Photographs documenting Methodist Missions at Kabakada, Watnabara and Vunairima, via Rabaul, New Britain, Papua New Guinea, between 1925 and 1930. Photographs taken by Reverend Francis Trafford Walker and his wife Mrs Emma M. Walker.

Jack Read joined the Australian administration of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea as a Cadet in 1929. He worked as Patrol Officer in most parts of the Territory, having covered New Britain and the mainland from the Sepik River to the Morobe Goldfields, but had not been located in Bougainville until his appointment in November 1941 as Assistant District Officer in charge of the Buka Passage Sub-District, under District Officer Merrylees. Following the Japanese entry into the War on 8 Dec 1941, Read helped evacuate most European residents from Buka, established inland dumps of emergency provisions and shifted his administration to Bougainville island just before a Japanese attack on the Sub-District HQ on Sohano island on 24 January 1942. Following the winding up of civil administration in February 1942, Read, the only remaining government representative, was appointed Lieutenant in the Australian Navy under Lt. Commander Feldt with instructions to remain in Bougainville as a coastwatcher. See also PMB MS 1245 for Report by W. J. Read on coast watching activity Bougainville Island, 1941-1943, and PMB MS 1309 for Read

Photographs taken in Mount Hagen (Papua New Guinea) during a parasitology survey of the New Guinea Highlands by Dr G. Heydon and Arthur Joseph Bearup for the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney, 1934.

Father Baldwin spent several years at the Sacred Heart Mission in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea.

A 333 page Bohilai-English vocabulary. Bohilai is the language of Basilaki Island (formerly Moresby Island), one of the islands of the Louisiade Archipelago of Papua. Additional language material by Father Baldwin is available as PMB 1031

Jean Chambers was a commercial artist who commenced work designing screen slides for Whitford Theatre Ads in Sydney. She then worked for Vivian Art Studios which carried out all branches of advertising and display for many large buisiness firms in Sydney, including Bonds Hosiery, Berley’s and Nestles. In 1935 she married Keith M. Chambers and moved to New Guinea with her husband. They were evacuated in 1941, returned to Madang in 1946, where Keith Chambers was the Customs Officer, then moved to Rabaul in 1948. In 1948 a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) service was established in the TPNG Department of Public Health by Dr Joan Refshauge. The MCH commissioned Mrs Chambers to design posters on infant care. (See posters marked “Rabaul”.) The original paintings were sent to Sydney for lithographic block making in 3 or 4 colours. Thousands were printed and returned for distribution by the Public Health Department as teaching aids in villages throughout the Territory. The couple moved to Port Moresby in the mid 1950s where Keith Chambers eventually became Chief Collector of Customs. In Port Moresby Jean Chambers designed and completed film strips for the Commonwealth Film Unit on women’s club training, and worked for Burns Philp (NG)Ltd for 18 months during 1958-59 on display and newspaper advertising. Mrs Chambers also received more commissions for posters and eventually acccepted a full-time appointment with the Department of Information where she trained New Guinean staff in silk screen printing, using her designs and stencils for posters, mainly on health education but also for the Departments of Agriculture, and Post and Telegraphs. Mrs Chambers left PNG when her husband retired in 1965 or 1966.

34 lithographic and silk screened posters on health education in PNG, 1948-1965(?); 13 posters on the introduction of decimal currency in PNG, 1965.

Fisheries research in Papua New Guinea began in the 1920s with the Archbold expeditions and expanded during the thirty years following Schuster's 1950 Report of a survey of the inland fisheries of the Territory of Papua New Guinea. During the 1970s and 1980s there was a further increase in fisheries research and development in Papua New Guinea.<BR><P>The Fisheries Division of the Department of Agriculture was established in 1954. The Research and Surveys Branch of the Fisheries Division was formed in 1968 with its headquarters at Kanudi Fisheries Research Station, Port Moresby. A PNG Collection of research materials was established by the Research and Surveys Branch in its Library at Kanudi. The PNG Collection includes the P Series of research papers, both published and unpublished, survey material and some adminstrative reports documenting PNG fisheries research from 1948 till 1986 which were selected and arranged by John Lock, a scientist at Kanudi, in 1986.<BR>Further NFA research papers have been microfilmed at PMB 1118.

PNG Collection of Fisheries Research Papers (P Series), Nos. 778. <P><B>See reel list for further details</B>

These Patrol Officer field notebooks are about the Worin village of the Huon Peninsular in the Morobe District of New Guinea. Edwin Ernst Styants primarily kept the first register, but during the period 1944-1946, Patrol Officers L. Williams, Stuart Rylands and A.J. Leyden also recorded their observations and findings. The register includes clear instructions and orders on how to compile or record the names of village men and women and their dates of birth if known. Patrol officers recorded the names of all the village and hamlets inhabitants including those who were absent on indentured labour recruitments. The details recorded provided valuable and useful census data for the colonial authorities. This data formed the basis of the inspecting officer of the Department of District Services to crosscheck all births, deaths, migrations or relocations.

This register also lists the names of village or group, hamlets, native district, Luluai, Tultul, Medical Tultul by the Patrol Officer. There are blank pages for patrolling officers to enter their notes and instructions for the inspecting officers of the Department of District Services. The first register lists Uron as the Luluai of the Dopet hamlet and Dingson of the Nakom hamlet. Tultul MUSU of Mumbok served for 24 years and was presented a signed certificate of his services at Mumeng on 22nd October 1962. The Medical Tutul was SIWI of Dopet hamlet.

Of note in the first register is an entry stating that Tultul Dunjiyong wielded considerable power and was instrumental in giving full assistance to Peter Ryan during the Second World War. Ryan was the author of ‘Fear Drive My Feet’, a classic memoir of his time patrolling isolated regions of New Guinea during World War 2/World War II.

The second Village Register is divided into the following columns:
Males, Females, Estimated or known Year of birth. The entries in these columns have their original native names and often lists husband and wife but also whether the adult member of the village lives on his or her own.

General information on condition of roads, tracks, water supplies, gardens, distances between the villages as well as sanitation and latrines. All are hand written by the visiting Patrol Officers.

The author of this manuscript, generally known as Gordon Thomas, was born in Chicago, USA, in 1890 and died in Sydney in 1966. After schooling in England, Germany and Switzerland, he began a newspaper career in Canada. In 1911 he joined the Methodist Mission in New Guinea as a printer, and later worked as a planter, trader and oil driller in that territory. He was editor of the 'Rabaul Times' from 1925-27 and 1933-42. An obituary of Thomas was published in 'Pacific Islands Monthly' for August, 1966, pp. 9-10.

When the Japanese invaded Rabaul, New Britain, in January 1942, they captured about 300 European civilians. All but half a dozen of these were removed from Rabaul in the 'Montevideo Maru', which was sunk with all hands before reaching her destination, Japan. Thomas was one of the few Europeans who was kept back by the Japanese - to work as a rouseabout at the freezer and power station. 'Rabaul - 1942-45' is an account of Thomas' life as a prisoner-of-war in New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

See also PMB 600.

Captain Singh, of the Dogra regiment, relates that the Indians "left Singapore on 5 May 1943 in seven parties each consisting of about 600 - three of the parties went to New Britain and the other four came to New Guinea", ie. Wewak.

Professor Hank Nelson gave the PMB a cover note on Singh's 'Brief Sketch', as follows: "Singh wrote another brief account of his time in New Guinea as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, 'The Experiences of an Indian Prisoner of War in New Guinea", The Infantry Journal, Vol.1, No.1, July 1949, pp.56-62. In the journal article he notes that the 'irony of fate reached its climax' when of the eleven Indians who survived with the Japanese until the end of the War, nine were put on an aircraft to fly them out of New Guinea and it crashed, killing all nine. Singh, who was not on the flight, was then the only survivor. From the 3,000 Indians originally landed in the Sepik in May 1943 another 191 had survived, liberated by advancing Australians before the end of the War. One of these men, Sepoy Bachan Singh, provided evidence for the Tokyo War Crimes Trials."

Professor Nelson adds that “a copy of Chint Singh’s reminiscences written in Wewak is in the UPNG Library and (I think) the Australian War Memorial.”

The document is a roneoed typescript, 61ppp., dated 4 Nov 1945. It was passed to the PMB by Professor Donald Denoon, who worked at the University of Papua New Guinea. At the time, the author was unable to be contacted. The author's son, Narinder Parmar, has since been identified.

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.