TERRY EDWINSMITH

WHILE with the Pacific Islands Regiment in Papua New Guinea, I’d been denied a long-held desire to visit Wewak because of the tragic crash of an RAAF Caribou on 28 August 1972.

The transport aircraft crashed into a hillside, killing its Australian crew and most of its passengers, high school students coming home from a cadet camp. It was the RAAF's worst peacetime air crash, claiming the lives of 25 of the 29 people on board.

I did not have another opportunity to get to the Sepik until last year, when I learned of a P&O cruise to PNG which included Wewak as a port of call - a rare occurrence. 

KEITH JACKSON

The PNG Adventurous Training Guide 2017 by Reg Yates RFD, self published, Melbourne, February 2017. You can contact Reg Yates here

Download PNG Adventurous Training Guide by Reg Yates

RETIRED Australian Army Captain Reg Yates RFD, one of the most experienced trek leaders operating in Papua New Guinea, has produced a first-rate guide for people planning to walk through some of the most difficult and interesting country in PNG.

The 48-page guide is for experienced trekkers, familiar with walking in Papua New Guinea or who work with knowledgeable with PNG villagers, and for Australian Defence Force personnel.

KEITH JACKSON

REVISITING Simbu after 50 years last week, I was feted with a degree of celebrity I really didn’t merit.

That said, most proceedings were laced with profuse and jocular references to the time I was lost for 24 hours in the Yongomugl caves when my lamp failed and I couldn’t navigate the many branches and faults to find my out.

Yup - had to be rescued.

A few months prior to this drama, I had arrived in Kundiawa (population 200; 80 expatriates) in January 1964 having just turned 19.

KEITH JACKSON

TOGETHER with Ingrid, Ben, Becky and Leilani – wonderful to do this together – I spent most of last week in the Papua New Guinea highlands which I had not seen for 50 years.

To try to condense this experience is ambitious, but it will give you a taste.

Flying into and out of the mountains is easy. Back then it was time-consuming and sometimes disquieting.

However, getting around by road, especially in Simbu Province, is punishing. The Highlands Highway – that critical arterial road serving something more than four million people as well as PNG’s rich agricultural heartland – is in appalling condition.

KEITH JACKSON

BACK in the 1960s – I know I’m showing my age – you could not live in Port Moresby and live your life in a bubble.

The town, as it was then, was utilitarian, confronting, pragmatic and, culturally, barely part of Papua New Guinea at all.

It was a transit stop between somewhere else and adventure. More Cairns than Kandep. And many of us colonials had little taste for it. We preferred the outstations and the bush.

All that’s changed. Now expats can live a life transiting between secure apartment compound, secure office block and secure yacht club all in a secure alarm-buttoned, back-to-base connected SUV.

FRANCIS NII

Keith Jackson AM and Cr Ingrid Jackson are ready to advance discussions on a Kundiawa-Noosa sister town relationship, but do Simbu Administrator Joe Kunda Naur MBE and Governor Hon Noah Kool have the wisdom to embrace the concept for the benefit of the Simbu people?

This is particularly relevant as the whole concept falls within the provincial government’s own Tourism, Arts and Culture Policy launched in Kundiawa just a few months ago.

Last Tuesday, while Simbu Writers Association delegates were waiting in the corridor of Kondom Agaundo House in Kundiawa to have an audience with the Simbu Provincial Administrator, a follow up to the letter that we had delivered the week before, the email signal on my mobile phone triggered.

The email was from Keith and I was surprised and at the same time excited when I read it.

FRANCIS NII

THE publisher of PNG Attitude and friend of Simbu and Papua New Guinea, Keith Jackson AM, and his family, are making a special trip to Kundiawa in early March.

Keith will be accompanied by his wife, Councillor Ingrid Jackson, son Ben Jackson, his partner Becky Finzel and their three-year old daughter Leilani.

Members of the Simbu Writers Association are well prepared for this visit and are urging the Simbu Provincial Government to officially receive them.

Keith and Ingrid will be travelling from Brisbane to Port Moresby where they will meet members of the PNG Attitude family.

Then they will travel to Goroka to meet writers at the University of Goroka and Keith’s old mate, the well-known businessman Terry Shelley.

FREDDY MOU | Loop PNG | Edited

The PNG government has given the green light to investors in Paga Hill Tourism City to start implementing the project.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tobias Kulang said the PNG cabinet has approved an incentive framework for the Paga Hill Estate.

“This bold move is demonstrative of the government’s strategy to pursue foreign investment, create jobs and stimulate economy,” Mr Kulang said.

He said that the Paga Hill Estate is attracting foreign investment with a memorandum of understanding already agreed with the Shenzhen Construction and Development Group partnering with the China Harbour Engineering Company and Covec to fund and construct a five-star hotel.

JON HOLMES | The Australian

“DO you think it will rain tonight?” I ask Joseph, the man with the gun. He looks up, beyond the mist clinging to the valley, doing its damnedest to conceal the river-ridden jungle that is to be our home for the next few days.

He sniffs the air in the same casual manner with which he hangs the rifle on his shoulder. “Will it rain?” he replies. “It depends on the weather.”

To be honest, the weather is the least of our worries. “Expect the unexpected” is the given (and best) travel advice for anyone visiting Papua New Guinea. It’s a country that’s casual about a few things, from plane timetables to customs regulations to automatic weapons.

Rabaul is one of the most compelling tourist destinations in PNG (Timothy Thurman, Pinterest)

ROSS CAMPBELL

THE prospect of moving to a new country can be exciting and daunting all at the same time. That’s why it is important to be sure that you are properly prepared.

Papua New Guinea is an excellent destination for a United States resident, but there are some things you should know before you decide to make the move.

UN Women

FOR women, getting on a bus in Port Moresby meant an almost guaranteed experience of violence or harassment.

A scoping study conducted by UN Women in 2014 found that more than 90% of women and girls experienced some form of violence when accessing public transport - on buses, at bus stops, walking to and from stops, or in taxis.

This included verbal sexual remarks, inappropriate touching, and indecent exposure in terms of sexual violence, and also extortion, robbery, threats or intimidation.

MEDIA RELEASE

AIRWAYS Hotel in Port Moresby has been named fifth in the Huffington Post review of top hotels.

Huffington Post contributor, travel pioneer and ‘father’ of modern adventure travel, Richard Bangs, has published a list of the top 10 hotels he’s experienced, selected for “being special, extreme in cosiness, service and that ineffable quality of heart.”

According to Bangs, Papua New Guinea is a special destination. He calls it “a country as diverse and bewitching as any on earth.”

“Things have improved [including] the signature hotel in the capital, The Airways, an oasis just a stone’s throw from the airport.

DANIEL & JULIE KUMBON

I HAVE been listening to my wife, Julie’s, daily prayers to God in the Enga language in the privacy of our hotel rooms in Noosa, Brisbane, Sydney and Cairns over the action-packed two weeks we were in Australia.

All this was made possible by the inaugural McKinnon-Paga Hill Development Company fellowship scheme, PNG Attitude and many other friends of Papua New Guinea.

One morning in Brisbane, I heard Julie plead with God to make Keith Jackson’s spinal operation successful and when we heard in Sydney that it had indeed gone well and that Keith was ready to go back to Noosa, Julie was elated and thanked God again that night.

Cairns Post

CAIRNS businesses have lashed out at Qantas for abandoning direct Cairns-Papua New Guinea flights.

Qantas announced last month that, due to high demand for flights to Bali, it would be reducing its domestic flights in regional areas.

This includes shifting its Cairns-Port Moresby flights to Brisbane-Port Moresby from the end of October in order to better serve the business market.

FRANCIS NII

LAST week we read Lindsay Bond’s story of the opening of three bridges worth K139 million at Eroro, Girua and Ambogo in Oro Province, built with the support of Australian aid, and yesterday we read of the death of a mother of eight children in Dr Kevin Pondikou’s searingly personal piece.

These articles brought a million thoughts to my mind of what wonders Australian aid could have brought to Papua New Guinea had more attention been focused on building roads and bridges to link rural areas and urban centres.

Australia spent millions of dollars on her colony prior to independence and continues to spend $500 million annually even today, but why has this aid money not transformed the lives of the rural masses scattered across remote and mountainous terrain and on islands separated by often treacherous seas?

ETB Travel News

PAPUA New Guinea has introduced a new tourist visa for Australians. Australian passport holders can now secure a 30-day free tourist visa on arrival.

The change in visa requirements was announced this week by the PNG cabinet and is the first time this option has been available to Australian visitors.

Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority CEO, Jerry Agus (pictured), said he is delighted at the news and sees the decision as an important step forward for the tourism industry.

“We wholeheartedly welcome this news,” Mr Agus said.

SIMON JACKSON

IT PROBABLY hasn’t crossed your mind, but the Cook Islands is a place definitely worth a visit.

I travelled there from Auckland but there’s also a direct flight from Sydney these days.

The Cooks is an interesting place. Not just because of the laid back island feel and warmth of the people, but for a better model of how Australia might treat Papua New Guinea.

BRAD CROUCH

SOME people dream of buying an island. Australian Ian Gowrie-Smith bought an entire archipelago — sight unseen.

P&O Cruises Pacific Jewel has made history by becoming the first cruise ship to visit the remote Conflict Islands, putting the idyllic atoll — and their fascinating owner — briefly in the spotlight.

The 21 islands ranging from 1ha to 97 ha gathered in a pear shape around a sheltered lagoon are about 150km from Alotau at the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea.

With pristine reefs and abundant marine life, these serene remnants of an extinct volcano were named after British ship HMS Conflict which charted them in 1886.

KEITH JACKSON

THE Papua New Guinean government is to reverse its decision not to grant visas on arrival to Australian tourists.

“It is an impediment to attracting tourists in the country,” said Tourism Minister Tobias Kulang

“We will withdraw our position and reinstate visa on arrival for our Australian friends when they arrive at Jackson’s international terminal.”

Mr Kulang said Peter O’Neill had taken the original decision but “this twist of decision was made in the best interest for the tourism industry in the country”.

KEITH JACKSON

WE arise before dawn and we see the dark shape of land - the Aegean Sea is funnelling into the Dardanelles, just a narrow strait but with a name that triggers an emotional response in Australians.

In the half-light we see silhouetted on the rocky clifftop that marks the strait’s entrance four soaring columns of a massive monument and an oversized Turkish flag.

At about this time on 25 April 1915, 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders traversed these waters to be landed on Gallipoli’s precipitous and lethal shore.

Over the next eight months until the Allies retreated, 33,000 Allied (Diggers, Kiwis, Tommies, French) troops were killed – as were 86,000 Turks.

NATHAN LATI | Edited extracts

THE Engan dance, the Mali, is one of the traditional rituals that is gradually dying away due to non-recognition of its significance in the modern and traditional contexts.

Previously, the Mali was hosted for reasons that cannot match today’s purposes. Furthermore, the importance of the Mali from both modern and traditional perspective is not understood by majority of the Engans due to the current trend towards modernity and the weakening of culture, tradition and custom.

Currently, the Mali is one of the major tourist attractions in Enga and has gained popularity at the annual Enga Cultural Show with its Sili Muli, an all women Mali dance group.

MATTHEW DORNAN | PNG National Research Institute | Extract (Conclusion)

THE challenges faced by Papua New Guinea in managing its road network are shared with many other developing countries.

Road management, especially maintenance, has suffered from capacity constraints and underfunding.

Political incentives are important in explaining why successive governments have failed to allocate sufficient funding to road maintenance despite its positive economic return.

Development partners in response have advocated the commercialisation of road management through the establishment of an autonomous road agency whose road maintenance activities are funded by fees collected from the road sector.

MATEOS ALOIS

HUNDREDS of passengers came ashore from MS Pacific Aria when it anchored in Wewak Harbour on Monday, providing the town with a great boost.

And more than 500 passengers took the paid tour options - Wewak highlights, Maur Village and the ‘Japanese surrender’ tour – pumping even more money into the local economy.

And the response from our visitors? It was great, with the ship rating Wewak’s services and tours as excellent.

Among the passengers were former Wewak residents. including Mr Green, formerly a branch manager with the PNG Banking Corporation, and also the wife of former East Sepik district commissioner.

KEITH JACKSON

PAPUA New Guinea is putting its surf management plan into operation. The good news is that it works, reports the Surfer Today website.

PNG has developed a rulebook to minimise the impact of surf tourism on the fragile ecosystem, on local communities and on the quality of the surfing experience.

"PNG is a land of contrasts, transparent blue waters, ancient traditions, and multiple isolated islands," reports Surfer Today, adding that it's important to keep it alive, healthy, and natural. Couldn't agree more

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL

THE head of Papua New Guinea Tourism, Peter Vincent, says the country can do a lot more to realise the potential of its tourism industry.

Figures released this month by the World Travel and Tourism Council show PNG is ranked last of 184 countries surveyed in terms of the economic benefits from tourism.

PNG holds only 10% of the Pacific regional tourism market share by contrast to Fiji which holds an impressive 41%.

NICK DALTON | The Cairns Post

CAIRNS’ proximity to untouched beaches and pristine areas of Papua New Guinea has been a deciding factor in P&O Cruises basing their Pacific Eden in the port next year.

The 1,300-passenger ship makes its maiden voyage under P&O’s flag on Tuesday at 7am and will be based in Cairns from September to November next year and 2017, bringing a $16 million economic boost.

Six of Eden’s nine itineraries from Cairns next year feature Papua New Guinea while, in 2017, nine out of 10 visit PNG ports including the first international short break, a four-night cruise from Cairns to Alotau.

DANIEL KUMBON

DO you by any chance remember Lobo and his song ‘My first time’? It was popular among young people in the 1970s.

I recall students at Lae Technical College playing it over and over in the cool evenings under the big rain trees there.

The song stuck with me. It reminds me of ‘first time’ experiences in my lifetime. Like when I attended my first tanim het courting session. Or when I saw my first elephant in 1972at the Mt Hagen Show.

Later I was to see more than an elephant. On a visit to a zoo in Cleveland, Ohio, I added to this lions, zebras, giraffes, bears, monkeys (including two gorillas), camels, tigers, hippopotamuses (hippopotami?), llamas, kangaroos and many more.

I also saw different species of birds, fish and plants - all for the first time.

To be honest, I was amazed I could see all this from around the world in the one place.

KEITH JACKSON

BY the time your typical white resident of Cape Town has moved into the third sentence, some variation of the word ‘safety’ has already arisen in the conversation.

The same applies most everywhere else in South Africa.

Stern warnings are offered about the danger of wandering about after dusk, or displaying items of value at any time. Advice is proffered.

It needs to be, as some overseas visitors are their own worst enemy. Like giving their debit card to a friendly soul offering to help manipulate a local ATM machine and who absconds swiftly with both card and currency.

KEITH JACKSON

AS I write these notes, Nautica is edging its way a mile or so off the hilly South African coast between Durban and Port Elizabeth.

The sea is officially described as ‘very rough’, and the swell soars along at more than 20 feet.

The constant pitching and periodic sudden shudders have been enough to subdue most passengers. But at seven o’clock in the morning, with the sun still quite low, the scene is one of spectacular beauty.

We motor along under an almost cloudless sky, close enough to shore to observe the continuous string of towns and villages in a landscape that is green and treeless. Regular bursts of spray arc away from the ship’s bow, each shower offering a transient rainbow.

Makes it bloody hard to type, though; fingers bouncing off keys.

Coming into Durban's narrow channel two days ago, in seas almost as hostile as those this morning, the pilot was helicoptered to the ship and rappelled to the upper deck in a remarkable act of flying and seamanship.

KEITH JACKSON

JUST as well they don’t allow guns on this ship otherwise the launderette on Deck 7 would be a war zone.

There are two critical governors that human society (that is you and me and any number which is more than us) finds particularly beneficial even when we bridle against them.

At the top is authority. And, in support, providing authority with some structure, there are rules.

There are some places on earth where these totems of civilisation are not present. And one is is the Nautica launderette where there is no authority and no rules.

KEITH JACKSON

THE lead singer of super group Queen (‘We are the Champions’) was born in Zanzibar of Parsee parents. They baptised him Farrokh Bulsara. Freddie Mercury and fame were still to come.

But – even though for a modest fee you can take the Freddie Mercury tour on Madagascar - the locals have no idea where he really lived.

In fact, the American lady taking breakfast at the table next to me on the deck had no idea where she really was.

“Where are we now?” she asked plaintively. “Zan-zi-bar!” came the irritated response. Clearly not the first time her husband had fielded the question.

KEITH JACKSON

EVERY nation has a unique contribution to offer the world, and in the Seychelles it happens to be coco de mer – which for the purposes of this letter I shall call asfrut (pictured).

When you walk along Independence Avenue, the main street of the Seychelles’ capital, Victoria, you won’t see asfrut.

Asfrut grows wild but nothing in Independence Avenue is wild except the traffic. The town centre may be only two blocks – but presents an endless stream of vehicles.

Victoria’s tourist markets are somewhat removed from visitor traffic and therefore almost totally lacking in customers – a missed opportunity indeed as there were two ocean liners in port.

KEITH JACKSON

WELL bugger me! These strong man crackdowns always happen at the worst possible times.

Just hours out of the Maldives and looking forward to a three decade delayed reunion with my Maldivian friends, the skipper of Nautica executes a change of course from south-east to south-west and we’re headed for Mahe not Malé.

It seems that yesterday the usurper president Abdulla Yameen (pictured), who tossed out a democratically elected leader a couple of years back, declared a 30-day state of emergency ahead of a planned anti-government rally by the country's opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

The declaration gave Yameen’s security forces sweeping powers to arrest anyone they don’t like, er, who they think may be a suspect.

KEITH JACKSON

RICHARD Jones,  urger without parallel on the long concourse of my personal history, reminds me bluntly that the last report I made from MV Nautica, now 10 days into a five-week cruise, had me confined to my cabin with an ear complaint.

I travel mainly by sea because of an arthritic body that demands comfort and the sleep apnoea that requires a power supply to keep me breathing through the night. So a degree of technological reliability is prescribed these days as I move somewhat gingerly through time and space.

Loyal readers are used to me diarising travel experiences  - banal though they be. I contemplate a memoir. Working title - The most tedious traveller in the world, ever.

DANIEL KUMBON

HERE was I from Papua New Guinea sitting in a coach with colleagues from 11 other countries on our way to Cambridge University, one of the oldest and most renowned educational institutions in the United Kingdom.

It was founded in 1209 and has 32 colleges. Of particular interest to us journalists was Magdalene College, where we headed straight for the Pepys Library to view archival material on the development of shorthand.

But I was not there to hear the Assistant Librarian give the briefing because, like any fool who strays from the main group, I was lost in the grounds of this ancient university with students from all over the world.

KEITH JACKSON

I write this aboard MV Nautica which is tied up alongside in Abu Dhabi, the richest of, and something of a banker for, the other Gulf emirates because of its vast oil wealth. Outside, the thermometer has just passed the 100 degree Fahrenheit mark.

The long voyage that will take us to Cape Town has just begun and at this first port of call I’ve consigned myself to my cabin, not because the desert sand doesn’t have its attractions but because of my need to visit the ship’s doctor with what turned out to be an inflamed ear drum.

Dr Florante Bejar is a pleasant Filipino, a rotund young man, and we joke that the great thing about impaired hearing is that there are some discussions you’d rather not listen to.

KEITH JACKSON

TONIGHT Ingrid and I depart these sun-drenched Queensland shores for Dubai, where we will meet up with MV Nautica for a long cruise along India’s coast across to my old Maldives stamping ground and on to Africa.

The five-week voyage will conclude with a few days in Cape Town from where an arduous string of flights will, 35 hours later, deposit us in Orange NSW for the wedding of Ingrid’s first son, Evan, a medical student.

This period away from my desk will, of course, have an impact on the production of PNG Attitude although, on previous sojourns afloat or in hospital or on long treks, I have somehow managed to produce the blog regularly and, as usual, my email remains open to you.

DANIEL KUMBON

MY dream of soaring into the blue skies of Kandep in the belly of an aeroplane began with the recruitment of young men straight from the village to work on rubber, copra and cocoa plantations on the coast.

How I wished to look down upon the two great swamplands of Kandep with their many lakes and rivers teeming with wildlife, then disappear over the mountains to distant places.

I am sure, had I been old enough, I would have allowed myself to be recruited under the indentured labour scheme that operated during the colonial period.

AMANDA YEOU

ON the dawn of National Repentance Day, Madang was blessed with rain. Such a wonderful blessing, I thought as I got out of bed and packed my bag.

On 26 August, the Divine Word University lecturers and students left for Alexishafen to attend a Catholic Bible study session hosted by FrJohn Ryan SVD.

I was in the group which boarded the bus at 8:30 am arriving in Alexishafen, about 25 km north of Madang, around 9:15.

Alexishafen is an old Catholic Mission Station established by Society of the Divine Word missionaries.

OXFORD BUSINESS GROUP

THE aviation sector in Papua New Guinea is set for a major shake-up, with government plans to privatise a stake in the national flag carrier, Air Niugini, later this year.

This should support Port Moresby’s growing role as a regional air traffic hub, as new routes are added and more airlines extend services to the capital.

Last September the government announced it would offer a stake of around 50% in Air Niugini to private investors, a plan confirmed earlier this year by prime minister Peter O'Neill, who said the sale would begin towards the end of 2015.

PAULINE KARALUS

BOUGAINVILLE is blessed with natural resources that are scarcely found elsewhere, from its evergreen forests to the white sandy beaches.

These blessings are potential tourist attractions in paradise, however they are virtually unknown apart from by the local people.

Roughly a 2 to 3 day walk from my place, Piano in Buin, lays the mighty Lake Loloru. The lake is situated on the border of Central and South Bougainville, between Kieta and Buin.

The scientific explanation for the crescent shaped lake is that it was formed from the crater of an old dormant volcano, however our ancestors have their own beliefs about the Loloru’s existence.

BOB CLELAND

‘I need to call in to the Mission tomorrow,’ I said to the skipper.

‘Okay Taubada. Quick way - straight up this channel. Leave early, we go with tide. Be there when the sun overhead.’

‘What about the main channel? How long will that take?’

‘We go out to sea first. Then we enter channel. Then we be pushing upriver but tide coming down. Maybe we get there in dark. But weather is okay.’

The skipper was a crusty old Kiwai, born to a sea-going life and long experienced as crew in small government coastal ships. Now he was skipper of this half-cabined work-boat named Urunga after the NSW north coastal town where it was built.

DANIEL KUMBON

An entry in the Crocodile Prize
Award for Tourism, Arts and Culture Writing

“YOU have good mountains, beautiful scenery, good weather and many attractions which would pull people here but what you lack is a guesthouse.”

The scene: Sirunki, Laiagam District, Enga province. The speaker: A lone German traveller. The listener: Yasowa Kome, local councillor. The year: 1990.

This conversation with his guest prompted Kome to start a guest house even though Sirunki was a ‘no-go zone’ at the time due to tribal warfare and constant armed hold-ups at Aipanda, on the border of Laiagam and Wabag.

PHIL FITZPATRICK

WHEN I was transferred to the Western District in 1969 I assumed that my previous misdemeanors had simply caught up with me and I accepted my fate with no real misgivings.

Apart from the opportunity to get to some very out of the way places, there was another potential benefit to my banishment not readily available in my previous posting in the Western Highlands. That was the opportunity to patrol in boats.

I had spent many enjoyable days on the River Murray in South Australia as a boy pottering around in old clinker built boats around Swan Reach and Blanchetown. 

These were the days before the carp invaded and muddied the water.  In those days there were many native fish to catch, including giant cod.

KEITH JACKSON | Private Diaries

WE arise before dawn and we see the dark shape of land - the Aegean Sea is funnelling into the Dardanelles, just a narrow strait but with a name that triggers an emotional response in most Australians.

In the half-light we can see silhouetted on the rocky clifftop that marks the strait’s entrance four soaring columns of a massive monument and an oversized Turkish flag.

At about this time on 25 April 1915, 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders traversed these waters to be landed on Gallipoli’s precipitous and lethal shore.

REG YATES

FIVE companions walked with me on that commemorative trek to Tol Plantation from 29 August to 7 September last year.

They included a retired Army officer (who’d been on three trips to PNG with me in the late 1980s), a retired chemistry professor, a veteran of the war in Vietnam, the son of a former RAAF airman and Peter McGuiness, son of a Lark Force survivor from the war in New Britain in 1942.

Our trek was dedicated to the 1,400 Australian soldiers and airmen of 2/22nd Battalion and Lark Force, sent to Rabaul in early 1941 and defeated in the Japanese invasion of early 1942.

REG YATES

ON 11 September 1914, the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force captured the German wireless station at Bita Paka, near Rabaul in East New Britain, then part of German New Guinea.

The centenary of this important event was honoured on 11 September last year by the presence in Simpson Harbour of HMAS Yarra IV (the fourth namesake of the original HMAS Yarra) together with other Australian naval and defence force personnel who arrived by RAAF Hercules, and numerous tourists and trekkers.

Liam Cochrane of ABC TV, based in Port Moresby and Max Uechtritz, of Channel 7, Sydney, provided excellent coverage for Australia and the region.

KEITH JACKSON

THE P&O cruise ship Pacific Dawn will be making its maiden visits to Madang tomorrow and Wewak on Friday.

And the people of Madang and Wewak have been called upon to embrace cruise tourism in their provinces.

PNG Tourism Promotion Authority chief executive officer Peter Vincent said the people must become role models by displaying the positive side of Papua New Guinea to international visitors.

JIMMY AWAGL

An entry in the Crocodile Prize
PNG Government Award for Short Stories

THE afternoon was grey with clouds overhanging the summit of Porol as I left Dumai village for Basis.

It was 2 pm when I set my feet on the newly constructed footpath leading to Dumuna- Parua village, commonly known as ‘Basis or Back Page’.

Just 20 meters away from the start of the path, I approached three toddlers who were very busy playing with an out of shape saucepan. The kids were trying to cook some stuff in the center of the track.

KEITH JACKSON

NEW Zealand-born ex-Army officer Captain Reg Yates has been a regular visitor to Papua New Guinea for almost 30 years.

Last year he was a key organiser of a major commemoration of World War I events on the Gazelle Peninsula.

That centenary of Australian military deployment to the Gazelle was covered for Radio New Zealand International by journalist Johnny Blades.

Johnny interviewed Reg about the significance of wartime events which have emerged as one of PNG's major tourism assets.

“Australians and New Zealanders have always been well regarded by the Papua New Guineans,” Reg said. “They always treated each other with respect.”

Reg agreed with Johnny that PNG could make more of its crucial role in two world wars in terms of its value as a tourism destination.