Showing 7 results

Archivistische beschrijving
Only top-level descriptions Australia
Print preview View:

2 results with digital objects Show results with digital objects

Reminiscences

  • AU PMB MS 431
  • Collectie
  • 1837 - ?

James Valentine Tarte (1837-1918) was born in England and migrated to Ballarat, VIC, Australia in 1857. He went to Fiji in 1869 and took up land on Taveuni where he remained until his death. Some of his descendants still have plantations on Taveuni (1972).

The document is a duplicate typescript. The reminiscences were probably written by hand originally, but the whereabouts of a manuscript is not known. Nor is it known where the original typescript is. The last page(s) of the present copy are missing, and there is nothing to indicate exactly when the document was written. However, the author states on P.17 that he wishes he could 'put the clock back 50 years'; on p.13 he indicates that he was writing in Brisbane; and on p.30 he says; 'I am writing this for my two sons ...' It is an entertaining account of Tarte's early life in England, his journey to Australia, the early years of Ballarat, financial losses and departure for Fiji, his purchase of land on Taveuni and establishment of a cotton plantation, his marriage to Clara Berry in March, 1871 (the first European wedding in Fiji), his purchase of additional land and construction of a sugar mill, his venture into coffee and cattle, and the vicissitudes of plantation life.

Tarte, James Valentine

Catalogue of ethnographical collections

  • AU PMB MS 124
  • Collectie
  • 1838 - 1842

A catalogue of the ethnographic items collected by the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific (1838-42) led by Commodore Charles Wilkes. The Expedition visited the Tuamotu Islands, Tahiti (in French Polynesia), Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Lord Howe Island, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), Marshall Islands, and Hawaii. The catalogue was prepared in 1846 by Titian Ramsay Peale, an artist-naturalist with the Expedition. A typescript version, prepared by the PMB, follows the original document on the microfilm. See also the Bureau's newsletter, Pambu, October-December 1971:25, pp. 4-7 and PMB MS 89 and MS 146.

United States Exploring Expedition

Diaries, reminiscences, letter, Tahitian history

  • AU PMB MS 108
  • Collectie
  • 1838 - 1884

The Rev. Joseph Johnston (1814-1892) left England for Tahiti as a missionary of the London Missionary Society in the ship 'Camden' in April 1838. He reached Tahiti in the following March, and served there until late 1849. In Tahiti he married Miss Harriet Platt, daughter of the Rev. George Platt. After his return to England in May 1850, he went to Fremantle, Western Australia, as a Congregational minister. He died there in 1892.

The microfilm contains the following documents:

  • Diary kept in the Camden en route to Tahiti, 26 April-28 October 1838.
  • A history and impression of Tahiti, with a narrative of the voyage in the Camden, 1838.
  • Diaries kept in Tahiti, 8 November -14 December 1838; 28 May-6 November 1839; and 6 January-30 December 1840.
  • Diary kept in the Camden during a tour of LMS mission stations in the Pacific, 16 March-19 July 1842.
  • Diaries kept in Tahiti 2 March-26 March and 11 April-26 May 1839.
  • Diaries kept in Tahiti, on return voyage to England, on voyage to Western Australia, and in Western Australia, July 1844-August 1852.
  • Diaries kept in England, on voyage to Western Australia and in Fremantle, 1852-55, 1864-68, 1869-71.
  • Letter from Johnston to Mr Gallop, dated Fremantle, 25 December 1884.
  • Reminiscences of Mrs S.F. Moore (nee Eliza Mary Johnston), Johnston's daughter.

Johnston, Joseph

Diary of a journey to Tahiti, Australia and the Hawaiian Islands

  • AU PMB MS 101
  • Collectie
  • 1913 - 1916

Diary of a journey to Tahiti, Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Miller (1867-1960) was an elder of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the time of his journey.

Miller, C. Ed.

Isaac Neilson Whyte and Mary Grace Whyte Photographs of New Hebrides (Vanuatu)

  • AU PMB PHOTO 108
  • Collectie
  • 1952 - 1959

This collection of photographs illustrates the life of Rev Isaac Neilson Whyte and Dr Mary Grace Whyte durng their service with the Australian Presbyterian Board of Missions in the New Hebrides, 1952-1957. With their children Michael, Robyn, Alistair and Peter, they were based in the village of Wintua in the South West Bay region of Malekula. Mary Grace and Neilson arrived in Wintua shortly after a hurricane had been through and destroyed much of the village infrastructure. In the years that followed, Wintua was rebuilt with the help of people from neighbouring villages, who helped to build a new church, mission house, district school and a small hospital. Rev Whyte was often away from Wintua, visiting other villages in his mission jurisdiction. He visited Big Nambas territory, which had in the previously been hostile to Europeans, and helped bring about a peace agreement between village leaders. Mary Grace practised medicine in Wintua and surrounding villages.

This collection of photographs depicts village and church life in South West Bay. It shows the reconstruction of the village, family photographs, Rev and Dr Whyte giving medical care and travel between villages by launch and canoe. There are also photos of a Big Nambas village and the Leviamp peace talks, as well as family photos taken on return to Australia.

Whyte, Isaac Neilson

Slides and photographs of missionary service on the island of Tangoa, New Hebrides (1931-33) and a trip for the 75th Anniversary Celebrations of the Tangoa Training Institute, (1970)

  • AU PMB PHOTO 60
  • Collectie
  • 1931-1970

Frank (Francis James Clezy) and Rita Paton were Presbyterian missionaries in Tangoa, New Hebrides from 1931-1933. They married in Ballarat in April 1931 and in May 1931 left for the New Hebrides.

Rev. Dr John G. Paton's eldest son, Rev. Robert Robson Paton, could not serve in the New Hebrides because he was declared medically unfit for work in the tropics, but he was pleased that two of his sons were able to go. Frank was the first of the third generation. He worked as assistant to Rev. Fred Bowie, the Principal of Tangoa Teachers' Training Institute (TTI) and District Missionary of South Santo. Frank was a teacher supported financially by the John G. Paton Fund.

At Tangoa, Frank built a workshop for the TTI students where they could do repair and maintenance jobs. After returning to Australia, three children - Barbara, David and Ruth - were born. Frank undertook pastoral work and preaching in NSW, then taught at Caulfield Grammar School and Scotch College Melbourne. Rita died in 1982. Frank subsequently remarried.

Frank writes the following: "After my early days at school I began work in the city of Melbourne but decided that I really wanted to become a school teacher. So for some years I did a lot of study and teaching. We married in Ballarat, Victoria, and set off in 1931 for the Tangoa Training Institute (TTI).

The Rev. Bowie was the principal and we were the only assistants. There were 60 students, of which about a dozen were married.
We set our clocks every fortnight at sunrise, for 6am, because at that time we met in the Hall for prayers and study. 8-8:30 was breakfast time, 8:30-10 school work; 10:15-12:30 practical work in the plantation and weeding and gathering coconuts for copra, while my work was on the buildings etc., to see that they were in good order. For this work I could call on as many helpers as were necessary for any building and carpentry jobs.

The afternoon was for the students to work in their gardens over on Santo, except that we always needed to keep at least four of them in case anything unexpected suddenly had to be done. Rita took the married women for school work in the afternoons. All sorts of things might suddenly become urgent problems, for instance, the baker's oven developed some cracks and, as the two students who looked after the bread making usually baked every Tuesday and Thursday, they had to do it on Monday and Friday that week and I had to attend to and supervise the dismantling of all the bricks and make sure that the 'new' bricks were quite sound before rebuilding the oven ready for the Friday baking. (The oven was about six feet long, four feet wide and four feet high.) At one time, we found that the workshop was in a bad way. White ants or similar unwelcome guests had made it unsafe. It had to be pulled down, the timber burnt and a new one built.

Often in the evening, the students would practice singing new hymns in the Hall and as our house (?Number Three?) was only about 50 yards away, it was a joy to listen to. The hymn books had tonic solfa notation and the students were wonderful sight readers."

(From They served in Vanuatu by Jungwirth, Fred, 1988, 2nd ed., p.39)

Paton, Frank (1906-2002) and Rita (1904-1982)