Fr Kevin Kerley SM was born in 1928 and brought up in Gympie, Queensland, where he attended the Christian Brothers’ College to university matriculation level. As a civilian high school boy he served in 1944 and 1945 in the Volunteer Air Observers’ Corps, unpaid work for the RAAF. For this he was presented with a certificate as a record and in appreciation by the RAAF, signed by Air Marshall G. Jones, Chief of Air Staff. After working as an officer of the Commonwealth Bank in Brisbane from 1946 until 1949 he undertook training at the Marist College in Armidale, NSW, and was professed as a Brother in the Society of Mary in September 1950. He worked as Assistant Bursar at St John’s College near Lismore, NSW, from 1950 until 1953.
In January 1954, Fr Kerley transferred to the Bougainville District of the Oceania Marist Province, Territory of New Guinea Mission, where he was based for most of the next 48 years. As a Marist Brother, he pursued a number of occupations until 1972: at Mabiri helping with the book keeping of the Mission’s sawmill and with first-aid on the mission plantation labour lines; taking charge of the carpentry workshop at St Christopher’s Technical School, Tsiroge; acting as Master of the Mission vessels, Jabiru (renamed St Thomas) and St Joseph; and directing various building projects. He was assistant Diocesan Procurator in 1954 and 1962. In 1963 and 1964 was the first Brother to be appointed the Procurator.
In 1973 and 1974 Fr Kerley transferred to the Marist Training Centre at Tutu on Taveuni in Fiji as Bursar, and in the following years studied theology and philosophy at the Union Theological Institute in Hunters Hill, Sydney, graduating in 1978.
Fr Kerley was ordained as a Deacon in December 1978, and in January 1979 returned to Bougainville to undertake mainly parish work in Tinputz, Tekoknih and Tearouki. In September 1980 he was ordained as a Priest, and in January 1981 underwent heart by-pass surgery in Brisbane.
Back in Bougainville early in 1981, Fr Kerley continued Parish work on the west coast at Sipai and Tsimba, with visits to Kuraio Parish. In early 1984 Fr Kerley was appointed reference Priest at Manetai Parish and joined the Kieta Area Ministry Team that covered the Parishes of Tubiana, including Kieta township, Koromira, Marai, Tunuru, Deomori and Manetai. (Arawa and Panguna towns were separate parishes, independent of the Kieta Area Ministry Team, though geographically within their boundaries.)
In November 1988, when the crisis in Bougainville erupted, Fr Kerley was living in Manetai, working quite a bit in nearby Tubiana and Tunuru Parishes, as well as visiting Arawa, Kieta and villages throughout the Kieta Ministry Team area. Father had for years recorded religious events in his catechist's calendar. After 16 November 1988, when workers at Loholo marched in protest to the Premier, Joseph Kabui, at Arawa. Fr Kerley began inserting daily notes in the calendar recording more of his movments and local events, especially of a more critical nature.
On 22 November 1988 militants raided the munitions magazine of Bougainville Copper Ltd in Panguna and made off with the explosives. The first power pylon was dynamited on the Port Mine Access Road and the ‘pink palace’ (the BCL Office) at Panguna was burnt. Fr Kerley observed that guerrilla warfare had come back to Bougainville for the first time since World War II. During the next three and a half years Fr Kerley continued parish work from Manetai. The war spread north from Panguna. In January 1990, Kuveria Jail in Manetai Parish, which Fr Kerley had visited regularly until December 1988, was burnt down by the BRA, killing some warders and a young daughter of one of them. The Riot Squad retaliated, burning villages of innocent people along the road.
The conflict in the Bougainville area continued to get worse until 1st March 1990 when the PNG Security Forces withdrew under a cease fire agreement. About September 1990 the Security Forces came back to Buka, and bit by bit extended their influence South, reaching Manetai by July 1992.
At that time Fr Kerley was still in Manetai. He was one of only about half a dozen non-citizens who had remained in Bougainville right through this part of the crisis. On 22 July 1992 Fr Kerley was evacuated by helicopter from Manetai to Hahila on Buka, at an hour’s notice, under orders from Security Force Officers.
Fr Kerley was unable to return to the Manetai area, despite obtaining a clearance from the PNG Defence Force in December 1992. In the Buka and North Bougainville area Fr. Kerley was occupied, working as Chaplain with wounded and dying soldiers and civilians at Buka and Sohano Hospitals, and helping displaced people, as well as engaging in other pastoral and parish work. In January 1993, the Oceania Marist Provincial wrote to Fr Kerley thanking him for his “faithfulness and courage to have worked with the suffering people of Bougainville”, and advising him to take a break, including medical attention in Australia and registering for the old age pension. He went South in March 1993.
Fr Kerley returned to Bougainville in November 1993, but was unfairly deported to Rabaul from Buka in late December under orders from a Colonel in the PNG Defence Force. Fr Kerley received support from Michael Ogio, the Minister for Bougainville Matters, and others such as Michael Somare, who recognised that the mainline churches needed to be involved in the search for a peaceful solution in Bougainville. Nevertheless the Colonel’s will prevailed and it was not until October 1994 that Fr Kerley was given approval by the PNG Defence Force to re-enter Bougainville.
Fr Kerley’s angina recurred while he was working under Archbishop Hesse in New Britain. This was probably brought on by the unfair and ungrateful treatment, including the deportation. Medical staff at Vunapope ordered him to return to Brisbane for treatment in April 1994.
In December 1994, when Fr Kerley came back to Bougainville, Operation Bungwantaim gave him travel clearance to stay indefinitely at Manetai mission station. Manetai was under siege by the BRA. The PNG Defence Force soldiers wore flak-jackets when they went out of the mission station as the BRA in the bush were likely to shoot at them any time. At the end of 1995 Fr Kerley again went to Australia for a check-up, as ordered, and to maintain his pension claim.
Returning to Bougainville in early 1996, Fr Kerley could not go back to Manetai as the BRA were raiding right up to Buka. In the meantime, based at Hahila, Fr Kerley worked on aid projects in Buka and North Bougainville and on pastoral work, especially as Hospital Chaplain.
In August 1996, after the BRA attacked them at Manetai, the Security Forces pulled out. Fr. Kerley was allowed by both sides to work in the Manetai area over the Christmas 1996 period.

Files on Bougainville compiled by Fr Kerley, including diary entries, notes, press cuttings, leaflets and some photographs, 1988-1996; “Skeds” (transcripts of radio broadcasts), Nov 1990-Aug 1995; photocopy of Fr. Emmet McHardy, Tunuru Baptismal Register, 1929-1931; Leo Scharmach MSC (Vic. Apost. Rabaul), Manuale Missionariorum, Catholic Mission, Vunapope, 1953; G.W. Tromf, “Life & Religion of Traditional Societies in Melanesia”, n.d.

See Finding aids for details.