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Solomon Islands Collection With digital objects
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Diaries of Colin Allan

  • AU PMB MS 1437
  • Collection
  • 1947-1956

Sir Colin Allan was an administrator in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP). He first served as District Officer Nggela, Western Solomons, then D.O. and District Commissioner Western (1946-1948), D.O. Choiseul and Ysabel (1948), D.O. Malu`u (1949) and finally District Commissioner Malaita (1950-1952) at the time of the Maasina Rule (also Maasina Ruru and Marching Rule).
After World War II, there were efforts by the colonial administration to extend European use of land. A Special Lands Commission was established to examine local land customs and make recommendations on the use of unclaimed land. He was appointed by the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific to be Special Lands Commissioner on 10 July 1953.

This set of five diaries cover a significant amount of Allan’s BSIP tenure, but not the full period. The diaries begin on 1 January, 1947, with a voyage on board the ‘Myrtle’ through the Western District, where Allan was Assistant District Commissioner, then District Commissioner. The diaries end in 1954 after the Special Lands Commission, however no diary for 1952 was transferred to Pacific Manuscripts Bureau.

Diary 1 covers the periods 1 January – 28 November 1947, 28 June – 11 August 1948, then 1 January – 28 March, 1949. There are brief descriptions for most days indicating professional and personal activities. During 1947, he describes visits to various villages in the Western District noting movement of people and vessels, trade, weather conditions, local disputes and crimes and a word list (language unknown). During 1948, he documents the establishment of the Choiseul office, notes demographic information and bureaucratic matters. From 1949, Allan takes the post of D.O. in Malu’u, Malaita during the period of Maasina Rule (also Maasina Ruru and Marching Rule). His diary entries are brief but make reference to early colonial politics, the Maasina Rule movement and associated raids, arrests and imprisonments. He also refers to land matters, native courts and census collections.

Diary 2 (1948) has only sporadic entries, mostly reporting on village visits and bureaucratic activities. This diary also contains a list of plantations and owners on Isabel/Ysabel, meeting resolutions, lists of fines and accounts. There is also a reference to Belamataga’s Guadalcanal Freedom Movement.

Diary 3 (1949) has only sporadic entries, beginning in April and ending in October. The diary begins in Malu’u, Malaita, with observations about other administrators and missionaries, as well as arrest numbers. Entries from August detail travel in England.

Diary 4 (1950-51) covers the period 29 May 1950-9 Jan 1951, having returned to Honiara from London to the news he will be posted to Malaita to take over from Acting DC Stanley Masterman. On arrival, and throughout, he writes of his concerns over the Maasina Rule situation. As he tours Malaita, he writes of colonial administrative politics, arguments around tax collection, religious affiliations in different areas, movement of workers/labour, village politics, local infrastructure matter such as schools and hospitals. He goes on tour with the Resident Commissioner. Throughout he discusses Ariari (‘Are’are) and Kwarae people.

Diary 5 (1953-54, 1956) has a typed report (11pp) relating to the Special Lands Commission inserted in the front of the diary. The report covers an investigative visit to the Western Solomons between July-September, 1953. The diary itself contains handwritten notes on the Special Lands Commission investigations, covering the period May-June 1953 in Honiara, before visiting villages throughout the Western District during the period July-September, then October-November, 1953. Allan returns to Honiara in December 1953 to continue work on the report. During 1954, he tours Central Province and Guadalcanal until 2 April, 1954. The diary resumes on 24 July 1956, explaining it was paused while the Lands Commission was suspended and he took leave in England. From July, Allan tours the Eastern District. The diary ends on his return to Honiara on 14 December, 1956.

Allan, Colin

Slides from Tim Bayliss-Smith’s Voluntary Service Overseas placement and PhD research in Solomon Islands

  • AU PMB PHOTO 100
  • Collection
  • 1966-1972

Tim Bayliss-Smith served on the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) program in Honiara, Solomon Islands, 1965-1966. He worked as a teacher in the Survey Drafting School in the Lands Department of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Government and as a librarian in the Geological Survey Department. Though based in Honiara, he travelled around Guadalcanal for work, as well as to Savo, Malaita and Bellona. Tim returned to Solomon Islands in 1971 for his PhD field research into energy use on Ontong Java atoll. He joined the Department of Geography at University of Cambridge in 1973 where he has continued his research in land management in the humid tropics, with particular focus on Melanesia. Professor Bayliss-Smith has made many subsequent visits to Solomon Islands throughout his research career.

This collection of 108 digitised 35mm colour slides are mainly from the period of his VSO placement (1965-1966) and mainly feature Honiara and surrounds. The images depict VSO housing; other VSO volunteers; trainees in the Survey Drafting School; Chinatown; Honiara market; WWII wreckage and other landmarks in and around Honiara. Activities such as sporting events, Easter procession; Queen's Birthday celebrations and gardening also feature.

Bayliss-Smith, Tim

Reminiscences of voyages in the Pacific Ocean

  • AU PMB MS 1342
  • Collection
  • 1860s

Alfred William Martin (1844-1928) was born in Clarence Plains, Tasmania, first son of William Martin (1805/6-1878), a convict transported to Tasmania, and Hannah Braim (1825/6-1860). Alfred William Martin was educated at Kettering Grammar School in Northamptonshire while his parents were revisiting England. Returning to Tasmania, Martin became a seaman, despite his good education, firstly on the ship Gem sailing out of Hobart and then, while still in his teens, on a whaler, Southern Cross, Capt. Mansfield, sailing out of Hobart to whaling grounds off New Zealand, NSW, and the New Hebrides. He then sailed on the Thomas Brown, Capt T.H. Brown, a freighter working between Melbourne and Adelaide. Subsequently Martin sailed a schooner, Jeannie Darling, 80 tons, owner Darling formerly a boat builder in Hobart, carrying timber and other goods between Melbourne and Schnapper Point (Mornington).

In Melbourne Martin joined the crew of a Brigantine, El Zéfiro (300 tons, Callao), Capt Manuel Diaz Garcias of Peru, smuggling opium to the China trade via Gilolo Island, Surigao and Manila; smoking bêche-de-mer at Ponape; trading in the Marshalls, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji; trading for sandalwood in the New Hebrides; sailing onwards through the Banks Islands, Santa Cruz, San Christobal, Malaita, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and back to Manila via the Moluccas and Celebes. El Zéfiro then sailed for Bougainville, reinforced with Bougainville warriors carried out a blackbirding raid in Aoba (Ambae) in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), then sailed on to South America, touching at the Marquesas and Galapagos Islands, selling the New Hebridean slaves at Mollendo in Peru.

Alfred William Martin gave the manuscript to his granddaughter, Clara Ella Simm (b.1897), who he had brought up as a child after her father, William Simm (1855-1901), died in a flu epidemic in Launceston. When Dr Macnicol received the manuscript from his mother, via his sister, it was in a bundle tied with string. Dr Macnicol passed the manuscript to a conservator who repaired torn and fragmented pages. Dr Macnicol top-numbered the pages consecutively in pencil and transcribed the manuscript. He passed the transcript to Rafael Pintos-Lopez of Michelago, near Canberra, who submitted the transcript to Professor Brij Lal for assessment.

Untitled incomplete manuscript written by Alfred William Martin of Tasmania, written possibly in the 1890s relating his Pacific voyages and adventures in the 1860s, Ms. (gaps), re-paginated, pp.1-202; together with transcript of the manuscript made by Dr Peter Macnicol, Ts., pp.1-251.
See Finding aids for details.

Martin, Alfred William

Solomon Islands Broadcasting Memorabilia

  • AU PMB DOC 544
  • Collection
  • 1982-1984

The first music and voice transmitted by radio in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP) occurred in 1923 through the Methodist Mission?s wireless station at Kokegolo in New Georgia. The station often presented choral and band recitals performed in local languages, primarily for the interest of passengers on passing ships which were equipped with wireless sets. However, actual broadcasting in the BSIP began in June, 1944 with radio station WVUQ based in Guadalcanal, and was followed a few months later by WVTJ based in Munda. Both stations were operated by the United States of America military as part of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) and were primarily sources of news and entertainment for American troops serving in the Pacific. Both stations were part of a grouping known as ?The Mosquito Network?.
In the years after World War II, a radio service was maintained by volunteers in Honiara, primarily for an English-speaking, licence fee-paying, expatriate audience. In 1952, the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service was established as VQO, broadcasting news and music six days a week to local audiences in most parts of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. By the mid-1950s, colonial administrators saw the important role radio was playing for local audiences and invested in programming (including Pijin content), staff, transmitters and new studios. The studios on Mendana Avenue, Honiara, opened in 1959. By the 1960s, SIBS was also providing school services and outside broadcasting of special events, putting a strain on the still new studio facilities. Studio and office upgrades were made in 1965.
In 1976, under the administration of Sir Peter Kenilorea, SIBS became a statutory body, and commenced operations as the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) in 1977. In 1978 the Australian Government committed funds for the upgrade of studio and transmission facilities in Honiara, the establishment of a new regional station in Gizo and correspondents based in more remote parts of the country. Broadcasting House at Rove, Honiara opened on 7 August, 1982.
From 1980-1984, Martin Hadlow was the News/Programme Trainer, then Head of Development and Training at SIBC. During this time the service transitioned from a government broadcasting service to an independent public service broadcasting corporation. This transition meant new management (including a new Board), a complete revamp of programming and news structure, and the new studio building at Rove. Hadlow prepared this booklet for the opening of the studio and was involved with the preparation of the First Day Cover stamp set for the 20th Anniversary of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).

Hadlow, Martin

Slides from John Baker’s Voluntary Service Overseas placement in Solomon Islands

  • AU PMB PHOTO 114
  • Collection
  • 1964-1965

This collection of 540 colour photographs was taken by John Baker in Solomon Islands in 1964 and 1965, while he was working there as a volunteer under the auspices of the British Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) organisation. He was 18 and 19 at the time and was what was known as a school leaver volunteer. There were 10-15 VSOs in the Solomons in 1964, with most working as teachers in mission boarding schools. However, John was attached mainly to two District Administrations to work on various local projects.

At the time, Solomon Islands was under colonial administration known as the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP), in which virtually all senior and technical/professional positions were still held by expatriates. Thus VSOs were working within and were very much a part of a colonial culture.

The photographs in the collection were taken with a Voigtlander Vito B camera on Kodachrome 100 colour slides. The camera was stored, including for many canoe trips, in an old Sunshine Milk tin with a bag of silica gel in the bottom. Captions for the photos were written in a foolscap notebook when the slides came back from processing. Thus the names of people and places were all recorded contemporaneously and so are likely to be accurate. These captions, written in 1964-65, sometimes have a colonial tone but have been left unchanged as they are an historical reflection of their times.

John Baker’s first work as a VSO was from August-November 1964 as a teacher at the Geological Department’s survey school in Honiara. Then he transferred to Western District headquarters in Gizo and worked during December 1964 and January 1965 as a surveyor on the Wagina Island Gilbertese resettlement scheme. In February 1965 he transferred to Eastern District headquarters in Kira Kira where he spent six weeks working on local election preparations. He then moved back to Gizo and spent April to August 1965 travelling round, organising the construction of concrete drinking water tanks in various villages in the Roviana and Wana Wana lagoons and subsequently on the island of Ranonnga.

Baker, John R.

Diary (Roviana original and English translation)

  • AU PMB MS 1104
  • Collection
  • May 1935-Jan 1936

David Voeta was associated with the Methodist Mission in the West of the Solomon Islands. Diary (possibly a transcript), May 1935-Jan 1936. English translation of the diary, May 1935-Jan 1936.

See reel list for further details.

Voeta, David

James Tedder Solomon Islands Photographs

  • AU PMB PHOTO 41
  • Collection
  • 1959-1974

This is a collection of 936 photographs of various places in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP) between 1956—1974. The photographic collection by Mr James Tedder and Mrs Margaret Tedder features the family’s Island adventures and the work life of James Tedder as a colonial officer. Of the 936 images, 341 alone were taken in various places in Guadalcanal. At least 140 images were taken on Makira, 98 images on Malaita, 96 on different visits to Santa Cruz, 52 on Rennell/Bellona, 51 in the Reef Islands, 49 on Kia in Santa Ysabel, 31 on Tikopia Island, and the rest are of visits to the Duff Islands, Vanikoro, Anuta, Shortland Islands, Vella Lavella, New Georgia and Gela.

There are some important events photographed in this collection that researchers might find useful. These include the 1959 visit of HRH Prince Philip to Gracioza Bay, Ndende; the 10th anniversary of the Malaita Council at Aimela in 1963; a Moro Movement ceremony of presumably the same period; a 1962 relocation of Gilbertese to Komaliae, Shortland Islands; opening of the Tanaghai Catholic church in the 1960s and the Anglican Church in Kia,1964. It also includes images of Solomon Islands women carriers assisting the District Officer’s patrol on Guadalcanal, a rare revelation in an activity that is predominantly portrayed as men’s work. As a worthy documentation of people, society and culture, this album features men, women and children of all ages.

Tedder, James L.O.

Records of the Melanesian Mission, New Hebrides, 1857-1968

  • AU PMB MS 43
  • Collection
  • 1857 - 1968

Records of the Melanesian Mission, New Hebrides (Vanuatu) from the period 1857-1968. Including the following:

  1. Baptismal Register of St Paul's Church, Lolowai, and from ketch Patteson, 1928-1968, with Register of Burials, St Paul's Church, Lolowai, 1929-1964, and Marriages, 1929-1965.
  2. Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths, at Mera Lava, 1917-1963, copied from the original register, 1967.
  3. Names of Birds in Various Languages of the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides.
  4. An Account of the Huqe (or Suqe) of Nduindui, Aoba (Ambae), written c.1930; found among the papers of Archdeacon A.E. Teall, Archdeacon of Southern Melanesia, d.1966.
  5. Vocabularies of and stories in various languages of the New Hebrides [including Pentecost, Maewo, Ambae, Torres Islands and Banks Islands] - Vocabularies of North, Central and South Raga; story in Mota; Vocabularies of Mota, Tegua and Toga; Loh-English Dictionary; Notes on Loh Grammar; Maewo Vocabularies; Stories in the Aoba Language.
  6. Family Prayers and Communion for the Sick in the Language of Lakona, Santa Maria, Banks Islands, with English translations.
  7. Melanesian Mission Papers, 1891-1934, mainly relating to land matters.
  8. History and Diary of Aoba, 1857-1922, by Father A.S. Webb.
  9. Records of Events and Register of the Melanesian Mission at Maewo.
  10. Mota-Maewo Vocabulary.

Melanesian Mission

Solomon Islands photographs

  • AU PMB PHOTO 58
  • Collection
  • c.1890 - c.1920

This collection of Charles Morris Woodford includes photographs of the Woodford family; Solomon Islands, Samoa, British New Guinea (Papua New Guinea), etc.; Photographs were bundled with story as told by Solomon Islands person, 1907 (See PMB MS 1381, item 002).

Woodford, Charles Morris

James Tedder slides of Territory of Papua and New Guinea and British Solomon Islands Protectorate

  • AU PMB PHOTO 75
  • Collection
  • 1952 - 1974

This is a collection of 45 colour slides taken by James L.O. Tedder, MBE, during the period 1952 to 1974. Twenty nine of these slides were taken in the Territory of Papua New Guinea (TPNG) and 16 in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP).

Of the 29 TPNG images, three are of Lae in Morobe District, dated 1952. There are also five images of Rabaul in New Britain: one dated 1952 may be of Tavurvur volcano, a view from Matupi Island. The other four dated August 1964 show the view from the District Commissioner’s garden, a sunset, dancers and school students. Also dated 1964 is a portrait of an unnamed female nurse in Madang District. This photograph may not belong in this series, nor have been taken by James Tedder. Judging from the information on the badge the nurse is wearing it was taken after Papua New Guinea Independence.

Three images dated 1958 were taken in the Eastern Highlands District, probably all at Mt Michael Patrol Post. They include one of James Tedder, his wife Margaret and their children with District Officer W E (Bill) Tomasetti. Tomasetti served in World War 2 / World War II as a commando in Timor. The other photos were taken of two groups of local men, some of whom are displaying their traditional wealth, including plumes and kina shells.

Mt Hagen and the Western Highlands District is the subject of 14 images probably all taken in August 1964: seven are aerial views of the town, airstrip and geographical features, including the Hindenberg Wall, and the terrain en route to Porgera. Seven are of Highlands people. The people, including a portrait of two women, are shown walking along a road or posing for a photograph and show the wealth and status of these people. Three images taken also in August 1964 in Central District are of the view across Fairfax Harbour to Port Moresby town and, in the foothills of the Owen Stanley range behind Port Moresby, of the Rona (Rouna) Falls hydro plant and the Falls themselves. Both this trip outside Port Moresby in Central Province and the flight in the Western Highlands District were probably facilitated by the Western Highlands District Commissioner of TPNG’s Western Highlands District, Tom Ellis, for the District Commissioner of BSIP’s Western District, James Tedder, after the men met at a meeting in Port Moresby.

The last group of images in this collection were taken in the BSIP of two active volcanoes, one in Western District and one in Eastern. The submarine volcano Kavachi, in Western, is in the UNESCO Marovo Tetepare Complex, which is home to outstanding marine biodiversity. Of the five aerial images, two are captioned in distinctive handwriting “H. Moss 27.12.65”. Three images taken with what appears to be the same camera as Moss’, have “Tedder 1966” recorded on them in Tedder’s writing. It is possible that these are duplicates of three images taken by Harry Moss, MBE, and have been dated accordingly. After retiring as a TAA (Trans Australia Airlines) Captain, Harry became the first pilot in the new Solomon Islands internal airline Megapode Airways. Margaret Tedder worked in the Megapode office and occasionally James Tedder was flown by Harry for work purposes. Both men mention the other in their autobiographies, James in his “A District Administrator in the Islands 1952-1974” (published 2008) and Harry in his “10,000 Hours In the Life of a Flying Doctor Pilot” (published 1988). In Eastern District, in the Santa Cruz Islands, is Tinakula. A conical stratovolcano in the same volcanic arc as Kavachi, Tinakula has a long history of activity, including throughout 2019. There are eleven images, a number of them taken from different angles from the air, dated July 1974, and show landslips caused by the volcano’s activity.

James Tedder and members of his family described/captioned the majority of the images.

Tedder, James L.O.

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