AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975
PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 8 of 1 February 2021 DEPARTMENT OF FORESTS MAPPING SECTION
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Forest Resources Map prepared by Ken Granger in 1970.
Editor R B McCarthy2 2021
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Forest Resources PNG Map prepared by Ken Granger. Dept of Forests data 1970 Published New Horizons Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845 2 District Forester TPNG 1963-1975
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TABLE OF CONTENTS “FORWOOD”
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What is Mapping PNG?
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Background to PNG Country Mapping Problems.
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Background to Limiting Factors facing the Dept of Forests PNG.
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Dept of Forests PNG Mapping Section
Page 24
The Wild B8 Aviograph Stereo Plotter
Page 30
Forest Vegetation Type Mapping
Page 37
Lae Botany Use of Geo Mapping
Page 45
CSIRO Land Resource Surveys
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An example of a large-scale field mapping exercise
Page 48
Timber Rights Purchase Mapping Activities
Page 52
Plantation Estate Mapping
Page 53
Mapping Courses BFC and UNITECH
Page 54
Contributors
Page 67
Phil Ainsworth
Page 67
Keith Cullen
Page 73
Murray Day
Page 76
Ken Granger
Page 88
Mike Jones
Page 96
Fred Kleckham
Page 100
Bob McKeown
Page 105
Gerd Strehler
Page 108
Postscript
Page 109
Acronyms
Page 111
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“FORWOOD” A large mapping section was maintained by the Department of Forests to produce all maps necessary for the efficient and essential running of all avenues of the Department of Forests. Maps and aerial photos are the most fundamental of all the tools in the forester’s kit. They are essential for activities from planning and conducting resource assessment surveys to plantation management; from defining the boundaries of land and timber rights purchases to documenting botanical collections. It is no wonder, therefore, that the largest single group within Forests Headquarters in Konedobu was the drawing office. Without the use of maps compiled from aerial photography, forest management would have been virtually impossible. This is their story. Activities included: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Topographical maps at a scale no smaller than 1:25000 for general management. Topographical maps at a scale of 1:10,000 for more detailed studies. Topographical maps at a scale of 1:5000 for detailed planning. Annual revision of maps of all areas of forest activities. Supply Central Mapping Bureau of details of all forest mapping activities, aerial photography. 6. Continued use and development of aerial photography for forestry purposes and supervision of the PNG Air Photo library. 7. Development of a curriculum-based teaching program for PNG draftsmen and cartographers and delivering of that program at the Bulolo Forestry College and subsequently to UNITECH Lae.
Forest Systems
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Dept of Forests PNG 1970.
Dept of Forests PNG 1970 Forest Systems of Territory of Papua and New Guinea
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WHAT IS MAPPING PNG? A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although mostly used to depict geography, maps may represent any space, real or fictional, without regard to context or scale, such as in brain mapping, DNA mapping, or computer network topology mapping. The space being mapped may be two dimensional, such as the surface of the earth, three dimensional, such as the interior of the earth, or even more abstract spaces of any dimension, such as arise in modeling phenomena having many independent variables. Although the earliest maps known are of the heavens, geographic maps of territory have an exceptionally long tradition and exist from ancient times. The word "map" comes from the medieval Latin Mappa mundi, wherein mappa meant napkin or cloth and mundi the world. Thus, "map" became a shortened term referring to a two-dimensional representation of the surface of the world. Map showing the course taken by Luis Vaez de Torres on his 1606-07 voyage along the south coast of New Guinea. (Map redrawn by Edgar Ford from Original in Mitchell Library).
Routes taken by Bougainville (1768) and d’Entrecasteaux (1792/93) through the waters of East New Guinea. (Maps redrawn by Edgar Ford).
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Cartography or map-making is the study and practice of crafting representations of the Earth upon a flat surface. One who makes maps is called a cartographer. 4
1930 Map TPNG, drawn and published by H.E.C. Robinson P/L Sydney’ The orientation of a map is the relationship between the directions on the map and the corresponding compass direction. The word "orient" is derived from Latin oriens, meaning east. The most common cartographic convention is that north is at the top of a map. Many maps are drawn to a scale expressed as a ratio, such as 1:10,000, which means that 1 unit of measurement on the map corresponds to 10,000 of that same unit on the ground. The scale statement can be accurate when the region mapped is small enough for the curvature of the Earth to be neglected, such as a city map. Mapping larger regions, where curvature cannot be ignored, requires projections to map from the curved surface of the Earth to the plane. The various features shown on a map are represented by conventional signs or symbols. For example, colors can be used to indicate a classification of roads. Those signs are usually explained in the margin of the map, or on a separately published characteristic sheet. The design and production of maps is a craft that has developed over thousands of years, from clay tablets to geographic information systems. As a form of design, particularly closely related to graphic design, map making incorporates scientific knowledge about how maps are used, integrated with principles of artistic expression, to create a product that is aesthetically
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1930 Map of the Territory of New Guinea administered by the Commonwealth of Australia under mandate from the League of Nations and Papua, a Territory of the Commonwealth of Australia. Map drawn and published by H.E.C. Robinson P/L George St Sydney
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attractive, carries an aura of authority, and functionally serves a particular purpose for an intended audience. Designing a map involves bringing together several elements and making many decisions. The elements of design fall into several broad topics, each of which has its own theory, its own research agenda, and its own best practices. •
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Map projections: The foundation of the map is the plane on which it rests (whether paper or screen), but projections are required to flatten the surface of the earth. All projections distort this surface, but the cartographer can be strategic about how and where distortion occurs. Generalisation: All maps must be drawn at a smaller scale than reality, requiring that the information included on a map be an exceedingly small sample of the wealth of information about a place. Generalization is the process of adjusting the level of detail in geographic information to be appropriate for the scale and purpose of a map, through procedures such as selection, simplification, and classification. Symbology: Any map visually represents the location and properties of geographic phenomena using map symbols, graphical depictions composed of several visual variables, such as size, shape, colour, and pattern. Composition: As all the symbols are brought together, their interactions have major effects on map reading, such as grouping and visual hierarchy. Typography or labelling: Text serves several purposes on the map, especially aiding the recognition of features, but labels must be designed and positioned well to be effective. Layout: The map image must be placed on the page (whether paper, web, or other media), along with related elements, such as the title, legend, additional maps, text, images, and so on. Each of these elements have their own design considerations, as does their integration, which largely follows the principles of graphic design. Map type-specific design: Different kinds of maps, especially thematic maps, have their own design needs and best practices.
From the last quarter of the 20th century, the indispensable tool of the cartographer has been the computer. Much of cartography, especially at the data-gathering survey level, has been subsumed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The functionality of maps has been greatly advanced by technology simplifying the superimposition of spatially located variables onto existing geographical maps. Having local information such as rainfall level, distribution of wildlife, or demographic data integrated within the map allows more efficient analysis and better decision making. Even when GIS is not involved, most cartographers now use a variety of computer graphics programs to generate new maps.
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General – Purpose Maps provide many types of information on one map. Most atlas maps, wall maps, and road maps fall into this category. The following are some features that might be shown on general purpose maps – bodies of water, roads, railways, parks, elevations, villages, political boundaries, latitude, and longitude. These maps give a broad understanding of location and features of an area.
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Population and Transport Map PNG1968 prepared by Ken Granger in New Horizons.
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Population and Transport Map PNG 1968 prepared by Ken Granger. Published New Horizons Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845
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A cadastral map is a comprehensive land recording of the real estate or real property’s metres and bounds of a country or place. In most countries, legal systems have developed around the original administrative systems and use the cadastral map to define the dimensions and location of land parcels described in legal documentation.
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Bulolo Wau Forest Area Dept of Forests 1968.
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Dept of Forests Map of Bulolo Wau Forest Area 1968
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Mount Lawes (Brown River) Territory Forest 1968
Bulolo Forestry College layout plan Dept of Forests 1965 7
Mt Lawes Territory Forest Brown River 1968
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Climatic maps are maps that reflect the territorial distribution of climatic conditions based on the results of long-term observation.
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Rainfall Map PNG published New Horizons 1973
On maps compiled from the observations of ground meteorological stations, atmospheric pressure is converted to sea level. Air temperature maps are compiled both from the actual values observed on the surface of the earth and from values converted to sea level. The temperature, humidity, and wind on aero climatic maps may apply either to standard altitudes or to the main isobaric surfaces.
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Rainfall PNG Map published New Horizons Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845 Source Brookfield & Hart 1966
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Geological maps show not only the surface area, but characteristics of the underlying rock, fault lines, and subsurface structures.
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Generalized Geology Map PNG published New Horizons 1973
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Generalised Geology PNG Map 1970 published New Horizons Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845. Source Bureau of Mineral Resources
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Topographic maps depict in detail ground relief (landforms and terrain), drainage (lakes and rivers), forest cover, administrative areas, populated areas, transportation routes and facilities, and other man-made features. Topography concerns the shape and character of the Earth's surface, and maps were among the first artifacts to record these observations. In modern mapping, a topographic map or sheet is a type of map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation). Traditional definitions require a topographic map to show both natural and artificial features.
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Cloudy Bay Forest Management Area Annual Plan 2005
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Map made from World War Two aerial photography in same manner as DOF prior to 1975. Cloudy Bay Annual Plan 2006/2007 Geographics 2005
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Soil Map is a geographical representation showing diversity of soil types and/or soil properties for the specific area of interest.
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Soils PNG Map published New Horizons 1973
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Soils PNG Map published New Horizons Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845. Source H A Haantjens CSIRO Division of Land research
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Nautical chart is a graphic representation of a sea area and adjacent coastal regions.
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Soundings & Seismic Survey Rangambol Point New Britain 1969 Hydrographic survey Proposed Port Site Bialla for Superintendent of Marine TPNG 1969
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Maps of the world or large areas are often either “political” or “physical”. The most important purpose of the political map is to show territorial boundaries. The purpose of the physical map is to show features of geography such as mountains, soil type or land use including infrastructure such as roads, railroads, and buildings.
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Tiauru Pandi Land Use Plan New Britain by DASF and Dept of Forests 1970
DASF/Dept of Forests Land Use Plan Tiauru Pandi Area New Britain 1970
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BACKGROUND TO SOME OF THE COUNTRY WIDE SURVEYING, CHARTING, AND MAPPING PROBLEMS IN PNG In 1985, Peter Done 1, Associate Professor in the Department of Surveying and Land Studies at UNITECH Lae, referred to geodetic and subsequent control surveys as providing the essential basis for all mapping and charting operations. Ideally there should be an integrated national network. In the case of Papua New Guinea, pre-Second World War control was virtually nonexistent. Control surveys that were carried out during the war were largely confined to areas of immediate military reference. These often tended to be on independent and often unconnected datums. One result of this deficiency was that serious errors in positions and elevations of mountain peaks were made, which are known to have contributed to losses of aircrafts. With development of electronic distance measurements in the early 1960’s, such operations became easier, with emphasis shifting from triangulation to traversing, and a “tellurometer” control survey was carried out in the period 1963-65. The well-known disadvantage of such microwave work is its critical dependence on a knowledge of meteorological parameters – over long distances the province of measurements merely made at each end of the line is always doubtful. Much of PNG has been mapped using geodetic control based on a piecemeal network computation referred to as the Australian National Spheroid (ANS). This is a local ellipsoid, introduced to meet the need for a unified control system in Australia (known as the Australian Geodetic Datum 1966 of AGD66.) The fit to PNG was not obviously a consideration, although the south west part of PNG is a reasonably good fit but not in New Ireland. In the period 1974-79, 202 satellite positioning fixes were achieved in PNG by the Royal Australian Survey Corps (RASC). These provided coordinates based on an earth centered datum. As a result of a Defence Aid agreement with Australia, PNG has now a complete cloud free coverage of small scale (1:80,000-1:20,000) photography (“SKAI PIKSA”) and since 1980, a complete mainland and island coverage of 1:100,000 basic topographic mapping based on it. In relation to hydrography for PNG waters, modern charting operations were initiated extra-nationally because of military and naval requirements during the Second World War. The work was done by the hydrographers of the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the latter continued to work in the area until Independence in 1975. For general navigation, a series of 1:300000 charts exist. Work in the charting field has been almost negligible since Independence. 1
Surveying, Charting and Mapping Problems in Papua New Guinea P. Done The Geographical Journal Vol. 151, No. 3 (Nov., 1985), pp. 371-378 (8 pages) Published By: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) https://doi.org/10.2307/633020 https://www.jstor.org/stable/633020
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BACKGROUND TO SOME OF THE LIMITING FACTORS FACING THE DEPARTMENT OF FORESTS MAPPING SECTION Article by Geographer Ken Granger January 2021. AERIAL PHOTOS AND MAPS FOR FOREST INVENTORIES Apart from the limited staff available, the main limiting factor to implement a Territory-wide forest resource assessment in 1962 was the general lack of current aerial photo coverage and base topographic mapping. Aerial photography The first systematic aerial photography flown over PNG was around 1926 when the exploration company Oil Search had coverage flown over the Gulf area. It was not until WW2 that widespread coverage became essential for the battles against the Japanese from 1942 to 1945. The main aerial photographic coverage available for forestry work post-war was that flown by the USAAF during the War. The largest scale photography was that from the USAAF K18 Fairchild camera with a 24” lens usually carried in B-26 Liberators. The photos measured 9”x18” and were typically flown over targets of strategic significance such as Rabaul. From an altitude of 20,000’ it provided coverage at a notional contact scale of 1:10,000. Medium scale photography for mapping and/or reconnaissance were mainly obtained with the Fairchild K-17 with either a 6” or 12” lens with a negative size of 9”x9”. The main photo reconnaissance aircraft using these cameras in the Pacific Theatre was the F-4 PhotoLightning. These aircraft were typically equipped to take trimetrogon coverage using left and right cameras taking 30o oblique and a vertical camera to provide horizon-to-horizon coverage. At an altitude of 20,000’ the 6” lens provided vertical coverage at a notional contact scale of 1:40,000. In the early post-war years (mainly around 1948-9) the USAF flew vertical mapping coverage known as the MM series, probably using K-17 cameras. This series had a notional scale of around 1:50,000 but coverage was limited mainly to the lowland areas of the mainland and islands. It was the mainstay for forest assessment surveys in areas such as New Britain and Bougainville through the 1960s. By the mid-1950s the Commonwealth Division of National Mapping had begun to commission photography over areas that were to be covered by the CSIRO integrated land system surveys, mostly in the highlands and the Sepik area. This photography was flown by the commercial firm Adastra Aviation and was known as the CAJ series. This coverage was obtained using Wild cameras with 6” lenses in the standard 9”x9” format. Scales were notionally in the 1:40,000 to 1:50,000 range. By the mid-1960s further commercial players such as QASCO entered the field. For a period QASCO maintained an office in Port Moresby. They mostly undertook project-type 17
coverage, mainly in areas that had been identified for agricultural development such as the north coast of New Britain where oil palm plantations were being developed; and the Panguna-Kieta area of Bougainville. Southbank Aviation also undertook project coverage of the more densely populated parts of the Gazelle Peninsula in 1969. That coverage included some of the first colour aerial photography and colour infra-red coverage over PNG. A standard scale for aerial photography in PNG was established as 1:30,000, a fair compromise between the coverage for mapping purposes and the resolution to enable reasonably detailed photo interpretation. In mid-1971 the imminent move to self-government for PNG prompted the Australian Defence Force to assess the mapping standards over PNG as a strategic contingency against the possibility that Australian forces might need to be deployed in a post-independent country. The Australian Joint Aerial Reconnaissance and Intelligence Board (AJARIB) commissioned a survey of the photo coverage over PNG. That review drew attention to the patchy and dated coverage and lack of standard scales and formats and the Board recommended to higher command the implementation of a country-wide aerial photographic coverage. This plan was implemented in 1973 with RAAF Canberra reconnaissance aircraft being deployed to Port Moresby to undertake the mission known as Skai Piksa. Six Canberras of No 2 Squadron were modified for this operation. Notional scale for this coverage was stipulated to be 1:50,000 and was achieved using Wild RC10 cameras with a wide angle 4� lenses. Ground control for this photography was established across the country by surveyors from the Australian Army Survey Corps (RASvy) with some additional controls established by the Department of Lands.
One of the Canberra aircraft modified for Skai Piksa (Wiki commons)
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The development of non-photographic remote sensing technologies by the late 60s saw PNG become a test site for systems such as the Goodyear side-looking airborne radar (SLAR). A Goodyear SLAR system, mounted on a DC-4, was deployed to Port Moresby in 1970 for trials and flew several missions, including one close to the Irian Jaya border, that produced good quality terrain mapping which penetrated not just the cloud cover but also the forest canopy. One mission was flown over the Milne Bay area to locate a missing aircraft that had flown out of Alotau bound for Wanigela and had not arrived. When processed, the imagery showed so many radar “hot spots” from shot-down wartime aircraft that it was impossible to tell what spot the missing aircraft was. NASA also used PNG as a test site for multi-spectral imaging systems ahead of the 1972 launch of the first Landsat satellite, then called ERTS (Earth Resources Technical Satellite). I recall that John Saunders of CSIRO was involved in that work in 1970. Photo interpretation For forest resource assessment much depends on the skill of the photo interpreter to discriminate the subtle differences of tone, texture, shape, and size on the black and white photos that can denote the different types of forest or land use. It is, for example, quite easy to discriminate grassland and forest because the light tone and relatively smooth texture of the grassland compared with the darker tone and more textured rainforest canopy. Similarly, it is relatively easy (with experience) to discriminate between lower montane forest from lowland rainforest, or rainforest from secondary forest. Some individual species such as Kamarere are easy to map because they grew on river gravel beds or volcanic blast areas in monospecific communities. The boundaries between the various forest/land use types are typically drawn directly onto the photos by the interpreter using a Chinagraph pencil and then transposed freehand by the drawing office staff onto the survey base map using features such as drainage or tracks to “control” the boundaries. Topographic mapping The only topographic maps available in 1962 were the wartime maps which were generally limited to the areas in which fighting took place. The largest scale maps were at one-mile-tothe-inch (1:63,360) and while they did have good planimetric representation of the major drainage, their contours (or form lines) were not all that accurate. A smaller scale series at four-miles-to-the-inch (1:253,440) was also available. These had major blanks with annotations such as “no details”, especially in the highland areas. Some of the CAJ photography in the 1950s was compiled by (Australian) National Mapping into uncontrolled photo mosaics covering areas such as the Wahgi Valley to support the CSIRO surveys. They were usually assembled using the “slotted template” system of adjustment.
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CSIRO assemblage of photos and a mosaic c 1960 (CSIRO photo) Once the Skai Piksa coverage and geodetic control became available in 1973-4, RASvy began to produce the detailed 1:100,000 maps covering the whole Territory. The photogrammetry was undertaken at their headquarters in Bendigo, with proof copies being sent to PNG for field checking. That checking was not always careful enough and some interesting “artefacts” appeared in some maps. One classic that I came across was on the Rabaul 1:100,000 sheet, part of which is reproduced below.
The conical “hill” just above the “Z” in “Gazelle” was in fact a stand of Kamarere. The photogrammetrist was clearly unfamiliar with these magnificent trees! Most of the maps used as base maps for the forest resource assessment surveys were drawn by the Forests drawing office based largely on the 1:63,360 or 4-mile maps series. The first such map that I used was drawn by Gerd Streihler for the 1964 Empress Augusta Bay survey on Bougainville. It was probably the first such map that employed hill shading in addition to the standard planimetric information of drainage, tracks and so on – but then Gerd was an artist as well as a particularly good draftsman. 20
Painting Minji Man artist Gerd Streihler 1965 art exhibition Ela Beach RSL15 In 1967 the Department recruited two ex-RASvy cartographers, Dave White and Neil Morse who brought with them experience in map production. They established a large format gallery camera in a neighbouring building that had been used for storing survey records and equipment. This equipment enabled the Department to start developing the reproduction material (repromat) for a whole new generation of maps.
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Personal communication Ken Granger 28th January 2021. Ken purchased Gerd Streihler’s painting of Minji Man for fifty quid in 1965.
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Cadastral maps Cadastral mapping of the areas such as the Gazelle Peninsula and the major towns where there had been significant alienation of native land were maintained by the Department of Lands and were generally quite accurate. The maps in that area dated back to German times when land alienations were recorded first by the German New Guinea Company and later by the German administration. In Papua, similar maps were produced by the Australian administration, but again they were typically confined to the areas such as Port Moresby where the small areas of alienated land were concentrated. In other areas, such as the southern foothills of the main range they were often annotated “waste and vacant”, akin to the concept of terra nullius.
Land tenure of the Gazelle Peninsula 1970 The main cadastral information of importance to forestry were the boundaries of the Forest Reserves, such as Keravat, and the boundaries of timber rights purchases (TRP) and Native Timber Authorities (NTA). TRP boundaries were described for publication in the Gazette using the information available from the topographic maps and sections that had been surveyed by compass and chain. To Measure is to Know How To determine the estimated available log volume in the different forest types it was necessary to measure the areas of each discrete block of that forest type derived from the photo interpretation. Several techniques could be applied: • • •
using a planimeter to trace around the boundary of each zone. using a dot grid. or cutting out the individual blocks from a print of the map and weighing the pieces from the same forest type on a chemical balance. 22
All three were laborious boring jobs but necessary for the overall outcome of the resource inventory. Lineal distances, such as road length or distances along a river, were measured using an opisometer (measuring wheel).
Planimeter (Wiki commons)
Opisometer (Wiki commons)
Computer mapping In 1970, what can be claimed to be the first form of computer mapping undertaken in PNG took place. The survey of the Cape Rodney area to determine the pulp volume of the area was done on a regular grid of 5 chains on a side. At the intersection of each grid the forest was sampled. By entering the log volume measured at each intersection point in order going from the most northerly line down to the most southerly line a printout of the data on the 132character wide carriage of an accounting machine produced a “map� of the log volume across the entire survey area. This was the brainchild of Dave Num. I doubt if there were any GIS applications developed in PNG before Independence as the technology was still quite crude when I first started to use it in the mid-1980s to produce a digitised map of land use in the Gazelle Peninsula. Nonetheless, in the decades since independence it is clear that GIS has become a key tool for a wide range of mapping and spatial modelling tasks. In early 1998 I was approached by my old colleague and mentor John McAlpine to see if I was interested in helping to facilitate a workshop in Port Moresby to explore the potential for establishing a national GIS for PNG. The other facilitators were Rod Little (Professor of Geography at USP) and Dr Ken Lyons (former professor of Geographical Sciences at UQ). It was a remarkably interesting workshop in that most of the reports were presented by very articulate and knowledgeable Papua New Guineans. I am not sure if any of the recommendations were ever implemented. The report was published as: Ken Granger, Rod Little, Ken Lyon, and John McAlpine (1988): PNG national GIS/spatial data and systems workshop, Report of proceedings and results, consultants report on workshop sponsored by PNG National Mapping Bureau, AusAID, and UNDP, Port Moresby.
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DEPARTMENT OF FORESTS MAPPING SECTION A large mapping section was maintained by the Department of Forests to produce all maps necessary for the efficient and essential running of all avenues of the Department of Forests. Activities included: • • • • • • •
Topographical maps at a scale no smaller than 1:25000 for general management. Topographical maps at a scale of 1:10,000 for more detailed studies. Topographical maps at a scale of 1:5000 for detailed planning. Annual revision of maps of all areas of forest activities. Supply Central Mapping Bureau of details of all forest mapping activities, aerial photography. Continued use and development of aerial photography for forestry purposes and supervision of the PNG Air Photo library. Development of a curriculum-based teaching program for PNG draftsman and cartographers and delivering of that program at the Bulolo Forestry College.
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Map of Papua New Guinea showing potential forest areas. Source 1970 Dept of Forests
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Map of PNG showing potential forest areas. Source 1970 Dept of Forests, published New Horizons Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845
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Department of Forests Drawing Office April 197217 Photo Credit Phil Ainsworth Back Row (left to Right) Carl Smith, Ralph Ernst, Fred Hainsworth, Mike Jones, Bob McKeowen, Lother Jelinek, Dave White Second Back Row Francis Tigi, Ranu Nihara, Ginate Guhuna, Merere Kare, Issac Passingan, Morea Sere, Randal Treasure Second Front Row Tom Ravu, Val Booth, John Van As, Phil Ainsworth, Gerd Strehler, Cynthia Heah, Kerry Rowley Front Row Matthew Mobutana, Mugadang David, Daure Managa, Baurani Guiouku, BIll, Omani Rei, Nose Absent Col Roach Leave; Avae Hailai (field); Jim Otte (arrived after photo taken)
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Phil Ainsworth personal communication 31st July 2020
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Bob McKeowen18 Senior Draftsman described working in PNG in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He cannot recall any survey being carried out in his time that used proper topographical maps as they did not have them, nor did they have the facility to produce them. It was not until around 1970, when they purchased the Wild B8 stereoscopic plotter to produce maps. Even then they were limited by the lack of quality aerial photos and ground control stations. Jimi Forest Assessment Bob McKeowen and Paul Ryan The Jimi map which Bob McKeowen produced from start to finish was plotted with old, clouded photos of varying scales, inconsistent overlaps, and sometimes vague ground control. Bob’s map of Jimi was prepared using the slotted template method mentioned by Ken Granger. Everyone agreed that the resulting map was a bloody good job considering the available raw materials.
Villagers clustered around the helicopter at Tabibuga Patrol Post prior to our flying into the Jimi Valley in 1968. Photo credit Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan was the forester in charge of the Jimi survey. The plotting of the strip lines was exceedingly difficult mainly because of the steepness of the terrain and field books which they both thought sometimes showed some licence. In mid-1968 Paul and Bob McKeowen, a friend, draftsman and colleague from the Forestry Department found us setting up camp in the Jimi Valley by the river of the same name. It 18
Personal communication Bob McKeowen 28th January 2021
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seemed, at that point in time, as though the valley of the Jimi River had been forgotten; a small part of Papua New Guinea largely passed over in the development process and progression into the modern world. Located on the northern fringes of the Western Highlands, where considerable outside investment had been made since the early 1950s, the people of the Jimi Valley were stuck in an otherwise bygone era. There were no roads into or in the valley and no towns, with the people living in small villages on the higher ground, where there was less chance of suffering from malaria, though the disease still managed to kill and incapacitate considerable numbers. It was only a matter of a few years since the people had first contacted ‘white men’. General administration as well as law and order were undertaken by a patrol officer who was based at Tabibuga patrol post, situated on a ridge at the eastern end of the valley. This was served by light planes landing at an airstrip carved into the side of the ridge and only approachable in one direction. Shortly after the helicopter left them on a rocky bend in the river a group of men filtered out through the surrounding bush as they were making their camp. Paul observed they were noticeably short, almost pygmies, not being above five feet tall, and were dressed largely in clothes made from bush materials. This consisted of a smooth bark belt into which was tucked a bunch of leaves over the rear end and a bunch of grass over the front. The women, whom they later saw, were dressed in a similar fashion, being bare breasted. A few individuals had pieces of western clothing, such as a shirt or shorts. Nobody wore anything on their feet. The people of the Jimi Valley were not far removed from the stone age, having acquired steel axes and knives only in the last decade or so, and, as Bob and Paul found, were still without files to sharpen such implements, in many cases. They were, generally, very friendly and through sign language and some tok pisin indicated they were prepared to help make the camp. In 1968 the Forestry Department decided that the forest resources in the Jimi Valley should be acquired for potential logging operations. Apparently, this decision came about because the Director of Forests at the time was flying over the valley, en-route from Madang on the north coast when he noted that there were quantities of Araucaria pine present. The right to cut the timber was then purchased from the local people. Considerable sums of money were flown in by helicopter and light plane and paid out to the locals, who really had no idea of the value of their resource and little concept of the value of the money with which they were being paid. Their main concern was that the money be in coin, not paper notes, as the latter tended to deteriorate quickly when kept in the village, perhaps buried under a bed. There were no banks handy. The down payment for the timber rights given to these people by the government some months earlier amounted to approximately Australian $ 80,000. However, it only represented a fraction of the royalty that should have been paid to the landowners for their trees when such trees were eventually cut. The Forestry Department then decided, that, having bought the timber rights, they had better find out the extent and nature of the resource. Paul managed the inventory of the forests there. However, they first had to decide how they would tackle the job, given the fact that they had to assess both the Araucaria (Klinkii Pine) as well as other merchantable species in the forest; obtaining a sample that would give a reasonable estimate of the volume of both sorts of trees. And that is how Bob and Paul ended up on a rocky bank of the Jimi River. Back to POM Mapping Branch – Bob McKeowen In general, the survey maps were somewhere between planimetric and cadastral because they showed no contours or relief detail. 27
Gerd Strehler attempted to do hill shading at one time to try to show relief. [extremely limited success]. Ken Granger commented on this shading exercise.
Dick McCarthy, Bob McKeowen, and Francis Tigi, Tiauru Pandi Resource Survey1970. Photo Credit Dept of Forests PNG 1970 (Isaac Passingan in field.)
Tiauru Pandi and Open Bay Timber Areas 1970 TPNG.
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Not long after the Dept of Forests received the Wild B8 stereoscopic plotter, Lothar Jelinek was recruited as the operator. At the same time, the Central Mapping Authority (CMA) was established at the Lands Department and topographic survey of PNG came under their control. John Van As went to the Netherlands for 12 months to train as a photogrammetrist. Bob prepared some training manuals for mapping staff going into the field. They were prepared about the same time the Forestry School started Cartography training. Bob recalls that the maps in Edgar Ford’s Atlas of PNG Resources19 were all prepared for printing by the Mapping Branch. Edgar was a Dubbo boy and was dux of Dubbo High. There was a copy in the school library when Bob departed PNG in 1976 to live in Dubbo. Edgar Ford’s atlas covered gazetteer, landforms, geology, earthquakes and volcanoes, climate, soils, vegetation, forestry, crops, agriculture, land use potential, primary industry, Development Bank, mining, secondary industry, internal transport, air transport, communications, trade, population, local government councils, constitutional development, administration and law, education, missions, health in the field - preventative medicine, local trade, tourism, workforce, languages, excavation of archaeological sites, traditional house types, location of places and traditional trade. Today, everything is so much easier now with Google Earth. His son can do a feasibility study for an irrigation scheme anywhere in Australia from his desk in Goondiwindi. I think the vertical accuracy is about 20mm. Looking back on his time in PNG, the only disappointing thing was the lack of any sort of formal introduction to the country. He was recruited, put on a plane, shown his accommodation, and sat at a desk. Had I known what I know now from reading various books I would have been a better employee. Bob returned to Dubbo in 1976.
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Typical Bush Survey Camp Dept of Forests 1973.
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Papua New Guinea resource atlas / edited by Edgar Ford; cartography by the Jacaranda Press; chief cartographer: J.S. Feodoroff 1974. ISBN 0701682140 20
Typical Bush Survey Camp Dept of Forests PNG 1973
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PHOTOINTERPRETATION AND MAPPING FOR FORESTRY PURPOSES WITH REFERENCE TO THE WILD B* AVIOGRAPH STEREO PLOTTER.21 Initially in PNG for forestry purposes, the simplest methods were used for compiling information from aerial photographs. The result was that greater emphasis was placed on the aspect of photo interpretation for forestry applications than on photogrammetry itself. Due to increasingly intense forest management and future development of forest areas, and the introduction of sampling methods into forest inventory, greater importance was being placed on more accurate knowledge of timber stands and their classification. A comprehensive and accurate assessment of areas according to the standards of cadastral surveys was also being requested by many authorities and developers for forest areas. In such cases, the simple methods of measurement, such as those used in photo interpretation were insufficient. The use of stereo plotting instruments became necessary especially where new surveys of forests had to be undertaken to obtain accurate topographical maps. At the same time, more accurate forest maps were required in view of difficult terrain, intensive land use, traditional land ownership and/or complicated silvicultural conditions. In topographic mapping from aerial photographs, one is mainly concerned with plotting objects with definite outlines. In interpretation for forestry purposes, however, it is the gradation of the grey tones and the differences in structure and texture in their manifold combinations and interrelationships that are of special interest. While the topographer must see the picture in its abstract form, the interest of the forester lies in the natural aspects of the forest as seen in the following photographs. A further characteristic of photointerpretation of forest areas is the difficulty of type classification within forest stands. Due to the layer-wise structure of forestry stands it is often difficult to assess the distance between the main canopy and the ground. These aspects, so important for forest mapping, can hardly be assessed correctly by a surveyor or a photogrammetrist. Experience has shown that it is constantly necessary to obtain decisions requiring professional training or consultation with the interpreters during the plotting process. These considerations show that it is most irrational to separate interpretation and plotting.
21
Dept Of Forests Mapping Branch training manual and Unasylva No 77 of 1965 – Photointerpretation and mapping for forestry purposes. Bruno Rhody Switzerland Forest Research Institute with reference to the Wild B8 Aviograph stereo plotter.
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Cloudy Bay Abau Timber Area 2003 Dick McCarthy
Cloudy Bay Abau Timber Area 2003 Dick McCarthy 31
Photo Credit Ian Whyte Block Six Vanimo Landscape 1974
Photo credit Ian Whyte Natural kamarere Puwani River 1974
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Photo Credit Ian Whyte Emergent eucalypts in savannah regeneration 1976 Sagarai Gadaisu
Middle Ramu Forest photo credit Dick McCarthy 2005 33
The Dept of Forest requirements for suitable plotting instruments in which they could carry out forest photointerpretation and mapping with their own staff included: • • • •
•
The enlargement ratio from photo scale to plotting scale is particularly important. Photography flown in PNG is usually at a scale of 1:50,000. Forestry maps used in PNG are nominally at the scale of 1:10,000 for recording detailed forestry structures and 1:25,000 for general forestry purposes. Hence an enlargement of up to 1:4 must be provided by the plotter for forestry purposes. In sylvan photogrammetry, a further factor of significance is the height measurement of vegetation. Not only is it important to have direct readings- metres or feet- but the height range of the plotter must have sufficient amplitude. Distinguishing between forest types must also be considered. This requires an instrument with good illumination when using diapositives. Accuracy requirements for a forestry plotter.
22In
1971 Bob McKeowen reported that mapping moved to new air-conditioned premises at Hohola where a large modern process camera was installed, and a Wild B8 photogrammetric plotter purchased with Lothar Jelinek recruited as operator and trainer. The mapping section were now able to produce proper topographical maps where photos and ground control was available. Staff included Ralph Ernst, [from APC] Fred Hainsworth, Fred Lederer and Mike Jones with Col Roach as camera operator. Gerd Strehler was in charge with Bob McKeowen as 2IC as other staff had moved on. At this time local staff were being trained at Bulolo under the watchful eyes of Gary Flegg and Murray Day. About this time the Central Mapping Authority was being set up with Forests arguing that it should be at forestry rather than the Lands Dept. as Forests were the only people engaged in mapping. It eventually went to the Lands and the rest is history. DEPT OF FORESTS PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SECTION MAPPING BRANCH WILD B8 AVIOGRAPH – STEREOSCOPIC PLOTTING INSTRUMENT. The following photographs describe a Wild B 8 Aviograph similar to what the Dept of Forests would have purchased in 1971. Stereophotogrammetry involves the conversion of two central perspectives (the photographs) into a parallel projection (the map). This conversion is solved with the aid of stereoscopic equipment. The Wild B8 Aviograph stereo plotter in one of many instruments for stereoscopic plotting of map detail from independent pairs of near vertical aerial photographs taken with wide angle (a lens having an angle of coverage between 75degree and 100 degree) and super wide angle (a lens having an angle of coverage greater than 100 degree) lenses.
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Personal communication Bob McKeowen 2018
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Wild B8 Aviograph at the Swiss Institute of Forest Research with the operator at her drawing board. Unasylva No 77 FAO publication 1965 photo.
Detailed view of the Wild B8 Aviograph. Unasylva No 77 FAO publication 1965
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The significant characteristics of the B8 Aviograph stereo plotter are: • • • • • • • • • •
Simple design. Easy operations by one operator only. It provides a rigorous geometrical reconstruction of the bundle of image rays and employs the mechanical plotting principle. Frontal observation of the picture. Plotting from pictures at the original format. It is designed for use with diapositives and negatives on glass or film and, with lighting modifications incorporated, paper prints can be used for plotting planimetry at small and medium scales. Exchangeable camera carriers for standard focal lengths. Free hand movement of the floating mark by means of a tracing stand. Direct reading of the terrain elevations by means of a projection system, with exchangeable glass scales. Plotting at model scale, or further enlarged or reduced using a linear pantograph.
The conversion of a central perspective into a parallel projection involving the B8 Aviograph was: • • •
Two photographs (overlapping pair) taken from different positions along a flight line are brought into the same relative position to each other as they had when the photographs were taken. The pair of rays projected from the two images of the same ground point then intersect. The sum of these intersections form a three-dimensional model of the photographed terrain. This model can be scaled and orientated in space. It can then be measured point by point or scanned line by line. The projection of all such measurements onto a plane provide the desired parallel projection (the map).
The Dept of Forests found the Aviograph extremely suitable for intensive forest interpretation and mapping both with normal photographic conditions within the technical ranges and when using affine methods.
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FOREST VEGETATION TYPE MAPPING A major objective of the Dept of Forests was to advance forest vegetation mapping. Forest vegetation mapping is an important source of information for the assessment of forest resources and a key issue for any National Forest Inventory (NFI) and national land use planning. Today, new perspectives for automated forest mapping are emerging through the latest developments in remote sensing data and techniques.
Forest maps reflect the location and the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of forests. They may be divided into current, reference and educational types. The most important type is the current map because such maps are needed to manage the forest.
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Vegetation Map PNG by Dept of Forests 1970. Published New Horizons 1973
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Vegetation PNG Map published New Horizons Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845. Source Dr R Robbins Dept of Forests PNG data 1970
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Historical Development Forest Vegetation Mapping PNG Jim McAdam24 1952, described the basis on which the Aust Forest Survey Group developed its resource inventory techniques and trained its personnel. McAdam found with some training, it was not difficult to pick out from air photos, the vegetative types described below. Savannah woodland Grassland Swamps o Mangrove o Nipa o Sac o Grass and pit o Grass and pit pit o Swampy Rainforests Lowland Forest o Littoral o Rain forest Mid mountain forest Mossy forest Alpine Secondary bush While the unit was in training at Lae, research was carried out into the uses that could be made of air photos in assessing tropical forests. An area was marked out in the Oomsis forests near Lae and the RAAF made special photos of the area. Every tree on an area of 30 acres was mapped and the air photos correlated tree for tree. Compared with the data which could be gathered from air photos of temperate forests, the amount of quantitative data that could be obtained from photos of the overly complex mixed forests of the tropics was disappointing. Nevertheless, the photos proved a boon for qualitative interpretation and saved a considerable amount of work in the field by eliminating areas which need not be further investigated and allowed the team to concentrate detailed work on those areas with the greatest productive potential. If they did nothing else the air photos enabled the production of the 1 mile to 1-inch Army series of maps which now covered the northern coastline of New Guinea, Manus, New Britain, and Bougainville. They used those sheets as their basic maps and from the air photos transferred the vegetative data to these sheets, which were then forwarded to the field units as survey instructions for checking in the field. The sheets were arranged in a priority system based on operational requirements. By the time the unit was disbanded, the air photo interpretation for all the published 1 mile to 1-inch series (some 260 odd in number) had been completed but only 59
24
McAdam J B Paper “Forestry in New Guinea� Annual Report in The Papua and New Guinea Scientific Society 1952 Report 38
of the field reports had been finalised. Vegetation mapping included officers such as Les Carron.
Lae 9/11/1944 Warrant Officer 2 W Spencer using stereoscope on aerial photographs 1 Forest Survey Coy. Photo credit Australian War Memorial Australian Forestry Survey Coy units were then located where they could be of optimal use to the allies and at the same time meeting McAdam’s main goals of recording the volume felled by the Allies and identifying likely productive forests for felling and milling timber.
Lae 9/11/1944; Lt J S Talbot surveyor; WO 2 W Spencer draughtsman and Sgt H M Crossley outside drawing office of 1 Forest Survey Coy 1944. Photo credit Australian War Memorial 39
The Forest survey units were to record the utilization activities, and to make surveys of forest resources using all the available military resources of aerial photography, operational mapping, and transport. The units, during the resource survey, gave valuable intelligence data on topography, tracks, anchorages etc. On the areas of easier topography and better forest cover, they laid down actual sample plots and obtained an estimate of the actual timber over a measured acreage. They collected botanical and wood samples of new species. By the end of the war, the units had collected over 1,500 sheets. The botanists had worked through 620 of them and had listed 295 separate species. These collections formed the basis of the herbarium at Lae. Since then, the forest botanist role was to expand the collection to prepare a flora for the Territory. Great assistance was provided by the late Mr C T White, the Queensland Government Botanist, who came to the Territory and ran a botanical school for the units during the training period. Copies of the wood samples were sent to the Division of Forest Products of the CSIRO in Melbourne, where Dr. Dadswell accompanied Mr White and lectured to the Australian Forestry School on Wood Technology. The early work of the Division of Forest Products quickly resulted in the development of a card sorting key for the identification of the more common species and the Division later developed similar keys for the Forces as they moved onto Borneo and Malaya. Two years of intensive work in resource inventory was carried out. Using aerial photographs and criteria evolved from field correlation studies, vegetation types were mapped over an area of some 56,000 square miles, about 30 per cent of the total land area, on one inch to the mile military maps. By the end of the war nearly a quarter of the vegetation mapping had been ground checked. This work provided an excellent base for post-war forestry development. It mapped and assessed forest areas throughout the country, its work forming the basis of post-war forest planning and industrial expansion, especially during the last few decades. It pioneered the use of aerial photos to map and verify tropical vegetation, and kept resource and production statistics, partly to compensate landowners. The units were gradually phased out towards the end of 1945, after the war in the south-west Pacific had ended.
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Forest Systems of PNG Dept of Forests 1970
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PNG Forest Resources Map prepared by Ken Granger New Horizons 1973
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Dept of Forests PNG 1970 Forest Systems of Territory of Papua and New Guinea Map of PNG Forest Resources prepared by Ken Granger Dept of Forests PNG Published in New Horizons 1973
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27
Forest Resources and Vegetation Mapping E T Hammermaster and J C Saunders CSIRO/PNGRIS 1995 27
Hammermaster ET and Saunders J C 1995 FOREST RESOURCES AND VEGETATION MAPPING OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA PNGRIS publication #4. ISBN 0642196087 prepared by CSIRO for AusAID.
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FOREST RESOURCES AND VEGETATION MAPPING OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA by ET Hammermaster and JC Saunders reflects the progress made in mapping PNG vegetation since the 1970’s with the advent of the computer era and associated digitisation.
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Forest Zones of PNG Map prepared by Hammermaster ET and Saunders J C 1995 in FOREST RESOURCES AND VEGETATION MAPPING OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA PNGRIS publication #4. ISBN 0642196087 prepared by CSIRO for AusAID. Scale 1:2500000
Photo Credit Ian Whyte Bulolo airstrip and the “su sus” in background 1979
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LAE BOTANY USE OF GEO MAPPING David Frodin29, described the plant collections series. During World War 2, e.g., in 1944 when Max Jacobs was collecting on the Bulldog track, the series was called the NGF (New Guinea Forces Series). This was started under Jim McAdam and Cyril T White. (Queensland Forest Botanist). After World War 2, it stood for New Guinea Forests under the Division of Botany. This continued until around 1970, when, as proposed by Peter Stevens, John Womersley changed the collection series to the prefix LAE, referring to the Lae Herbarium’s official international abbreviation (LAE). 30 Further to the NGF-series, the “top set” of material from the Forces is in the Queensland Herbarium Brisbane with a duplicate set left in Lae. This was inherited in 1946 by John Womersley and the Botany Division. After 1946, the series was managed from Lae, with duplicates distributed to major collections in Australia (particularly Brisbane, Sydney, and Canberra), the UK (mostly to Kew), to Leiden in the Netherlands, the USA (including the Bishop Museum), Singapore and to Bogor (Indonesia). Collections were also sent to botanical specialists in other institutions. While the focus was on woody plants, other plants, including grasses and weeds (grasses being Ted Henty’s speciality) were also collected. Many of the early NGF series were collected by Joe Havel and Aubeta Kairo from Bulolo. All these collections were distributed from the Lae Herbarium. Some duplicates of these were returned to Bulolo, and others were distributed to the Department of Forests - Wood Products Division in Port Moresby which were then deposited with UPNG in the 1970’s. David Frodin31 described the georeferencing of specimens which was one relative innovation introduced by the Division of Botany at Lae, perhaps 60 years ago. It was then relatively rare amongst botanical institutions – and today helps account for the relatively good showing of PNG amongst specimens from tropical countries documented in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)11, a public website. The PNG records on that site are there particularly thanks to the contributions made by • •
•
Barry Conn’s PNG Plants project32 initiated several years ago. the former National Herbarium of the Netherlands (now NCB Naturalis) in Leiden (which databased and imaged all three major Dutch herbaria earlier this decade; there is some overlap between the two, due to duplicate specimens). and what the Australian Virtual Herbarium has contributed – and that was partly the work of William (Bill) Barker, Barry Conn, and Jim Croft33.
29
David Frodin Kew Gardens personal communication 11 April 2019 Mark Coode personal communication 30 Dec 2020 the switch from NGF to Lae was when the NGF series reached 50,000 specimens. 30
31
David Frodin Kew Gardens personal communication 27 February 2019 Conn BJ, Lee LL and Kiapranis R (2004+). ‘PNGplants database: Plants of Papua New Guinea’ http://www.pngplants.org/PNGdatabase 33 Jim Croft Botanist 1973 to PNG becoming Director PNG National Herbarium and Gardens. In 1988 moved to Australian National Botanical Gardens ACT 32
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In general, the standard seems to have been to the nearest 5 minutes unless the collections were from an area with several landmarks. Botany had a considerable range of surplus World War 2 topographical maps along with what was available in the T504 1:250,000 series (and various others). Incidentally, T504 never covered New Britain. Botany had to use WW2 material along with a redrawn version made in Konedobu showing potential survey strip sites. David Frodin still had a copy of the latter, in 3 1/2 sheets. (David Frodin was on most of the early 1966 survey in western New Britain which was led, if his memory was correct, by Neil Brightwell).
Bulolo Forestry College Herbarium Class Lecturer Aubeta Long term staff member. Photo credit Clifford Family.
Bulolo Forestry College Herbarium Class Each specimen is geo- referenced. Photo credit Clifford Family
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CSIRO LAND RESOURCE SURVEYS The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land Resource Surveys were described by Ken Granger34. He described the fourteen integrated land resource surveys that CSIRO undertook during the period 1953-69, with the aim of identifying areas suitable for accelerated development. The resulting reconnaissance-level regional survey reports and maps provided extensive baseline information for national development planning. Substantial botanical collections carried out during the surveys contributed greatly to the Papua New Guinea National Collection at the Lae Herbarium.
Ken Granger CSIRO Survey areas in PNG 1953 – 1969 (from Gael Kieg and others 2019)
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Granger K 2019 The Contribution of CSIRO to PNG’s Forest Resource and Botanical Knowledge 1953-1969 Part B page 187-199 35 CSIRO 1965 Lands of the Port Moresby-Kairuku Area, Territory of Papua and New Guinea Land Research Series No 14 36 CSIRO 1973 Land-form Types and Vegetation of Eastern Papua Land Research Series No.32
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AN EXAMPLE OF A LARGE-SCALE FIELD MAPPING EXERCISE Pulp and Paper Assessment -Vanimo Timber Area Project. The impetus to a more intensive evaluation of the pulping potential of mixed tropical hardwood species from PNG was given by the demand from the pulp and paper industry of Japan for raw material from throughput the Asia Pacific region. The technique of bulk transport of wood chips developed in conjunction with growth of this demand.
Vanimo Township 1990’s Photo credit Evan Shields The PNG Administration initiated a project designed to evaluate the pulping and papermaking potential of mixed tropical hardwoods in the Vanimo Timber area in detail. To determine the quality and potential market quality of the PNG forests for pulping potential, The Department of Forests through its Forest Products Research Centre Hohola engaged CSIRO Forest Products Laboratory37 to undertake that work. The CSIRO investigation38 initially selected Block 6 Vanimo Timber area (some 54,000 ha). Block 239 Vanimo Timber area (some 60,000 ha) was included in the investigations. In 1970, a major forest inventory led by Evan Shield with cartographer/draftsman Mike Jones was conducted
37
CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology Technical Paper # 1 1975 “The Pulping and Papermaking Potential of Tropical Hardwoods 1 Phillips F H and Harries E D 38 CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology Technical Paper # 2 1975 “The Pulping and Papermaking Potential of Tropical Hardwoods 1 Phillips F. H., Logan A.F. and Balodis V. 39 CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology Technical Paper #34 1975 “The Pulping and Papermaking Potential of Tropical Hardwoods 1 Logan A.F., and Phillips F H
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to augment the original inventory work. It was integrated with the collection of a representative sample of the commercial wood resource.
Map of the Vanimo Timber Area 1970 Dept of Forests. Details of Vanimo Timber Area Block Number
Forested Area (Ha)
Forested area Production Forest Area (ha) as % of area 1 28,070 76.8 21,560 2 58,010 80.6 46,740 3 24,560 73.8 18,140 4 64,670 93.9 60,700 5 60,010 79.4 47,670 6 51,900 75.7 39,270 Totals 287,240 81.5 234,080 [Later, the net loggable area was defined as 207,080 hectares (or 72 % of the gross area) after making allowance for village reserves, stream reserves, inaccessible areas, and areas for preservation of significant natural features.] The Timber Rights to the Vanimo Timber Area were purchased in 1967. Field sampling for wood samples was combined with an inventory survey lead by Evan Shield and mapping officer Mike Jones. For the inventory survey, sampling circular plots were established along strip lines at 100 metre intervals. The strip lines, 1.5-2 km long, were chosen to give adequate representation of the forest. The wood sample collection parties 49
followed the inventory survey and collected samples from several plots from each strip line. Samples were then carried to the end of each strip line for collection by helicopter. Vanimo T/A location forest sampling strip line map Mike Jones Dept of Forests 1970
Photo Credit Ian Whyte Vanimo Survey 1970
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From a base camp located on the airstrip at Ossima, two Bell 47G-3B1 helicopters ferried staff to sites throughout the Timber Area. A total of 93 Forestry Department staff was involved, together with two pilots and two aircraft engineers. The Departmental staff were divided into four-man teams, each team allocated to one of three functions that were carried out sequentially on each site sampled: (1) inventory, (2) verification and (3) wood sample collection. A small number of staff at base camp organized these activities and, just as importantly, the supplies required to maintain the momentum of activity. Of importance was arranging the air delivery from Vanimo (typically in a Cessna 206) of fuel for the helicopters and food for the staff. Given that this was the largest fixed-wing aircraft that could use the airstrip at Ossima, and it carried only two (200 litre) drums of Avgas per trip, this service had a high frequency.
Forests Survey Camp Osima photo credit Mike Jones 1970
Photo credit Ian Whyte Islander Ossima Airstrip Vanimo 1970
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TIMBER RIGHTS PURCHASES - THE KEY ELEMENT IN CREATING A FOREST ESTATE IN PNG BY 1975 In general landowners were reluctant to sell large areas of land for forestry development. However, they wished to have development of their natural resources and were willing to sell the timber resources growing on their land for periods of up to 40 years. By 1975, Australian foresters had undertaken initiatives for the development of communitybased forest management interventions including a forest concession system catering for all parties i.e., landowners; government agencies and developers. Much legal descriptive work was undertaken by the mapping section to describe timber rights purchase agreements. To establish a forest estate, be that temporary, the government was allowed by the landowners to acquire control over some 1.5 million hectares. Bob McKeowen 40 reported the work of the Mapping Branch in describing the timber rights purchase documents. The purchase documents had extremely basic maps with “meets and bounds�, descriptions of the subject land. There were no surveys, roads, fences, or property boundaries so they had to use natural features. Blue Ramsay as timber rights purchase officer would drop whatever map to Bob with the area outlined. Bob would then write a description for him. They were a good team!
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Personal communication Bob McKeowen 28th January 2021 Figure from New Horizons Dept of Forests 1973 publication Jacaranda Press
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PLANTATION ESTATE MAPPING The mapping section was involved in recording activities within each major plantation complex including area statistics.
Bulolo Wau Forest Area 1968 Dept of Forests.
Mount Lawes (Brown River) Territory Forest 1968 Dept of Forests. 53
TRAINING COURSES MAPPING CARTOGRAPHY BULOLO FORESTRY COLLEGE
L to R. Norma Collis, Blue Ramsay, Joe Havel, Bill Finlayson? Heinar Streimann. Photo credit Norma/Cheryl Collis 1964/65.
Forestry College Bulolo group photo was taken of the staff and students. L to R Norma Collis, Olga Woolcott, Heiner Streimann, Arthur Ramsay, Leon Clifford, Evan Shield, Gerry Cullen, Vivienne Shield, Pat Cattanach. Photo Credit Janelle Clifford 1966.
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Training Manual for the Forestry School – Forest Surveying Arthur (Blue) Ramsay PNG forestry School Dept of Forests 1969
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Presumably almost the original. Should have returned it.
Outline Blue Ramsay’s Forest Surveying Course Bulolo Forestry School 1969 56
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Development of the Cartography/Mapping Course
Phil Ainsworth was involved with the PNG Lands Department in establishing the curriculum for the initial cartography/mapping course run in Konedobu. It was then transferred to the Bulolo Forestry College. The course was established mid 1960's when there was a paucity of candidates with suitable academic qualifications which meant many, most or all students required remedial work in English and mathematics to a level commensurate to use the instruments and make the necessary calculations. The course was designed to fit the graduates for working in either the Lands or Forests Departments. He cannot recall how long the course was. Originally it would have been at least 2 years and probably part time allowing the students to return to their respective departments to gain experience. Lands had the space so the course was initially run there in Konedobu with both departments providing part time teachers until suitable full-time teachers could be recruited. The course content covered the following range of subjects, though not necessarily in order: 1 What is surveying, mapping and cartography? 2 Introduction to basic survey equipment e.g., compass, measuring tapes, theodolite, Abney levels, clinometers, Levels, stadia, measuring rods, field book and perhaps plane table including their purpose and use of. 3 Introduction to drafting equipment e.g., paper, scales, the compass, direction, pencils, pens, ink sliding ruler, roller ruler, planimeter etc. 4 Use of field books and plotting from same. 6 Introduction to simple stereoscopic instruments and their use. 7 Aerial interpretation for urban and forest mapping. 8 Plotting from aerial photography. 9 Introduction to geodetic grids and triangulation. 10 Introduction to map projections. 11 Introduction to reproduction for mapping purposes, equipment, and purpose. 12 Undertake a simple field exercise from planning to final map.
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Personal communication Phil Ainsworth 26th January 2021
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Phil Ainsworth recalls that when the course was in Port Moresby, a person from Lands and himself were the lecturers with Blue Ramsay taking the survey section of the course. When the course moved to the Bulolo Forestry College, and before a full-time draftsman was appointed, Phil was a visiting lecturer covering drafting subjects and aerial photography. Blue Ramsay undertook the survey subjects. Garry Flegg was appointed to present the mapping courses assisted for some time by Ken Harris.
Photo Credit Phil Pope Bulolo Forestry College 1970 Gary Flegg and Ken Harris Cartography
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Bulolo Forestry College Phil Pope Contribution
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Phil Ainsworth43 recruited Murray Day to Forestry in 1970, recognised his many talents. He asked him if he would go to the Bulolo Forestry College to train cartographic students. Murray willingly accepted the role and later moved onto the Institute of Technology in Lae when the Cartographic Course was transferred there. Phil left Forestry in early 1972 and lost track of Murray until he met with him at the April 2014 PNGAA luncheon in Perth. Phil has good memories of Murray, he was a decent person, friendly and was empathetic to others.
Figure 9. Bulolo Forestry College 1972 Photo Credit DIES 23 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.
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6 45
7 9 8 10
12 13 11
14 16 17 18 19 15
Marcel John Thompson, Building Maintenance Steve Denison, Lecturer English Patrick Eduardo de la Barra (Chile), Lecturer Silviculture Murray Day, Lecturer Drafting Rick Stokes (obscured), Lecturer Utilisation Patsy Gillison J.R.B. ("Robin") Angus, College Principal May Bayley Gena Kevau Tom Watson, College Registrar Norma Collis Gary Archer, Lecturer Forest Management Marianne Horak (Switzerland), Lecturer Maths Ken Harris, Lecturer Drafting Gary Flegg, Lecturer Drafting Bob Johns, Lecturer Forest Botany Andy Gillison, Lecturer Forest Ecology
Personal communication Phil Ainsworth December 2020
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Forestry College Training Manual Dept of Forests 1973. Forest Assessment and Working Plans.
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Course Contents Forestry College Training Manual Dept of Forests 1973. Forest Assessment and Working Plans.
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1975 UNITECH Lae Mapping/Surveying/Cartography Courses 44
Professor John Davidson advised that the following courses were taught in Lae at UNITECH in 1975-1976: SV 421 Forest Surveying Three hours of lectures and practical work per week. Course description General principles in surveying. Applications of ground surveying in forestry. Principles of plane surveying. Measurement and setting out of distances and angles. Computation and closure of traverses. Degrees of accuracy. Instruments and techniques for forest surveys. Precision of field measurements. Planning field surveys. Ground surveys for location, design and setting out of forest roads. Computation and mapping of survey data. SV 160 Elementary Drafting Three hours of lectures and practical work per week. Course description Elementary plan drawing and cartography as applied to survey drafting, plotting, lettering, conventional signs and symbols, standard plans, enlargement, reduction, and reproduction. SV 431 Photogrammetry for Foresters Three hours of lectures and practical work per week. Course description Fundamental of aerial photo interpretation, and its use in forestry. Stereoscopic vision tests. Elements of aerial photography: cameras, film, and processing. Forestry requirements for aerial photography. Elements of photogrammetry. Photo interpretation. Principles and techniques of mapping from aerial photographs. All three courses were taught in the Department of Surveying at Unitech, as indicated by the “SV” prefix. Two were given at Year Four level, as indicated the first number “4”, and one at First Year level as indicated by the first number “1”. Two staff were involved in sharing the load. SV 421 was largely the responsibility of Mr K I Massey, a New Zealander, with some lectures given by Mr M K Day. SV 160 and SV 431 were the sole responsibility of Mr M K Day. Mr K I Massey, MNZIS, Registered Surveyor, MASPNG Lecturer (Surveying) (Department of Surveying) Previous appointments: R G Brickell, Moss & Partners N Z, Wall, Bogle, Payne N Z, Forest Surveyor N Z Forest Service Rotorua, Conservancy Surveyor NZ Forest Service in Rotorua and Nelson, Senior Surveyor, M O W, Turangi, N Z. Main areas of interest: Forestry surveying.
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Prof John Davidson personal communication 24th January 2021
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Mr M K Day, Dip Cart (WA), Dip Eng Surv (WA) Principal Instructor (Cartography, Elementary Drafting, Photogrammetry for Foresters) (Department of Surveying) Previous appointments: Forests Department of WA, Department of Forests PNG, and Forestry College, Bulolo. Main areas of interest: Cartography and Photogrammetry. These courses were aerial photo based, and concentrated on hand drawing of paper maps, since back then the technology was well before high resolution satellite photographs, Google maps, and computerised Geographic Information Systems that could help do interpretation and print off maps in a matter of minutes!
Procession entering Duncanson Hall for the PNGUT 11th Graduation Ceremony, 1979. 1. Prof John Davidson (Pro Vice-Chancellor), 2. Matt Tigilai (Deputy Vice-Chancellor), 3. Dr Alan Mead (Vice-Chancellor), 4. Ms Rose Kekedo (Chancellor). The tall person (197 cm tall) near the centre of the photograph is Murray Day, formerly of the Department of Forests Port Moresby and the Forestry College, Bulolo, then Principal Instructor (Cartography, Elementary Drafting, Photogrammetry for Foresters) in the Department of Surveying at the PNGUT. Photo credit Gloria Davidson 1979.
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Phil Ainsworth joined the Dept of Forests in 1960 as a cartographer and eventually head of the mapping section. In 1971, after completing his Economic Degree, he became Forests Economist and then to National Planning from 1971-1981. Phil is the President of the NGVR and PNGVR Association which has a Military Museum at Wacol Brisbane and a committee person of the PNGAA, based in Sydney. He was also President of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society which raised $500,000 and installed the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru National Memorial at the AWM, Canberra in 2012. As part of these organisations, he has been involved in the production of several self-publishing books and regular newsletters pertinent to the goals of these organisations. Two prominent and founding PNG foresters, Jim McAdam and Jim Cavanaugh also had outstanding WW2 military records in the NGVR and later other units, McAdam as OIC PNG forestry and management of timber supplies for the war effort and Cavanaugh in one of the lesser-known intelligence organisations. Both were the leading scouts in the Salamaua raid of 29 July 1942 when over 100 IJA soldiers were killed - Australian casualties were one wounded. Many of the earlier forestry and timber workers also served in NGVR and ANGAU. One well recognised person was Frank Holland from Pondo, NB who assisted ADO Keith McCarthy in evacuating about 200 men along the north coast of NB and escaping south on the Lakatoi from the Witu Islands after the Japanese occupation of the NG Islands.
PHIL’S STORY PNG - FORESTS Before PNG I worked in the drawing office of the Qld Forestry Office under Chief Draftsman Corby Woods who told me that Keith Cullen had worked there before joining the Army during WW2. I was appointed a Survey Draftsman in the Department of Forests PNG, arriving there in July 1960. I arrived at Jacksons airport about 6am and was met by Russ Turrell, who later married Gloria Finger who at that time worked in Forest’s Drafting Office. The Forest Office including the drawing office was accommodated in DASF’s building in Konedobu. I lived in the Port Moresby Hotel for 2 months before being allotted a place in a 2 bedroom donga at Newtown with Tim Ward. Tim was a budding Technical Officer in Forests moonlighting as an ABC announcer. I vividly remember the living area of the donga was painted bright red, Tim’s choice. Tim later became a plantation owner on Goodenough Island and a member of the Legislative House. I last saw Tim at a Rex Wiggins organised Forest reunion on the Gold Coast about 15 years ago, I understand Tim died a short time after. I married Joan Decker in Brisbane in September 1960 and upon our return to Port Moresby we moved into a private flat above Ela Beach for six months. When Ted Grey was leaving to 67
take up a 12-month overseas scholarship, Joan, and I were caretakes for his home. On his return, we fortuitously moved into Jim Cavanaugh’s home until our leave was due. During the first two years our twin daughters were born, and I recall having to leave Joan and the twins in Brisbane upon my return from first leave. I spent another two months in the Port Moresby Hotel before I was allocated a new Dowsett home in Mirigini Street, Boroko. I met Keith Cullen, who was the Chief Draftsman, and Draftsman Laurie Edwards on my first day, as well as secretaries Gloria Finger, Liz Steidle and Papuan Clerical Assistants Tom Ravu and Ginate Guhuna. Laurie’s duties were maintaining the Air Photo Library and carrying out the drawing office’s responsibilities regarding timber leases and the like. A couple of years later Forests moved to the old Konedobu Club building located further up the hill. This was a termite infested shed with a lean to which became the Drafting Office (if one placed one’s ear to the wall, you could hear the termites). The paint in places was the only thing holding the wall together. During the late 1960’s the Department moved to new specially constructed premises on a hillock at Hohola. The nearby Forest Resource Division had been relocated from Newtown some time before after it had been allocated a piece of land for that purpose. The Drawing Office’s Aerial Photographic Library was PNG’s only store of aerial photographs, comprising pre-war, wartime and post -war photography. The high quality and extent of the pre-war aerial photography used for mining exploration purposes was a surprise. The war-time photography of the battle fields was exciting to view. Unfortunately, the aerial photography library with its vast store of historic information and the department’s office at Hohola were destroyed by fire, circa 1980’s. I recall the first job Keith Cullen gave me was to map the Brown River Forestry Area which had a forest station with experimental plantings. A programme for planting teak was being planned and reliable mapping was required. Ian Grundy was the Forest Officer posted there and many good times were had. One activity to while away a lazy weekend was to ride the Station’s tinnie down the Brown River and ducking under the log jam with associated activities. Keith Cullen was unwell for several years before his retirement and I was appointed Chief Draftsman. This was during Don McIntosh’s Directorship. I first became involved with Jim Cavanaugh when the survey control required for the Brown River Forest mapping needed to be expanded north of the Mt Lawes / Hombrum Bluff line. Using a theodolite and the known co-ordinates of existing survey stations, Jim and I extended the control northwards to encompass the forest area. This was before funds and specialists were available for contracting geodetic surveys and large-scale specialist aerial photography and everyone made do with the existing aerial photography, wartime and high level, small scale photography supplied by Australian National Mapping. I recall the fun we had taking large scale aerial photographs of the Brown River Forestry area from a Cessna with a hole in the floor using two departmental Hasselblad 110 format cameras 68
alternatively. Each photo was sufficiently overlapped longitudinally and latitudinally to allow stereoscopic viewing for mapping and forest interpretation. The main difficulties were getting the pilot to keep the aircraft on the required bearing and then correctly aligning the aircraft for the next parallel run. Another time we were using a Pilatus Porter STOL aircraft for the same activity over the Sirinumu Dam area. Instead of a hole in the floor, the Pilatus was rigged for dropping stores from the air by opening large doors on the underneath of the aircraft. The floor of the cabin was removed, and we photographers sat on the centre seats. When the photography commenced the bomb-bay was opened and there we were, fully suspended in our seats over the opening- I nearly dropped the cameras from the initial shock. The maps were prepared using slotted templates representing the photographs over a geodetic survey framework to place the photographs and features in their correct relationship. The geographic and vegetative features would be plotted using a simple stereo plotting machine planimetrically. Before my arrival, the drafting office had purchased a US machine, a Multiplex, to plot contours but no-one was able to operate it. I was aware that the Queensland Forestry Dept was working with Qld Lands Dept towards being able to efficiently map contours but lacked the equipment. I arranged for our Multiplex machine to be loaned to Qld Forests which managed to get the plotter working by exchanging the existing scale cone for the correct one with the manufacturer. During my first leave in 1962, I spent a couple of weeks in Brisbane learning to use the plotter. When the plotter was returned to PNG about 6 months later, contour mapping was achieved. This was the start of topographical mapping in PNG. When I left the Drafting Office, the Office had two B8 Wild plotters and a staff of 31. (See 1972 photograph). Sometime after I transferred from Forests, Lands established the National Mapping Agency and assumed this function. John Van As, a draftsman from Forests and whom the Department had arranged for him to attend a 12-month aerial photogrammetry course in the Netherlands assumed leadership of this work. John is on my right in the 1972 photograph. Many expatriates served in the Drawing Office during the eleven years I was there, besides those in the photo there was Keith Cullen, Bob Audas, Murray Day, Gary Flegg and many more. Early in my PNG work I also became responsible for maintaining and upgrading Bulolo / Wau mapping to meet the expanding araucaria planting programme. Besides mapping, assistance was provided interpreting aerial photography and contour mapping to plot potential road locations and annual planting coups boundaries. Post planting surveys of roads and boundaries were plotted using traditional survey methods and from aerial photography when it was available. During this time, many interesting initiatives were achieved. The Cartographic Course for Papua New Guineans was started. It being housed initially in the Dept of Lands, Konedobu, for lands and forestry drafting students. The Course was switched to the Bulolo Forestry School when it commenced. Initially I was one of the instructors, however this changed as other expatriate draftsmen came on the scene and when the course moved to Bulolo. When the course commenced in Bulolo, I was the initial instructor for drafting subjects. Afterwards, Forest Drafting staff were permanently posted to Bulolo Forest School to instruct at this
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course, Gary Clegg, Murray Day are two I recall. After I transferred from Forests, the course was transferred to the University of Technology in Lae. I developed a good working relationship with the Surveyor General, Graham Mathieson, which proved of huge benefit. Lands had a small Geodetic Survey Section but no topographic mapping section. Lands had a relatively large budget with limited staff to expend it. Forests had need for geodetic surveys for mapping control and specialist aerial photographs of forest areas which were part of the national forest inventory. A little known but close partnership was formed using Lands geodetic staff for mapping control and its funds for forestry aerial photography. Forests undertook the topographical mapping, initially planimetrically later topographically when the Wild B8’s were purchased. Gerd Strehler, who worked for the US Army after WW2, introduced the technique of using a small air pressure gun to apply inked shading to accentuate the topography. This proved popular in assisting the readability of Forest’s maps. Many large, forested areas were surveyed and mapped towards completing a forest inventory of PNG. After these areas were interpreted and mapped in the office, a specialist team would be assembled for field checking of the forest. A helicopter was used to insert and recover the teams who were used to identify and measure the trees within the small randomly selected plots scattered over the area. Many of our draftsmen accompanied these field teams to more accurately and timely finalise the mapping to allow early completion of the inventory report. One helicopter experience that I will always remember is when I was returning to Port Moresby from a survey over the Vanapa area. It was a Friday morning, and we were unusually about 1000 feet directly over the airport when the pilot asked if I minded if he did an auto-roto. Having no idea what it was, I said yes, and immediately he put the engine in idle and dropped the nose until we were heading for the centre of the runway, vertically. The altimeter spun around anti-clockwise at an alarming rate and the ground quickly approached. I could do nothing but hope all would be well. At the last moment he pulled up the nose of the helicopter, applied power and calmly flew over the ground to his parking spot and I, as calmly as possible, bid him farewell. The next day, Saturday, I was on Ela Beach with my family when a helicopter flew low over the beach several times, buzzed the crowd, and then landed on the beach outside the RSL. After a while it departed. The following edition of the Post Courier reported that the helicopter pilot had made unauthorised circuits and landing on the beach and had been sent south on the Sunday aircraft. QASCO Aerial Surveys was a Queensland company specialising in aerial photography and topographical mapping. QASCO followed other companies such as Firns and Patair which attempted this specialty. I do not recall which project was first, but when we were ready to appoint QASCO for its first significant aerial photography contract, I discovered there was no contract of this type available. Using a US photogrammetric book sample and inserting the fundamental requirements of the project, I prepared the successful contract. The contract met Crown Law’s requirements and the project was completed. To my knowledge this form of contract was used for subsequent PNG aerial photography. The culmination of this partnership with the Surveyor General and Lands Department was the production of the first PNG series of coloured topographical maps with cadastre and nomenclature. This series comprised six, 1:50,000 scaled, coloured, topographical maps of Rabaul and vicinity using 1962 Adastra Aerial Surveys photography supplemented with 1970 QASCO Aerial Surveys photography, geodetic control by Lands with stereo-plotting, 70
drafting, and printing by QASCO Aerial Surveys. This series was printed and published in 1971, all co-ordinated through Forest’s Drawing Office. At one stage the araucaria plantations in the Bulolo and Wau valley were being devasted by dieback, but the extent of and reason for it were unknown. Entomologist Barry Gray was appointed to study the situation. An issue was to map the extent of the problem. Being aware that Canadian Mining Company Placer Developments was to undertake experimental aerial photography for mineral exploration purposes in the Bulolo/Wau area, I arranged urgent funding from Lands and negotiated with Placer for multi spectrum aerial photography of the plantation areas. This photography highlighted the affected area which was then mapped and measured accordingly. A detailed assessment of the remaining natural araucaria in the valleys available for logging was requested. After the method for interpreting the densities and the number of types by density of the stand was ascertained, the remaining natural forest was interpreted and mapped. A difficulty was how these many small areas by type could be measured accurately. An acceptable accurate solution used was to cut out and weigh the pieces by density type from a paper print of the map of the selected area and compare and adjust the aggregated weight of the various forest density pieces with the initial weight of the whole area. During the 1960’s I began an Economics Degree correspondence course through the University of Queensland. I graduated late 1971. In 1972 I transferred from the Drawing Office to the Economics Section under Clarrie Higham. Just prior to my move to PNG I was commissioned as an Officer in 5 Field Regiment in Brisbane. After my PNG appointment I transferred from 5 Field Artillery Regiment to the Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (PNGVR) an Australian CMF infantry battalion, initially as a Platoon Commander and later as a Company Commander. I served in PNGVR from 1960 to 1968. PHIL’S LIFE AFTER PNG FORESTS45 After graduating in Economics from Queensland University, Phil was involved in PNG forestry project negotiations before moving to the Central Planning Office in 1972. He stayed with this organization until 1981, serving under its head, Charles Lepani, a former PNG High Commissioner to Australia. Phil is the founding partner and long serving Managing Director of King and Co, a leading Queensland commercial and industrial property company which he established in 1988. King & Co has quickly become a leading player in South East Queensland's commercial real estate market. This company’s expertise has made it a respected authority in this field. Phil is also credited with strongly influencing the debate on transport in South East Queensland and he is a respected analyst on the relationship between the commercial property industry and major transport infrastructure. Phil has also been the President of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles and Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles Ex-Members Association Inc, which has a strong track record in working 45
PNG Attitude 1 Feb 2009. Phil Ainsworth – profile of a reformer 71
with Papua New Guinea to ensure that the contribution of this group is recognized and remembered. Phil’s association with the military began when he was obliged to undertake National Service training in 1955. He transferred to the CMF at about the same time he was commissioned in the Artillery Corps in 1959. As soon as he was appointed to PNG, Phil transferred to the PNG Volunteer Rifles, an Australian CMF unit, as a platoon commander in Port Moresby. He recalls as perhaps the most satisfying part of his military service being in 1964 when the integration of Papua New Guineans into the PNGVR occurred. When the PNGVR was disbanded in 1973, just prior to self-government, over 80 percent of members were Papua New Guineans and the first commissioned officers had been appointed. Phil transferred to the military reserve in 1968 with the rank of Captain. Phil has been a member of PNGAA since October 2008, about the time he first contacted the organization concerning the proposed Montevideo Maru Memorial at Subic Bay. He became interested in joining the Association because of the restructuring proposal he read about on the Association’s website. Although the NGVR/PNGVR Association is working positively to benefit relations between Australia and Papua New Guinea, it would always be limited because of its nature. Phil Ainsworth led the PNGAA Reform Group as it sought to engender a new mood of unity, harmony, and reform in the Association. The renewed PNGAA seemed to him to be an ideal vehicle for building the relationship: a large and growing Australia-wide membership; an excellent journal; and, above all, a broad community of people who had an affinity with Papua New Guinea and who seemed committed to develop and build meaningful engagement with our nearest neighbour.
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Keith Cullen Chief Draftsman 1946 to 1972. Reflections by Terry Cullen and Allan Cullen.
Kev White and Keith Cullen (back to camera) “in conference” at the Kone Club, 1968 Photo Credit Ken Granger Hector Keith CULLEN was born in 1919 at Goondiwindi, Qld – He died early April 1973 (1month after his 54th birthday). He was survived by Eileen (deceased September 2015). He married Eileen (b. 1925) in 1946, and they had sons Terry (Lae 1947), Alan (1950) & Brian (1952). Keith was the third son of Tom (a senior Queensland Police Sergeant) & Eva CULLEN siblings were Erie, Mervyn & Max. In 194646 Keith Cullen was recruited from Queensland Forestry by Jim McAdam to work in Lae on aerial photography before transferring to Port Moresby. He resigned due to ill health in 1972. 47
Terry Cullen described the contribution on his father Hector Keith CULLEN (1919-1973) who was Chief Draftsman of the Dept of Forests/Forestry from 1946 until his (enforced) early retirement in 1972. Terry knew generally what his father was doing in his role and familiar with his personal, military & professional history before & after TP&NG service, his unique skills & specialisations, and some details about his Forestry service, and even a sense of that significance.
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Linda Cavanaugh Manning personal communication 13 April 2020 Terry Cullen personal communication 11 May 2018
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Although his formal qualifications unknown, prior to World War 2, he worked in Queensland Forests and Lands Survey Section. During World War 2 he enlisted in the AIF and served in 1 Survey Corps in the Borneo Theatre. He was apparently a highly efficient marksman. He reportedly refused a commission. He was sufficiently connected to manage to have his youngest brother assigned to his Corps for the duration of hostilities - Max, an accountant, also worked in TP&NG for forestry in the 1950s-60s at Kikori & Moresby until taking a RAAF commission in Supply. Phil Ainsworth48 wrote to Terry thanking him for providing details which filled in a lot of gaps. When Keith enlisted, he would have enlisted in the AIF. When Keith went to Borneo, I assume he was still in the Survey Corps as maps would have been required there. I remember his brother Max in Forestry and going to the RAAF. I cannot recall the year that Keith left PNG. Terry reports that Uncle Max was a great bloke, one of nature's gentlemen ... and he & Dad got on well. Terry reports that Keith’s WW2 military service is partially sealed with only the barest of bones of his service in 1 Survey Corp(?) accessible, begging its own questions. Keith was demobbed as a senior NCO (sergeant). Keith arrived in Lae 1946 with an assignment to secure mapping and other material held there, nominally working for Forestry. Keith held an ASIO clearance. In 1949 he moved to Moresby. During his period in Port Moresby, he was offered & refused senior Canberra posting(s). Terry’s understanding is that the forestry photogrammetric library of which Keith was custodian may have subject to who-knows-what Australian (and other) security provisions because it was his understanding that Keith had an ASIO clearance. At one stage it covered the whole of Dutch New Guinea (now West Irian) and well beyond. Keith was involved in the 1960s US geo-mapping & remote-sensing project from Melanesia (and eastwards?) across Indonesia into southeast Asia. Terry was glad that Barry Gray and Eric Hammermaster were part of this project. Entomologist Dr Barry Gray, one-time Mayor of Caloundra City Council, remembered Dad as somebody with whom Barry always got along well. In pleading being computer-averse, Barry Gray is being coy and underrates his street credentials. What Barry told me about his working relationship with Keith most impressed me - Dad got along with everyone, nonjudgemental & treating everybody with respect & how he found them. Eric Hammermaster revealed to Terry last time they met (at Barry Gray's!) how Keith skilfully managed a bit of tension between a pair of his senior draftsman. For the 2nd youngest son of a Queensland country Police Sergeant and the only one of the four sons who refused a commission, choosing doggedly to remain a senior NCO, his people skills were subtle and understated, evident even to myself his eldest son before that was demanded/expected of myself. Don McIntosh (who was also a contemporary) had two sons who would now be about mid60s if still alive. Keith was on sick leave through the latter part of 1970 until departure in early 1971, maybe the date of his 53rd birthday because he only lived another 2yrs beyond that ... because he was not "allowed" to work until his 55th at risk to his superannuation (redundancy & early 48
Phil Ainsworth personal communication 8 October 2018
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retirement conditions have become more logical since those archaic days), he was bored out of his skull so whenever we had some sort of outing it was a welcome distraction for him. However, Keith declined any & all opportunities for overseas travel and never really settled into retirement. Keith Cullen died in April 1973 and is buried at Pinaroo Lawn Cemetery.
Surveying - Surveying 5th Field Survey Coy (a Queensland unit). Dad and his team surveying somewhere in North Queensland. Photo credit Alan Cullen.
Keith Cullen at work at Konebobu. Photo credit Allen Cullen
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Murray Day joined Forestry in 1970 as a senior draftsman at Konedobu. He was transferred to the Forestry College in Bulolo as a lecturer in Cartography over the period 1971- 72. The course was transferred to PNG Institute of Technology in Lae in 1973. He was successful in being appointed to teach in Lae and held a variety of positions. He departed PNG in 1983. On return to Perth, he was recruited by TAFE and developed new courses in Remote Sensing (which he also taught in Malaysia) and GIS. He spent 2 years as consultant Education and Training on a World Bank project in Vietnam introducing Torrens Title systems. Appointed as Director of International Operations he set up teaching institutions in China, Hong Kong, Qatar, Kuwait, and worked in Iran. He retired through ill health in 2007. Murray was fluent in Tok Pisin and set up the WA chapter of PNGAA. Murray died in 2019. MURRAY’S REMINISCES OF PNG TIMES COOL IN THE CHOPPER by Murray Day While teaching Cartography and Surveying at the Bulolo Forestry College in 1972 a request was received from Headquarters for assistance on a mapping project over the Bulolo-Wau valley areas. From memory, air photography had been flown but ground control for mapping was existing but not identified. This meant the resultant mapping imagery on the photography could not be “nailed down” in a mapping project with any confidence to its horizontal position and height. Contemporary project planning was for” pre-marking” control, utilizing existing ground control like trig points or establishing new ground features, and marking with a cross + which would appear on the resultant photography and make the mapping process much simpler. The history of Bulolo Gold Dredging/Placer Prospecting/ Placer Development and New Guinea Gold/Edie Creek mining over the areas, and WW2, had resulted in quite a strong triangulation network, which appeared on the photography but could not be identified. The project thus entailed finding the triangulation network points on the ground, marking them with a aluminum sisalation cross + (about 1000mm wide and 5000 mm long) and then undertaking “spot photography” of the point. The spot photography + would then be transferred to the mapping photography using a differential stereoscope and then mapping could commence. Each transferred + would have a known, in the vernacular, an N, E and RL. Spot photography strategy requires the use of a helicopter. As I was aware of the locations of most of the selected trig stations in the valleys my initial strategy was to walk in to them, place the + sisalation marks, pay to the local inhabitants a “holding fee” until the “helikopta igo pinis ”as I understood the sisalation provided an attraction as outstanding roofing material on bush material village housing. Using the photography to identify tracks with a small group of students we drove as far as we could go up the mountains. I then attempted to walk under the canopies up and up the ridges to trig stations, which were on top! Big mistake! After 4 hours walking, I was lost, gave up, and just started walking down hill following creeks, hoping I would return to the vehicle, the Bulolo River would do! It did not happen! With sheer luck in the middle of nowhere I stumbled on a water race and gold mining villagers sluicing for gold. The water race, its hand built non-cemented rock sides was a work of art, and the fall of the water across the contours would have done credit to a surveyor setting it out with a precise level. It was some 300 metres long. Some cigarettes changed hand plus the promise of some money, and it was agreed that one of the miners would take us back to the vehicle. They knew where it was, and 1 hour later we were reunited! 76
So, strategy number 2 was devised. Take the passenger door off the Bell 47 which had arrived and was working off the College soccer field, Attach a stout rope to the seat to tie me the passenger from free falling out, adopt a cruise speed over the trig stations and from that to ensure 60% overlap occurred, calculate a time between exposures to satisfy the overlap and finally a flying height above the trig station which as far as possible would result in the same image scale as the already obtained mapping photography taken with a 152mm lens. This would make the control transfer stereoscopically much more precise. In practise I used my Yashica 35mm camera and araldited two level bubbles at right angles to the rear casing. This was to try and ensure the photography was tilt free at exposure to avoid image displacement, i.e., the principal axis of the camera was normal to the ground (geoid more technically correct.) To take the photographs it was necessary to have one boot on the skid and take the photos between the skid and the helicopter belly, holding the camera at skid level with the bubbles centred and counting the seconds between exposures and depressing the shutter, winding on, and so on as the chopper pilot choofed along a given bearing over the trig station at the calculated cruise speed and height. Not forgetting the rope around my waist of course! Added to all these technical solutions was the weather.......in Bulolo –Wau it would get quite cloudy and cold, there were and still are I would assume fantastic moss forests in the Wau area, beech, and other forest species, though walking through it with the undergrowth sometime up to your chest is a bit disconcerting. With the chopper door off it was bitterly cold. Moreover, the Bell chopper was naturally aspirated and the higher we went the slower the climb to exposure height. We were into large spirals! The strategy of marking with the sisalation + required some other strategies. As most of the trig stations were on mountain tops or kunai clearings there was the opportunities to land in some cases, walk across to the trig, place the sisalation, get back on board, take off for a 30minute climb to the calculated altitude, only to find it had been souvenired by local villagers. It was then necessary to repeat the process and “buy”, albeit temporally a lookout to protect the marking, the aforementioned “hold fee”, then on completion of the photography the villages would take the marking. Where this was not possible, we introduced student support. Milne Bay students were chosen as they were short and light of frame and tough. The biggest thing about them was most times their hair style! The chopper would hover near the trig point and out would go the bush knife, then the student, whose role was select an easily cleared spot so the chopper could “sindaun”. Then the target + could be placed and the photography undertaken. In extreme cases it would be impossible to land so the student would climb off the skid and I would assist their return with a lift at hover. The pilot was an ex Royal Navy, who had been made redundant out of Singapore and brilliant. Incredibly careful and safety conscious. We would contact Lae Traffic Tower continuously re our operations and they would inform us of LAE-POM-LAE traffic, its height and other, which we would identify in the air, and check in. They needed to be 10 000 feet plus if they got into trouble in cloud on this known route. Our project flying height was always below this. Many a time it was disconcerting on board a DC3 or Twin Otter on RPT on this run to see the pilot on oxygen while we passengers froze! The Yashica spot photography imagery was sent to Moresby when the project was completed where I assume the mapping commenced. A very satisfying project.
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Photo Credit Murray Day Department of Forests 1973 Bulolo Forestry College Bulolo
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MURRAY KENNETH DAY
“The Flying Beetle”
After eight years in the Mapping Branch of the Forests Department of WA and completing a government cadetship it was time to move on. I was 220 on the Public Service promotion list, based at that time on seniority. Over this period, I had completed qualifications in cartography and surveying and most of my work experience was in the acquisition of aerial photographs, their interpretation and photogrammetric mapping. This included field survey for ground control. I was recruited by the PNG Department of Lands Surveys and Mines and arrived in Port Moresby in March 1970. I was interviewed in Perth by Lands Secretary Neville Logan and as soon as he established, I had a pulse I was offered a Drafting Officer position based at Konedobu. I was to commence on a salary of near $5000 per annum, an $800 annual increase plus a housing allowance of about $350 per annum. I was quite impressed! My surveying experience came in handy on arrival to track down an allocated brand new AR20 hidden by high grass at Gordon’s Estate. I inherited the position of “Titles Clerk” and my duties included arranging for the acquisition of customary land for government purposes like schools and aid posts and for further infrastructure development, a bit of a shock given my predominantly mapping background. A Rubik cube was easier to solve than some of the submitted kiaps’ land purchase compass surveys, a few I think undertaken through the bottom of an empty Buka Meri rum bottle at night. Some supposed quadrilaterals plotted with three sides! I also inherited some files relating to ongoing title restoration in New Guinea, where all Titles were lost in WW2. Further research uncovered copies of original German titles, plantations which were compulsorily acquired after WW1 and the remarkably interesting role of the Custodian of Expropriated Property based in Canberra. Just as an awakening of interest in customary land tenure was occurring and I was getting a good handle on all the PNG land law a drafting promotional position was advertised in the Forestry Department Drawing Office at Konedobu in October, to which I was appointed. I spent just two months or so at Headquarters before being informed by Phil Ainsworth I was being transferred to Bulolo Forestry College to teach the final year of the jointly sponsored Forestry/ Lands, Surveys and Mines Cartography course and was to decide to be at post for the commencement of the 1971 academic year. Further discussions followed. Rather naively I asked if you could drive to Bulolo! I had purchased a second-hand VW Beetle on arrival. Phil was very patient. I then enquired about other options, thinking coastal boat, which he considered would take about two to three months, then only to Lae. Further discussion followed and it was suggested that I speak to a man at Ansett at Jackson’s about a DC3 with cargo doors. Phil further explained he was aware that various logs from Bulolo were to be bought to Moresby for testing, so maybe there was an opportunity for my car and my household effects to be a back/ load. Off I went to Ansett and it was agreed that with a few adjustments my car would fit, and if I loaded all my personal effects from our house back into my cardboard cartons they too would be uplifted at the same time. So, the charter was “on”. Instructions for my car were explicit. Remove the front bumper and left-hand mudguard. Remove the rear bumper and diagonal right-hand mudguard. Just leave enough fuel in the petrol tank to get to Jackson’s. Once there, disconnect both car battery terminals, store the two mudguards and bumpers leaving the drivers position free. Arrange for the personal effects cartons to be delivered at the same time. Leave the key in the ignition.
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In time, the charter day arrived and driving to the airport I was greeted by lots of horn blowing and flashing of headlights from other motorists as this one eyed one mudguard bug approached, even the odd finger! At the airport, the various instructions were carried out and then a supervisor jumped in to steer my car, it was pushed toward a dilapidated DC3 with big doors, by a group of about 12 men I assumed were off the airport labour line. I identified this group as Goilala’s, from the highlands of Central District. Their build was unmistakable, almost as wide as they were tall, with huge chests and legs like telegraph poles. None had shoes; I doubt the broadness of their feet precluded any off the shelf purchases. After some discussion and direction from the supervisor my car was effortlessly lifted by the said group and the engine end (rear) inserted backwards into the DC3. Further adjustments were made, and the front of the car was swallowed. All in! My wife and I departed the next day on a regular DC3 RTO flight to Bulolo. I understand the labour line from the Bulolo Forestry Station under John Godlee were given the role of extraction (under supervision) and my car, without a scratch was then towed to the College and my personal effects delivered to yet another AR20, on the edge of the College campus. After reattaching all the said components and reconnecting electrical wiring I was mobile. The Volkswagen Beetle proved to be outstanding in Bulolo and proved many times its ability handling the dozen odd fords along the Lae road while undertaking the 80-kilometer two-hour, three monthly buying visits to the “big smoke”.
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MURRAY KENNETH DAY
“Bulolo Tragedy”
Bulolo has a fascinating history of aviation which commenced in the 1930’s where cargo traffic LAE-BULOLO had the highest tonnage in the world. Guinea Airways became famous flying Junker and Tri- motor Fords in and out. The enormous gold dredges were taken apart or delivered by ship at Lae in Mechano set like pieces, then flown in from Lae and then reconstructed to working order. James Sinclair’s “Wings of Gold” provides an outstanding detail and photography of this project. Over my period in Bulolo 1971-1972 it was also the centre for RAAF helicopter training and navigation. An area the size of a soccer ground next to the Pine Lodge Pub (naturally) was cleared and approximately 12 choppers took up residence for about 1 month. They departed everyday with their synonymous THUMP THUMP THUMP engine noise, away on their exercises. Their avgas was delivered by truck from Lae. On departure any avgas unused in the 200 litre drums was available to residents, not that there was a lot. I put about 20 litres into my Beetle, it really felt the difference. In Bulolo you could not lay any rubber, just eject at high velocity the road base of round river gravel into your back mudguards. I was informed by Heinz, the local mechanic that my Beetle had a compression ratio of about 7:1 and the avgas to it was like an expensive wine, in moderation ok, but full on it would burn out the exhaust valves. On reflection I thought “Yes, I have been there” and it was a particularly good analogy. The Bulolo community embraced these groups and invited them to functions including the Bulolo Golf Club. After golf, darts and snooker and billiards we even took them on at rugby one night, in the Golf Club. It was necessary to move the piano and tables and chairs of course, the ball was a taped up roll out of the toilet, the dance hall was slippery and hard, as we found out the next morning trying to get out of bed and locate missing collars and sleeves. Last out of the Club each evening locked the bar then on leaving threw the keys onto the front verandah of the President’s house opposite. That night my Beetle disappeared from the car park. I arranged a lift home with a neighbor. The next morning it was in another club member’s driveway. He was the owner of the other Beetle in Bulolo and said he just jumped in and put his key into the ignition and away it went! He informed that he realized something was wrong but in the alcoholic haze it did not compute as he had problems reaching the pedals. (The author and owner of the Beetle “stolen” was 197cm tall about 6’5” in the old lingo, hence the seat was always at its longest leg setting!) It should be also understood that in those times and Bulolo being a Company town special rules and regulations were enforced regarding national employees’ movements after dark hence the laisez faire approach to the ‘stolen” car. On Saturday night we invited them to the Bulolo Hall to watch a movie, generally incredibly old, with the proviso the POM DC3 got in, late afternoon. That was the entertainment highlight for the week. In discussion with one RAAF pilot, I remarked on the lack of precision of mapping, the weather forecasting and topography in the area made flying extremely dangerous in PNG. He informed that this was the very reason why they were in Bulolo and environs. He added that you could make mistakes training in Australia (I think they were from Amberley) but in PNG this threat level was 5 times! In August 1972, a tragedy occurred just out of Bulolo when a RAAF Caribou disappeared around the Kudjeru Gap, a little closer to Wau. Of the 29 on board, in the main Moresby school cadets, only 4 survived. The Bulolo community, the nearest larger town, was kept in the dark so to speak as messages raced between Port Moresby and Canberra and Defense. Little was released to our single POM ABC radio station as search and rescue programs were being 81
planned and implemented. Eventually it was necessary to make an announcement. Aerial searching entered its 3rd day. I understand that every available aircraft was made available out of Lae. Further I understand the 4 surviving cadets were located walking down a riverbed. To the uninitiated being a spotter in a search aircraft is not for the faint hearted. The pilot banks and throws the plane from wingtip to wingtip if he sees something. He ducks around to retrace his steps. He also throws on the brakes, i.e., almost stalls the plane to slow it down for a longer look. He flies low sometimes; you can smell the leaves of the trees! The stall warning hooter goes off incessantly. It drives you batty! The spotter needs a good spew bag! Bulolo town swung into action in providing all types of support for the search. The Forestry College soccer oval adjacent to my house was commandeered as the body bag receiving station via chopper when eventually that phase was implemented. The bodies were taken to the refrigerated seed store at the Forestry Station nearby. College students and Forestry staff volunteered ground search missions. CNGT, the Bulolo Town Company commenced soldering together tin “coffins’ to facilitate return of victims to Port Moresby. Distraught parents were flown in and accommodated. Word was received at the Golf Club which was acting from time to time as a support centre that a inbound search chopper would not make it back with sufficient light to land. Luckily Bulolo streetlights and housing lights were available for general locality. Four large white dining table clothes were removed from tables and a signal laid out on the first fairway. They were weighed down with what I cannot remember! Membesr then drove their cars onto the fairway and formed a circle with the target central and their lights on, illuminating the target to which the chopper found and landed with ample room. The RAAF has only lost one Caribou49 in service. A detailed Defence Force enquiry followed. Confirmed detail of the enquiry into this tragedy is available online. The author in composing this has based it on memory 46 years ago and does not take responsibility for errors in composed detail or omissions as it has been based on recall at that time. .
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John Davidson personal communication 26/4/20 advises “The RAAF has lost only one Caribou in service”. While this was 38 SQs first and only fatal accident with the Caribou, it was not the only Caribou lost in service in PNG. For example, A4-204 crashed at Porgera 11/6/65 and A4-147 crashed during landing Tapini 6/10/68, both aircraft were damaged beyond repair but there were no casualties. Another crashed on take-off at Eliptamu on 18/10/78 with no casualties. I was on the Lae docks when parts of this one were brought in slung under a Chinook helicopter and loaded on the deck a RAN ship. Several RAAF Caribou were destroyed in Vietnam.
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MURRAY KENNETH DAY
“Docta meri”
A highlight of the teaching year at the Forestry College was the annual field camp to a village named Buso, approximately 6 hours steaming out of Lae, down the Morobe coast past Salamaua. As I understand Leon Clifford was instrumental in obtaining this site adjacent to the Buso River (I assume) being adjacent (on the other side on the mouth) to a large village. Living a traditional lifestyle, the villagers did not have access to a trade store and available goods, like tinned food, or tobacco, clothing or fishing hooks or lines as these were only available in Lae. They ate fish, chicken, pig, vegetables, and fruit. Again, as I understand Leon was particularly good friends with the village head man, his name from memory was Marikos. I was never aware if in fact the land use was a local arrangement, or the land had been purchased by the government and taken out of customary tenure, or a nominal rent was paid by the College. Areas of land in the training site had been planted with various tree species and students undertook girth measurement and height, along with volume calculations. There was some pruning, botanic expeditions, and engineering. Design and building of walkways and small bridges with timber cut on site was also undertaken. Camp planning and administration, digging of longdrop dunnies and the like were also part of the program. The local villagers had constructed a magnificent bush material haus at the site, about 1 metre off the ground, measuring about 10 metres by 8 metres, with a front verandah, black palm floor exactly level and pandanus roof. Breast height walls all round out of woven palm and bush wall studs and ceiling joists and rafters were perfect. Inside were two rusty kerosene fridges. It was built about 20 meters back from the shoreline on a beautiful beach ringed with coconut palms, and behind that a haus kuk with a concrete base, all askew. Student and staff alike used bed sails and mosquito nets, students set their camp under tent sails, quite large with harvested poles out of the bush adjacent. All camp equipment including lamps, kerosene, petrol and a small 2KVA genset for lighting, food and drink were loaded onto the College large 6x4 Isuzu, a Toyota Coaster, and a Toyota FJ45 3 speed ute for the trip to Lae. The most important item loaded was the patrol advance, all in 20 cent pieces and weighing a tonne. This was to be used to pay the villagers for potatoes, tomatoes, kau kau, crayfish and red emperor and other table fish for the camp and make other donations when it seemed fit. It was my job to have to acquit this advance on return after camp. The recent Royal Commission is polite reading compared to the accounting gymnastics I needed to flexibly apply, for all the right reasons! We departed Lae and never got out of the harbour. Our chartered local village coastal boat of about 25 metres, the “Tangalooma” died and no matter how many times the rocker cover was cleaned it would not go! It was a diesel injection pump problem, probably water in the fuel. Fortuitously the CNGT owned barge was steaming to harbor full of hardwood logs, beautiful stuff, sourced further south of Buso and they towed us in. A discussion was held, and the barge skipper agreed to take us back south to Buso at midnight, so Voco Point was utilized to swap cargo while we were chewed up with sand flies and mosquitos. The barge would then pick us up in about 10 days’ time. We arrived eventually early next morning and set up camp and commenced maintenance. The haus kuk had been damaged by incoming sea, the cement floor was canted and unusable. Being too heavy to lift, and as the students and staff had just undertaken an explosives course in Bulolo, we had the leftover material (gelignite, cordtex, detonators and fuse wire) with us. We blew the floor apart as part of a training exercise and undertook repairs. The noise attracted Marikos the headman, who came around in his outrigger and after a roundabout discussion in pidgin he enquired did we have a bomb! In short, he took our vegetable and fish requests, agreed prices, then enquired if we could go fishing on behalf of the village with a bomb. Clearly
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the villagers were not novices, assuming their use of WW2 left over armaments. He also noted that bathing in the river mouth one could get nibbled! With some misgiving we agreed for a single attempt and Jim Riley, our Kiwi STO who could handle anything mechanical or electrical as well as overseeing explosives made up 2 half sticks of gelignite with 2-minute fuses. From memory we also attached a small rock so they would sink quickly. As the local weather experts, we suggested the villagers choose the time and place. Two days later the word was received, the next morning was on! In the interim the students had manhandled up the beach a medium turtle which had swum too close to shore. It was cooked and eaten. Everything except the shell. Students would go out on the reef at night with the Coleman’s and do quite well with crayfish and other fish, which they ate. A tuna school swum passed and it was mayhem. Our Micronesian students in the water bit the tuna behind the head to kill them! The next morning with sun peeping over the horizon and dissipating the morning mist we found an armada on village outrigger canoes just offshore. They just appeared. Maybe 40 or 50 lifting gently on about a 1 cm undulating swell. Silence, not a word was heard from this assembled throng. It was eerie. Overnight they must have made anything and everything in the village that could float, seaworthy. Our students had been given instructions as had Maricos. We decided to deposit both charges at the same time over the chosen area as it could be envisaged if the first charge went off and dead fish were everywhere the villagers may paddle in and get blown up when the second exploded. A lapun put on some ancient diving goggles and was paddled offshore to I assume a known spot, where he quietly slipped overboard and disappeared. He reappeared extremely excited and then indicated where the bombs should be placed. Jim and I were set up on our own outrigger and quietly paddled over the area and dropped both charges. Both blew almost simultaneously, just really a foaming of water over a 5 metre diameter, no loud noise or waterspout. Then there was pandemonium! The fish chosen were from a school, each fish about 20 cm long. Many floated to the surface and were thrown into the outriggers until there was no freeboard. Many fish lay of the sea floor so the villages dived into about 4 metres of water and would appear with some in their hands and up to 4 in their mouths and would then spit them into their canoes. The odd larger fish suitable for filleting was also found, and this is when it went pear shaped. Jim attempted to pull on board such a fish and reaching too far, flipped our canoe. We both went in, no problem we could swim, he went into deep water and I went on to coral outcrop that jagged into my hip. With blood streaming I was directed back to shore by the villagers to where the canoes full of fish had been beached temporarily. This is where I came under the command of Mrs. Marikos. Shouting instructions in ples tok she took over proceedings. She was a tall lady and generously built, everywhere, not fat, and you could see physically fit. This was not the occasion to be wearing a modesty blouse as she would, if she came into our camp with her husband or with vegetables. She pulled me out the canoe into the shallows and pushed me down to a lying position so that my damaged hip was above the water. It took me a while to work out what was happening, there was a lot of blood in the water. She was kneeling alongside sucking my wound and all the time spitting the blood to remove any coral in the hip. This continued for about 20 minutes, as along with exploratory fingers, I then realized it must have been the village treatment to such wounds. I did however use antiseptic back at our camp. The wound never festered, rare for coral injuries, and healed with large scar tissue.
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I had been “bitten� with coral in the north west of WA surveying railway lines prior to PNG and was aware of the danger. About a year later I had an irritation in the scar tissue, and I picked it and removed an exceedingly small coral particle. Since then, I have never any trouble (now 46 years hence). The practical work undertaken was finished and the barge arrived as expected for our return with a loud HONK. It ran up the beach and dropped its front to allow loading. Full of logs it was a bit tricky and most of us rode a log to Lae. After all vehicles had been loaded from the barge, I found just enough left in the patrol advance to buy a single SP stubby or Coke or similar for each person for the trip back to Bulolo up the hill, but do not tell the auditor!
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LIKLIK RETPELA HAT (PIDGIN VERSION BY MURRAY DAY) Bipo tru (LONG TIME AGO) igat wanpela liklik meri, nau nem bilong em Lik Retpela Hat. Ol i putim dispela nem long en, bilong wanem dispela lik meri i save putim kain hat i retpela long het bilong em. LLRH em i save slip wantaim Mama na Papa bilong em, long wanpela liklik haus. Papa i save wok long bus, i save katim paiawut na ol man i save baim long em. Papa igat plenti akis long daunim ol diwai na katim paiawut. Orait igat lapun (OLD) meri istap long narapela haus. Dispela meri emi tumbuna mama, (GRANDMOTHER) i lapun tru (VERY OLD) na ino wokabout long kisim kaikai samting. (GETTING MEALS) Tumbuna Mama emi lusim tinktink liklik, na sikru bilong lek, na arm, na han i pen, igat sotwin tu! I believe many including myself, could relate to Tumbuna mama! Haus bliong Tumbuna mama istap insait long bush tru, na longwe long haus bilong LLRH. Mama na popa i save selim kaikai (FOOD) igo long Tumbuna mama bilong helvin em. Nau LLRH i save karim igo ol kaikai na mekpas presen. LLRH i nopret long bus. Igat plenty pren istap. I gat kapul, na koki, na kokomo, na sikau. (Wallaby) Ol dispela save singaut “GUT DE” long LLRH taim emi save wokabaut long bus. Orait nau wanpela dai Mama na LLRH i tok alsem “mi kukim kau (sweet potato) pinis. Mi kukim sampela abus (Meat) na biskit tu, na mi putim long bilum. Yu karim igo long haus bilong Tumbuna Mama. Ariup wokabaut bilong wanem i long wei, na nogud yu stap insait long bus taim tudak i kamap.” LLRH i bekim tok long mama alsem “Orait Mama bai mi hariup. Nogut Tambuna mama i gat hangri.” Orait em i kisim bilum na i lukim insait na painem kaikai i stap. Em i putim liklik hat bilong em na igo. I wokabaut long liklik rot na bikpela bus i stap klostu. Kapul, kokomo na koki it tok “GUd de”, na i lukim plaua tu, igat gudpela smel moa. Na LLRH i harim samting pairup alsem PSS PSSS. Emi wokabaut esi na passim lek. Samting istap insait long bus. OHHH. Wanpels bikpela waildok. I bikpela tumas. Tasol LLRH ino gat prêt. Pes bilong waildok i nogat kros.
Waildok itok “O liklik meri yu laik go we? Na LLRH i tok “nau mi go long haus bilong Tumbuna Mama. Mi karim kaikai long em. Em i lapun. Em i no kirup na wokabaut. Waildok i tok “Tru eh”. Nau waildok i tinktink nogud na emi laik trikem LLRH nau. Emi i tok “Supos yu wokabout long hap hia, yu painem gutpela plaua, bilong katim na karim igo long haus bilong Tumbuna mama. Goan, Yu go. Orait LLRH igo insait long bus na painem plaua. Wildok i ron hariap. Em i trowemwe lek alsem sikau na kamap behain long haus bilong Tumbuna Mama. Em i winim LLRH.
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I paitem dua na pairup alsem (tap microphone), na Tumbuna mama i tok “Husat istap?” Waidok i gaimain (FALSELY) singaut alsem LLRH na i tok “Mi tasol Mi LLRH” Tumbuna Mama i tok,” Orait opim dua na kam insait” Waildok opin dua na igo insait na lukim long Tumbuna mama. Em i tingting i no gutpela kaikai. Abus i sitrong tumas, Tumbuna mama i bun tasol! Em i laikim liklik meri bilong kaikai. Orait i hariap nau, kisim rop na passim hand na lek bilong Tunbuna mama, putim laplap insait long maus bilong Tumbuna mama, na karim igo long haus paiawut long daunbilo long gaden. Nau i bek insait, passim dua na putim hat na eyeglass long pes bilong em, na i slip long bet, alsem Tumbuna mama i bin slip nau tasol. I gat betsit karamapim na hat, na eyeglass olsem giaman Tumbuna Mama. LLRH nau i kamap e mi paitim doa alsem waildok. (T AP MICROPHONE) Waildok i gaimen toktok Tumbuna mama. I tok “husat istap” LLRH I tok “Mi tasol” LLRH. Wildok i tok “opim doa na kam insiat” orait LLRH igo insait na i lukim Wilddok i slip long bet. Tasol e mi tinktink i Tumbuna mama. Wildok i trikem gen. I go klostu long bet nau i tok “O lapun mama yu gat bikpela ai tumas” na wildok itok “i gutpela mi ken lukluk long yu LLRH.” Na likik meri itok”
o lapun mama yu gat bikpela yau bilong
yu”. Na wildok i tok “Mi laik harim gut tok bilong yu”. LLRH i tok “lapun Mama wanem samting? Yu gat bikpela tit na maus bilong yu, alsem wanem? Wildok i bikmaus nau i bekim tok alsem “Bilong kaikai yu olgera”! Na wildok nau i lusim bet na i ronin LLRH. Meri nau emi savy pinis (UNDERSTANDS) Wildok nogut. Meri i tantan nabaut na ron hariap. Em i tromwe bilum kaikai na kau podaun na pulim lek bilong wildok. Wildok i kros moa nau emi laik ronim meri gen. Meri i ron igo arasait. Nau husat i kamap arasait. Papa tasol! Em i laik painem LLRH bilong wanem, emi long taim na Mama i wari. Papa i karim tomiok na i luk long meri ronewe na Wildok bihainem em. Oraip Papa igo nau i laik paitem Wildok long tomiok. Wildok kisim bikpela prêt. Wildok ronewe igo, igo long we moa. Mipela no ken lukim gen. Em i painem narapela ples bilong sindaun na slip. Behain Papa wantaim LLRH painem Lapun Mama na lusim rop long lek ne han, rausim laplap insid long maus na karim igo long bet. Na nau oli sindaun bel hapi. Ol yupela lilklik meri, tingting, na noken go wan insait long bus longwe. Ting long stori bilong LLRH Tenkyu Tru Em tasol, About a 1970 compilation based on a Police Superintendent’s gramophone record from memory. I still speak Pidgin weekly with a wantok. Murray Day 87
Ken Granger Geographer was with CSIRO surveys in the Southern Highlands in 1961. After joining the Dept of Forests in 1963, Ken was posted to Kerevat New Britain and engaged in resource assessment in Manus, New Ireland, New Britain, and Bougainville. He was then posted to Port Moresby. He continued resource assessment work in New Britain; Madang; Morobe and Northern Provinces until 1967. Ken acted as Silvicultural Clerk in 1967 and then occupied the Management Clerk position until he departed TPNG in 1970. He left PNG to a position as Photo Interpreter in the Joint Intelligence Organisation of Defence in Canberra. He worked in various positions in strategic intelligence analysis till September 1990. This included 4 years (1976-80) as the JIO Representative in the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby. From 1990 to 1996 he worked as a scientific advisor in the Queensland Department of Emergency Services. From 1996 to 2001 contract consultant to the Australian Geological Survey Organization managing a research project on analysing risks posed by natural disaster in urban communities. From 2001- 2017, Ken has been a consultant in disaster risk management. In the late 60s the Konedobu Club served as a virtual branch office for the headquarters folks especially on a Friday afternoon. It was a good place to keep in touch with people from other departments, especially DASF (the didimen).
Kev White and Keith Cullen (back to camera) “in conference� at the Kone Club, 1968 Photo Credit Ken Granger One of the projects that got under way at that time was an extension program to encourage villagers, especially in the highlands, to plant wood lots to provide firewood. The main 88
species encouraged was Casuarina or Yar as it is called in Tok Pisin. The campaign was supported by pamphlets that showed how to “planim diwai yar”. John Lowien had taken up a new position in Mt Hagen and was the main coordinator of the project. Kev had also become involved in the preparation of the new Hubert Murray Stadium ahead of the third South Pacific Games (and first for PNG) to be held in 1969. I was roped in to help with the landscaping and the establishment of the grass on the oval. It provided another opportunity to get out of the office. With the main resource assessment survey program starting to wind up the next stage of developing the forest resource was to purchase the timber rights from the local people. I had had some experience of this process in New Britain and I think I was poached by Jim Cavanagh to shift from the Silviculture Division back to the Management Division as Management Clerk with a focus on the process of formally gazetting the timber rights purchases that were starting to get under way. This process involved preparing the legal description of the boundaries of the purchase area. Given that the boundaries of most of the larger purchase areas were not surveyed, the description typically involved terms such as “from the mouth of the Toriu River at the coast upstream for approximately 15 miles to its headwaters then following the crest of the ridge that runs to the east for approximately 10 miles to the headwaters of the Bookoo River …” and so on. The whole lot was without punctuation and had to be vetted by the Lands Department before it could be formally gazetted. Timber rights purchases were for a specified period (from memory 50 years) and they gave the Government the right to lease the resource to commercial operators. The land remained in the ownership of the local people and they could still use the land for other uses including gardening and hunting. This was explained in terms such as “Gavman I no baim graun, I baim diwai tasol”. This form of tenure was consistent with the traditional form of land tenure which, in most of PNG, were simple rights of use (usufructary rights) rather than ownership in the western sense. A villager might be given the right to garden an area while another villager would be given the right to harvest galip nuts from trees on that land and another villager could be given the rights to hunt pigs on the same land. This approach was consistent with the Australian Government (and United Nations) requirement to limit the alienation of land to that which was essential for development purposes such as resettlement schemes, ports, townships, or airfield sites. At the time of independence less than 4% of the PNG area had been alienated and most of that was in the Gazelle Peninsula. Those alienations mostly dated from German times in the 1880s and 90s. The Vanimo area was one of the first major areas over which timber rights were purchased and the first area to be advertised internationally for expressions of interest to harvest the timber. Jim Cavanagh was the point of contact for this marketing process and he dealt with the representatives of major forest products firms from Canada, USA, and Japan such as the Weyerheuser Company and the Tuolumne Corporation. From memory the only Australian company that expressed any interest was Herons Creek from NSW. Around the same time the Gogol area was opened to the Japanese firm JANT to exploit the forest for wood chips through the chip mill and loading facility on Madang Harbour. David (Docker) Reid was the Department’s man on the ground in Madang at the time. With this increase in activity the Department began recruiting additional support staff, particularly in the drawing office and clerical support. Among the new faces that joined the 89
Department between 1967 and 1970 were David White and Neil Morse (both ex-Army cartographers), Bob McKeowen (draftsman), John Ringwood (journalist to boost the promotional work), Freddie Kleckham and Diane Flower (clerical staff - both children of long-time kiaps). There was also an increase in the number of foresters joining the Department after completing their cadetships and graduating from the Forestry College in Canberra. They included Chris Done, John Davidson, Paul Ryan, David Num and Dick McCarthy. Entomologist Barry Gray also joined around this time; I think to tackle the problems caused by the wasp in the pine plantations of Wau-Bulolo. With the new staff came new ideas and suggestions of new technologies. In the drawing office, Neil Morse started to make terrain models to use in the marketing of timber leases, the first of them was an area on the southern flank of Mt Giluwe in the Southern Highlands District. He followed that up with a model of the island of New Britain. These models were based on polyurethane sheets cut to the contours and then using a two-pack material to smooth in the landforms. He and Dave White also established a gallery camera in the small demountable that we had used to store the field books from the various surveys. The gallery camera greatly improved the mapping and graphics output of the drawing office. I had continued my interest in photo interpretation. With the encouragement of Jim Cavanaugh, I had started to develop a photo interpretation key as an aid for others to identify various forest communities using the experience that I had gained over the past five years. As part of that exercise, I developed a twin camera mount to be used from a helicopter to obtain stereo images from a single station. I was able to borrow a Rolleicord twin lens reflex camera from DIES to match my own Rolleicord and had a mount made up by one of the aircraft engineers at Jacksons Airport to hold them. They were released simultaneously with two cable releases. It was a bit of a “Heath-Robinson” device, but it was successfully trialled over Brown River in early 1968. It was a bit cumbersome to use because the film had to be wound on individually with each camera after every exposure and in a chopper that was a challenge – but it did the job.
The single station stereo camera rig, 1968 Photo Credit Ken Granger 90
I experimented with using a range of film and filter combinations, as well as infra-red film, to see if they could enhance certain characteristics of tone, such as leaf flush, to make it easier to identify individual crowns in the forest canopy. All good fun but it did not go extremely far. Another innovation was developed to map the pulp wood volumes across the Cape Rodney area. The area had been surveyed using continuous sampling on a set grid pattern and Dave Num hit on the idea of using the format of a 136-character printer of an accounting machine to print the volumes in the same pattern as they were sampled on the ground. This was effectively the first computer mapping of PNG forests and possible a first for Australia as well. The late 1960s were interesting political times in PNG as the push towards self-government and ultimately independence was being openly discussed. The second House of Assembly was elected in 1968 and the first signs of what could be called “Nationalist” movements began to emerge among people in areas such as the Gazelle Peninsula and Bougainville. The newly opened University of PNG at Waigani also provided a forum for the first generation of “radicals” such as Leo Hannett, Leo Morgan, and John Kasaipwalova. Other voices began to emerge to advocate for various forms of self-government (e.g., John Momis on Bougainville) or the return of alienated land (e.g., the Mataungan Society and Warbete Kivung movements in the Gazelle Peninsula with leaders such as John Kaputin and Oscar Tammur). For the most part these political stirrings had little impact on Forests Headquarters, at least as far as I could tell. It was clear, however, that a career in PNG had a rapidly approaching use-by date. I started studies in Geography (three years under Gerry Ward and David Lea), Political Science (one year under Charles Rowley) and Anthropology (one year under Ralph Bulmer) part time in 1968. This was on the newly opened campus of the University of PNG (UPNG) at Waigani. This was aimed at better equipping me for obtaining a reasonable job back in Australia when the time came for Judy and our young family to “go finish”. I found the environment at UPNG stimulating, especially given the increasing numbers of nationals in classes and tutorials and their preparedness to voice their own opinions and perspectives.
David Lea (Geography) lecturing at UPNG, 1969 Photo Credit Ken Granger 91
UPNG was to host the annual ANZAAS Conference in August 1970 and Gerry Ward and David Lea had decided to produce an atlas of PNG to support the conference. They asked me if it would be possible to include an entry on the forest resources. After discussing with Don McIntosh, I prepared a map (in black and white) and the accompanying text and it was eventually published with Don as senior author and myself as junior author. The map reflected our knowledge at the time.
Forest resources map from the 1970 ANZAAS Conference atlas. Photo Credit Ken Granger The situation on the Gazelle Peninsula was beginning to create concern in Administration circles, especially as the calls for the handover of expatriate plantations became more loudly heard. It was clear that the significant amount of alienated land, coupled with the rapid growth in the Tolai population since the War were creating a politically volatile situation. As part of my third year Geography course, I chose to undertake a “special study� in geography looking at the population and land issues on the Gazelle. I was supported in that study both by Don McIntosh and the Land Development Board. This study was also made possible by aerial photography flown over the area in 1969 and the involvement of the Royal Australian Army Survey Corps (RASvy) to produce the first large scale topographic map of the area since WW II. As part of that project, I interpreted the new air photos to produce an incredibly detailed land use typing at a scale of 1:50,000 that was eventually incorporated into the Army 1:100,000 maps. My study clearly demonstrated that the pressure on available land for subsistence gardens and cacao cash cropping at the village level was at the heart of the unrest and that the creation of resettlement schemes like the small-holder oil palm plantations being established around Kimbe in West New Britain, were not attractive to the Tolai.
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Gazelle Peninsula land use mapping from 1968 photography I was invited by Gerry Ward to present a paper based on my study at a seminar run by the ANU New Guinea Research Unit. This was the first time I had been asked to present a public lecture of this kind and it was reported in the Post Courier the following day, accompanied by a photo of John Kaputin. The article read: DISCONTENT “MAKES GROUP POPULAR”
An administration official has attributed popularity of the Mataungan Association to “frustration and discontent”. This was caused by under-employment in the Gazelle Peninsula, he said. The official, Mr K.J. Granger, of the Department of Forests, said relief of the Gazelle land alienation stress demanded changes in social attitudes. Mr Granger was delivering a paper to a seminar on “Population Growth and Economic Development” at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby this week. He said under-employment of some Tolais invariably led to frustration and discontent. “This is evident in the popularity and support for the Mataungan Association and Warbete Kivung group,” he said.
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There appears to be a close correlation between areas of most intense political unrest and those with a concentration of cash cropping.” He said the correlation of unrest and alienated land was rather tenuous. The areas of strongest unrest were populous and had a high concentration of indigenous cash cropping. The unequal distribution of land, particularly in areas of dense population, could be seen as the major problem facing the Tolais, he said. A survey last year had shown that some people had far more land than they needed, while the resources of others were “very meagre”. The desire for land was paramount among the Tolai people, Mr Granger said. “Any large-scale transfer of alienated land to Tolai ownership would not only have a severe impact on the Territory’s economy but would also displace some 27,000 indigenes, a majority of whom come from land-short areas such as Maprik, Chimbu and Tari. “Is the provision of land the solution to the problem? I would say it is only a small part. Most of the landless Tolai are unskilled in commercial agriculture and lacking in wealth to establish themselves as cash croppers. They would require considerable assistance with finance and technical advice, neither of which is readily available in Papua and New Guinea,” he said. Mr Granger supported the idea put forward by Mataungan advocate, Mr John Kaputin, whose proposed Development Corporation was aimed at providing employment in business apart from primary production. “The combination of population increase land alienation and changes in agricultural pursuits of the Tolai has created socio-economic stress. Relief of this stress demands change, not only of the demographic situation, but also of social attitudes. The wholesale provision of land may only alleviate the problem, not solve it,” he said.
I was also busy during this time writing the first drafts of New Horizons and accumulating photos to illustrate that work. The idea for such a book on the forest resources of PNG came from the increasing tempo of moves towards the development of the resource and the desire to promote the work of the Department. I had well drafted the final text and set out most of the photos with assistance from Peter Eddowes, John Ringwood, Neville Moderate (photographer with DIES) and the publications staff in the Department of Territories in Canberra before I “went finish” in December 1970. Before I left PNG, I handed over the project to Richard Pape, an editor at DIES and Phil Ainsworth. I was at least credited as author of the forest resources map (in colour) and the population map when New Horizons was published by Jacaranda Press in 1971.
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Papua New Guinea Forest Resources Map 1970 prepared by Ken Granger. My eight years in PNG Forests provided me with a wide range of skills and knowledge and laid down a solid foundation for the rest of my career as a professional geographer. Footnote 50 Ken Granger reported on his old colleague from his disaster risk management days, Wally Johnson, has just published a book on the 1951 Mt Lamington eruption. It is published by ANU Press and is available for free download from http://doi.org/10.22459/RM.2020. He also published a book back in 2013 called Fire Mountains of the Islands (free from ANU Press) that looks at the various active volcanoes throughout PNG. It is also worth reading.
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Ken Granger personal communication 1 June 2020
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Mike Jones joined the Dept of Forests PNG in 1967 as a draftsman/forest air photo interpreter after serving his apprenticeship with the Tasmanian Forest Commission. From a Port Moresby base, he worked on several forestry projects including Hoskins/Kimbe NB, Gogol Valley Madang, Vanimo Puol River area West Sepik, Ok Tedi area of the Fly, Open Bay East New Britain, and Bulolo plantations. After departing PNG in 1973, Mike was employed by the Pine Rivers Shire Council where he upgraded his qualifications and job prospects with a diploma in Engineering and completed 40 years with local authorities working in civil design and construction.
MIKE JONES “MY STORY� PREVIOUS HISTORY I arrived in Port Moresby in late 1967 with my wife Ellen and two young boys to commence work as a draftsman at the PNG Department of Forests. My role required me to provide mapping for forestry projects using cadastral survey and aerial photo techniques and work with Foresters as required. I had served a cadetship previously from 1960 to 1967 with the Tasmanian Forestry Commission as a draftsman and forest air photo interpreter. FOREST AREAS IN PNG I worked in PNG for six years in several forest projects including. I) II) III) IV) V) VI)
The Hoskins Kimbe area of Central New Britain. The Gogol Valley north of Madang. The Vanimo/Puol River area of West Sepik. The OK Tedi area of the Fly. Open Bay Area of East New Britain. The Bulolo Plantation.
GOGOL VALLEY AND VANIMO /PUOL RIVER TIMBER SURVEYS These two timber surveys stick in my mind as they were certainly big and carried out in conjunction with each other over four months of 1970 with Evan Shield as Team Leader. The group had two Bell helicopters to ferry the field parties out to determined starting points with field instructions to cut their lines on a required bearing and measure and record their samples. The Gogol Valley We stayed in an old timber house on the banks of the Gogol River and slept in an adjoining temporary bush hut. From memory the mapping was supplied by contract from low level photography. There was a timber mill operating in the valley, however I think it was planned to harvest the forest for chip for the export market.
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I can remember hammering in flagged pegs along the Gogol River as starting points for the assessment teams. Evan required the assessment lines set out in parallel through the timber area, with a regular distance apart, the low-level photos were excellent for planning this. It was on this survey I first met Dick McCarthy. He introduced people at sunset to his “muli drink”, a rum and bush lemon juice drunk at room temperature. The chopper pilots were interesting people. Because of the length of the survey, they would often change to suit their available flying hours. They were mainly young ex-service personnel who had served in Vietnam and the Royal Navy. One of the pilots was a talented singer and guitar player who would often ‘moonlight’ at a hotel in Madang. The Vanimo/Puol Area On completion of the Gogol Area, we shifted camp to Vanimo. We overnighted in Wewak, then flew to Vanimo and stayed at the Vanimo Hotel. Survey Teams dealt with the local area around Vanimo, and then it was time to move the camp to a Catholic Mission and air strip south of Vanimo on the Puol River. The terrain in the West Sepik is very steep and accessible start points for the survey teams hard to find. Evan and I flew out reconnoitring possible start points on sandy river bars that flowed to the Puol River. We located possible start points that looked a bit tight, however the skill of the pilots overcame this problem. Scrub and trees would be cleared later around the pad to improve safety. Evan required assessment lines in areas that did not have handy river bars. Close examination was required of the air photos for points that had linking ridge lines that could be navigated on the ground using the photos, magnetic bearings, and estimated walking distance. I walked out in the morning to the nominated locations with chainsaw operators who cleared the ridgeline of timber to enable the chopper to land. We would be picked up in the afternoon and the accuracy of the location could be confirmed from the aircraft. The Vanimo area is close to the West Papuan border and the capital Jayapura. Relations between Australia and Indonesia were strained at the time and we were told to go nowhere near the border. The mapping base that we used for the survey were recently produced detailed maps and air photos courtesy of Canberra. The regular testing period for one of the pilots must have occurred and an examiner was sent to us by the contracting company. He was an elderly gentleman who stayed with us for several days at the mission entertaining us with a lifetime of stories. The choppers had three seaters, somehow, I got to occupy the third seat during the testing. One of the tests was to simulate engine failure and the pilot’s response. I can still hear the silence as the pilot cut the motor and put the rotor blades into a neutral configuration and drop. The chopper dropped for some height until elevation was applied to the free turning blades and our descent stopped and the engine restarted. I had a lot of admiration for the staff at the Catholic mission who we sometimes saw for coughs and colds. I recall at least one of our number fell sick with malaria. The young people who worked at the mission were from Australia and Europe who worked as nurses, teachers, agriculture experts for basically their accommodation, beer, and cigarettes. BUSO RIVER In September 1968, I flew to Lae with the department’s trainee cartographers to join the students and two of the staff Leon Clifford and a botanist whose first name I think was Andy, 97
from the Bulolo Forestry School. It was proposed to travel to the Buso River, located between Lae and Morobe, by coastal trawler and to carry out a chain and compass survey to excise the land for the Bulolo Forestry School for training purposes. On arrival at the mouth of the Buso River near the village the students were divided into teams to carry out sections of the survey from the river back around the ridge line back to the shoreline. This was performed over a two-week period. The botanist and students also collected specimens of plants and orchids. I have included photos of the students, the camp site, and activities around the site. The photo of the kerosene fridge on the outrigger canoe shows the method of movement to a second camp site. On our return to the office the students plotted the survey, calculated an area, and prepared a plan which was submitted to the Lands Office. I am unsure of the type of tenure; I expect it was some type of leasehold. I have never seen coral reef to equal the colour or the quantity and quality of reef fish that existed at Buso. I remember the orchids in the bush and on the adjoining islands being beautiful. POST NEW GUINEA Leaving PNG, I found work with Pine Rivers Shire Council. I upgraded my qualifications and job prospects with a Diploma of Engineering and completed 40 years with local authority working in civil design and construction, retiring in 2012. Mike Jones 13/06/2018
Vanimo – Osima mission air strip 1970.
Mission Church Osima Vanimo 1970
Mission Cattle Yards Osima Vanimo 1970
Forests Survey Camp Osima 1970 98
More photos of a young Leon Clifford and Mike Jones with crocodile at Buso
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Fred Kleckham Mapping/Drafting Section Dept of Forests 1965 to 1968 Fred Kleckham’s Time in Forestry This is mainly going to be about my life for those who remember me, including basic memories of the Konedobu Forestry office activities. I was not instrumental in Forestry in any real way as an expert, and my input was essentially menial. I returned from All Souls boarding school, Charters Towers, at the end of 1964. Time then becomes vague, but I scored my first permanent job in early 1965, and suspect attained it through my father and his old friendship with Keith Cullen. They had known each other from Gatton college in the 1930s. Things were much managed that way in those days. I truly cannot remember if I applied for the position or was given it. Prior to that, jobs had been school holiday work in Australia, tobacco picking near Mareeba and being an early morning pushbike paper delivery boy for a while in Cairns. There is a practiced art in flicking a half-folded newspaper across a fence without it flaring open. Keith Cullen, Head of the Forestry Dept Drafting Division, was an extremely calm, easy going and very decent man and a pleasure to serve under. In those days I called him Mr Cullen. From hereon I will refer to him as Keith because he liked informality. Keith put me working on devices called ‘stereos’. I hope I get this right. The stereo device had four legs about 8 inches high and a pair of strong lenses facing down, which were used to view aerial photographs of forest areas. These aerial photographs were catalogued and of timbered areas in PNG. Such as the Gogol and elsewhere. Peering down through the lenses, one had to shuffle two identical photos until their subject matter converged. This provided 3-dimensional vision and clarity of the treetops in the photos. The trick was to interpret the different tree canopy types by shape and hue. Different tree canopy types were identified by circling them with a designated colour crayon pencil, thus identifying the density of specific tree types in certain areas. This enabled assessors to define the value of the forest areas for commercial harvesting (I suppose). If I made a crayon colour mistake, I was equipped with a bottle of carbon tetrachloride and I swabbed the mistake off the photo. This chemical solution reeked powerful, and these days I imagine might be banned as dangerous, as I recall it was identified as carcinogenic. Well, I certainly had my share of intake through the nostrils. It was strong but not offensive and could cause you to spin a bit if you inhaled enough of the stuff. Time flies when your head is down over a stereo. The tiring effect on one’s eyes, fixated through magnified lenses for hours, means walking away at times to give one’s head and eyes a rest. Go and have a cup of coffee. We had plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits in the office and we were free to use it at any time. I remember Keith coming around weekly for a collection of money; our contribution to the staff smoko till. There were always the instant powdered creamer sachets to replace the milk we would rather have. UHT and fresh milk did not exist in Port Moresby back then. I asked Keith if I could undertake a different task for a while occasionally. Excessive stereo work permeated my mind to the point that I was dreaming stereo work at night. I was 100
merging photos under a stereo in my sleep. i.e. it became a bit much at times. I am sure Eric Hammermaster instructed me on the use of the stereo. He was mostly away on surveys if I recall correctly but he comes to mind as my initial teacher. The office was a friendly group. We all got on. Because field work was part of the job for many, I saw them come into the office and go again. Names and people, I remember quite clearly are Jim Cavanaugh, Kev White, Don McIntosh (who was also Commodore of the Port Moresby Yacht Club at one stage), Eric Hammermaster, Bob McKeowen who married Diane Flower, and the Fleggs were in the drafting room Forestry names I have not seen mentioned in the listing are Gerhard Strehler, a nice German bloke who I know was also instrumental in the formation of the German Club in Moresby, and Neil Morse. I cannot remember what Gerd did in the department. His adopted daughter Linda lives near Manly, Qld. She came to one of the Wantok reunions in Brisbane. I was something of a reckless tearaway in those days and remained one for longer than the public or my parents deserved Im sure. Naturally, a bit gung-ho, in those days I was full speed no brakes. My car was a Zodiac Mk 11 with 70 thou off the head, twin carbies, extractors, and stabiliser torsion bars. I had a Matchless 500 twin motorbike ex NSW police, and a rigid frame BSA. My bike riding mates were Jim Moodie, Dave Cosmo, Tommy Weir, Terry Farmer. We rode Brit bikes. Terry Cullen, Keith’s son also rode, he had a Japanese bike. Early on Willie Luk Poi Wai convinced me to join Paga footy club, and I played a few games, until I discovered Koitaki Country Club and polocrosse. Horses were a passion, and many weekends were spent at the Koitaki Country Club over the years, playing polocrosse. On Sundays for a couple of years I also water skied from the yacht club with Geoff Broadby behind his clinker-built Chev V8 powered speedboat ‘Jedda’. Many ex-Foresters would remember Geoff Broadby. I am throwing some probably irrelevant stuff out there, simply because it might jig a few fond memories for others. We tend to forget a lot. Port Moresby was a town of free social rein back then. A party town. Most people drank a lot of beer and I was one of them.18gallon Kegs were popular at most events. I never hear of a keg party nowadays. I had very liberal and loving parents who enjoyed a good party and good company. Our home rocked and was a great place to be. Dad (a didiman) and Mum were orchid, and shell collecting fanatics and were very well known in those fields. Time flowed and I took my first leave in late 1967 after the mandatory 21 months’ work and went to Australia with a mate Terry Farmer. We flew to Sydney, where one night we meandered into Whisky-a-Gogo, a bar with bikini clad girls in cane baskets swinging from the ceiling, Gogo dancing, and “Daddy Cool” was the band playing! That was an unexpected treat. We went to Canberra to visit the war museum (details forgotten) where we bought an FJ Holden and drove to Qld’s Gold Coast where we caught up with ex PNG friends, the ReayYoung family. Who knows what happened to the FJ? I have no recollection, but we clearly sold it. 101
On my return Keith told me I was to operate a new two room camera that was being installed in the adjacent drafting office building. I guess he knew I was keen on photography. There is definite lack of clarity these days about many whys and wherefores of 55 years ago. Neil Morse had something to do with that section too, and a printing machine was installed - again unclear. At the time, the Boroko RSL was in the process of construction and I am sure there was a golf course planned as part of it. Neil Morse it seemed had Keith’s tacit approval to spend time in seeing the new RSL arise, as he made quite a lot of visits there, especially once the bar was opened. All in the name of good of course. How I was involved I do not remember but I was sent to accompany with Neil on some of his ‘planning’ trips out to the new RSL site. The two-room camera was quite a revolutionary addition back then. The lens was fitted into the wall separating the darkroom from the light room, which had a vacuum board to hold maps and whatever else needed photographing and enlarging or reducing. The darkroom side was fitted with both red and white lighting, a bench, and shelves. There were developing and fixing solutions and various trays for developing. Outside this facility across from the main door was an offset printing machine for production of documents. Being continually active in the equestrian gymkhana and polocrosse scene, I utilised the camera and printer to produce A4 pamphlets to advertise our functions. And undertook quite several like requests for others. Keith also had me doing a variety of photographic undertakings that were not Forestry items. They were the days of latitude and easy favours. Sporadically I would be asked along to the Brown river station, which from memory was mainly a teak plantation and nursery. I had no formal qualification in the Forestry field and had not even thought to study for some. That was my juvenile headspace of the time. I had a paid job and was living life in carefree manner to the full in my spare time. Towards the end of 1968 I had a breakup with my girlfriend. That really knocked me. I was churned up – poor bugger me. To the point I resigned from Forestry and went to Australia, not knowing what I was going to do, but needed to be away. To be distracted. I ended up in Darwin and Pine creek, tail throwing scrub bulls off a Toyota land cruiser and catching and breaking in brumbies to sell. I flew from Darwin to Hong Kong where I stayed a month with the president of the British polo club. One of the best times of my life. A very Raj experiences. I returned to Port Moresby and joined the Agric dept and was sent to Sepik Plains Livestock Station, which was a fly in fly out situation out of Wewak. 18 months there and I needed some relief from the remoteness. Back to Moresby and I joined Kennecott’s at the Ok Tedi exploration camp where I became camp manager. That was extremely exciting work. After PNG independence I returned to Australia and sailed on a schooner from Thursday island to Weipa where I worked 6 months at the ore plant. 102
Then to our family home at Seaforth beach at Mackay, where I drove cane haul semi-trailers for three seasons while I built a 24-foot planked boat in the back yard. I took out a commercial fishing licence. That was hard as I had my daughter with me and had to be home each day to take her to and from school. And so, I went to the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu. My brother-in-law was the principal veterinary officer there and advised me I would like it. Over a period of 30 years, I lived 20 years in Vanuatu, from which I left twice and returned. Those times were two years in Burma as the Artificial Insemination advisor to the AusAid Mandalay Dairy project. Plus, a year in the Philippines at Didipio exploration site as community liaison between the exploration company and the local tribes people. Whilst in Vanuatu I went to Espiritu Santo island in Vanuatu’s north just following the independence time Coconut War they had there, to manage a collection of coconut and cattle plantations the government had taken over from the many planters who had been deported. An exciting time. Subsequently for 4 years I managed and set up the government livestock experimental property outside Port Vila. Eventually I ended up back on Espiritu Santo island, setting myself up as a tour operator for 5 years. I built a house there. For two years I established a local shipping company, Sealink, for overseas investors with two barges doing inter island trade. For another year I managed a 20,000-acre coconut and 13,000 head cattle property for the receivers of the company. I returned to Australia when Dad passed away in 2002 and cared for my mother for 4.5 years, during which time I attained a bachelor’s degree in Business (Marketing) and put a removalist house on my block of land there, which I renovated and sold. Again, I returned to Santo to do a Forestry project. An iron ore magnate had purchased a 6,500-ha block, of which we were going to clear 2500 ha to grow sandalwood, and the other 4000 ha as a cattle ranch. So here I was finally full circle to Forestry, being asked to kick this project off from the ground up. That land acquisition had not been properly handled and finalised by the company directors, and after 15 months with savage tribal problems regards land borders etc, the investor decided there was too much interference and pulled out of the project. That was the end of my permanent working days. In 2009 I went to a helicopter company at Emerald to help the owner estimate the cost of going into PNG to lay the highlands to coast gas pipeline by heavy lift helicopters. The costings blew him away and he decided against tendering for the contract, despite being asked by InterOil to submit a bid. My last work was in 2012/13 with Newcrest Mining, employed to demob two bush exploration camps on Manus island. This was to Heli lift everything including drilling rigs from the bush onto a barge to Lae. That was exciting as I had been a child on Manus from 1951 to 1956, and I found my old playmate Elu, our cook bois daughter after 56 years away. We had left Popondetta for Manus after Mt Lamington erupted in 1951. That about sums it up. It has been an interesting and very varied life. 103
I am now retired at Beachmere near Bribie Island. After retiring I travelled to Alaska and Canada. I backpacked 4 months throughout South America and bought a camper in USA and drove across it and back and throughout western Canada, attending the Calgary Stampede twice. I am glad I did all that then, as now that arthritis has set in, I would not be able to do the walks I have done. I retain my very itchy feet and have done a caravan trip around Australia. I have done one lap of Australia, and intend to do an annual trip to Asia, which I have travelled extensively apart from India and China. Now it is usually just Thailand for the great food, the excellent live music scene, and the extreme politeness of the Buddhist people and their culture. For those who remember me – I hope you have enjoyed the dissertation. Cheers Fred Kleckham.
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Bob McKeowen joined the Dept of Forests as Senior Draftsman in 1967. Prior to 1967, Bob was employed by the NSW Forest Commission after gaining his qualifications from Sydney Technical College. In 1976, together with his wife, Di McKeowen (Senior Staff Clerk Dept of Forests) they departed for a life of commercial activities in Dubbo NSW.
BOB’S STORY In mid-1967 I was recruited to the Forest Mapping Branch as a Senior Draftsman. I had spent the last four and a half years in the Mapping Branch of the Forestry Commission of NSW whilst gaining my qualifications at Sydney Technical College. For the first few years, I was on secondment from the NSW public service and later as a contract officer. The TPNG Forestry Dept. was in Konedobu and housed in three pre-WW2 buildings. The mapping section was in part of the main building and one smaller building which was airconditioned and housed a small process camera and dark room. The OIC was Keith Cullen, 2IC Phil Ainsworth with Bob Audas and John Van As were section leaders. Other staff were Gary and Lyn Flegg, Dave White, Neil Morse, Fred Kleckham, Gail Hammond, Ross Fisher, Ian Logan, Tom Ravu and Gerd Strehler and Val Booth. Local trainees were Francis Tigi, Isaac Pasingan and Morea. Several of the staff were ex-Army Survey Corps. The Mapping Branch also had control of the TPNG Aerial Photo library which was an extensive collection containing pre-war, wartime and post-war photos. The Department was in the process of buying the timber rights of certain areas from the traditional owners, identifying the quantity and quality of the timber resource, and calling and letting tenders for the exploitation of the resource. They were also involved in plantation and product research. One of our functions was the writing of legal descriptions of these areas using natural features [no fences!] for inclusion in the lease documents. The staff’s artistic skills were often used for graphs, diagrams etc. in the many publications and training materials the Department produced. As most of these areas were not mapped, our job was to prepare a map and assist in the survey of the area by planning the strip lines the technical staff were to follow and to plot the completed line on aerial photos and the map. The strip lines were planned at a given magnetic bearing from a helicopter drop-off point such as a garden, river sandbank or a pad prepared by a ground party. The technical staff would cut the line and measure and identify the trees in plots at intervals along the line, thus giving a sample of the total resource.
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Our equipment was basic and by today’s standards primitive. We managed to complete the task on each occasion but taking into consideration the equipment, materials, and the scale of the maps, I sometimes had doubts about accuracy. Other sources like the Army and exploration companies sometimes provided helpful information. We also assisted in developing other assessment methods such as in the Jimi Timber Area where the sparse Klinkii Pines were hard to find on the ground. About 1971 we moved to new air-conditioned premises at Hohola where a large modern process camera was installed, and a Wild B8 photogrammetric plotter purchased with Lothar Jelinek recruited as operator and trainer. We were now able to produce proper topographical maps where photos and ground control was available. Staff now included Ralph Ernst, [from APC] Fred Hainsworth, Fred Lederer and Mike Jones with Col Roach as camera operator. Gerd Strehler was in charge with me as 2IC as other staff had moved on. At this time local staff were being trained at Bulolo under the watchful eyes of Gary Flegg and Murray Day. About this time the Central Mapping Authority was being set up with us arguing that it should be at forestry rather than the Lands Dept. as we were the only people engaged in mapping. It eventually went to the Lands and the rest is history. My wife Diane and I [she was Staff Clerk] left in 1976 for commercial activities in Dubbo NSW. In 2010 we visited Port Moresby to find only one of our old staff, Avai Hailai, was left and he was to retire that month. There was no actual mapping going on, I think they were using Google Earth in their documents. The building had been the victim of a fire and it appeared that all old documents and photos had been destroyed. Photo Credit DOF PNG Dick McCarthy & Bob McKeowen 1970 Tiauru Pandi Resource Survey
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Bob McKeowen in disguise Tiauru Pandi Survey North Coast New Britain 1970
Map by Bob McKeowen Senior Draftsman DOF Tiauru Pandi Vegetation Types 1970
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Gerard (Gerd) Strehler Draftsman 1970’s. Gerd worked in Port Moresby and throughout PNG 51
Phil Ainsworth reported on Gerard (Gerd) Strehler who was a cartographic draftsman in the drawing office. He was recruited to draw topographical maps from the drawing office’s stereo plotting machines, initially a US machine and later Wild B2s stereo plotters. He was trained in cartography prior to WW2, and during WW2 Gerd was a German artillery soldier who served on the Russian front but was fortunate to be transferred to the Italian front and survive the war. After WW2 Gerd resumed his cartographic career with the US military. He migrated to Australia with his German wife Hilda, daughter, and stepson Rudi. His wife died in Port Moresby and was buried in the old European Cemetery. I recruited Gerd from Australia, Sydney if I remember correctly. I met with Gerd at Mooloolaba where he was living sometime in the 1980’s. I also ran into Rudi a couple of times at functions in Brisbane. He had become an academic geographer. John Davidson 52 reported on the forestry movie ENQ #11077: Tree Business (FORESTRY IN NEW GUINEA) - NFSA FAC information, costs and contact in which Gerd Strehler was one of the actors. John played the film through. Unfortunately, there is only a brief mention of the Forestry College at 22.25 mins and an image of its sign and there is no mention of Leon Clifford and he does not appear in this film, which deals with mainly a single helicopter survey. The threeprincipal expatriate “actors” are Eric Hammermaster, Gerd Strehler draftsman; in conversation on the soundtrack where they discuss the maps and air photos for the survey and later in the field (was he a forestry draughtsman back in 1965? during my cadetship days and my memory is vague on this), and Kevin White briefly at 4.25 mins ordering food supplies. One other expatriate “Chris” appears briefly towards the end conducting “negotiations” with villagers over the timber rights purchase.
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Phil Ainsworth personal communication 1st June 2020 John Davidson personal communication 1 June 2020
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POSTSCRIPT PNGRIS (Papua New Guinea Resource Information System) is a computer based natural resource and land use planning tool incorporating the work of the DOF mapping section. PNGRIS was developed initially in the 1980’s. It is based on the long-term resource survey programs (1950-75) carried out by the CSIRO together with information from a wide range of PNG government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and Livestock, the National Forest Service, Department of Environment and Conservation, the National Weather Service, the Geological Survey, and the National Statistics Office. The first version of PNGRIS integrated this comprehensive body of information on natural resources and their use into a computer information system to facilitate data storage, retrieval, and analysis. This work was carried out between 1981 to 1986. The developments in microcomputer technology in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, have enabled the addition of a computer-based mapping system in PNGRIS to replace the previously manually produced maps. Continual upgrades are undertaken of PNGRIS53, given the advancements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the availability of relatively inexpensive satellite derived data.
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Land use section Dept of Agriculture and Livestock PNG, National Forest Service PNG PNGRIS Thematic Map Forestry Types 2004 Courtesy Alan Geo Graphics Gordons NCD
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PNGRIS Thematic Map Forestry Disturbance 2004 Courtesy Alan Geo Graphics Gordons NCD PNGRIS Thematic Map Forestry Timber Leases 2004 Courtesy Alan Geo Graphics Gordons NCD
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ACRONYMS ACT AEC AFS AFPNG AIF AMF ANBG ANGAU ANU APMF APPM ASIO ASOPA BCOF “Beer Time� BFC BGD BUC C cm CALM CFA CNGT CRE CRE
CSIRO CHAH DASF DEPT DOF FAO F &TB FPRC Forkol GIS ha IBRD IFA L of N m3 MM NAA
Australian Capital Territory Administrators Executive Committee Australian Forestry School Association of Foresters of PNG Australian Infantry Forces Australian Military Forces Australian National Botanical Gardens Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit Australian National University Australian Paper Manufacturers Forestry Pty Ltd Australia Paper and Pulp Manufacturers Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Australian School of Pacific Administration British Commonwealth Occupational Force 1945-52 Any time. Bulolo Forestry College Bulolo Gold Dredging Company Bulolo University College Commonwealth Centimetre Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management Commonwealth Forestry Association Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers Bulolo Corps of Royal Engineers CRE is a term inherited by RAE from RE and is the term for the Commanding Officer of a RAE unit which is headed by a Lt Col. Although the officer is called the CRE the name is also used for the name of his unit. E.g., CRE Aust Forestry Group or 1(NG Forests). Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria Dept of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries Department Department of Forests Food and Agriculture Organisation Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra Forest Products Research Centre Hohola Bulolo Forestry College Geographic Information Systems Hectare International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Institute of Foresters of Australia League of Nations cubic metre Military Medal National Archives Australia 111
NARI NB no. NG NGF NGIB NZ NSW PIB PIR PNG PNGAA PNGAF PNGFA PNGFIA PNGRIS PNGUT POM Q QF RAE RPC SP UK UN UNE UNI UNITECH UNRE UPNG UQ US USA TPNG TUBL TA TA TRP VSF WA WB WW2
National Agriculture Research Institute New Britain Number New Guinea New Guinea Forces (relates to plant collection of Lae Herbarium) New Guinea Infantry Battalion New Zealand New South Wales Papuan Infantry Battalion Pacific Islands Regiment Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Australia Association Papua New Guinea Australian Foresters Magazine Series Papua New Guinea Forest Authority PNG Forest Industries Association Papua New Guinea Resource Information System PNG University of Technology Port Moresby Queensland Queensland Forestry Royal Australian Engineers/Australian Army Royal Papuan Constabulary South Pacific United Kingdom United Nations University of New England Armidale NSW University University of Technology Lae PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment University of Papua New Guinea University of Queensland United States United States of America Territory of Papua and New Guinea Territory United Brewery Ltd Timber Area Timber Authority Timber Rights Purchase Victorian School of Forestry Western Australia World Bank WORLD WAR 2
112