Archdeacon Stephen Romney Maurice Gill (1886-1954), from a family of Pacific missionaries, joined the Anglican mission to Papua in 1908. He was ordained at Dogura, in 1910, and his first parish was nearby Boianai, where he remained until 1922. He then moved to the Mamba district, where he established a temporary station at Manau on the mouth of the Mamba (or Mambare) River. Two years later, at Duvira, he began work on what was to be his head station until 1942, when it was destroyed by the Japanese. In 1943, he began building a new mission station at nearby Dewade. He retired in 1952 and died in England two years later.

The letters, written from Papua New Guinea to members of Gill's family in England, are mainly of the period 1922-28. The original letters are owned by members of the Gill family in England. Those on the microfilm are typewritten copies of the originals made available by Mr David Wetherell, of Popondetta, Papua (1969).

John Green, an Australian, went to Papua in 1892 and worked on a plantation at Kapadi for about fifteen months before joining the Administration staff of Sir William MacGregor, Lt-Gov. of British New Guinea (later Papua). He eventually became MacGregor's acting private secretary and accompanied him on some of his arduous patrols. After a patrol to the Musa River in September 1895, Green was assigned to build a government station at the junction of the Mambare River and Tamata Creek to protect European miners who were prospecting for gold in that area. Green was murdered at the station in January 1897.

The letters, which are all to members of Green's family in Healesville, Victoria, begin in September 1892 when Green was in Cooktown en route to Port Moresby. Some of the letters are more than 100 pages long. They give a vivid idea of life in Papua when it was under British administration. See also Pacific Islands Monthly Dec. 1940, p.41; June 1941, p.30; April 1942, p.10 and the Bureau's newsletter Pambu July-Sept. 1972:28, pp.1-4

Father Paul Fastre, M.S.C. (born 1880), was a member of the Roman Catholic Mission in Western Papua, whose headquarters are at Yule Island. His notes were completed in 1937.

Notes on the customs of the Fujuges (English Fuyuges) people of the Mt. Scratchley-Chirima River area of the Central and Northern Districts of Papua New Guinea. Principally:

• Ceremonies, dances and songs, including the major ceremony, Le Gabe;
• Warfare;
• Chiefs (Utumi);
• Engagement and marriage;
• Conception and childbirth;
• Naming;
• Nose-piercing;
• Illness;
• Funerals and mourning;
• Treatment of murderers;
• Beliefs and cults;
• Magic;
• Legends;
• Property; and
• Fishing, hunting and agriculture.

Edward L.G. Thomas, or Gordon Thomas as he was usually known, joined the Methodist Mission in New Guinea as a printer in 1911, and later worked as a planter, trader and oil driller in that territory. He was editor of the Rabaul Times from 1925-1927 and from 1933-1942. He was one of about 300 European civilians captured when the Japanese invaded Rabaul in January 1942 and one of only four who remained in Rabaul throughout the Japanese occupation.

Reel 1:

1. General correspondence, 1946-66
2. Correspondence re disposal of printing plant used to produce Guinea Gold 1946-47
3. Correspondence re Fred Urban's war damage claims, 1947-48
4. Correspondence re Queen Emma (Mrs Emma Kolbe), 1955
5. Diary and other writings while prisoner-of-war, 1942-45
6. Notes and papers collected while prisoner-of-war, 1942-45
7. Articles, 1945-49 (Continued on reel 2)

Reel 2:

7. Articles, 1945-49 (Continued from reel 1)
8. Speeches and articles, undated (c.1946-49)
9. Diary of trip on MV Bulolo to Papua and New Guinea, 1955

Mr Ian Grabowsky, born in Finland in 1899, was actively associated with New Guinea aviation from 1931 to 1937 as a pilot and manager for Guinea Airways Ltd. Between 1962 and 1967, he compiled a history of civil aviation in New Guinea to the year 1935 for the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation (Australia). For further details of Grabowsky's career and his compilation, see Pacific Islands Monthly for February, 1968, p.14.

A detailed account of the development of civil aviation and the exploits of the early fliers in Papua New Guinea to 1935, drawing upon a wide range of published and unpublished material.
Reel 1: Introduction; Vol.1 - Chapter 1 The Discovery of Gold 1529-1925. Chapter 2 The Early Transport System (including a section on oil, administration patrols and recruitment of human transport). Chapters 3 and 4 Transport and the Goldfields 1926 (Chapter 4 includes A Wild Road Winds to Wau by Mrs Alice Allen Innes, 'mine hostess' at Salamau from 1927, recounting an incident recorded in her diary). Chapters 5 to 7 deal with Air Transport and the Goldfields from 1927 to 1929 respectively. Vol.2 - Chapters 7 to 9 cover air transport and the goldfields from 1930 to 1932 respectively. Vol.3 - Chapter 10 Great Discoveries of New Lands, New People, New Wealth, New Ventures and New Ambitions.
Reel 2: Vol.3 (cont.) Chapter 11 - 1934. Vol.4 - 1935.

The narrative is an account of one of the first crossing by Europeans of the rugged 12,000 ft Star Mountains Range, in what was then the Australian Trust Territory of New Guinea. The Star Mountains are a mountain range in western Papua New Guinea and the eastern end of Highland Papua, Indonesia. The crossing of the mountains was accomplished by a party of six men, including Thomas Hayllar, who set out from Telefomin on February 25, 1965. The men climbed two of the highest peaks in the ranges, Mt Capella and Mt Scorpion, and visited a sheet of water called Lake Vivien.