PMBPhoto 55 is a collection of 927 photographs by Jan Gammage of Papua New Guinea subjects, taken over 10 years from August 1996 to October 2006. The photos can be divided into three sections.
The first and main section has about 600 photos taken between August 1996 and October 2006 and relates to AusAID and some of its development project work. In this period, AusAID was the agency within the Australian government responsible for the overseas aid and development program. Subjects include AusAID staff posted from Canberra or engaged locally, Papua New Guineans engaged in implementation and management, and consultants and contractors. Subject bilateral projects include two in infrastructure - the National Roads Regravelling and Sealing Project (NRRSP) and the PNG Maritime College Project, and two in law and justice - the Correctional Services Development Project (CSDP) and the Royal PNG Constabulary Development Project (known as the Police project).
Other AusAID funded projects involved Papua New Guinean and Australian non-government organisations. Of such projects the Community Development Scheme (CDS), the Church Partnership Program (CPP), the PNG National HIV/AIDS Support Project (PNG NHASP) and the PNG Australia Sexual Health Improvement Program (PASHIP) are subjects. What came to be known as The GoodNews Workshop, organised in Madang by the ANU’s State Society and Governance in Melanesia project (SSGM) in collaboration with the Divine Word University, is also a subject.
AusAID projects worked at the national, provincial and community level across PNG. They are subjects in the National Capital District and the following provinces: Central, Milne Bay, Oro, Morobe, Madang, East Sepik, East New Britain, Bougainville and the Western Highlands. All project documents, including regular reports and reviews, should be available in PNG and Australian Government records. See also the complementary SSGM publication Development Bulletin, No. 67, April 2005, Effective Development in Papua New Guinea, edited by David Hegarty and Pamela Thomas.
PNG beyond the confines of the development project also became a subject including in Port Moresby the Ela Beach Craft Market and PNG Arts, Loloata, Samarai, a birdwing butterfly, birds including hornbills, George the white cockatoo, female and male eclectus parrots, and a goura pigeon. Volcanoes including KarKar off the Madang coast and Tavurvur off the East New Britain coast, were subjects. At Keltiga near Mt Hagen a re-enactment of the coming of the white man to the PNG highlands was a subject and military subjects include the memorial and plaque on Mission Hill, Wewak, and the War memorial and Library Institute on Samarai.
Among the subjects are the following people: Siwi Morep, Sam Inguba, Richard Sikani, Ruby Zarriga, Bart Philemon, Brunie Dangar-Christian, Helen Hakena, Delphine Lesi, Daisy Taylor, Daera Morgan and family, Sir Mekere and Lady Roslyn Morauta, Mike Manning, Relly Manning, Mel Togolo, Anna Ballinger Togolo, Janet Philemon, Pena Ou, Sir Pita Lus, Pauline Doonar (Nakmai), Dorothy Luana, Grace (Isako) Feka, and Nora Brash. Hartmut Holzknecht, David Kavanamur, Loa George, Elizabeth Cox and Regina Paim, Brother Pat Howley, Yerima Taylor, Sarah Garap, Scarlett Epstein, Thomas Webster, and Nono Gideon are also subjects.
The second section (December 1997 to February 1998) comprises over 300 photos. The subject is Operation Bel Isi, a regional initiative initially led by New Zealand, to support Bougainville in its effort to bring peace. The photos are a record from my perspective as a civilian truce monitor, selected from AusAID, over a period of two months. Subjects include the first phase of the Australian contribution to the mission from its beginnings in Sydney, and its arrival in Bougainville at Aropa airstrip, to the living conditions, training and establishment of teams at Loloho, Arawa, deployment to one of four team sites and the life and work of the Buka Truce Monitoring Team. Other subjects include the town and villages of Buka Island, Wakunai and Tinputz on the east coast of North Bougainville, Togerau inland from the east coast with the volcano Mt Balbi looming over it, Kunua, Kuraio and Torokina on the west coast, and Kalil and Balil on Nissan Island.
Among the subjects are the following people: Lieutenant Colonel Mele Saubulinayau of Fiji, Bougainville Transitional Government Minister for Local Level Government Agnes Titus, Sir Paul Lapun, Sister Lorraine Garasu, Major Dave Samuels, Helen Hakena, Getsi Tanahan, Ben Kamda, Joe Pais, Joan Jerome, Monica Smith, Paul Akoitai, Bessie Rerevate, Christine Hou, Eddie Mohin, Elma Kaskas, Josephine Sition, and Mariann Tonsala.
Complementing the photos is a chapter “A Truce Monitor” in Australians’ Experiences Monitoring Peace in Bougainville, 1997-2001: Without a Gun (edited by Monica Wehner and Donald Denoon, Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, 2001) and a seminar paper Messages from the Women of Bougainville, given at AusAID for International Womens’ Day 1998. A short version of this paper was published in Amida Australia-Asia, Vol. 4, No.1, Mar-Apr 1998.
In addition, as with the projects in the first section, a large number of reports and reviews of this mission should be available in Australian Government records.
The third section is PNG people and events in Australia (about 16 photos over the period August 1998 to June 2006). Subjects include the launch by Hank Nelson at the PNG High Commission in Canberra of Bill Gammage’s book The Sky Travellers in August 1998, the PNG Mining and Petroleum Conference in November 1998 in Sydney, people who worked on AusAID projects visiting AusAID in Canberra (including December 2002 and May 2006), the visit of John Waiko for a showing of ‘Minister without Money’ a film made by his son Bau Waiko (September 2005) , and the fundraiser for people affected by Cyclone Larry organised by the PNG community in Canberra (June 2006).
This subject area includes the following people: Sir Rabbie Namaliu, Bill Gammage, Bill Searson, Robert Harden, Sir Anthony Siaguru, John Garnaut, Helga Griffin, John Waiko, PNG High Commissioner Charles Lepani, Kathy and Vertanya Lepani, Joe Tauvasa and Aivu Guise Tauvasa, Anna Chikali-Westcott and Hani Dietz.

This collection by Charles Morris Woodford includes two albums of photographs taken during a voyage to and residence in the Solomon Islands from April to October 1886, as well as additional loose photographs.
The collection includes images from the villages Aola and Fauro in the Solomon Islands. Images include village life, canoes, native animals, customs and the natural environment as well as Charles Morris Woodford’s life and Government residence in Tulagi, Solomon Islands.
Additional photographs from Rabaul, Madang, New Britain and New Ireland in Papua New Guinea.

Photographic slides of Papua New Guinea given to H.C. Morris by Sir Paul Hasluck in 1956 from his personal collection. In the 1950s, as Project Officer at the Manus Island naval Base, Mr Morris ran the first formal training and engineering apprenticeships in Papua New Guinea. Slides include photographs of Port Moresby Hospital, a village school, plantations and timber mills.

Photographs documenting Methodist Missions at Kabakada, Watnabara and Vunairima, via Rabaul, New Britain, Papua New Guinea, between 1925 and 1930. Photographs taken by Reverend Francis Trafford Walker and his wife Mrs Emma M. Walker.

This is a collection of 45 colour slides taken by James L.O. Tedder, MBE, during the period 1952 to 1974. Twenty nine of these slides were taken in the Territory of Papua New Guinea (TPNG) and 16 in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP).

Of the 29 TPNG images, three are of Lae in Morobe District, dated 1952. There are also five images of Rabaul in New Britain: one dated 1952 may be of Tavurvur volcano, a view from Matupi Island. The other four dated August 1964 show the view from the District Commissioner’s garden, a sunset, dancers and school students. Also dated 1964 is a portrait of an unnamed female nurse in Madang District. This photograph may not belong in this series, nor have been taken by James Tedder. Judging from the information on the badge the nurse is wearing it was taken after Papua New Guinea Independence.

Three images dated 1958 were taken in the Eastern Highlands District, probably all at Mt Michael Patrol Post. They include one of James Tedder, his wife Margaret and their children with District Officer W E (Bill) Tomasetti. Tomasetti served in World War 2 / World War II as a commando in Timor. The other photos were taken of two groups of local men, some of whom are displaying their traditional wealth, including plumes and kina shells.

Mt Hagen and the Western Highlands District is the subject of 14 images probably all taken in August 1964: seven are aerial views of the town, airstrip and geographical features, including the Hindenberg Wall, and the terrain en route to Porgera. Seven are of Highlands people. The people, including a portrait of two women, are shown walking along a road or posing for a photograph and show the wealth and status of these people. Three images taken also in August 1964 in Central District are of the view across Fairfax Harbour to Port Moresby town and, in the foothills of the Owen Stanley range behind Port Moresby, of the Rona (Rouna) Falls hydro plant and the Falls themselves. Both this trip outside Port Moresby in Central Province and the flight in the Western Highlands District were probably facilitated by the Western Highlands District Commissioner of TPNG’s Western Highlands District, Tom Ellis, for the District Commissioner of BSIP’s Western District, James Tedder, after the men met at a meeting in Port Moresby.

The last group of images in this collection were taken in the BSIP of two active volcanoes, one in Western District and one in Eastern. The submarine volcano Kavachi, in Western, is in the UNESCO Marovo Tetepare Complex, which is home to outstanding marine biodiversity. Of the five aerial images, two are captioned in distinctive handwriting “H. Moss 27.12.65”. Three images taken with what appears to be the same camera as Moss’, have “Tedder 1966” recorded on them in Tedder’s writing. It is possible that these are duplicates of three images taken by Harry Moss, MBE, and have been dated accordingly. After retiring as a TAA (Trans Australia Airlines) Captain, Harry became the first pilot in the new Solomon Islands internal airline Megapode Airways. Margaret Tedder worked in the Megapode office and occasionally James Tedder was flown by Harry for work purposes. Both men mention the other in their autobiographies, James in his “A District Administrator in the Islands 1952-1974” (published 2008) and Harry in his “10,000 Hours In the Life of a Flying Doctor Pilot” (published 1988). In Eastern District, in the Santa Cruz Islands, is Tinakula. A conical stratovolcano in the same volcanic arc as Kavachi, Tinakula has a long history of activity, including throughout 2019. There are eleven images, a number of them taken from different angles from the air, dated July 1974, and show landslips caused by the volcano’s activity.

James Tedder and members of his family described/captioned the majority of the images.

Jean Chambers was a commercial artist who commenced work designing screen slides for Whitford Theatre Ads in Sydney. She then worked for Vivian Art Studios which carried out all branches of advertising and display for many large buisiness firms in Sydney, including Bonds Hosiery, Berley’s and Nestles. In 1935 she married Keith M. Chambers and moved to New Guinea with her husband. They were evacuated in 1941, returned to Madang in 1946, where Keith Chambers was the Customs Officer, then moved to Rabaul in 1948. In 1948 a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) service was established in the TPNG Department of Public Health by Dr Joan Refshauge. The MCH commissioned Mrs Chambers to design posters on infant care. (See posters marked “Rabaul”.) The original paintings were sent to Sydney for lithographic block making in 3 or 4 colours. Thousands were printed and returned for distribution by the Public Health Department as teaching aids in villages throughout the Territory. The couple moved to Port Moresby in the mid 1950s where Keith Chambers eventually became Chief Collector of Customs. In Port Moresby Jean Chambers designed and completed film strips for the Commonwealth Film Unit on women’s club training, and worked for Burns Philp (NG)Ltd for 18 months during 1958-59 on display and newspaper advertising. Mrs Chambers also received more commissions for posters and eventually acccepted a full-time appointment with the Department of Information where she trained New Guinean staff in silk screen printing, using her designs and stencils for posters, mainly on health education but also for the Departments of Agriculture, and Post and Telegraphs. Mrs Chambers left PNG when her husband retired in 1965 or 1966.

34 lithographic and silk screened posters on health education in PNG, 1948-1965(?); 13 posters on the introduction of decimal currency in PNG, 1965.