George Anthony Morgan (Tony) Taylor was born in Moree, northern NSW, on 30 October 1917. He was educated at Maitland High School and matriculated at Sydney Boys’ High School. After matriculation Tony Taylor joined the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) as an analytical chemist. He remained with BHP until he enlisted in the Second AIF in April 1942. He spent the next 3 years mainly in Queensland. From May 1945 until October 1946 he was posted to New Britain where his interest in volcanoes was aroused.
Tony Taylor was discharged from the Army in January 1947 and in the same year commenced a Science Degree at the University of Sydney. He completed the Bachelor of Science in three years and joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources in the Australian Government’s Department of National Development as a Geologist Grade 1 in March 1950.
One of the BMR’s responsibilities was to provide geological and volcanological services to the Administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Tony Taylor was posted to Rabaul in April 1950. His first task was to re-establish the Volcanological Observatory which had been destroyed during the war.
The volcanologist’s responsibilities also included provision of advice on all active volcanoes in PNG. On 21 January 1951 a catastrophic eruption at Mt Lamington killed 3,000 people on its northern slopes and in the village of Higatura. Tony Taylor arrived just after the eruption and set up an observation post at Sangara Plantation, 16km from the volcano. Tony Taylor spent most of the following two years on surveillance of the volcano. In April 1952 he was awarded the George Cross for his steadfastness and devotion to his work.
In 1952 he investigated eruptions in Bam and Long Island. In 1953 Tuluman, a submarine volcano near Manus erupted. Langila erupted in 1954 and in 1956 Manam began an eruptive period of major proportions which lead to the evacuation of 3,000inhabitants to the mainland in December 1957 (and their return to the Island in August the following year).
In the period 1954-1956 Taylor spent part of his time in Canberra where he produced a comprehensive report on the Mt Lamington eruption, published in 1958 as BMR Bulletin No.38.
In February 1961 Taylor was promoted to the position of Senior Resident Geologist, Port Moresby. At the end of 1963 Taylor transferred his headquarters to Canberra but continued to devote most of his attention to volcanological problems in PNG and spent a considerable amount of his time on fieldwork in PNG. In 1970 he took part in the investigation of a full scale eruption of Ulawun in New Britain. He also continued his long-term study on Manam volcano, about which he had accumulated much data during it many years of eruptive activity. Tony Taylor died on 19 August 1952 from a heart attack on the beach at Manam Island, having just walked back from the top of the volcano.
(From N.H. Fisher, “Memorial – G.A.M. Taylor”, in R.W. Johnson (ed), Volcanism in Australia, 1976; pp.ix-xiv.)

Most of the documents microfilmed here were gathered by Wally Johnson from desk drawers and files in Tony Taylor’s office at the Bureau of Mineral Resources building in Canberra following his death on Manam Island in August 1972. For one reason or another the documents had not made their way onto official files. Subsequently Dr Johnson added documents from other sources to the original ‘office’ collection.
The papers consist of:

1. letters, interviews and reports of eye witnesses giving their observations of the eruption at Mount Lamington on 21 January 1951;
2. notes and correspondence on and from Manam Island during eruptions from 1955 to 1960;
3. a comprehensive curriculum vitae written by Tony Taylor quite late in life, probably in late 1971 or 1972;
4. field notes made at Manam Island in the days immediately before Tony Taylor’s death in August 1972.
   The collection will also be scanned for inclusion in an Information Management System for the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory, Papua New Guinea.