This collection comprises 39 images black and white photographs taken in the Australian Territory of Papua and New Guinea by Australian Frank Forster in the 4 months December 1949-March 1950.

The photographs record a trip made mainly by boat to the Territory by Frank, a 28 year old honours graduate in obstetrics, surgery and gynaecology of the University of Melbourne, who became as well a medical historian, bibliophile and benefactor. At the time, health care services provided for the local people by the colonial authorities were minimal. In 1947 there were 17 doctors working there, all of whom were expatriates. The first two trained surgeons arrived about 1950, and were based in Rabaul and in Port Moresby. In 1953 the Australian National University, through a government committee, began identifying “gaps in knowledge” in the territory.

Frank’s record of his journey starts in Papua’s Eastern District at Samarai Island and ends as he returns to Brisbane, having visited several other small islands including Kwato in Papua, then to New Guinea where he visited Lae, Goroka in the Eastern Highlands, Madang, and Manus Island.

Frank’s collection is literally a “snapshot” of the times. He shows various types of boats and light aircraft, local people at work, postwar buildings including wharves and railway lines, and equipment. Nine photos relate to the port and town on Samarai Island in the Milne Bay District of Papua, now the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Six of these show boats at the wharf, including MV Malaita of the Burns Philp Shipping Company, the wharf railway line and men working to move cargo. Two photos show members of the Papua and New Guinea Constabulary presenting arms, and one is of a building displaying an Australian flag and two flags of the United States, a clear reminder of the importance of Samarai to the Allies in World War 2.

En route to Lae in the Morobe District of New Guinea, now the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea, the boat passed Gesila Island and berthed at Kwato Island. On Kwato, Frank photographed the London Missionary Society (LMS) Church. In the port of Lae, Frank photographed landing craft AB2348 with many men, possibly labourers, on board, and the ship MV Malaita again.
In Madang District, four photographs are of the coastline and buildings, one possibly of the administrative headquarters of the district and business establishments, and a detailed scene of a wharf, including men working to move cargo. On the mainland, three photographs show beautiful trees including one of a long archway of trees, and at the cemetery, the 1914 grave of Willi Wohlgemuth, a machinist probably on the mission ship, for the Divine Word Mission at Sek (Alexishafen). In 1913 the Mission sub-divided for sale land on Doilon Plantation just south of Alexishafen, and Wohlgemuth got Block 3, 160 hectares, but died of appendicitis on 1 March 1914. (Amtsblatt 1914, 45, 91.) One photograph captures a well maintained corrugated iron building with “1913” clearly shown and another an aerial view of MV Malaita at a wharf.

Four photographs were taken in or near Goroka, probably at Humilaveka, in the Eastern Highlands District of New Guinea, and all relate to an airstrip – kunai (grass) buildings, fences, people watching and a biplane, a De Havilland 84 Dragon.
The four photographs taken of Manus Island are of the main port of Lorengau. Various types of water craft, possibly pieces of equipment left after World War 2, buildings and the main wharf, are shown in these photos.
Probably on his way back to Australia, Frank took a photograph in the China Straits showing three different types of boat, and one other.

The photographs were given to Helen and Ray Spark in 1976. They met him on a trip with their two daughters to Melbourne from Wewak in Papua New Guinea where they were living, Ray then working at the Wewak hospital. They got talking and Frank told them he had some old photos of New Guinea. He said he took the photos when he was a student doing an internship there in December 1949- March 1950. Under Frank’s care, a son was born to the Sparks in April 1976. Frank gave the photos to the Sparks in the brown manilla envelope. On it in pencil is the note “These pictures were taken Dec 1949 March 1950”: presumably the handwriting is Frank’s.

The brief descriptions on most photos are Frank Forster’s own. Additional information has been added to these descriptions, much of it based on the work Bill Gammage did in 2018 when asked to look at the images by the Bureau.

This diary, associated with the Methodist Mission in the Solomon Islands, was found with Job Tozaka's diary (see PMB 1102). Diary of an unnamed person, possibly John Kevisi, 14 Jan-21 Apr 1937. See reel list for further details.

Alan Ward is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Newcastle, NSW and contract historian for the Waitangi Tribunal, New Zealand. His Master's thesis was on the East Coast Maori Trust, in the Gisborne region of New Zealand's North Island where he was born and raised. During this research Ward became interested in customary Maori land tenure and its conversion to forms of title cognisable in the New Zealand courts and intended to facilitate land transfer and economic development. This interest lead to subsequent research on land tenure in the Pacific islands, particularly in New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea and to employment in land administration in the latter two countries. Emeritus Professor Ward is the author of a number of books on land issues in PNG, New Caledonia and New Zealand, the most recent being <I>An Unsettled History: Treaty Claims in New Zealand Today</I> (Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1999).

Almost half of this record group is concerned with PNG. These papers were gathered when Ward was Lecturer in History at the University of Papua New Guinea and adviser to the Land Evaluation and Demarcation Project Study (LEAD). The collection includes correspondence, notes, articles and papers, draft legislation and press cuttings. A small portion of these papers relate to politics and land matters in Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Africa, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Banaba, French Polynesia and Guadeloupe. The remainder of the documents are mainly concerned with New Caledonia between 1947 and 1990 and were assembled by Ward at La Trobe University, Melbourne, through the 1980s, particularly during the years of political uncertainty in the French Territory from 1984 to 1990. <b>The complete, two hundred page calender of microfilmed documents held in the Alan Ward papers is available. <a href=http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/reels/manuscripts/PMB1168full.rtf> [rtf format]</a>, <a href=http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/reels/manuscripts/PMB1168full.pdf> [pdf format]</a> </b>
<b>See reel list of file titles for a shorter summary</b>.

Please see PMB 1046 for full entry.

1. Journal 6 September 1884 to 4 February 1886
2. Correspondence: Elizabeth to William - 2 letters (1882), William to Elizabeth - 2 letters (1882), Irene (daughter) to parents - 2 letters n.d., John (son) to parents - 2 letters (1892), Mrs Macmillan to Elizabeth - 1 letter (1900), Agnes Watt to Elizabeth - 3 letters (n.d.), 5 letters (1882), 3 letters (1893)

See also SSEM correspondence, 1890-1946, at PMB 1150; Not in Vain, 1887-1995, at PMB Doc 439; Despatches from the SSEM, Mar 1932-Jul 1956, at PMB Doc 440; and Solomon Soldiers’ News, 1945-1966, at PMB Doc 441.

Reel 1
Queensland Kanaka Mission. List of Baptisms, Nos. 1-1369, 1886-1900
Notes on baptised people, cross referenced to QKM List of Baptisms, above, 1902(?).
Solomons Baptisms Register, Nos. 1-1203, 1902-1905.
Solomons Register of Baptisms, Nos. 1204-2811, 1915-1922.
Solomons Baptisms Register, Nos. 2812-5821, 1922-1932.
Solomons Baptisms Register, Nos. 5822-9310, 1932-Mar 1946.
Solomons Baptisms Register, Nos. 9311-14796, 1946-1962.
New Guinea Baptism Record Book, Nos. 1-3180, 1958-1973.
Reel 2
Miss L. Drewitt. List of Villagers visiting Mission (One Pesi?), 1927-1951.
Furlough Lists (2 volumes). Lists time spent by staff in the Islands, 1907-1965.
Grammar Notes and English-Makira Vocabulary WB [Wanoni Bay], arranged by Miss Waterson. Ts., carbon; c.80pp., (first page missing), 1931.

See PMB 701

The logbook and statistics cover the period 1920-49. The chronicle of important events begins with Captain Cook's discovery of Niue in 1774 and is brought down to the year 1928. The events chronicled do not necessarily concern the London Missionary Society on Niue.

The reports are of the following deputations and secretarial visits:<BR>1. Revs A.J. Viner, G.J. Williams and Frank Lenwood, June 1915 - June 1916<BR>2. Rev. V.A. Barradale, April - September 1919<BR>3. Rev. V.A. Barradale, August 1926 - June 1927<BR>4. Rev. Norman Goodall, March 1939 - April 1940<BR>5. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, May 1952 - March 1953<BR>6. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, 13 July - 8 September 1960<BR>7. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, 16 April - 17 May 1961<BR>8. Rev. C. Stuart Craig, 11 February - 15 May 1963<BR>9. Rev. E.J. Edwards, 23 May - 24 June 1966

PMBPhoto66 is a collection of 1558 black and white photographs of uneven quality of British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP) subjects over the 22 years from 1952 to 1974. Much of pre-Independent Solomon Islands is shown in the photos, each of the four administrative districts of the time (Central, Malaita, Eastern and Western) being represented.
The collection is ordered more or less by island name and dated by year. The dating is not always chronological and there are 80 undated images. Roughly speaking there are 388 images of the 1950s, 353 of the 1960s and 739 of the period 1970 to 1974. The majority of the 1950s images are from Malaita, Makira including Ugi, and islands of the “Far East” including Anuta, Vanikoro, the Duff Islands, the Reefs, Santa Cruz, Nukupu, Pileni, Lomlom, Fenualoa, Nibanga Temoa and Tikopia. The images from the 1960s include some of Santa Ysabel, Rennell and Russell Island, Choiseul, Gizo, Ontong Java and Savo. The majority in the 1970s are images of Guadalcanal but also include images from Choiseul, Kolombangara, New Georgia, Nggela/Gela and Tulagi.
Subjects include geographic features such as islands and atolls, volcanoes, coastlines, bays and landing beaches, plains, mountains and mountain ranges, rivers and lagoons and vegetations - for example, Lambi Bay on Guadalcanal’s weather coast, Graciosa Bay in Santa Cruz and Mt Alasa’a in Malaita. In the west Kolombangara Island, in the east Mt Tinakula, Savo Island in Central, and Mounts Tatuve, Gallego, and Popomanesiu on Guadalcanal, are all types of volcano, and each a subject in this collection. Mt Popomanesiu is of special environmental and/or conservation interest for its tropical rainforest vegetation.
Images of aspects of traditional Islander economic activity include gardening particularly of yams; fishing and fishing equipment; the construction of various types of canoe and paddles; and the making of utensils such as mortars and pestles for pounding, and containers; building houses and using leaves to weave walls, roofs, mats, and baskets; carvings; and caring for specific trees like the betel nut palm, for use on ceremonial occasions for example, and the impacts of storms and floods. Images show people at work (for example James No’oli using a backstrap loom, men making yam gardens, and women preparing cassava and making string).
Islander participation in economic and social development, including schools and training centres, is shown in many images: working for Christian missions (mainly Catholic and Anglican) and the government in a variety of roles including as headmen, administrators, police, carriers, guides, captains and crews of boats and ships, nurses, teachers, personal servants and staff in the houses of expatriates, and labourers (women and men) in forestry and logging, coconut plantations and the production of copra, building infrastructure including roads and bridges, and geological/mineral exploration for example on San Jorge for nickel mining and on Gold Ridge and in the Betilonga Basin on Guadalcanal. Images of early airstrips and the transport of goods by carrying on foot, on canoes, boats, and ships are shown, as are cruise ships, a part of the development of the tourist industry. Images of individuals include Silas Sitai as a young administrative assistant with Inspector Dick Richardson and Senior Clerk Walter Togonu; Headman Lumani of Paripao, Headman Chamatete and his wife Betizel as guides, and businessman Samuel Saki and his family. Pelise Moro, the leader of a movement on the weather (south) coast of Guadalcanal to return to customary ways of living, is also a subject and shown in regalia.
Art and cultural heritage subjects include petroglyphs on Guadalcanal, old terraces built to irrigate taro on New Georgia; old slit gongs used in ceremony in memory of Frederick Melford Campbell on Makira; sacred stones on Guadalcanal; graves on Choiseul; and the re-enactment on Santa Ysabel of the killing of Anglican Bishop Patteson at Nukapu in 1871. Images of men, women and children dancing; music including singing, panpipes and bands; jewellery including kap kaps, necklaces, earrings; woven headdresses and skirts; carved masks for ceremonies and welcomes for visitors. Images show Petero Cheni illustrating string figures and Moses and his wife making panpipes and baskets.
Special occasions are often the subject of images and include visits to Moro’s village on the weather coast of Guadalcanal in 1965 and 1969; a welcome to Ontong Java in 1960 at the start of which visitors walked on the hands held at waist height by women who were covered in coconut oil mixed with turmeric; police parades for the Queen’s Birthday on Makira in 1957; and welcomes to visiting High Commissioners to villages and schools. Father Adrian Smith and Bishop Stuyvenburg are shown at the opening of the new Roman Catholic Church at Makina.
Villages, government stations and Honiara are also subjects. Many villages are named and images show residents, including Gilbertese people and squatters, women working, houses and sometimes their contents, water supplies, social gatherings, flood damage, and meetings with government officials.
Throughout the collection there are glimpses of expatriates at work within the British colonial administration as High commissioners, District Officers and District Commissioners, including James Tedder, and Forestry Officers. There are also glimpses of James Tedder’s family, his wife Margaret and children, and some of their friends. Also as part of the collection are images of the houses they lived in and the recreational activities they enjoyed, such as bush walking to interesting sites, plant collecting and swimming. James Tedder and members of his family described/captioned the majority of the images.
The collection is complemented by a number of publications. As a guide to these images, James Tedder’s book A District Administrator in the Islands 1952-1974 Solomon Island Years is useful, although it does not have an index. There are also other Tedder collections in the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau catalogue and the Pacific Research Library, also at ANU.

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.

PMBPhoto 62 is a collection of 209 photographs of Solomon Islands subjects taken between 30 November and 13 December 2001. The main subject area is the 2001 Solomon Islands General Election, the first post-conflict election held.

The photographs are a record of Jan Gammage's experience as a member of an international team of election observers, the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) to the Solomon Islands. Members of the Mission included Australian public servants from AusAID and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and representatives from New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands and Japan. Organisations including the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat were also represented.

Subjects include the Solomon Islands Government welcome to the Mission, the IEOM's briefing and organising of teams, deployment by helicopter to Tulagi in Nggela constituency of Central Province (nine candidates, 9,000 registered voters living on five large and about 50 small islands, and 24 polling stations), and aspects of the electoral process. Subjects include electoral officials and police involved in the conduct of the election, and others including boat drivers, and the women who ran the guesthouse on Tulagi in which the observers stayed. Women in the market, Mboli Passage, ship wrecks, the site of the house occupied by Charles Woodford, the first Resident Commission of the British Solomon Island Protectorate, and the "cut road" are also subjects.

In Honiara and surrounds, the Electoral Commission, hotels, the Peace Monitoring Council, the market, Mission members, Parliament House, the Anzac memorial, World War II sites and memorials both American and Japanese, and the Solomon Islands Government farewell to the Mission are among the subjects.