AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975
PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9B-5B4H6 of 6th June 2022 FOREST MANAGEMENT. Eminent TPNG Forester Rod Holesgrove TPNG Forests 1963-1971
Rod Holesgrove and family in Wau. Photo Credits Ian Whyte.
Editor R B McCarthy1 2022.
Article submitted 19/7/19 Richard, below is my contribution, from the land of forests- Slovenia, to your mighty PNG forestry tome. It is very much a personal story, so if it does not fit within the construct of your book I will understand. (At least I have written something to pass onto my children and grandchildren). All the best with the book and I look forward to purchasing a copy. Cheers Rod
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Dick McCarthy District Forester TPNG Forests 1963-1975.
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Eminent TPNG Forester Rod Holesgrove TPNG Forests 1963-1971 My parents were keen bushwalkers in NSW in the 1930’s - 40’s (my father was President of the NSW Federation of Bushwalking Clubs). They did not take me bushwalking that much although I have a photo of myself when aged 2 in Blue Gum Forest - my father had carried me down in a primitive backpack carry arrangement. Amongst their bushwalking friends was Marie Byles (who was the first practicing female solicitor in NSW). Marie’s brother was Baldur Byles, a forester of some note in the NSW Forestry Commission, who according to John Dargavel in his biography of C E Lane- Poole, surveyed and prepared a significant report on the protection of the catchment of the Hume Dam. Through my parents’ bushwalking and living in a few large, treed gardens in the Sydney North Shore and Adelaide Hills (my first house was at Lindfield, Sydney in the 1940’s and our next-door neighbour was Paddy Pallin, just starting his bushwalking gear business), I developed a love of natural forests. According to my father, Baldur had said he had a perfect job - driving in his Land Rover around the NSW forests. Thus, I applied for and was granted a PNG Forestry Cadetship through the then Federal Government Department of Territories. Completely wet behind the ears and prior to starting a science course at Adelaide University my parents sent me on a holiday to Lamington National Park so that I could learn what a rainforest looked like. Reading some classic texts on rainforests was a warning of how complex rainforest ecology and management could be. I followed this trip by working in a forestry gang at the SA Woods and Forests Mt Crawford Forestry reserve. After manual labour on weeding and pruning all day, I would relax in hot bath heated by a chip/pinecone heater and contemplate what lay in store for me in a forestry career in PNG. My first trip to PNG was in the 1963/64 University Summer holidays. Flying to Port Moresby on a DC6 B it became alarmingly apparent that one of the engines was on fire. Fortunately, we were able to land in Brisbane. I was put up at an old hotel in Port Moresby the name of which seems long gone. My first impressions of Moresby were of something out of Joseph Conrad. Big wide veranda to sit on and gaze out to the Gulf of Papua. I was stationed at Keravat forestry station in New Britain along with Dick McCarthy and Ken Hart. Perhaps as a harbinger of my short forestry career I cannot remember much of what we did professionally there. But the surroundings did leave an impression. The 9-hole Keravat golf course with a downed WWII Zero fighter in the kunai and the lovely town of Rabaul, pre-volcanic damage. (I did experience the first significant earthquake of my life there rushing out of the trade store while the shelves and contents shook in a very alarming manner). What I also remember was the wonderful day trip back to Lae at the end of our short posting on the ‘milk run’, a DC 3 from Rabaul via Kavieng, Manus, Madang and Goroka.
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Unfortunately, I also picked up something in Keravat which was not a good thing. Becoming extremely sick the district nurse gave me a large penicillin shot. Years later after seeing a tropical disease expert I was diagnosed as having a filaria attack in Keravat. The filaria is a small nematode from a mosquito that can enter and cause great damage to the lymphatic drainage system. Repeated exposure to the nematode can cause elephantiasis over time, which I hasten to add is not my situation. Years later I had contact with the Keravat nurse who told me that the filaria is not uncommon in Melanesia, her son having contracted it too. The 1964/65 University summer working holiday was not as exciting. Stationed in Bulolo I met John Godlee who turned out to be distantly related to my wife’s family. For the first time I came under the spell of the mighty Klinkii pine and learnt to appreciate so much the attractiveness of the Wau Bulolo Valleys and develop a strong interest in the European colonial history of the area including the WWII story. Off to the ANU Forestry School in 1965. An interesting time in Commonwealth forestry education. The Yarralumla School had just been taken over by the ANU, but was still headed by the crusty Queensland forester, Kell McGrath. One year later Professor Derek Ovington an ecologist from England became the new head. A major contrast in style. Interestingly I continued to have contact with Derek when he and I both worked for the Commonwealth Environment Department. With or without Derek the Forestry School student ethos did not change. No women students of course, vast amounts of beer drinking were a rite of passage, and the Forestry Balls were memorable. Some of my fellow students included Syd Shea, Dave Boomsma Trevor Bird, Malcolm Farrell, Peter Hitchcock. PNG comrades were John Davidson and Paul Ryan. Those were the years of the 2- years National Service and the Vietnam war and my number came up. But, said the Department of Territories, you are off to perform valuable national service in the PNG Forests - you will not have to go into to the army! Two years later I was discharged from the Army Corps of Engineers and with a very pregnant wife we were off to PNG early 1969. In Lae for a few months, where our first daughter was born in the hospital near the airstrip with the sound of trainee pilots doing touch down and take off exercises. No air-conditioning in those days and I still remember the sweat dripping off my arms onto my work. Recreation was at the Hotel Cecil near the waterfront where we swam in a tepid pool. Or once we went out to the big American war-time Nadzab air strip where I drove up and down in our little Datsun as fast as possible. I was posted to be Officer in Charge at Wau. an agreeable spot. House backing onto the forest with birds of paradise calling in the trees. From the front we could look across Wau Valley to Mt Kaindi at over 7000 feet. I supervised a mixed regime of Klinkii and Hoop harvesting and Pinus plantation establishment on the grasslands. John Godlee in Bulolo was officer in charge of the whole district, and I acted in his position when he was on leave which I thought was quite a responsibility for a 25-year-old. Work was straightforward and there were no highlights in a professional sense. Once the Araucarias were harvested gangs of labourers would move through in thongs with buckets of 3
a tree killing agent - 245T painting it on the cut remaining trees - something that would cause great alarm these days. There was also an insect infestation of some of the Araucarias and I went up once in the helicopter with a bucket of insecticide underneath spraying the trees at a low altitude. Plantation establishment was a headache for me, and I felt I did not have the aptitude for accurate surveying. Fortunately, there were no wildfires. Years later I heard that much of the plantations had been destroyed in a wildfire. Relations with the labouring and white staff were good. I had an excellent Office Manager, Margo, a mature somewhat dominating Australian woman who probably could have run the whole place without me. Once I took the younger attractive Australian female Assistant Office Manager for a tour of the forests and was ticked off by Margo for, in her view, not doing the “right thing”. Relations with the indentured staff were good. One memorable event when I was in my office and my driver brought in a somewhat bloodied piece of paper rolled up. When I opened it, I found a human finger - one of the labourers had cut it off to be repatriated to his home in the Highlands. Once I had to admonish my driver as he attempted to run down a cassowary on the road. Wau was the site of a fierce WWII battle that culminated at the sloping grass airstrip. The book the Battle for Wau by Phillip Bradley is an excellent book on the battle. At the final point in the battle the Japanese forces, which had come from Salamaua, faced Australian forces, and some Americans, at the top of the airstrip. The allied forces were victorious, and the battle has been cited as the first time Japanese forces had faced a land defeat at the hands of the allies. From time to time on the forest estate one would come across trenches and left-over Japanese equipment. While I was at Wau a Japanese war graves organisation came through collecting the remains of Japanese killed in the battle. Pre-independence social life was in some respects uncomfortable for my wife and me. The bowls and golf clubs and hotel were white and Chinese only, as was the trade store where the Papua New Guineans could only buy goods through a little side window. I never did like this. In the evening after visiting one of these establishments one would drive home with many eyes on the road staring at one, then a sound of plopping as the large toads would jump under the car to their doom. There was little in the way of other diversions. The drive to Lae was long and hard going in a little Datsun. (In the district there were quite a lot of old Volvos which forever since have endeared them to me as a robust car). Sometimes we would drive up Mt Kaindi to the moss forests. There, if one was lucky one would run into one of the B4s - elderly Australians panning for gold. They had been there since before WWII. We had few visitors from Australia. One was a young Ian Whyte, a distant relative who became a Tasmanian forester and was a spokesperson for NAFI in the forest harvesting 4
versus conservationist Tasmanian timber wars, in which I was on the conservation side in later life. After 21 months we went on leave to Australia. I was forming the view that forestry was not for me. I had in the late 60s and early 70s become more and more interested in the emerging issue of environment policy and conservation. So, after a few months back in PNG I resigned from PNG forestry and after an interesting diversion to the Library of the Parliament of Australia commenced work in the brand-new Whitlam Government Department of Environment. My love of forests however never left me. In the early 1990s I and a colleague first put forward the concept of regional forest agreements for Australia. In the late 1990s I was very active in representing Australian views on the need for a UN International Forests Agreement. In the 2000s, particularly through work for an environment NGO we pushed the Australian Government and the international community for strong international rules that would provide a robust regime for the trading of carbon credits in avoided deforestation and forest establishment. Sadly, these regimes have not taken hold because of negativity by many governments towards climate change action or biodiversity conservation and so the world’s forests are being lost or degraded at an alarming rate, particularly in developing countries. I understand that many of PNG’s magnificent lowland rainforests have now been turned into agricultural use, including oil palm plantations. At least I and the forestry colleagues of my generation have had the privilege of working in these once magnificent forests, and my forestry education was put to good use in my now somewhat long career.
Wau Airstrip – planes landed uphill. Photo Credit Ian Whyte. 5
Wau Forest Station house. 2PS Des and June Harries were the first occupants of this new house at the Wau forestry Nursery. Photo credit Ian Whyte.
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NAME DATE JOINED DEPT OF FORESTRY PNG WHAT WAS YOUR OCCUPATION WHAT LOCALITIES DID YOU WORK IN WHAT DATE DID YOU LEAVE PNG LIFE AFTER PNG IF YOU WISH TO COMMENT BRIEFLY
Rod Holesgrove 1963
A PNG FORESTRY CADETSHIP DATE OF GRADUATION ANY OTHER FORESTRY STAFF
1962 Forestry Cadetship 1967 Related to Ian Whyte
Forest Officer Wau New Britain; Bulolo Wau 1971 Commonwealth Department of Environment
Personal communication Des and June Harries 6 May 2020
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ACRONYMS ACT ACIAR ACLMP AEC AFS AFPNG AIF AMF ANBG ANGAU ANU APMF APPM ASIO ASOPA AusAID BA BCOF “Beer Time” BFC BGD BUC C cm CALM CFA CNGT CRE CRE
CSIRO CHAH DASF DBH/ dbh DEPT DPI DOF e.g. Etc FAO F &TB FIM FPRC
Australian Capital Territory Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research AusAid funded World Bank Land Mobilisation program. 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 Australian Aid Agency basal area 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 Commander 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 Diameter at breast height Department Department of Primary Industry Department of Forests For example et cetera (more of the same) Food and Agriculture Organisation Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra Forest Information System Forest Products Research Centre Hohola 7
FRG FRI Forkol GAB Gbhob Gubab GIS ha IBRD IFA IFY ITTO JICA L of N LRRS m3 MM NAA NARI NB NFCAP no. NG NGF NGIB NGO NGVR NZ NSW NTSC OISCA P or p PIB PIR PNG PNGAA PNGAF PNGFA PNGFIA PNGRIS PNGUT POM Q QF RAE RPC RRA SFM
Forest Red Gum Forest Research Institute Lae Bulolo Forestry College Girth above buttress Girth breast height over bark Girth under bark above buttress Geographic Information Systems Hectare International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Institute of Foresters of Australia International Year of the Forest International Tropical Timber Organization Japanese International Cooperation Agency League of Nations Land Resource Soils Survey (branch of CSIRO) cubic metre Military Medal National Archives Australia National Agriculture Research Institute New Britain PNG National Forestry and Conservation Action Plan Number New Guinea New Guinea Forces (relates to plant collection of Lae Herbarium) New Guinea Infantry Battalion Non-Government Organisation New Guinea Volunteer Rifles New Zealand New South Wales National Tree Seed Centre PNG Bulolo Organisation for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement International Japan. page 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 Rapid Resource Appraisal Sustainable Forest Management
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SP UK UN Unasylva UNE UNEP UNI UNITECH UNRE UPNG UQ US USA TPNG TUBL TA TA TRP Vol VSF WA WB
South Pacific United Kingdom United Nations Journal of FAO of UN University of New England Armidale NSW United Nations Environment Program 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 volume Victorian School of Forestry Western Australia World Bank
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