After colonialism captured them in the late 19th century, the two territories developed slightly different administrative styles and distinct identities as, over the years, they became home to a small but important population of expatriates.

These newcomers included employees of the colonial Administration, prospectors, planters, missionaries and former soldiers from two world wars.

They brought with them their sports, including rugby league which over the years became organised and eventually emerged as the national sport of an independent nation.

The New Guinea Rugby League was founded in 1948 and the Papuan Rugby League a year later in July 1949. Immediately an annual inter-territory competition was established.

In Port Moresby a group of Australians formed the first rugby league team, Paga.

At first there was no other team. Nor was there a newspaper in which to advertise a game. The South Pacific Post was established in the early 1950s. (In the late 1960s it was rebadged as the PNG Post-Courier.)

So, in a paid advertisement on the screen of the Papuan Theatre in Musgrave Street, the new Paga team issued a public challenge for a game.

It worked and in response another group of expatriates formed the Magani team, most of the players employed by the banks.

In that first two-team challenge, the Magani bank johnnies defeated Paga to claim the inaugural premiership. Unfortunately the score has been lost to time.

On 29 July 1950, a combined PNG team took on a powerful Brisbane side. In just six weeks, the Papuan Rugby League raised £2,000 (about K25,000 in today’s money) and chartered an aircraft and arranged accommodation in Brisbane.

The result of that game is unknown, but it is believed the PNG side lacked the required firepower to match Brisbane.

Then in 1951, a former soldier, who had served in PNG in World War II, returned to Port Moresby.

John Joseph Hart, from the Queensland country town of Toowoomba, was to have a profound influence on the sport over the next 50 years

Before the war, Hart played rugby union with the Catholic Young Men’s Society (CYMS), including a match against a touring English team.

At the outbreak of World War II, official rugby union and rugby league went into remission but an amateur rugby league was formed and in 1942 Jack and some former CYMS mates joined the famous All Whites team.

The Toowoomba rugby league was strong, the 23 A Grade teams formed mainly from the numerous Army and Air Force bases in the region.

On Saturdays Jack played in the Lismore league of northern New South Wales and returned for Sunday’s game in Toowoomba. In 1943, he played in two premiership winning teams in Lismore and Toowoomba.

This was the same year he joined the Royal Australian Air Force and his first posting was to Port Moresby in 1944.

He served in various places in PNG and what was then Dutch New Guinea, surviving two air crashes.

After the war Jack returned to Toowoomba and rejoined the All Whites, playing with them from 1946 to 1950, when he decided to return to Moresby to see how the place was developing after the war.

Soon after he arrived, Jack joined Paga and was selected in the combined 1950 Papuan side that visited Queensland to play three games against teams in Brisbane, Redcliffe and Toowoomba.

Rather than leave at the end of his 12 months exploratory visit, Jack remained in Port Moresby for another 23 years.

During this time he captained the Papuan side, served as a Papuan selector and was made a life member of both the Papuan Rugby League and the Toowoomba All Whites club.

Jack was a tough competitor with a reputation for using elbows and knees as well as hands and legs. He was a popular player who would bring fans to their feet.

In the Papuan League's early days, he was appointed to the judiciary board, which adjudicated on players sent off by referees.

Jack’s on-field aggression often saw him referred to the judiciary where the conflict of interest was so great he was eventually forced to stand down.

In addition to the two air crashes he experienced in wartime, Jack was also involved in a serious plane crash near Toowoomba in the early 1970s.

The plane was delivering goods and mail to remote properties when it flew into a power line. Surviving the crash along with a mate, Jack made a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to rescue the pilot from the burning wreckage.

Despite his efforts, the pilot died and Jack suffered major burns to his arms and upper body. He was later awarded Queensland’s highest bravery decoration.

It’s said that over his lifetime Jack survived 17 aircraft and vehicle accidents.

He continued playing until midway through the 1955 season. It’s said he decided to retire because he was getting sent off so much.

Ray Goriss was another Australian who had a major influence on the early game in Port Moresby.

Ray owned a sports store in Port Moresby, and went on to become a stalwart of the game as president of the Papuan Rugby League.

In 1956 he commandeered a jeep and identified the site of the present Boroko rugby league grounds when it was just 4.5 hectares of kunai.

With Ray at the helm providing significant money himself, the PRL contracted the company John Stubbs and Son to construct the original Boroko grandstand at a cost of £28,000 (about K300,000 in today’s money).

In recognition of his outstanding efforts, the building was named the Ray Goriss Stand and in April 1962 it was officially opened by Bill Buckley, chairman of the Australian Rugby League.

Years later, when the Boroko ground was reconstructed, the name of Ray Goriss disappeared.

The pioneers involved with the game’s formation in Port Moresby considered this a particularly shameful injustice to a man who had done much to build rugby league.

Lloyd Robson was another stalwart of the game in Moresby. He began playing in 1955 and was committed to the game as a player, coach and administrator.

His contribution is recognised by the name of the Lloyd Robson stand at Boroko.

The Port Moresby teams were originally built around groups of work colleagues, their numbers bolstered by recruiting outsiders. But in general the teams were built from groups of workmates – bank johnnies, aviation employees, government workers and so on.

Each team had its own clubhouse which offered game-day services, social evenings and other leisure activities for players, their families and friends.

The original team, Paga, was built largely from employees of the Commonwealth Department of Works. The team’s base was on Paga Hill and it played in all sky blue with black socks.

The second team to be formed, Magani, was based at the Badili Club and comprised mainly by players from the banks. Its colours were maroon and white.

Hawks then joined the league, its players mostly tradesmen and day labourers from the Department of Works workshops in Boroko. Hawks made its home at the 4 Mile Club and played in green and white.

Around the same time, DCA also joined, its players drawn from employees associated with the Department of Civil Aviation. The team was based at the DCA Club and played in white with a blue V.

Kone was next to join, around 1957, its players sourced largely from the Administration workforce in Konedobu. Its base was the Konedobu Club.

When it comes to the early days of the Papuan Rugby League, we do have information on the premiership winners in the years to 1960.

In the mid-1950s, across the border in New Guinea, emerged a brilliant footballer named Brian Johnson, whose very presence ensured that the New Guinea team began thrashing Papua in the annual Territories clashes.

Johnson was a Goroka boy, and played alongside the Leahy brothers and Bill Phillips, men who were as tough as nails but clean - although Phillips was mainly tough.

The first inter-territories game was played in Port Moresby in 1962 and was won by Papua. The second game, played in Bulolo, was won by New Guinea.

The original rugby leave ground was at Konedobu, near where Lawes Road met Champion Parade.

It had little grass. For players it was more like a road with a bit of gravel in it. Every fall that tore the skin would turn septic from the small sea shells embedded in what passed for soil.

Each game meant losing skin from elbows, palms, back of hands and knees. Everyone got skin poisoning.

Games were played on the Kone oval until 1955 when fixtures moved to a ground at Murray Barracks at 4-Mile.

Every player heaved a sigh of relief when the league left Kone oval.

The Murray Barracks ground was built on black soil. The slightest bit of water made it very slippery.

But then Ray Goriss identified the Boroko ground, the oval was built in 1956 and the league moved there.

A few years later, lighting was installed at Boroko. It was built on wooden poles with the bottom painted in cyanide and wrapped in plastic to stop the termites.

The teams trained at various venues. Paga used Ela Beach Oval. But when Boroko Oval was built, it included a spare training ground and the teams took turns to train there.

Reginald (Ron) Grout was the licensee of the Port Moresby Hotel. He had been in the group that formed Paga and served as an officer bearer of various sports societies in Port Moresby.

He was the manager of the first combined Papua New Guinea rugby league team that visited Australia in 1954.

Ron was the uncle of then Queensland and Australian test cricket wicketkeeper, Wally Grout, who had served in Rabaul with the Australian army in 1946.