Sir Michael Somare [National Alliance] will retain his job as PNG prime minister when the party is invited to form government in two weeks time.So far the National Alliance secured 25 seats of the 95 declared, bettering its 2002 record when it won 19 seats. About 40% of sitting members retained their seats including Sir Julius Chan, Sir Mekere Morauta and Lady Carol Kidu. Sir Julius is about to be commemorated in bronze with Hal Holman’s sculpture of the veteran leader about to be unveiled in Port Moresby. Holman has now completed his series of all six PNG prime ministers since Independence in 1975.

Meanwhile, Wewak was thrown into confusion when Sir Michael was declared winner of the East Sepik seat last Friday. All major supermarkets, stores, food bars, bookshops and business houses including the three banks were forced to close by members of the general public who allegedly wanted to do “happy hour” shopping at the expense of the member-elect. People claimed there was a service message on the local radio station telling them that shops in town would open their doors to members of the public to do a three-minute shopping at the expense of Sir Michael. The National newspaper reported that “youths and opportunists” ran riot as missiles and flying debris were thrown by an angry crowd. Armed police and auxiliaries managed to control the situation after three hours.

Before education officers left ASOPA after two years training, they were awarded the Certificate in Education (CertEd) which entitled them to teach but did not fully qualify them. That final qualification (the NSW Teacher’s Certificate) required three years successful teaching experience which was judged through annual inspections conducted by District Inspectors, remote, godlike figures whose power to influence one’s future career was held in awe. Or something like that.

Between January 1958 and December 1971, every inspection report was dutifully sent to the NSW Education Department in Sydney which, after three years and, in one notable case, six years, issued Teacher’s Certificates to the fortunate. The inspection reports make fascinating reading and are held by State Records NSW, the State Government’s archives and records management authority, at Kingswood in Sydney’s west. A battered archive box contains the reports, which retain a musty tropical odour. The identification details, which you can look up for yourself, are Series 3909, Box 10/38045.

The Western Sydney Records Centre is located at 143 O'Connell Street, Kingswood, where there is ample parking and a well equipped readers’ lounge. Its opening hours are 9-5 Monday-Friday and 10-4 on Saturday. It has a website here from which you can obtain further information.

Leo Carroll [ASOPA 1962-62] has a memory as sharp as a blade for the people, places and events of 40 years ago. He clearly recalls dossing on the floor of my Kundiawa donga during the weekend of the 1963 Chimbu Ball, visiting from his school at Aiome, an isolated outpost on the other side of the Bismarck Range. I had lunch with Leo yesterday and he’s in good form and eagerly anticipating the reunion of the Class of 1961-62 at Cedar Lakes next month.

David Keating has a roll-up of 55 people for the big event, including 31 classmates and two former lecturers. Needless to say David is delighted with this response and he has every right to feel that way. The weekend will be filled with golf, tennis and wine tasting in addition to a full program of reuniting.

The Class of 1961-62 also is organising a table for October’s monster reunion in Brisbane. If you’re interested in this event, contact Ros Sharp at sharpdr@bigpond.net.au.

Colin Huggins writes: The River Crawl [cost: $10 a person] will start at the Sofitel Lobby at 10 on the Saturday morning of the reunion. The idea is to have a good leisurely look at Brisbane from the river. The walk to Riverside takes about 10 minutes.

The Sofitel recently acquired a 7-person mini-bus and we have access to this to take less agile people to Riverside to embark on the cruise. Let us know if you require this facility.

The charter cruise on the Lady Brisbane will start at 10.30 from the CBD Riverside wharf – in the upmarket restaurant area of Brisbane - and after two hours will drop us at Southbank – scene of the Brisbane expo in 1988, where there are parks, stalls galore, cheap and expensive eateries, bars and easy access to the Museum and State Library.

When we disembark (note my nautical expertise) at 12.30, people can do whatever they like. We envisage that people will make their own way back to the Novotel and Sofitel to beautify themselves for the main reunion event. The Grand Dinner will kick off with cocktails at 7pm for cocktails prior to the 7.30 dinner.

You can contact Colin Huggins here.

Dick Arnold, the d’Artagnon of Daft, Aramis of Administration and Porthos of the Purse, analyses my comment that “the [Brisbane reunion] organising committee is doing a wonderful job”. Dick deems it apposite to divulge the “madness in [the organisers] method”. The regular meetings, he says, are best sorted into four categories.

1 - 90% business planning; 10% socialising (reminiscing, gourmet food and wine) at one of the committee's residences on a Sunday afternoon.

2 - 75% planning; 25% socialising at the Chez Bar (one of a number of gathering places in the Sofitel Hotel) on a weekday at noon.

3 - 50% planning; 50% socialising at the Bow Thai Restaurant at 6:30pm.

4 - 1% planning; 99% socialising at either Chez Bar, Bow Thai, New Farm Park or Southbank Parklands for the purposes of entertaining ASOPA alumni who might visit BrisVegas from time to time.

Dick adds this poignant rider: “You will note, in each case, that business comes first.”

He emphasises the joy of catching up with old colleagues after decades of non-contact and making new friendships. “We’d like to think that those gathering with us for the October weekend will long remember the conviviality and camaraderie that had its beginnings at ASOPA.”

[200 people have registered to attend the ASOPA teachers’ reunion in Brisbane from 12-14 October.]

Now here’s a story of a remarkable media career. Justin ‘The Voice’ Kili was recruited as an announcer and journalist at Radio Bougainville in 1971, during my term as manager there. He worked for many years with the National Broadcasting Commission, becoming a very popular figure with audiences and eventually receiving an MBE for services to broadcasting.

Justin spent time at ASOPA’s successor institution, ITI, in 1978, during which time he also worked at 5AD in Adelaide. Then, in 1996, a Fiji media conglomerate hired him to establish a national Pidgin language commercial station (Yumi FM) based in Moresby. Despite warnings that another Pidgin station couldn’t succeed because NBC already had a string of them, Justin pressed on and created an 85% PNG - Pacific contemporary music format. It worked a treat and after six months the station turned a profit, and soon became PNG’s most popular radio station – a position it holds to this day.

In 2004 Justin became general manager and publisher of the church owned Pidgin weekly, Wantok Niuspepa, before deciding to go home to Buka “to hang up my boots”. Retirement turned out to be premature as, soon after, the PNG Media Council asked him to run its Secretariat and manage a major AusAID media development program, now in its second year.

As befits an elder in any profession, Justin now conducts training in journalism and radio broadcasting throughout the Pacific and especially in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and PNG. He also writes regularly for the Post Courier, The National and Wantok. In his spare time, he’s chairman of the Board of St Josephs International Catholic School - an offshore institution of the Parramatta Archdiocese and the only school in PNG that offers the NSW curriculum.

Ralph Watson [ASOPA 1970-71], who was to teach in the Rigo sub district, has sent me this photo of the Class of 1970-71, which will bring back memories for some of you. He’s also considerately provided a note identifying the class members.

Ralph is now retired and unfortunately can’t make it to October’s reunion in Brisbane but sends his good wishes to all participants. “By the way,” he asks, “whatever happened to the ASOPA Recreational Shield for sporting triumphs?" Went the way of much other ASOPA memorabilia, I expect, to some government vault never to again see the light of day.

[Photo. Sitting L-R: Anne Cooper, Anne Leeson, Noelene Walker, Nerille Bender, Leonie Cameron, Margaret Hindmarsh, Anne Skene. Standing L-R: Robert Reuben, Riley Warren, Robert Cutmore, Colin Taylor, John Brown-Parker, Max Briggs, Neville McManus, Robert Speedie, David Eassie, Les Harvey, Ralph Watson, Neil Collins, John Foley, Alan Weatherilt, John Eldridge, Murray Lane. Absent: Angela Newman]

Bill Welbourne writes: The phone rang just a split second before I dialled my stockbroker. On the line was my close ASOPA colleague Bill Bergen and his wife Joan. Bill and I (the two Bills) married our respective wives while at ASOPA and we shared social lives in Rabaul with growing families in our early teaching years.

In our final year at ASOPA Pam and Joan had applied successfully to do the E Course in Rabaul. Both had to fly to PNG ahead of us and were greeted in Rabaul by the famous Catholic missionary Father Franke. Within a month Bill and I had to face District Education Officer Frank Boisen to explain that our wives were pregnant and could not continue with the course. Frank shrugged his shoulders and ventured, “That’s the trouble with Wanlis House (our accommodation). Not enough room to move out the way.

Bill and Joan settled in Bathurst after PNG independence where they enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. They met through their love of music and continue this interest today. Bill is learning bassoon while Joan plays clarinet. Recently their local music group travelled to New Zealand and in early October they will attend the Mungindi Music Festival on the NSW/Queensland border. The festival brings together amateur musicians from around Australia.

For Bill and Joan the choice between the Brisbane reunion and Mungindi is not like a chocolate or a lollypop; the romantic pull of music prevails every time. Bill and Joan enjoy receiving the newsworthy monthly The Mail and I just hope they could lose their instruments and join our grand reunion in October.

Richard Jones writes from the Victorian goldfields: “I have noted for some time that The Great Man, Gough Whitlam, and I share the same birth date. July 11. Or as some more prosaic publications prefer, July 11th.

“Anyway, on the occasion of his 92nd birthday, I read Gough (and Margaret) were feted by none other than the Pratt family. Dick Pratt, he of the billion dollar paper and packaging fortune, and his good wife, at their marvellous mansion in Kew, Melbourne which used to be, at one time, the abode of Archbishop Mannix.

“Apart from Dick being the current incumbent prez. of the Carlton Football Club which has fallen on lean times --- and a good thing, too -- the Pratts are noted philanthropists and supporters of the arts. We celebrated my 67th birthday in a humbler fashion. By the way, I hope Henry and other minions have not slotted me in for 68 years. 2007 minus 1940 equals 67 in my book!

“As quite devoted "foodies" Judyth and I headed off to a new-ish restaurant and delicatessen quaintly named Let's Get Saucy. It's situated in the old goldmining suburb, formerly Borough, of Eaglehawk. We washed down entrees of steamed mussels sautéed with lemongrass, ginger and coriander and a chicken liver dish accompanied by Nashi pear slices and crisp bread with a Bendigo sparkling: a 2005 Balgownie champers.

"To accompany main dishes of pan seared chicken breast stuffed with bacon and almonds, served with a grilled polenta and brie tart, and Judyth's confit duck leg rubbed with garam marsala and star anise we chose a local Bendigo rose --- a 2004 Langanook.

“Ah, good food and wine. Can there be anything more pleasant. On that note, I'm sure Colin, Dennis, Diane and Henry will have excellent fare awaiting us in BrisVegas in three months.”

It’s always good to read Richard. It’s like you were there. And let’s hear no more questioning and cavilling about his real age.

I hate to discourage the flow of visitors to ASOPA PEOPLE by not posting regularly, since that's the trick when it comes to maintaining a lively and well patronised blogsite. But roughing it in the Noosa wilderness makes attending to life's other obligations a little difficult, as those among you who have ever been in this pampered jungle would appreciate only too well.

So for the next few days it might be up to you, dear reader, to keep the emails flowing to me and the comments flowing to the site, thereby providing new stuff for people to read and ponder over. Ciao!

Brisbane reunion treasurer Dick Arnold reports there's been a flurry of activity recently as some 200  former ASOPA cadet education officers scramble to secure  places as October's big event. It is now certain that the reunion will  be the largest gathering of CEOs ever. Even at the School, there were never more than 80-90 on campus. Activity on this web log indicates a high level of interest, with over 70 visitors a day in the past  week compared with a typical 25 a day.

Payments for the reunion dinner at the Sofitel on Saturday 13 October are now due: $95 a person for the fully catered function. You can pay by: (1) EFT, cash or cheque direct to the ASOPA Reunion Bank Account. Account Name - ASOPA Reunion. BSB - 064 130. Account Number - 1035 9805. (2) Cheque made out to ‘ASOPA Reunion’ to the treasurer, Dick Arnold at 27 Greenlaw Place, Eight Mile Plains, Queensland 4113. When making payment by any method, make sure you attach your name. Dick’s phone numbers are (07) 3345 9771 and 0423 149 975 and his email address is dlonrarj@aapt.net.au.

A bit of housekeeping is in order for many would-be reunionistas now in heavy training for Brisbane ‘07. That's those of us who haven't yet paid for the main event. Yes, it’s time to send in those payments for the official ASOPA reunion dinner. To be held in Le Grand Ballroom Trois (translation, The Grand Ballroom 3) at the Sofitel [pictured left in all its resplendancy] on the evening of Saturday 13 October.

Payment of $95 a person is now due using one of the methods itemised below so, as Colin Huggins says, “organisers can maintain normal sleeping patterns” with a major payment to the Sofitel looming.

HOW TO PAY. (1) EFT, cash or cheque direct to the ASOPA Reunion Bank Account. Account Name - ASOPA Reunion. BSB - 064 130. Account Number - 1035 9805. (2) By cheque made out to ‘ASOPA Reunion’ to the treasurer, Dick Arnold at 27 Greenlaw Place, Eight Mile Plains, Queensland 4113. Dick’s email is dlonrarj@aapt.net.au and his phones (07) 3345 9771 and 0423 149 975. One other thing, when making a payment by any means include your name so Dick knows the money is from you and not manna from heaven. Now go for it.

Phil Donnison - son of ASOPA sixties education lecturer, the great Norm Donnison, and an ASOPA graduate himself - is now a well-known musician around Sydney as leader of the Jugalug Stringband.

“Oi!” writes Phil with his usual understatement. “The Jugalug Stringband was the feature album of the day on ABC Radio National's The Daily Planet last Wednesday. Following the show we had a great flurry of CD sales from emails and via our website - so radio does work! The show is presently on the net so have a listen now before it's gone forever!”

For the ease of your listening pleasure, dear reader, I have located the link to the program and if you click here, after an irrelevant introduction (the ABC has not given us a clean cut into the program), you will hear the Jugalug in its full glory presenting melodies from its new album, Waltz Mysterioso.

The traditional stringbands were combinations of portable instruments like guitars, banjos, violins and basses. Sometimes a kazoo or a harmonica was added while a washboard contributed rhythmic texture and a blown jug took over the role of the bass. Jugalug plays a repertoire that was popular between the late 19th century and World War 2. It’s an unusual, inventive and happy sound. If it turns you on, you can also visit the band’s website here and order yourself a copy of the CD.

Allan Kidston worked as a technical officer for the PNG Department of Information from 1969-1974 following an early career providing local pop group The Shadows with the Australian equivalent of Phil Spector’s wall of sound. (Allan added the extra ‘L’ to the name we knew him by after he got a copy of his birth certificate and found the appellation his parents had wanted him to have.)

An email exchange we’ve had sent Allan rummaging through his archive boxes (“God, I looked so young!”) where he found a copy of the Post-Courier with a range of signatures obtained on the day self-government was declared, 1 December 1973.

“We were in the projection theatre at DIES when these signatures were gathered. I don't know if that particular Post-Courier has any historic significance to PNG. You may care to comment. I would hardly think my Post-Courier is a unique document but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to find out. Signatures include Michael Somare, Paul Lapun and others difficult to work out. It was just a surprise coming across it in my archive box (I had totally forgotten about it).“

My subjective view is that any document signed by people of the ilk of Somare and Lapun would be considered of historic importance. Would a reader better informed than I like to comment? And what do you should happen to the newspaper now?

[Image: Front cover detail of the Independence Day (16 September 1975) ‘Post-Courier’ from my collection. I don’t know what happened to my self-government issue. Obviously more rummaging required]

Melbourne band, The Strangers [left], formed in 1961 and began playing instrumentals. They went through several changes of style and personnel until breaking up in 1975, after recording half a dozen hit singles. Their charting songs included Cry Of The Wild Goose, Torlid, Undertow, Happy Without You [see below], Melanie Makes Me Smile and Looking Through The Eyes Of A Beautiful Girl. Among many other stars, they supported Roy Orbison, Paul and Paula, Neil Sedaka and the Beach Boys.

So what’s the PNG connection? Well read on. “Yes, I am that same Alan Kidston who worked with The Strangers. In fact it was only last week I went to see Peter Robinson's original group, The Thunderbirds, play a 50's gig at a local country hotel. Peter (bass in The Strangers) is still a very respected studio musician here in Melbourne. John Farrah (lead guitar) is still in Los Angles working as a studio producer as well as living off the bags of money he made writing for Olivia Newton-John in 'Grease' (he had points in the movie!).”

Allan Kidston (we’ll get round to the spelling change in a later epistle) was senior technical officer at the PNG Department of Information in the early seventies. But I’ve just learned of his earlier career in the rock industry, as sound guru for The Strangers. “We were at the leading edge of sound technology in those days,” Allan writes. “We had our own 150 watt PA (valves of course!), speaker stacks, foldback and a mixer with graphic equalisers along with inbuilt echo for the singers. Wow!" And wait for it..... "All of which I hand built. This put us way above the other groups who had to use the house PA. It was a very competitive environment, the band business in the 60's!”

Allan left Moresby and returned to Melbourne where he worked for LaTrobe University as a film/video producer for ten years before working as a producer of government health education programs for eight years. He eventually set up his own video production company and only recently retired after 15 years of doing that. You can watch and listen to one of The Strangers biggest hits, Happy without you [it reached number 8 nationally], on YouTube here. And more about Allan in future posts.

ASOPA graduates frequently have careers after Papua New Guinea that are just as fascinating as their tropical experiences. Here’s one. Artist Kevin Lane lives and works in the Middle East: a long way from his early career in PNG. But his five years in the Territory shaped his art, which is an exciting fusion of diverse influences reminiscent of the bright Tahitian paintings of Gaugin.

Kevin was born in Bega in 1949. After secondary school he entered St Clement’s Redemptorist Monastery in Galong. This led him to PNG where he worked in the West Sepik. He came back to Australia to study at ASOPA before being posted to Port Moresby where he taught Art and Commerce. After two years Kevin joined Adult Migrant Education in Sydney and then set off overseas, eventually living in Istanbul. Later he moved to his wife’s homeland, Sweden. Then in 2001, after 23 years in Gothenburg, he relocated to the Middle East where he now lives and works. Catch up with more of Kevin's art here.

Seems the pace of visitation on ASOPA PEOPLE is increasing as the Brisbane reunion draws closer. The blog had a 'day record' of 90 visitors yesterday and has averaged 50 people a day over the past week. Which isn't bad after a slack posting period due to your dear author being both tied down at work and  moving house. Yep, I'm 62 and I've downsized. Not outsourced yet, though. No one has seen fit to rightsize me. A redundee I am not. Nor a target of an MIO (management initiated outplacement). I find it helps if you own the company. And the economy is going gangbusters.

It's good to see some new names on the comment board of this site. You should feel free to fire off comments at will. Just hit on the 'Comments' tag at the end of each piece. And go for it. I assure you every contribution is read and the interesting ones are turned into other blogs or appear in The Mail newletter each month.

By the way, The Mail for June has been circulated to the 120 people on my mailing list and the issues for February to June are now up on the ASOPA website. The July issue is also well underway and I hope to get it out before I head off for Noosa in a week's time. That's enough housekeeping. Time to get back to 'Sex in the City'. But not before, apropos of nothing, offering you this pic of the last school at which I taught. Gagl Primary T (Chimbu District) circa 1966. May I invite you to submit pix of your old schools? Together with a bit of a story? Just to get in the mood for that impending reunion in the Sunshine State. Email me here.

Bill Wilson once told me the story of a thirsty Catholic priest on Karkar Island who experienced profound disappointment and dismay upon recovering from a protracted binge to find he’d consumed the church's entire supply of altar wine. The situation was saved by the local doctor ("a mad, mad Irishman," recalls Bill), who creatively developed a substitute using fruit cordial and surgical spirit.

At the time, Bill was working on Karkar with a tuberculosis control team. "The white population was mainly young, single, male and thirsty," he recollects. "A favourite Sunday pursuit was roaring around the island on motor bikes blowing up dunnies. I was introduced to the pastime and given the honour of carrying explosives and detonators while riding pillion behind a plantation assistant on a big AJC bike.”

Bill was a medical assistant [liklik dokta] who spent a time training to be a teacher at ASOPA only to find that his greater love was health and health education. Returning to Australia to live and work in Canberra, he dedicated himself to improving indigenous health as an officer of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands Commission (ATSIC).

Now, in 2007, Bill is the longest serving member of the Australian Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs. I can reveal here that - in the near future - Bill will be accorded  the singular honour of becoming a life member of that organisation. It's a truly splendid achievement.

This has nothing to do with ASOPA or PNG or even pedagogy. On Wednesday, The Australian  newspaper will carry, as a supplement, a copy of the July Australian Literary Review. If you take the paper, or can borrow it, or - heaven forfend - you go out specially to buy a copy - you will find an article by me reviewing a book by my former boss at the ABC, David Hill. As a review, I think you'll find it a bit out of the ordinary. You may even enjoy it. As Jeff Chapman used to say (probably still does), 'nuff said. The clipping above is from a 'rush' of the ALR I was given yesterday. At the very least you can say you know someone who got published in ALR, OK?

With over 200 former Asopians and friends expected at the signature event at the Sofitel Hotel - and scores likely to roll up to many other activities that will comprise a weekend of nostalgia, re-acquaintance and implausible anecdote - October’s ASOPA reunion in Brisbane has emerged as a major exercise in planning and logistics.

But this triggered no series of stodgy scheduling meetings by the Brisbane organising committee. On the contrary, it’s been party time. Every venue has had, well, I was going to say a “dry run” but let me amend that to “wet run”, as the organising committee has personally tested every location with a commitment mainly observed in people enjoying themselves a great deal.

Committee meetings are clearly a sheer delight, as this photo shows. Henry Bodman is about to receive succour from fellow organiser Dennis Burrell. No sweet-faced infant about to accept ambrosia from its mother’s breast could surpass Henry’s expression of glorious anticipation as the red moves ever closer to the glass. It’s a scene that evokes the same deep stirrings as a romantic movie’s slow motion sequence of two perfumed lovers gliding towards each other over a verdant and trimmed lawn.

And as for the trialling of the Bow Thai restaurant, which will be the scene for the reunion’s Last Supper, one can only admire the dedication of organiser Colin Huggins as he seeks to establish a quality rapport with the waitperson class (as the politically correct would have it these days). This is a rapport hardly seen since Antony charmed Cleopatra shortly before the appearance of an asp. The young woman in the photo is Nuk, and reports from Colin and others suggest that Nuk and her fellow staff at the Bow Thai will ensure a splendid and affordable evening for those reunionstas who, even after a long weekend reuniting, are still up for some more party.

If you haven’t booked your place at the Brisbane Reunion [12-14 October] yet, contact Henry Bodman or Dick Arnold in the very near future.

For the last couple of years a small group of Australians with a background in PNG broadcasting – Martin Hadlow, Phil Charley and me – have been working with Bougainvillean media people, including former journalists Carolus (Charlie) Ketsimur and Aloysius Laukai, to establish a community radio station on Buka Island, in the north of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

An essential part of the exercise was to secure seed funding to purchase equipment to make the project a reality. UNESCO has now committed money and Charles Punatar [left], the CEO of Pangtel - the PNG Radiocommunications and Telecommunications Technical Authority, will this week grant New Dawn FM a licence to broadcast.

The name New Dawn really says it all. When the 10-year Bougainville war officially ended in April 1998, 20,000 people had died and there were 40,000 internal refugees in a population of 160,000. The island’s infrastructure was shattered: schools and hospitals destroyed; power and telecommunications installations devastated; airports blown up; towns and villages ruined; shops looted; transportation links disbanded or in disarray. The war had cut off the island’s main source of revenue, the Panguna copper mine, which has never reopened. Due to PNG’s own economic problems, there has been only limited progress in infrastructure renewal in the years since the end of hostilities.

As Bougainville slowly rebuilds, it’s vital that its citizens have access to the mass media, enabling them to participate in the democratic rebirth of the province and to share their views and opinions in a public forum. That’s why we’ve been working to establish a commercial community FM station on Buka to initially serve the north of Bougainville. The station will provide an independent news, information, educational and entertainment service to a population that is trying to rebuild its life, its livelihood and its sense of community.

Here’s to a New Dawn.

Picture of Bougainville sunrise from 'Mr Zilla Goes To Town' blog