This collection of 44 photographs documents time spent by Gwen and Tom Taylor at Buin Area School and Kerema in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea from 1945 to 1961. Most of the photographs relate to Buin Area School and document the physical appearance of the school and various aspects of life there. These include photographs of students in classrooms, making cane furniture, weaving, swimming and gardening. Several photographs show Gwen Taylor holding babies and being pictured with nuns. Tom Taylor is pictured in a classroom and mention is made of his role as the principal of the school at Buin. Some of the photographs depict special occasions and ceremonial events being celebrated by local people. There are good examples of houses, school buildings and a church. One photograph depicts the purchase of a new truck and there are a few photographs depicting canoes, including an outrigger canoe. Also pictured are boats, including the MV Gona. One photo appears to show artillery at Kokopo. A few photographs feature non-local adults and children posing for the camera. One photograph shows a large cloud of smoke and appears to be the burning of garden. Another shows an explosion in the sea.

Sister Lida Tonkin (Mrs L. Gill), a nursing sister from Young, NSW, first arrived at the Methodist Mission at Raluana in New Britain (Papua New Guinea) in 1916.

The photographs and post cards include events, daily life and traditional customs practiced in Rabaul in the early 20th century. Funerary and marriage customs are represented. There is a good set of photographs on traditional fishing (PMB Photo 1_31 to PMB Photo 1_46). Other images show canoe building and sailing, basket, broom and string making and traditional houses, mission life and the Malabunga hospital. Dances, such as the Kulau dance, carvings used in dances and the

Photographs of Samarai, Kwato, Abau Island, Port Moresby and elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, documenting Henry Dexter's experiences as a plantation manager.

These photographs were taken by Charles S. Powell, an American doctor sent to Tongareva (Penrhyn) around 1942, which is the setting for all the images (except 001 - annotated 'Fiji Islands'). After construction of the airstrip was completed shortly thereafter, the U.S. Army left roughly 10 men, including Powell, behind for a few years. During his stay (2-3 years), Powell delivered many babies, helped to build a church and a boat.

The collection includes digital copies of black and white photographs, many of which have hand-written labels on the back (also digitized). Digital versions were created by a third-party organization for the PMB based in the United States of America.

Charles Powell had access to equipment, and is said to have developed the photographs himself, possibly with an x-ray machine. Several images are duplicates under different exposures and settings, etc.

Robert Dean Frisbie and his daughter Florence “Johnny” Frisbie are pictured in at least one photograph, and Charles Powell is mentioned in Frisbie’s book Miss Ulysses of Puka-Puka (1948:230).

Photographs include portraits of Powell and the other servicemen, including Powell’s “hut-mate” Roger Roper, as well as Dr Ngai Tou, a local doctor and graduate from Fiji Medical School. The collection includes photographs of village scenery, women weaving, an outrigger canoe, the small hospital setup, the Catholic church (Powell calls the Catholic church the the London Missionary Sunday School & Church), a picnic celebration, and processional dances. A few images include the aeroplane “Kangaroo Kate”, as well as a visit from New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser in December 1944.
The large schooner “Tiare Taporo”, built for island trade is featured in several photographs, captained by Viggo Rasmussen, Phillip Woonton, and Andy Thomson between 1918 and 1945. In many of the labels on the photographs, he is referred to as Captain Powell. The home in Penrhyn of “Papa” Viggo Rasmussen, a Danish captain that spent much of his life around the Cook Islands and French Polynesia, is also the subject of a photograph.

This collection depicts the life and work of Australian missionary school teacher Richard Arbon in Samoa, and his work
predominantly on the island of Savaii on behalf of the Uniting Church World Mission – formerly the Central Methodist Mission.

Photographs relating to Tonga from the papers of Reverend Shirley W. Baker and Beatrice Baker.
The Reverend Shirley Waldemar Baker (1836-1903) was an English Wesleyan missionary who arrived in Tonga from Australia in 1860. During his stay of more than 30 years, Baker became a close adviser to King Tupou I and, like the King, an active promoter of Tonga’s independence in the face of European colonial expansion in the south Pacific. Baker’s many disputes with other Europeans in Tonga, most notably with his fellow missionary James Moulton, and especially with the British government officials in Fiji and elsewhere, generated a degree of controversy unique among 19th-century missionaries working in the Pacific. His metamorphosis into a politician culminated in his appointment as Premier of Tonga. (John Spurway, ‘Baker Papers’, Journal of Pacific History, 38:2, 2003.)

These papers of Rev. Shirley and Beatrice Baker were bequeathed to the Mitchell Library by Dorothy Crozier along with her own research papers. They were transferred from the Mitchell Library to the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in August 2001. Lillian Baker, a daughter of Shirley Baker who lived in Ha’apai, gave the papers to Dorothy Crozier in 1950 when Ms Crozier was researching culture change in Tonga under the supervision of Professor Raymond Firth

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 collection of 52 photographs records a visit to Fiji and Tonga in January/February 1975 by Bill and Jan Gammage. The visit was to see friends and look around.
Of Fiji, there are 28 photos. The subjects include: Nadi, Man Friday Hotel near Korolevu on the south coast of Viti Levu, Suva, and Levuka on the Ovalau Islands.
Of Tonga, 24 photos were taken. The subjects include in and around Kolovai, Sione and Ruth Latukefu's home, Nuku'alofa on the north coast including the Royal Palace, Orahaei Beach near caves and a boat connected to the Minerva Reefs incident, the blowholes and the Triithon.

PMBPhoto 63 is a collection of 183 photographs of New Caledonia subjects taken between 27 October and 5 November 2005 when Jan Gammage and Bill Gammage were visiting friends, David and Beryl Gowty, in Noumea. Except for a small number taken of the Isle of Pines, all the photos are of the people and places on Grand Terre, the majority taken outside Noumea.

Subjects in and around Noumea include the following: a panorama from the little hill behind Cathedrale St Joseph, the Cathedral itself, the Place des Cocotiers, the Museum, the Kanak memorial, sunset over Baie des Citrons and the central market. The Tjabaou Cultural Centre, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, a protest march and the cruise ship Clipper Odyssey were also subjects.

South of Noumea subjects include travelling along the Yate road to the Parc Provincial de la Riviere Bleue and Yate Lake, collecting water from Mt Dore, visiting Le Bois du Sud and Vallon Dore beach and the suburbs of Val Plaisance and Vallee des Colons.

Subjects on a trip north to Plage de Poe include the petroglyphs at Dumbea, and a grotto and mangroves at Plage d’Ouano. Other subjects include Fort Teremba, Bourail and the Arab cemetery (Nessadiou), the New Zealand Military Cemetery, a French war memorial and church, a Kanak “grande salle”, Belvedere Lookout, La Roche Percee and the Bonhomme; Houailou, Poindimie, Ponerihoven River, Touho, Hienghene and the Linderalique cliffs, Kone (War Memorial), Pouembout, La Foa (Memorial to 1878 and WWI memorial), Kanak sculptures, and Boulouparis (twin of Biloela in Queensland, Australia). Women at their roadside stalls selling flowers and plants, vegetables, and shells are also subjects.

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.