EXPEDITION
A STEP BACK IN TIME Tim Griffiths retraces a 1922 expedition to PNG by the famed Antarctic photographer Frank Hurley, who ventured deep into the Lake Murray region in Western Province.
When world-famous photographer Frank Hurley and Australia Museum scientist Allan McCulloch sailed their ketch Eureka into Port Moresby’s Fairfax Harbour in December 1922, they had every reason to feel pleased with themselves. They had just penetrated the interior of Papua by journeying up the Fly and Strickland rivers into Lake Murray. They had succeeded in achieving first contact with tribes in the upper reaches of the lake that still practised headhunting. The duo assembled an extensive collection of artefacts and Hurley took hundreds of photos on glass-plate negatives. His photographs captured the diversity of the people and their culture in the Gulf and Western provinces. He photographed men’s houses, some more than 120 metres long and 20 metres high and which no longer exist, except in his photographs.
Above: Masked dancers at Tovei village. Above right: A longhouse on the Fly River. Right: Frank Hurley and Allan McCulloch camped on the Aramia River, Western Province. Far right: Villagers surround Eureka during her 1922 visit. Pictures: Frank Hurley, reproduced with permission from the Australian Museum PARADISE
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ANNUAL 2018