Soon after he travelled to India and spent three years as art director for the Advertising Corporation of India in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.

Upon returning to Sydney, Hal worked for six years in the film industry: designing sets and working as an animator on 13 short films.

During these years he began portrait painting and created a number of murals including four at the Shoal Bay Country Club Hotel in NSW – which, upon its old building being demolished in 2008, commissioned him to recreate them for the new hotel.

Hal moved to Port Moresby in the early 1960s, initially employed as an illustrator in the Department of Education, where he and I worked together for the first time – Hal designing and drawing, me writing and editing.

He was promoted to the position of Senior Artist for the PNG Administration, in which role he designed the national crest and was influential in the design of the national flag.

He also designed, drew and illustrated innumerable maps, posters, pamphlets and publications while continuing to produce portraits and other works, his paintings of birds of paradise and other PNG creatures were especially striking.

During this time he also designed the uniforms for the  Royal PNG Constabulary Band.

After leaving PNG just before independence in 1975, Hal turned his attention to sculpture, but continued to return regularly to PNG to work on a range of artistic assignments.

From the 1980s until the early 2000s, his output included a one-tonne metal national crest for the supreme court building, bronzes of six PNG prime ministers, a bust of Queen Elizabeth II and many examples of public sculpture including a magnificent fountain near parliament house.

He also worked on many commissions in Australia and his public artwork – including sculptures, fountains, fences and other built design – abounds in Sydney and the Gold Coast, including the famous mermaid at Mermaid Beach in Queensland, pictured above.

In 2004, Hal and I were awarded Orders of Australia on the same day at Government House in Sydney.

And in 2009, in the company of his family and mates, Hal was formally invested into one of PNG’s highest awards, Officer of the Order of Logohu, by High Commissioner Charles Lepani.

Hal and I began working together in 1966 and we enjoyed a fine friendship over the following 50 years.

Hal is survived by his wife Jo, son David and daughter Lisa.

So very well done, my dear friend, so very well done.

Middle photo: One of the last pictures of Hal taken recently with son David and grand-daughter Carla and his sculpted mermaid at Mermaid Beach. Lower: Ingrid, Hal and me in 2014