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AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975
PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 10A–2 Part 2-A. of 14th Jan 2024. TECHNICAL and TERTIARY TRAINING and its CONTRIBUTION to PNG FORESTRY DEVELOPMENT until 1975 PART ONE: CREATION Pre-school to BFC 1961-1963.
Editor R B McCarthy1 2024. QUENSLAND’S CONTRIBUTION to PNG’s SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT.
Queensland has assisted the business of PNG Forestry in building a better PNG.
Wood is an increasingly strategic resource for tomorrow.
Initial Home of Bulolo Forestry College in 1961 at Bulolo Forestry District Head Quarters. Photo credit Ian Smith.
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Dick McCarthy District Forester TPNG Forests 1963-1975.
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TECHNICAL and TERTIARY TRAINING and its CONTRIBUTION to PNG FORESTRY DEVELOPMENT until 1975 PART TWO: CREATION BULOLO FORESTRY COLLEGE (PNGAF MAG ISSUE #10-A Part 2) PART TWO: CREATION (PNGAF MAG ISSUE # 10A–2 Part 2-A of 4th Jan
2024. PNG Department of Forests Training Initiatives Part 2-A
Pre-school Technical Forestry Training
Background to the Bulolo Forestry School 2 In early 1961, the Australian Government made a nationwide recruiting drive (in Australia) to interview and enlist six (6) potential Assistant Forest Rangers, as part of ten (10) students, to be the first intake for the Bulolo Forestry College. The new recruits included Bruce Anderson, Tony Crompton, Rod Hall, Tony Brown, Heiner Streimann, and Peter Eddowes. However, as the Forestry College Buildings had not been started, at this time, the BFS did not start up until 1962. The first Principal of the school was Joe Havel, a very dedicated forester to the task ahead. The students were all housed together, into one (old) wooden building opposite the old forestry office. A classroom was established inside the forestry office building. Four other personnel were recruited locally (from PNG) however, the latter four personnel, did not stay on to complete the course that ended in 1963. The establishment of the Bulolo Forestry College in 1962 was the commencement of formal technical training for Papua New Guineans. Peter Eddowes3 (Certificate of Forestry Bulolo Forestry College 1963) as an initial recruit described his involvement in the first intake for the Bulolo Forestry College.
Toward the end of 1962, I received notice for my departure (reluctantly) from Rabaul, to return to Port Moresby for a briefing session, prior to heading off to Bulolo for the commencement of the very first Forestry school. The initial intake of the newly recruited (six) students saw all of us housed in one old wooden house opposite the Forestry Office. The overall housing and teaching conditions were somewhat rudimentary, with the classroom in the storage room for the Pine seeds. Joe Havel was the first official
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Peter Eddowes Personal Communication 21/4/20 PNGAF MAG Issue # 9B-5B4E2 of 22nd Nov 2022, Eminent TPNG Forester/Wood Technologist Peter Eddowes. TPNG Forests 1961-1981 3
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Principal of the College and had the task of shaping the new (raw) recruits into ‘knowledgeable’ Forest Officers, over the next 18 months. To his credit, he was a very dedicated man, and although lacking in resources, he was devoted to the task ahead, and did a wonderful job over the ensuing period of lecturing, organising field trips to and including the ‘mossy’ beech (Nothofagus) forests of Eadie Creek in Wau with Kevin White as our guide, and with visits to the Bulolo Plymill, Golden Pines sawmills, and the local sawmills in Lae. He also arranged for other members of the Forestry Department to present lectures in the various fields of Forestry, including forest surveys, aerial photography and interpretation, mensuration and silviculture, botany, timber utilisation and timber identification etc. The part-time lecturers included Kevin White, Alan Cameron, Eric Hammermaster, Greg McDonald, Phil Ainsworth, Alan Ross, and John Womersley.
Tony Crompton (standing) & Peter Eddowes (seated) & local field assistants. Training in forest survey work. Lower Montane Forest Bulolo 1963. Photo credit Peter Eddowes. We, the students, were also involved in a major ‘burn-off’ in the Wau valley. Frank Coppock (OIC) oversaw the operation, and together with other forestry personnel and local labourers, a whole day was spent in a successful ‘burn.’ After that, we all retreated to the old Wau Pub for a few ales where caution had to be observed due to the presence of ‘termites’ in the floorboards!
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One of two hotels in Wau. Note Mt Kaindi in the background. 1930’s. Source PNGAA.
Crossing the Markham River. First intake of students heading back to Bulolo after field trip to Lae. 1963. Photo credit Peter Eddowes. Graduation: Upon graduating at the end of 1963. I was seconded to the Division of Utilisation to work together with Greg McDonald & Barry Hartwell under the leadership of the late John Colwell, Chief of Division of Utilisation. The Utilisation workshop was located at the bottom of Lawes’ Road in Konedobu, just down past the printing office of the Post Courier newspaper, and opposite the ‘Bert Stubbs’ plumbing and joinery workshops. Our major task, as allocated, was to plot and plan for expeditions, throughout the Country, for the collection of wood material, supported by fertile botanical material, collected under the authentic ‘New Guinea Forest’ (NGF) series, for what was deemed, the major commercial timber species as occurring throughout the country, and including the islands of the Bismarck
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Archipelago, Bougainville and the remote islands of the Milne Bay District including the islands of the Louisiade Archipelago and the D’Entrecasteaux Islands. As well, other research projects included the establishment of trials for determining the Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC) for Port Moresby and its environs, marine wood borer trials, timber seasoning and Graveyard (Durability) trials. This together, with the ongoing collections of sample logs together with botanical material and the milling of the timbers, for undertaking and establishing the machining and working properties of the major timber species. The preparation of trial materials for these projects was undertaken and carried out at the Utilisation workshop at Lawes Road utilising the materials from the (authentic) wood collection programme. This involved the preparation and the labelling (metal tags) of 50x50mm wooden stakes for the natural durability trials to go into a prepared graveyard site at the Brown River Forest Station, plus 100x100mm squares for the marine wood-borer trials, made up into sample ‘panels’, affixed with stainless steel fittings to go into Fairfax harbour. The test site was across the harbour from Moresby, near the old holding area for a ‘Lepper’ colony. There was also, a cross selection of small wood samples (10mm thick) prepared for the EMC trials for use in a ‘Stephenson Screen’ to be located at Jacksons airport, as well as the 150x25mm material for wood seasoning trials. “We were fully occupied in the regular and ongoing monitoring and recording of these. Gogol Forest Survey. Madang District: In 1963 both Kumul and Eddowes, were involved in the initial Gogol Forest Survey in Madang. From recollection, Don McIntosh (Director) was leading the survey group together with Eric Hammermaster and Bill Jenkin. This was the very first (forest) survey to have use of a Chopper, and what a difference it made, to be flown in and out of the designated areas for surveying, rather than footslogging, together with ‘carriers’ and provisions? Both Maru Kumul and I were to make several interesting botanical and wood collections during our time with the survey team including that of Bridelia spp., a previously unknown occurrence in the area. The very first ‘chopper’ as used in forest survey work. Gogol forest resource. Madang. 1963. Photo credit Peter Eddowes.
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4Gogol Survey Boss Boys 1963 L to R Norm Endacott, Johnny Lowien, David “dokka”
Reid, Eric Hammermaster, Jim Cavanaugh, Evan Shield, Peter Eddowes, Pilot Hurrell, Don McIntosh, Bill Jenkin, unknown, unknown, Kevin White, unknown. Photo credit Mary Jenkin.
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Personal Communication Eric Hammermaster 11/3/21. Gogol trial survey Nov to Dec 1963. Based at Utu Catholic Mission Station. Unknowns would include helicopter mechanic of Helicopter Utilities, soils staff of DASF as Paul Aland and DIES. One of the PNG forestry assistants was Gallope Mato who trained under Jim Cavanaugh post-war.