 1982. This run is from September 1980-December 1982 only.

In May 1995, it was rebranded ‘The Saturday Independent’ and later ‘The Independent’.

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.

PMB Photo 46 is a collection of 2291 photographs Bill Gammage took of Papua New Guinea subjects over 22 years from March 1966 to September 1988. It can be divided into four sections.
The first section (March to November 1966, August 1968, and March 1970) has about 200 photos. The subjects include: June Valley and the first Preliminary Year of the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), the Administrative College (Adcol), the buildings at Port Moresby Showground which served as university lecture theatres, students, staff, rugby union football matches between the university/Adcol team known as Aduni and other local teams. Town (Port Moresby) subjects include Fairfax Harbour, the seaplane hangar area, Koki market, Girl Guide Shop, Cuthbertson Street, House of Assembly, Ela Beach, war memorials, Anzac Day, and the suburb of Boroko. Outside Port Moresby subjects include Bomana War Cemetery, Idlers Bay and the villages of Porebada, Hanuabada, Kapa Kapa, and Lea Lea. In the hills behind Port Moresby, subjects include Crystal Rapids, Sirinumu Dam, Hombrom Bluff, Sogeri, Rouna Falls, the Kokoda Trail monument, Owers Corner, Uberi and Goldie River. Other subjects include the Kokoda Trail from Kokoda to Templeton’s Crossing and the Menyamya sub-district of Morobe. Among the people photographed are Tony Voutas, Peter Metcalf, Hank Nelson, Peter Munster, Thomas Tobunbun, Ken Inglis and Leo Morgan.
Complementing the photos of this period are two chapters - “Moresby 1966” in Australians in Papua New Guinea 1960-1975 and “The Boy from Boort” in a book of the same name (both published in 2014) and the article “What Kaindi Expects” published in Nation, Sydney (No. 210, 14 January, 1967).
The second section (February 1972 to December 1976) has about 1500 photos. They show people and places in nineteen of the twenty provinces - Central, East Sepik, East New Britain, Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands, Western, Gulf, Morobe, Madang, Milne Bay, Enga, New Ireland, Manus, Southern Highlands, Bougainville, Simbu, Northern/Oro, West Sepik/Sandaun and the National Capital District.
Subjects include men, women and children, agriculture, cash crops, plantations, mines, infrastructure (roads, bridges, airstrips, communications towers), buildings (houses, offices, spirit houses, schools, aid posts), sing-sings, pig kills and exchanges, mission stations, environment (rivers, mountains, volcanoes, landscapes and seascapes), flowers, birds, animals, insects, and suburban life in Boroko including that of single men from the Highlands who wanted jobs in town. Their story is told in “The Men from Gono” (Overland, Winter, 1975). Other articles include “Moresby or the bush” (Current Affairs Bulletin, 50 (11), April 1974), “Tinmanmale of Taunsip” (Oral History (PNG), 3 (5), 1975 (with Rabbie Namaliu)), and “Maclay comes to Gorendu”, ( Oral History (PNG], 4 (1), 1976).
Other subjects include UPNG, graduations, the Goroka Show, the Hagen Show, the Port Moresby Show, Anzac Day, and the Independence celebrations of 1975. Sites relating to both traditional warfare and to World Wars 1 and 2, individual graves, cemeteries, memorials and plaques, are also subjects. Included among the headstones and memorials photographed are the grave at Lagui, Salamaua, of Corporal Anis of the Native Constabulary Branch of the New Guinea Police, and a memorial to Baros of Sirovi at Kieta. Headstones for Victoria Cross (VC) winners are those of Fijian Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu at Bitapaka near Rabaul, and Australians Private BS Kingsbury at Bomana and Flight Lieutenant Bill Newton at Lae. The sites at which two VCs were won - Mission Hill at Wewak where Private Ted Kenna won his VC and the ground at Sattelberg up which Sergeant “Diver” Derrick attacked - are also subjects, as is the sign marking the place where Mavis Parkinson and Sister May Hayman of Gona Mission Station were executed.
Research trips including to Bulldog Landing, Misima and Woodlark Islands, Wau and Bulolo, East New Britain and New Ireland are subjects. Complementing the photos of the East New Britain and New Ireland research trip are “The Rabaul Strike 1929” (Journal of Pacific History, Vol 10, No. 3 (1975)) and the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on Sumsuma. The trip to Misima and Woodlark contributed to Hank Nelson’s Black, white and gold: gold mining in Papua New Guinea, 1878-1930 (ANU Press, 1976). Walks are also subjects and include Kaintiba to Menyamya, Kosipe to Tapini, and (by others) Efogi to the Koiari access road.
Among the people photographed are Ken Inglis, Tony Voutas, Hank Nelson, Elton Brash, David Hegarty, Jim Fingleton, Mike Manning, Chris Gregory, Mary Jane Mountain, Michael Somare, Gough Whitlam, Rabbie Namaliu, Kateo, Manning Clark, Dymphna Clark, Peter Munster, Nora Brash, Zedekia Ngavirue, Bertha Ngavirue, John Kaputin, Margaret Loko, Martha and Grandma George, Albert Speer, Rhys and Dorothy Healey, Bill Standish and John and Tim Moresby.
The third section (July 1980 to December 1985) has about 200 photos. Subjects include Port Moresby, the South Pacific Arts Festival, the Eastern Highlands, Chimbu, Western Highlands, Enga including Porgera gold mine, East Sepik, Western, Madang and Gulf provinces. Among the people photographed are patrol officers and explorers Jim Taylor and John Black and their wives Yerima and Dawn, and Sione Latukefu. John Black was also photographed with explorer Ivan Champion. See Australian Dictionary of Biography entries for Taylor, Black and Champion.
The fourth section (September 1987 to September 1988) has about 370 photos. The main subject is field research for work on the 1938 Hagen-Sepik Patrol. In part, this work involved retracing the route that the patrol had taken, plus visiting provinces from which police or carriers were recruited. Copies of photos taken in 1938, most by Pat Walsh, were shown to relatives and other people along the route and also helped locate key sites on the 1938 journey. People who took part in the patrol, mostly as carriers or police, were interviewed and photographed. Sites include the camp site at Hoiyevia, the Strickland Gorge crossing, the Telefomin camp, and Porgera gold mine. Recent developments in the area including the newly opened mine at Mt Kare are also photographed.
Among the Papua New Guinean subjects are policemen Bus of Yuringo, Manus, and Kowuwu of Aro, Morobe, cook Aire Onesa and carrier Sepeka both from Lower Bena, Eastern Highlands, Nifinim at Telefomin, West Sepik/Sandaun, and Suni at Olsobip, Western Province. Kwarima Ubuma of Hoiyevia is photographed as is Meta near Mt Hagen and Mainch of Karo near Ramdi. Meg and Daisy Taylor are also photographed.
A film My Father, My Country was produced in 1989 and the book The Sky Travellers: Journeys in New Guinea 1938-1939 published in 1998 (Melbourne University Press). Other related publications are a commentary ‘John Black’s “Anatomy of a Hanging: Malignant Homicidal Sorcery in the Upper Markham Valley…”’, (Journal of Pacific History, 33 (2), December, 1998) and an article “Sorcery in New Guinea, 1938 and 1988”(Journal of Pacific History, 41, June, 2006).

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.

These 152 35mm slides were taken between October 1969 and November 1973 by Roger Southern, who was then teaching at the Department of Geography at the University of Papua New Guinea [UPNG] and was researching a master’s degree with the University of Bristol for which he travelled to the PNG Highlands to observe the place of roads and road transport in economic change.

The images illustrate ten themes:

1. TRADITIONAL HIGHLAND VILLAGE LIFE, Lumusa area, Baiyer River district [Images 1 to 25]
2. BAIYER RIVER, local roads, and the emerging cash economy [26-46]
3. BAIYER RIVER, the Baptist Mission and Enga Enterprises coffee cooperative[47-57]
4. ALONG THE HIGHLANDS HIGHWAY, road making and road transport in a challenging environment [58-76]
5. ULYA COFFEE PLANTATION, people, activity in and around the plantation [77-94]
6. MOUNT HAGEN, images of the town [95-104]
7. WAHGI VALLEY, KINDENG, the tea plantation [105-113]
8. WAHGI VALLEY, KINDENG, the smallholder projects [114-126]
9. UPNG [UNIVERSITY OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA], the campus and some events [127-137]
10. UPNG [UNIVERSITY OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA], the students [138-152]

The late Edith Watts MBE and the late John Watts MLA provided many of the opportunities for images 1 to 126 to be made. Southern also remembers fondly the students and staff of the brand new and exciting University of Papua New Guinea [images 127-152].

Collection of 24 photographs taken on and around Samarai island, south-east Papua New Guinea. The images were captured by Louis Budérus, a professional photographer based in Queensland who was active around 1889-99. By 1900, Samarai was part of British New Guinea and the main town of Samarai was a prominent trading and administrative centre.

The images include groups of local men, women and children, village scenes, and canoes. Image 24 was taken in the Northern Territory, Australia, and it is likely that several of the images were taken by another photographer. See individual item records for further details and original captions.

Jack Read joined the Australian administration of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea as a Cadet in 1929. He worked as Patrol Officer in most parts of the Territory, having covered New Britain and the mainland from the Sepik River to the Morobe Goldfields, but had not been located in Bougainville until his appointment in November 1941 as Assistant District Officer in charge of the Buka Passage Sub-District, under District Officer Merrylees. Following the Japanese entry into the War on 8 Dec 1941, Read helped evacuate most European residents from Buka, established inland dumps of emergency provisions and shifted his administration to Bougainville island just before a Japanese attack on the Sub-District HQ on Sohano island on 24 January 1942. Following the winding up of civil administration in February 1942, Read, the only remaining government representative, was appointed Lieutenant in the Australian Navy under Lt. Commander Feldt with instructions to remain in Bougainville as a coastwatcher. See also PMB MS 1245 for Report by W. J. Read on coast watching activity Bougainville Island, 1941-1943, and PMB MS 1309 for Read