PNGAF MAG ISSUE # 10 - B - PNG FOREST EDUCATION Part 6 of 6 Parts. Dr John Davidson's Journey.

FROM FORESTRY CADET TO FORESTRY PROFESSOR

Memories of Youth and Living and Working in

Papua New Guinea

John Davidson

(Part 6)

PART 5

Assessment of the E. deglupta progeny trial two years old, Kunjingini

Neville Howcroft and I proceeded to Kunjingini west of Wewak in the East Sepik District to assess this half-sib progeny trial/seed orchard. Results and photographs are in the companion article “Rainbow Eucalypt Man” (Pages 285 – 286).

I pay a visit to the final year Forest Engineering class late in 1976. The six students (from left: Jack Noah, Joseph Ben, Alec Chang, Dike Kari, Sampson Gaviro and Oscar Mamalai) had set up a working model of a skyline harvesting system. Though not used in PNG, this system used elsewhere in the region on steep slopes was required subject matter for the course. (Photograph: George Vatasan)

The personal style of the Vice-Chancellors of the Universities shaped the two institutions during the early and mid-1970s. At the PNGUT, compared to his predecessor Dr Duncanson, Dr Sandover was an exuberant personality and highly skilled in the art of wheeling-and-dealing, as was evident during the negotiations about the location of the forestry degree course and, later, my secondment to the PNGUT from the Department of Forests.

During 1975-1976 Sandover’s personal leadership style had created division among different segments of the University community and in Government and deep hostility between him and some individuals in particular. The dispute related here over forestry education was only one source of grievance. Other matters included the defeat of the proposals for a single national university, strong academic trade

Dr Sandover’s demise

unionism at the PNGUT, the demise of the PNGUT Working Party on University Government, perceived elitism of senior expatriate staff (the best and well-equipped houses, expensive new cars, swimming pools, ocean-going boats for recreation, numerous parties, extensive holidays in Asia and Europe and other examples of visible and perceived largesse), discrimination against female academics and the abysmal pace of localization. So many controversies found their way back to him personally that even his continuing presence in PNG was becoming a contentious issue.1

His ultimate downfall came over the PNGUT’s recruitment and localization policies. National staff, with some justification, believed only token localization was happening. A series of bitter personal feuds had developed between the Vice-Chancellor and a few staff members. Polarisation between administrative and academic staff became more pronounced. The relationship between Sandover and the Staff Associations became more and more soured. Eventually, the sum of all the hostility to Vice-Chancellor Sandover manifested itself in the appearance in early 1975 of the underground news sheet, The Retorter, a parody of the official news sheet, The Reporter.

A stop-work meeting of PNGUT national staff on 12 November 1976 triggered a chain of events that led to Sandover’s final demise. The meeting demanded “an immediate public enquiry into evidence of malpractice, maladministration and victimisation” at the PNGUT. On 13 November, Matt Tigilai who had been in the post of Deputy Vice-Chancellor for only a few weeks, flew to Port Moresby for crisis talks with Tololo (Minister for Education), Edoni (Secretary for Labour), Kilage (the PNG Ombudsman) and Oostermeyer (Director of the OHE (after Tigilai moved to Lae)) to try to find solutions to the antagonism between Sandover and several of his staff. On the agenda was a set of conditions put forward by the joint PNGUT Staff Associations. Allegedly at the head of the list was a demand for the immediate resignation of Sandover and one of his outspoken allies, a senior academic staff member. Other issues included a call for the reconstruction of the Council and the Finance and Management Committee, an investigation into the University’s finances in relation to allegations of financial malpractice, establishment of a committee with representatives from the Staff Associations to consider the numerous complaints and grievances of staff and a re-examination of recent decisions in regard to renewal of contracts as well as appointments and promotion procedures.2

A few days later about three quarters of the PNGUT staff (about 350 in number) attended a meeting that voted in favour of advising the Prime Minister that there should be a public enquiry into the University’s 1 See pages 291

307 In Howie-Willis I 1980 loc. cit. 2 Press release of the PNGUT Staff Association (Non-National), 14 November 1976.

affairs.3The controversy continued through subsequent meetings of the Staff Associations.4In the National Parliament Toni Ila demanded that Sandover, who was due to leave PNG in the new year (1977) to take up an appointment to the South Australian Board of Advanced Education in Adelaide, be kept in the country to face a public enquiry.5

On 26 November 1976, the day scheduled for a Council meeting in the morning and the 1976 Graduation Ceremony in the afternoon, matters came to a head. The National Staff Association held another stopwork meeting, drawing in almost all the national employees of the University: academics, technical officers, administrators, clerks, secretaries, drivers, caterers and kitchen workers, cleaning and grounds personnel. Most went on to picket the Administration building, where Council was meeting, to demand a public enquiry. Council also had before it a letter from Somare (drafted by the OHE) which stated that the University’s best interests lay in the immediate localization of the Vice-Chancellorship.6 Under extreme pressure from both the PNGUT staff and Government, the Council agreed on the one hand to call on the PNG Ombudsman to carry out an investigation and on the other to ask Sandover “if he would be prepared to vacate the position [of Vice-Chancellor] earlier than intended to allow localization to take place”.7Sandover had little option but to agree, to have refused may have meant the double jeopardy first of the disgrace of a dismissal and second that he may have not been allowed to leave PNG pending a public enquiry. Pre-empting any further action that might be taken against him, he hastily left PNG five days later, insisting that he had not been sacked, according to the local press at the time.8

Matt Tigilai took over as Acting Vice-Chancellor after Sandover’s departure.

Graduation of the first Forestry Degree students

The ceremony for the first students to graduate from the PNGUT with the Degree of Bachelor of Science (Forestry) took place in Duncanson Hall on 26 November 1976. This was the eighth graduation ceremony held by the University. Present to receive their degree certificates from the Chancellor were Joseph Ben, Dike Kari, Alec Chang (Fiji), Jack Noah and Oscar Mamalai. Sampson Gaviro (Solomons) received his degree in absentia.

3 Page 3, Post-Courier, 18 November 1976.

4 Page 3, Post-Courier, 22 November 1976.

5 Page 3, Post-Courier, 29 November 1976.

6 Page 3, loc. cit.

7 Page 3, Post-Courier, 30 November 1976.

8 Page 3, loc. cit.

I am with the first Forestry graduates just after the graduation ceremony in November 1976, from the left: Joseph Ben, Dike Kari, Alec Chang (Fiji), Jack Noah and Oscar Mamalai. (Not in the photograph, receiving his degree in absentia: Sampson Gaviro (Solomons)). (Photograph: Gloria Davidson)

Graduation Day November 1976. After the ceremony. From left: Mrs Davidson, Mrs Vergara and daughter, Mrs Tesseverasinghe, Mrs Mamalai, Forestry Graduate Oscar Mamalai and son, Mr Tesseverasinghe.

Recreation leave, Christmas 1976

We proceeded on recreation leave to Australia on 13 December 1976, returning on 26 January 1977 for the start of Term I, 1977.

1977

Ombudsman Committee investigation

Not long after Sandover’s departure, in early 1977, the PNG Ombudsman Commission announced its intention of proceeding with a public investigation into the administration of the PNGUT. This would occur at the same time as several staff with particular grievances were thinking about legal action against other staff who were perceived to have been aligned with Sandover.

The Ombudsman Commission sent Ombudsman Frank Hedges to Lae to hold hearings spread across several days. He was charged with examination of several events leading up to Sandover’s departure and “a spate” of related personal complaints, counter-complaints and grievances.

If one was summoned, attendance before the Ombudsman was compulsory and legally enforceable. I was called before the Ombudsman to give evidence under oath for about an hour. I was unable to shed much light on most of the matters before the Commission since I was relatively new to the institution and was completely unaware of most of what had been going on behind the scenes before I arrived in Lae

I recall being impressed by the Commission’s stenographer at the hearing whose incredibly fast typing speed enabled her to take down testimony word for word directly on an IBM Electric typewriter as we spoke at normal conservational speed!

Such was the huge volume of issues put forward, the Commission was forced to acknowledge that it lacked the resources to address “a huge and daunting task”.9Its findings were un-remarkable generalisations and no commitments were made. Eventually defeated by the task at hand, the Commission later (in 1978) concluded that:

“ …. The health of the University had suffered considerably as a result of the troubles on campus, but apportioning the causes among individuals is not going to change the feelings of those who were involved in the problems ….. Giving a balanced view of the arguments of both sides is going to be a job of such proportions that it is doubtful if we have the capacity.”10 As far as the Ombudsman Commission was concerned the matters were then shelved indefinitely.

University Bodies and Committees on which I served in 1977

The most notable effect of the “democratic reforms” introduced in the University was to create a vast tangled web of interlocking committees. The result was a massive increase in paperwork, which in turn drove up secretarial and administrative costs.

I served on the following committees in 1977 involving a considerable time spent over in the Administration building rather than in the Forestry Department! For those committees on which I was Chairman a great deal of pre-meeting reading and preparation was also involved.

Academic Board

Finance and Management Committee

Higher Degrees Committee

Standing Budgetary Advisory Committee

Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Group

Working Party on University Development Localization Committee

Analysis Laboratory Management Committee (Chairman)

Library Committee (Chairman)

Appointments Committee

Promotions Committee

Buildings Committee

Faculty of Natural Resources (Dean and Chairman (elected))

Moderators’ Committee

Standing Committee on Research

Deans’ Committee

Standing Staff Disciplinary Committee

Committee on Reappointment of Contract Staff

Study Leave Committee

Student Discipline Committee

Academic Policy and Planning Committee

The ASAG ESS saga continues

F C Johnston for the Chief Officer ASAG wrote from Canberra to my leave address in Armidale that they had “not yet received evidence” that I “have entered into a contract with the Government of Papua New Guinea”, though the contract with the PNGUT was common knowledge in their PNG office.

10 Page 56, Ombudsman Commission of Papua New Guinea 1978. Third Report, 30 June 1978.

The letter set out that if I have entered into a contract of employment with the Government of Papua New Guinea and if I have completed a period of employment of 2 years, the balance of my compensation would be payable on 17 December 1978. The letter arrived in Armidale after I had left to return to PNG after leave and was not sent on to me.

Comprehensive Environmental Management Programme Meeting

I attended the Comprehensive Environmental Management Programme Meeting hosted by the South Pacific Commission in Noumea New Caledonia 9 to 11 March 1977. I reported on the activities of the Department of Forestry PNGUT and prepared a report on my return.

PNG was one of the members of the South Pacific Commission in 1977.

FAO/IUFRO Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding

From 21 – 26 March 1977, 200 scientists met in Canberra for the FAO/IUFRO Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding. The Consultation reviewed worldwide progress, problems and prospects in the field of exploration, selection and conservation of forest germ plasm resources. There were accounts of research results and trial results of breeding work with different tree species of coniferous species and angiosperms, including conifers mainly, and eucalypts. Presented were studies on plant propagation, hybridization, crosspollination, genetic variability and heritability of genetic characters. A theme of directed gene management was held throughout the six sessions held. The first two sessions covered gene conservation, the second two breeding methodology and the last two economics and future strategies.

Over the course of the Consultation, I presented four papers.11After the Consultation, I joined the tour to Coffs Harbour 27 March to 3 April 1977. On show was the Forest Commission of NSW breeding programme for E. grandis.

IUFRO Workshop, Brisbane

IUFRO combined Working Parties S2.02.8 and S2.03.1 held a Workshop in Brisbane 4 – 8 April 1977, following the Consultation in Canberra. I presented a paper on breeding tropical eucalypts.12

11 Davidson J 1977 Exploration, collection, evaluation, conservation and utilization of the gene resources of tropical Eucalyptus deglupta Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 – 26 March, Canberra, Australia; Davidson J 1977 Breeding Eucalyptus deglupta – a case study. Invited special paper. Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 – 26 March, Canberra, Australia; Davidson J 1997 Problems of vegetative propagation of Eucalyptus. Third World Consultation on Forest Tree Breeding, 21 – 26 March, Canberra, Australia; Davidson J 1977 Advances from international cooperation on tropical Eucalyptus. Third World Consultation on Forest tree Breeding, 21 – 26 March, Canberra, Australia. See “Rainbow Eucalypt Man”.

12 Davidson J 1977 Breeding Tropical Eucalypts. IUFRO Working Parties S2.02.8 (Tropical Species Provenances) and S2.03.1 (Breeding Tropical and Subtropical Species) Workshop, 4

8 April 1977, Brisbane, Queensland.

Second instalment of compensation for loss of salary

Notice that my second instalment of compensation for loss of salary would be paid on 17 June 1977 was sent c/- Department of Primary Industry, Port Moresby PNG. The ASAG Canberra Office under the ADAB in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs seemed still unaware that I was on a contract at the PNGUT.

Technical and vocational level training in forestry

A Timber Industry Training College (TITC) was originally operated by the Department of Forests and was established in 1977 with the assistance of a Papua New Guinea - New Zealand Bilateral Aid Project.13The College is located not far from the PNGUT, about 3.5km Northwest of Lae’s Eriku shopping centre. It occupies about 10 ha of land along the Bumbu Road and Bumbu River.

Formal training started in 1978. The aim of the College was, and is, to provide a range of technical and vocational skills required by the forestry industry. A variety of trade, technical and vocational certificate courses is offered in timber harvesting and processing and manufacturing of wood products. A production sawmill and wood processing equipment are among the training facilities on site.

Mr

On 9 July1977 Mr Somare, Head of Pangu Party, was elected Prime Minister in the first election following Independence.

13

Somare elected Prime Minister

In 1994 the College became “affiliated” with the PNGUT, renamed the Timber and Forestry Training College (TFTC) and referred to as the “Bumbu Campus” of the University.

Completion of the new Natural Resources building at the PNGUT

The new Natural Resources building was completed in early 1977 at a cost of K700,000.

The southern face of the new Natural Resources building on completion. The long narrow layout followed the sketch plan given earlier. The ground floor was a concrete slab. Construction was from kwila ( Intsia bijuga) throughout. The mainly one-room width was to allow cross ventilation through the louvered walls and up in the mezzanine void space to exit through tunnels in the roof to avoid the need for air conditioning. A large roof overhang on this side provided shade. The basic cross-braced truss framework with bolted steel fishplates and ties at the ends is evident. The span of each bay was determined by the length of available kwila logs from which large cross-section beams could be cut and dressed without the need for a join. The near flat part of the roof overhang was clip-lock colour-bond steel, the steeply sloping part pressure-treated sawn wooden shingles of Alstonia scholaris. The box-like extension on this side of the building housed the mens’ and womens’ toilets on the ground floor and a students’ common room on the upper floor. The exterior cladding was of kwila tongueand-grooved weatherboards mainly fixed at an angle of 45 degrees to help prevent rainwater being trapped in the cracks. The initial finish on the timber was an oil/wax coat but the intention was that the exterior cladding and exposed beams would be left to weather naturally to a greyish patina.

Integrated greenhouse covered in sarlon shade cloth and located next to the main laboratory /lecture theatre.

On the left is the other end of the storeroom, on the right the main laboratory. Between the two is a small balance and equipment room. The cut-outs in the roof were a critical feature in the design in that they allowed the upwards flow of warm air from the ground floor through the void space adjacent to the second floor to assist in keeping this non-airconditioned building cooler than it would be otherwise.

Main entrance vestibule and staircase to the second floor. In the middle on the ground floor is the research laboratory and on the right the end of the storeroom.

Fourth Year students (1977) on field trips. Top: In the Markham Valley in experimental pine plots. I am behind one of the trees while the lecturer in Plantation Silviculture Dr Julian Evans explains what there is to observe. Bottom: Fourth Year students visit a pine nursery in the highlands led by Dr Evans (centre).

The Forestry Department moves into the new building

Without much fanfare, the PNGUT Departments of Forestry, Fisheries Technology and Agriculture moved into the new Natural Resources building. Lecture and Laboratory classes started in the new facilities. Staff occupied their offices. Ms Angeline Sikas joined the Forestry Department as Departmental Secretary and my PA.

Student strikes and demonstrations 1977

Violence was becoming a more frequent feature of student demonstrations, especially at the UPNG. In October 1977, about 500 UPNG students marched on the Australian High Commission at Waigani in a violent protest over the alleged spying at the UPNG by an Australian diplomat and the refusal of the then Australian High Commissioner Mr Critchley to come out and address them. Students tore branches from trees, wrote slogans on the walls of the High Commission, damaged cars and smeared mud over the CCTV monitors. At least two High Commission employees were assaulted by students.14

Star Wars

The first Star Wars movie was shown in the Lae Theatre in October 1977, soon after its release in Australia. Our two children were just old enough to enjoy it!

1978

Appointment of a Pro Vice-Chancellor

Towards the end of 1977 the PNGUT Council decided to create the post of Pro Vice-Chancellor to assist Acting Vice-Chancellor Tigilai with the top administrative job. Council also wanted to do more to promote the University’s already considerable strength in the area of appropriate technology. There were also urgent issues to be addressed regarding academic staff allocations to the Departments and shortage of accommodation on campus for academic staff in a budget under pressure from Government.

Professor Arthur Francis was invited on secondment from the Appropriate Technology Section, Faculty of Engineering, University of Melbourne, to take up the post. He accepted and arrived in Lae in the New Year 1978.

Committees for 1978

My workload on various University Committees increased during 1978. I was appointed as a Member of the University of Technology Council on 1 February 1978. Otherwise, the list was much the same as in 1977, except my role of Chairman of some committees involved more work over time.

The 1978 list was:

University of Technology Council

Academic Board

Finance and Management Committee

Higher Degrees Committee

Standing Budgetary Advisory Committee

Vice-Chancellor’s Advisory Group

Working Party on University Government Localization Committee

Analysis Laboratory Management Committee (Chairman)

Library Committee (Chairman)

Buildings Committee

Faculty of Natural Resources (Dean and Chairman (elected)) Study Leave Committee

Academic Policy and Planning Committee

Courses Committee

Honorary Degrees Committee

Workshop on Environmental Planning and Assessment, PNGUT, 10 February 1978

Taking the lead from the Minister for Environment and Conservation and the Prime Minister: ….

“The question is not whether we should have economic growth. There must be! Nor is it a question whether the impact on the environment must be respected. It has to be! The solution to the dilemma clearly revolves not about whether, but about how we are to manage our development.”

(Mr Stephen Tago, Minister for Environment and Conservation in PNG in his opening address to the Waigani Seminar in Port Moresby, May 1975.)

“Development is a positive concept. It is a way of increasing our prosperity. However we can develop wisely or unwisely, the choice is ours …. It may be that some of us do not want development at all, but merely to stay as they are. If this is so they must be supported by the rest of the region. However those of us who want development, will want ‘ecodevelopment’, that is ecologically sound development, development which supports our cultures and our societies and which does not destroy them.”

(Mr Michael Somare, Prime Minister of PNG, in introducing the agenda item on Environmental Management to the South Pacific Forum, July 1976.)

…. the PNGUT organised a Workshop on Environmental Planning and Assessment which took place on campus on 10 February 1978. I prepared a lecture with the title “The Ecological Balance Between Development and Preservation of Tropical Forest Resources.”15The published lecture document (previous page) contained three detailed Appendices: 1 (pp 44-54). Model Forest Management Plan, 2 (pp 55-58). A mixed cover strategy for harvesting tropical rainforest, and, 3 (pp 59-64). Environmental controls for logging operations.

Organic Law on the Duties and Responsibilities of Leadership

Following my appointment to the PNGUT Council, I became a person in PNG to which this Organic Law applied under the Leadership Code. I was required by the Ombudsman Commission to declare certain detailed information about my assets, income business dealings and so on. The statement of declaration also had to cover my wife and children under the age of 18 years. The Commission provided a proforma Statement with blank spaces to be filled in.

15 Much of the material in the lecture was compiled from: Davidson J 1976 Interaction of production forestry with conservation objectives and multiple use of forest land. In Lamb K P and Gressitt J L (eds) 1976 Ecology and Conservation in Papua New Guinea. Wau Ecology Institute, Pamphlet No. 2:49-71; FAO 1976 Advisor on forest environment management Papua New Guinea. Project Findings and Recommendations. FO:DP/PNG/74/033, Rome; Lamb D 1977 Conservation and management of tropical rainforest: a dilemma of development in Papua New Guinea. Environmental Conservation 4(2):121-129 and Webb L J 1977 Ecological considerations and safeguards in the modern use of tropical lowland rainforests as a source for pulpwood; example, the Madang area. PNG Office of Environment and Conservation, Department of Natural Resources, PNG. 36+4pp., illustrated.

My statement was duly prepared and submitted on time and acknowledgement received from the Ombudsman Commission (right).

Student strikes and demonstrations 1978

In April 1978, a final year politics student, past-president of the Students’ Representative Council and a leading student “activist” at the UPNG physically assaulted one of his lecturers when the latter pressed him on his poor attendance at class. Following the student’s suspension from the University by the ViceChancellor, there followed a period of class boycotts and the students barricaded entrances to the campus. A special Council meeting on Wednesday 10 May rejected all the student demands. News of the rejection immediately reached the estimated 300 students waiting outside, sparking yet another spate of mob violence (loud yelling of slogans, rocks thrown on the corrugated iron roof, clashes with the security guards at the door of the Council room, including using a filing cabinet as a battering ram, and spraying the area with a fire hose). A mobile squad of riot police was summoned. When it arrived the Officer-in-charge ordered his men to fire tear gas and make arrests. The students confronted the squad with insults and taunts, a hail of stones and threats to “burn down the University”.

Meanwhile, Goroka Teachers’ College and PNGUT students had come out on strike in sympathy, but both of these groups went back to classes a few days later.

In a meeting among Barry Holloway (Acting Minister for Education), Rabbie Namaliu (the first national to be appointed to the UPNG academic staff (in 1972)), the Vice-Chancellor (Renagi Lohia) and student leaders, consensus was reached on four points: i) the departure from campus of the student involved in the initial violent assault on the lecturer, ii) a return to classes on the following Monday (22 May), iii)

an Ombudsman Commission to enquire into all aspects of the disturbance (including alleged police brutality against students on campus), and, iv) in respect of student scholarships government assurances that students should be allowed to participate in political activities without fear of victimisation.

While classes did not start again on 22 May, they did resume on 29 May, some eight weeks after the initial act of violence that triggered the disturbances.

After the strike was over, Somare called for an official investigation. A Committee of Inquiry comprising three members, chaired by Peter White, a magistrate, started work in August 1978. The White Committee worked for five months to produce a 120-page report covering all aspects of the strike and going on to review many aspects of University development and recommend reforms not unlike the earlier Gris, Brown and Currie Reports. Covered were the University calendar and timetable, admissions policy, course quotas, student amenities, issues arising from the imbalance between the sexes within the student body, University Government, structure of the Council, faculty and departmental organisation, staffing policy, funding, and coordination of post-secondary training organisations under a Higher Education Commission similar to the recommendation of the Brown Report seven years earlier.

Visit to Ulamona to investigate damage to a plantation of E. deglupta impacted by a recent volcanic eruption

Mount Ulawun in West New Britain Province near Ulamona and close to the East New Britain Provincial border has erupted periodically. A fissure opened up low on the eastern flank of the volcano about 6 km from the summit during the week 8 – 15 May 1978. Fast-moving hot waves of gas (nuée ardentes) and solid rocks were hurled down the slope. Trees were snapped like matchsticks. Near the Pandi River a small hamlet of five houses was threatened and the inhabitants fled to the riverbank. Brightly glowing lava issued in a fountain 20 – 30 m high and flowed towards the Pandi River to the east at 20 – 50 m/hour eventually temporarily blocking the river.

After the eruption had subsided, a young plantation of E. deglupta near the Matasisibu River west of Mt. Ulawun was found severely damaged by volcanic ash. At the invitation of the Catholic Mission, the owners of the plantation, and Provincial Forest Officers East and West New Britain, I proceeded to Ulamona on 31 May 1978 to investigate the damage. The Research Committee of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology financed the Lae to Rabaul return flight. The Provincial Forest Office, Hoskins funded the Rabaul to Sule (Ulamona) return flight. Brother Spellmeyer of Ulamona and Father O’Neill of Rabaul provided hospitality, ground transport and assistance. The Catholic Mission was operating a

sawmill at Ulamona, which drew most of its logs from nearby mature kamarere forests in the vicinity of Mt. Ulawun. More detail about my visit has been given in the companion document Rainbow Eucalypt Man (Pages 293 – 300).

Payment of third instalment for compensation of loss of salary under the ESS

On 2 May 1978, notification was received through our private mailbox in Lae that this payment was due to be made on 17 June 1978. There was still no mention of my unique contractual situation and what decision(s) had been made if any. Since ASAG in PNG had been wound up, I wrote again on 11 May 1978 to the Australian Consul General in Lae requesting a number of issues still needed to be resolved. This enquiry which was stamped as received on 4 July (?) was sent in turn to the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby thence on to Canberra. No explanation was ever found on why such correspondence sat in Lae for almost three months.

It was 18 August 1978 before the remnant ASAG Office embedded in the ADAB in Canberra wrote back with a new (to me at least) and detailed interpretation of the conditions that needed to be met for accelerated payment of compensation under the ESS which had morphed from the simple declaration on a one-page form “This is to certify that of the was employed by the Papua New Guinea Government for the period ------ to ------” (sample copy on the next page) to a “Group C” contract

“issued by the PSC” with a raft of detailed conditions not before communicated to me. Canberra also continued to ignore the option that I had selected in acknowledging my successful application for Position RM9 Forest Officer Class 4 on 10 December 1975 (that was: “b) If I intended to take up contract employment with the PNG Government at a future date, transfer to the position on a higher duties basis until I cease to be an ASAG employee”.) This standing commitment did not require any further periodic recommendation from the Department, but absence of that recommendation was the reason now being put forward as to why higher duties were not paid. I referred that ADAB letter of 18 August (below) back to the Senior Inspector (Overseas Staffing Branch) of the PNG Public Services Commission for a ruling and sought legal advice.

PNG Defence Force Air Operations

During 1978 I made a number of visits to the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) Squadron then based at Lae Airport. The Squadron was formed in August 1975 just before Independence and originally called the Air Transport Wing and based at Jacksons Field, Port Moresby. The initial aircraft establishment was three C-47B Dakotas gifted by the RAAF. These were joined by three Government Aircraft Factory (Australia) Nomads supplied in 1977/1978, and the Squadron moved to Lae.

Insignia adopted by the PNGDF Squadron. Left: Roundel used on wings and fuselage. Right: Tail marking. (The birds’ heads on the two insignia always faced forwards on the aircraft.)

Above: PNGDF C-47B Dakota Left: PNGDF GAF Nomad. Both photographed on a wet day in Lae in 1978.

Creation of Provincial Forest Offices

With the advent of Provincial Governments in 1978, Provincial Forest Offices were created. This triggered a higher and even more urgent demand for graduate foresters which had hitherto not been planned for when the course started at the PNGUT three years earlier.

Availability of “long-life milk”

The arrival of imported long-life milk in tetra-packs in Lae for the first time was a significant event. It provided a better option over mixing powdered milk with water. Our two children thought it was great anyway!

Helicopters of the RAAF made regular visits to Lae on exercises. When the Lae Airport closed, the PNGDF Squadron moved back to Jacksons Field, Port Moresby.

I take a close-up look at one of the RAAF Iroquois helicopters during a visit to the PNDF air base at Lae in 1978.

“Our” house on the PNGUT campus from 1976 to 1980, an example of the then just-introduced low-cost design. We moved in when it was new. This is the front side, with three bedrooms and bathroom along the top floor. On the mezzanine level behind there is an open living room leading to the small balcony on the left and to a small air-conditioned study on the right (the only air-conditioned space). On the ground floor at the front is the car port and covered al fresco area to the left and main entrance, dining room and kitchen (high windows) to the right with a laundry behind at the back. The exterior cladding was unpainted fibr ous cement sheet which became an issue later concerning the possible risk from asbestos. The interior cladding was painted plywood.

We installed a swimming pool in which Ivon and Joanne enjoyed very much in the Lae climate from 1976 to 1980. They learned to swim in this pool.

My tour to interview new academic staff

Arising out of the need to replace departing academic staff, a number of selection committees was in operation and some 40 persons had been shortlisted from Australia and New Zealand. Normally these would be brought to Lae for interview with the University picking up the return airfares and accommodation in Lae. It was decided that a cost-saving alternative would involve me travelling to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Auckland between 11 and 21 June 1978 to conduct oneon-one interviews and report back to the relevant committees. While I had my own format for enquiry, some of the committees supplied me specific questions for which I should seek answers from the candidates. I also had a copy of each of the candidate’s written application and a copy of the advertisement to which they were replying.

The logistical arrangements for this were formidable, all arranged from Lae before there were emails and mobile phones. I had to have an itinerary of sufficient length to fit the task as well as stringing together the air travel itinerary and accommodation bookings to match. Candidates had to be given scheduled times to present themselves before me without clashing at the single interview venue selected in each city.

It went off without a hitch. In only a couple of instances was my recommendation to appoint different to what the committees had decided from the written applications.

ADAB finally recognises the status of my PNGUT Contract as a PNG Government Contract

Following my referral of the ADAB letter of 18 August back to the Chairman of the PNG Public Services Commission, Mr N S Kenna (for the Chairman) once again wrote a letter to the Chief Officer, ADAB, Canberra to clearly reiterate the Commission’s understanding of the situation of my secondment to the PNGUT. This was copied to me (see next page).

This time ADAB, in an undated letter to me (right) through a different Action Officer, at the end of 1978 wrote that they had been provided with the “necessary certification” (without stating what it was!) of my contract employment from June 1976 to June 1978 and were now able to pay my ESS compensation at the accelerated rate. This was a reversal of their decision not to as set out in their letter dated 18 August 1978 (see earlier).

The compensation also had been recalculated at the rate of the second step in the FO4 scale recognising that I had been on HDA to FO4 for more than 2½ years and substantive advancement should have occurred from the beginning of the now eligible contract under “option b)” that I had signed when promoted to Position RM9. Backdating these decisions meant an additional balance of compensation was owing for the two earlier and recently paid third instalments as set out in the second paragraph of ADAB’s letter. The final accelerated instalment was now due for payment on 17 December 1978.

Regrettably, these matters had taken nearly four years to resolve in my favour, dating from my application to the FO4 Position RM9 in the Department of Forests and my first secondment to the University at the end of 1974! Countless hours of my own and staff time in several organisations had been expended and a huge amount of paperwork generated, in my view largely unnecessarily, to address my case as the one and only example of a former “permanent” PNG public servant and ASAG officer that did not fit neatly into the ESS Regulations.

Eighth World Forestry Congress, Jakarta, Indonesia

Indonesia was host to the Eighth World Forestry Congress held in Jakarta from 16 to 28 October 1978. The Congress drew participants from 104 countries and territories and 17 international organizations. The Congress reaffirmed the formal declaration of the Seventh World Forestry Congress, which had as its theme ''The forest and socio-economic development.'' This Eighth Congress, with the theme ''Forests for People" examined in depth how forestry might best serve human beings, individually and collectively. In consequence, the Congress declared that the world's forests must be maintained, on a sustainable basis, for the use and enjoyment of all people.

During a pre-conference tour before the Congress, I was able to visit the Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia (ITCI) company’s nursery and plantations of E. deglupta in East Kalimantan, after taking a short motorboat ride upstream from Balikpapan City. The ITCI had been involved in commercial wood production in Indonesia since the early 1970s. Initially the company was partly controlled by the US multinational Weyerhaeuser Corporation.16 The Corporation was managing a HPH (Hak Pengus Hutan) timber concession in East Kalimantan, harvesting native forest mainly for plywood production. (See the companion article Rainbow Eucalypt Man (Pages 300 – 301) for photographs.)

16 Weyerhaeuser withdrew in 1984.

“Tree of Life” logo and both sides of the 100 rupiah commemorative coin specially minted by the Government of Indonesia on the occasion of the Eighth World Forestry Congress in Jakarta in 1978.

PNGUT 10th Graduation Ceremony 1978

The PNGUT 10th Graduation Ceremony was held at the end of 1978 in the Duncanson Hall. Among the 164 graduates that year were 13 with a BSc (Forestry) (12 PNG, 1 overseas). The then Chancellor Ms Rose Kekedo17presented the degree certificates.

Johns E 2002 Dame Rose Kekedo (1942 – 2005), Famous people of PNG series, 27 pp. Pearson &Longman Publisher, South Melbourne, Australia. PNGUT named a lecture theatre

after her.

From the left: Nap Vergara, Julian Evans and I represent the PNGUT Forestry Department at the Congress. (Photographer: Unknown)

Left: Part of the academic procession of new graduates in 1978. Right: The President of the SRC addresses the convocation. Ms Rose Kekedo, Chancellor, is seated on the right. I am partly obscured seated second from the right at the back of the stage with members of the PNGUT Council. (Photographs: PNGUT Audiovisual Department)

End of my contract for the PNGUT Chair of Forestry

The conclusion of the 1978 academic year and graduation ceremony marked the end of my contract for the PNGUT Chair of Forestry. I was pleased to learn that I was entitled to 270 days of Study Leave. The Study Leave Committee had counted my time at the University under the first secondment in the last part of Second Term 1974 and First Term and first part of Second Term 1975 towards the accrual of study leave credit. Since I intended to leave PNG at the end of my contract, this Study Leave would be taken as Terminal Study Leave as then allowed under the rules.

In addition to the leave on full salary itself, a study leave benefit could be applied for to assist with expenses on fares and accommodation and other costs incurred on an approved study leave programme which I still intended to prepare.

164 graduates from the PNGUT in 1978, following the 10th Graduation Ceremony in Duncanson Hall. Among them were 13 from the Forestry Department (12 PNG, 1 overseas). (Photograph: PNGUT Audiovisual Department)

Departure of the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Francis

Professor Francis gave notice that he would have to depart Lae at the end of 1978, partly because of an increasing workload for him back in the University of Melbourne. Also, he had a last-minute deadline over the completion of a book he was writing.

Packing up to leave PNG

Packing up the last of our accumulated household effects occupied most of our time in first three weeks of December 1978. Items such as a child’s high chair, stroller and pram that our children had grown out of were sold. On 22 December, I sent a telegram to Mr Kenna in the Department of the Public Services Commission enquiring as to whether the final accelerated instalment under the ESS due on 17 December 1978 had been paid.

Not having the means to prepare Christmas dinner at home because most of our utensils were packed, we indulged in the Dinner provided at mid-day Christmas Day at the Melanesian Hotel. In anticipation that this might be the situation we had booked well in advance for the limited places available!

Leaving PNG urgently placed on hold

Just after Christmas, I was informed that Council was considering offering me the position of Pro ViceChancellor that had been vacated by Professor Francis. Meanwhile, I should delay my intended departure from PNG. We hastily converted our repatriation airfares to Australia to leave fares and elected to spend our annual leave in the Philippines. We also put on hold the sale of our two cars and a halt on preparing to vacate the house we were occupying on campus.

Leave in the Philippines

We were assisted in our travel and sightseeing in Manila by Nap Vergara and his family who were also on their annual leave from the University.

We made a day trip to Corregidor Island in the entrance to Manila Bay. The Island was a significant location in World War II.

We took a bus trip to Baguio, a mountain city located about 250 km north of Mindanao. Called the City of Pines after the local native pine trees. At 1,400 m elevation this city was much cooler than Manila.

We spent several days touring the local sights and buying souvenirs before flying back to Manila.

Visit to the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines

While Gloria and the children visited more places in Manila over the next few days, I was given the opportunity to travel to Mindanao where I visited some commercial operations in the north and east of the Island. The main one in the northeast was the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) operation located in Bislig Bay, southern Surigao del Sur Province.

PICOP was originally incorporated on 1 April 1952 as Bislig Industries Inc. and renamed in 1963. It was operating in a forest concession of about 187,000 ha. Some 20,000 ha of about equal areas of kamarere (E. deglupta) and falcata (then called Albizia falcataria) had been planted by the company. Details of the visit and more photographs can be found in the companion article Rainbow Eucalypt Man (Pages 302 – 306).

PICOP mill complex, Bislig Bay, Mindanao, Philippines in its heyday in 1978. The bottom photograph is situated to the right side of the upper one with a small overlap. Log yards, chip pile and pulp and paper mill buildings are shown as well as warehouses and port facilities.

My appointment to the post of Pro Vice-Chancellor

On our return to Lae at the beginning of 1979, I was informed that Council had approved my appointment to the post of Pro Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar had implemented it during my absence on leave by extending the contract for the Chair of Forestry.18 I was not required to sign a new contract. The unused terminal study leave provision from the Chair of Forestry contract was protected, but frozen, the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor was not eligible for study leave. I found the University Printery had already stocked my office with a set of embossed stationery including letterheads, business cards and compliments slips.

We did a partial unpack and sort of our effects, still sending one lift van to Armidale, Australia under the second uplift allowed under the ESS. We had to inform the Armidale School and New England Girls’ School in Armidale that the enrolment of our son and daughter respectively would have to be put on hold for a year. Fortunately, the Schools were willing to move the reservations to 1980, despite there being waiting lists for places. On the other hand, we had to re-enrol Joanne in the Lae Play School for another year and find Ivon a place for his first secondary year at Bulae International School.

Final exchange of letters with the PNG Department of the Public Services Commission

A month after my telegram to Mr Kenna in the PNG Department of the Public Services Commission he wrote back reinforcing what I had already come to know and that was that the ESS compensation saga had reached a favourable conclusion. I felt that he at least deserved my thanks in a letter since it seems

18

After I moved from HOD Forestry over to the Pro Vice-Chancellor’s office at PNGUT in 1979, Napoleon Vergara was made Acting Head of the Department of Forestry for most of 1979. Under him Bob Johns joined as a Senior Lecturer Botany/Ecology in 1979. Professor S D (“Dennis”) Richardson from New Zealand was appointed Professor from late 1979 to late 1986, with Bob Johns continuing on under him as Senior Lecturer and later Reader of Forest Botany from 1985. It was only after Prof Dennis Richardson left PNG that Bob Johns served as the third substantive Prof and Head of the Department of Forestry PNGUT, i.e., from 1987 to 1989. Bob arranged to open a University Guest House in 1982 and managed it until he left PNG in 1990.

his intervention and advice of 18 October 1978 to ADAB had finally tipped the scales in my favour (letters below).

Professor Francis was gratified that the Appropriate Technology Development Unit (ATDU) was taking off. He hoped that I could continue to advocate for it.19The Unit was involved in several projects, including mini-hydro power generation.

In the era before the advent of solar panels, the ATDU at the PNGUT was conducting research and trials of mini-hydro machines to provide electricity in remote villages.

One unfinished and difficult issue Professor Francis was working on was academic staff allocation to Departments. An early draft of his had been knocked back, but after a few tweaks by me was resubmitted to the Academic Board, where finally it was accepted in early 1979.

Professor Francis’ handing-over notes

19 Professor Francis returned briefly to Lae and the PNGUT 20-24 September 1979 to hold discussions related to the ATDU.

I carried out a similar investigation for the technical staffing situation which was made more difficult in that budgetary pressures required the total number to be reduced. This allocation by me was also eventually agreed to by Departments.

Third Commonwealth Pacific Regional Workshop on Low Cost Science Teaching

The Third Commonwealth Pacific Regional Workshop on Low Cost Science Teaching was held at the PNGUT in March 1979, hosted by the ATDU. Like the two earlier Workshops held in the Bahamas (November 1976) and Tanzania (September 1977), this Workshop was organised by the Education Division and funded by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, as part of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s efforts to assist member countries to make school science teaching more effective but less costly through the use of locally-made equipment. Participants included school teachers, lecturers from teachers’ colleges and universities, curriculum development experts and ministry of education officials in charge of production units and/or responsible for the supply of school science equipment.

Delegates and participants at the Third Commonwealth Pacific Regional Workshop on Low Cost Science Teaching, with Acting Vice-Chancellor Tigilai near the centre (in shorts and long socks) and me on the right. Delegates attended from Fiji, New Zealand, PNG, Solomon Islands, Tonga and the Northern Territory, Australia as well as from inter-regional representatives Guyana (Caribbean) and Malaysia (Asia). Observers in attendance were from PNG, the British Council, UNESCO/UNDP and the South Pacific Appropriate Technology Development Unit. (Photograph: Audiovisual Department, PNGUT)

Student strike and demonstrations 1979

The 1978 strike at the UPNG was not the last one, or even the worst! An annual bout of disruption of tertiary education in PNG was becoming the norm. In April 1979 an even longer strike broke out, this time on both the UPNG and PNGUT campuses, after the Government refused to give in to demands of the National Union of Students to raise pocket and book allowances by 50% and to withdraw the recently released White Report20. This time the students at both universities were supported by students at the Balob (Lutheran) and Port Moresby Teachers’ Colleges, the Bulolo Forestry College, as well as Laloki Cooperatives and Kavieng Fisheries Colleges, who all joined the strike as a gesture of solidarity.

At the PNGUT we observed the by now familiar tactics unfolding: boycotted classes, barricaded campus, student thuggery, confrontations around the campus and in the dormitories and mess halls with University Security Officers, all in spite of strenuous attempts by our Administration to consult with students and try to be conciliatory. Students from the PNGUT and Balob Teachers College marched through Lae and demonstrated outside the Provincial Office. On the National Government side there were the usual threats from Cabinet of indefinite university closure, cancelled scholarships and one-way tickets home for striking students.21

The PNGUT Administration made numerous attempts to consult with student leaders. However, unrest in the dormitories and a serious but non-fatal stabbing in the dining hall prompted Acting ViceChancellor Tigilai and I to invite a contingent of the Lae Police Riot Squad to be based on campus temporarily to augment our own Security Officers and enhance the safety of students and staff through their visible presence and immediate availability to respond to any future unrest. The Squad arrived in an impressive convoy of dark blue vehicles and set up a base on the oval next to the University Security Office.

The expatriate Squad commander immediately met with Matt and I to explain how they would operate. The Squad essentially comprised three sections: a section with batons and wicker shields, a section equipped with shields, batons and gas masks with the means of deploying teargas by grenade and launcher, and lastly a section armed with rifles and live ammunition capable of using lethal force as a last resort.22The Commander explained that the response to control of an unruly mob was through a step-

20 White P et al. 1978 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Unrest at the University of Papua New Guinea in April and May of 1978 and Other Related Matters.

21 “Students on Strike”, Post-Courier 21 May 1979 and 12 June 1979.

22 Apart from tear gas, back then there were no other “non-lethal” means of crowd control available to the Squad such as tasers, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and “bean-bag” shot.

wise use of increasing force with warnings issued through a megaphone for the crowd to disperse before each stage. The stages were 1) shields and batons, 2) the addition of tear gas and finally if there was a threat to life of the public or Squad members, 3) the use of lethal force. The Commander warned that a particular situation could escalate rapidly through the stages and would be difficult if not impossible to reverse, a condition that we had to accept, having agreed to the deployment of the Riot Squad on campus.

For the most part the Squad was able to remain in readiness near the Security Office serving as a deterrent, but on one occasion when striking students were blockading the entrance to the administration building and becoming increasingly unruly (photograph above), I discussed with the Commander the prospect of moving the Squad into the carpark next to the administration building, to improve its visibility and preparedness to act if required. This the Commander agreed to and deployed to the carpark for the remainder of the day. The students eventually dispersed to attend the dining halls for the evening meal and the situation was defused.

Because the strike went on for so long, the University was faced with an approaching dilemma that there would not be enough time for students to complete their courses in the current calendar year even if staff leave was to be curtailed over the Christmas break. This meant there would be no graduating cohort of students in 1979 and further it might not be possible to accept new enrolments on time in 1980 because the 1979 students would be still be taking up staff time and occupying places in the dormitories while trying to complete their course requirements.

After weeks of negotiation, and in some cases intervention by students’ parents pressuring the ringleaders, students returned to classes just in time to salvage the year.

Striking students blockade the entrance to the Administration building at the PNGUT in May 1979.

I have a vivid memory of one of the incidents in which a student’s parent was involved. There was a commotion outside the Vice-Chancellor’s offices followed by the surprise entry of a highland’s villager dragging his son, one of the student strike ringleaders, into the office by the ear! He hauled him up to the Vice-Chancellor’s desk (I was present as well) and ripped the t-shirt from the student’s back (there was a strike slogan printed on it!) and threw it on the floor while loudly denouncing the action of his son as one of the main leaders of the strike. He said he was taking him home to his village right away to be put to work in the garden. He then took him by the ear again and hauled him out through the gathered student throng, pushed him into a PMV and drove off! Though not attributable to this incident alone, the strike petered out a couple of days after and the Riot Squad was able to withdraw.

Classes were rescheduled and maximum effort was applied to complete the academic year before staff were to depart on their annual vacations. The 1979 graduation ceremony was able to be held, albeit later than usual.

Conference on Forest Land Assessment and Management for Sustainable Uses, Hawai‘i

The East-West Environment and Policy Institute (EAPI) of the East-West Centre in Hawai‘i convened a workshop and conference of about 30 foresters, ecologists and land use planners from 18 – 28 June 1979 to discuss “Forest Land Assessment and Management for Sustainable Uses”. I attended and presented an invited paper on the status and methods of land classification and land use planning in PNG. The paper was published later in the proceedings of the meeting.23

23 Davidson J 1981 Status and Methods of Forest Land Classification in Papua New Guinea. Pp 247

276 In Carpenter R A (ed) Assessing Tropical Forest Lands: Their suitability for sustainable uses. Tycooly International Publishing Ltd, Dublin. 337 pp.

Advertisements for Professor of Forestry and Vice-Chancellor

Advertisements were sent out internationally for these posts. I was excluded from the selection committees of both under University rules which precluded former incumbents from adjudicating on their successors.

The Council announced that the selection committee for the University’s second substantive ViceChancellor had chosen Dr Alan Mead. It was ironic that, in the face of all the concern over the slow pace of localisation at the PNGUT and the adoption of more urgent approaches from 1976, an expatriate European had been selected. Further, Dr Mead, of British origin, was formerly a colleague of Dr Sandover at the Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria from where Sandover had been recruited to become the Director of the Institute of Technology in Lae! Dr Mead arrived in PNG in September 1979. Matt and I went out to Nadzab airport to welcome him to Lae. After endorsement by Council, Dr Mead officially became the University’s second Vice-Chancellor on 17 October 1979.

Arrival and installation of PNGUT’s second substantive Vice-Chancellor

Arrival of the Vice-Chancellor elect at Nadzab (Lae) airport in September 1979. From left to right: Ivon Davidson, me (Pro Vice-Chancellor), the Meads’ daughter, Dr Mead (ViceChancellor elect), Gloria Davidson, Mrs Mead, Mrs Tigilai, Matt Tigilai (Acting ViceChancellor). (Photograph: Audiovisual Department, PNGUT)

After endorsement by the PNGUT Council and witnessed by me as Pro Vice-Chancellor (left), Acting ViceChancellor Matt Tigilai (centre) officially hands over to the University’s second substantive ViceChancellor Dr Alan Mead (right) on 17 October 1979. Mr Tigilai reverted to his substantive position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor after having served as Acting Vice-Chancellor for three years. (Photograph: Audiovisual Department, PNGUT)

East-West Environment and Policy Institute Workshop on Training for Natural Systems Management at the East-West Centre, Honolulu, Hawai‘i

I attended the East-West Environment and Policy Institute Workshop on Training for Natural Systems Management at the East-West Centre, Honolulu, Hawai‘i that was held from 22 October – 2 November 1979. Valuable insights were gained for providing such training at the PNGUT.

Participants in the East-West Environment and Policy Institute Workshop on Training for Natural Systems Management at the East-West Centre, Honolulu, Hawai‘i, 22 October – 2 November 1979. Front row: Shankara Iyer, George Seddon, Karol Kisokau, William Stapp, Victor Ordonez, Germelino Abito, F Gunarwan Suratmo, R E Soeriaatmadja. Middle row: Kanthi Abeynayakw, Maynard Hufschmidt, Ramdzani bin Abdullah, E H M Ealey, Kasem Chunkao, Fred Hubbard, Somchet Taeracoop, Victor Unantenne, Evan Evans III, Arthur Dahl Back row: W R H Perera, Ata Qureshi, George Francis, J M Dave, Toufiq Siddiqi, me, David Stokes, Desh Bandhu, Jean-Claude Leyrat, Keith Dyer, Dan Creedon, Richard Carpenter, Roy Stubbs, Vitus Fernando.

Graduation Ceremony 1979

After a rise in 1977 and 1978, the number of Forestry graduates dropped back to seven in 1979.

Appointment of the second Professor of Forestry

Almost a year after I left the post, a second Professor of Forestry was announced by Council. Dr Dennis Richardson was the successful candidate. Again, this was another ironic appointment, given that Dr Richardson had argued in various committees for years that a Degree course for forestry was not required in PNG because of the small number of graduates required! That he would now apply for, be successful in his application, and accept the post of Professor of Forestry at Lae was a surprise to me and many others!

Procession entering Duncanson Hall for the PNGUT 11th Graduation Ceremony, November 1979. 1. Me (Pro Vice-Chancellor), 2. Matt Tigilai (Deputy Vice-Chancellor), 3. Dr Alan Mead (Vice-Chancellor), 4. Ms Rose Kekedo (Chancellor). The tall person near the centre of the photograph is Murray Day, formerly of the Department of Forests Port Moresby and the Forestry College, Bulolo, then Principal Instructor (Cartography, Elementary Drafting, Photogrammetry for Foresters) in the Department of Surveying at the PNGUT.

The Acting Head of Department for much of 1979 was Nap Vergara. Professor Richardson was expected to take up the post early in 1980. Dr Richardson’s wife was a medical doctor and would be employed in the University’s Medical Clinic which served both students and staff on campus.

Another delay in my departure

My appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor was meant to end at the end of the academic year 1979. However, the academic year was extended to enable catchup of the teaching time lost because of the prolonged strike. Also, Vice-Chancellor Mead left PNG temporarily in mid-December to finalise his affairs overseas and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Tigilai left the University to prepare to attend a post graduate course in Australia in 1980.

Once again in the middle of packing up I was requested to stay on in Lae, this time as Acting ViceChancellor. So, the family enjoyed another Christmas Dinner at the Melanesian Hotel!

On this occasion of my extension, the dilemma was that we had absolutely to be in Armidale for the start of the school year at the end of January 1980, or we would lose our reserved places at our chosen schools.

Acting Vice-Chancellor

I served as Acting Vice-Chancellor from mid-December 1979 through to the end of January 1980.

Final farewell

Staff and students provided a send-off function at the end of January. The students presented us with a length of decorated tapa cloth and an ornate multi-strand necklace made out of tiny cowrie shells.

Send-off

Bob Johns had moved from the Forestry College Bulolo to take up the post of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Forestry at the PNGUT.24Bob was keen to inherit Gloria’s collection of pot and garden plants from our house and turned up with a stack of 10-inch black plastic pots to both pot up some of the garden plants and to replace the pots of Gloria’s that he was taking away with empty new ones that eventually found their way to Armidale and beyond. One more lift van containing the remainder of our possessions was delivered to shipping agents in Lae for despatch by sea to Armidale at University expense. Some fragile items such as our sewing machine and electric typewriter were packed for air freight as accompanying baggage at University expense. Our two cars were left behind with Nap Vergara for sale.

24 Bob Johns was promoted to Professor of Forestry in 1987, after applying successfully to an international advertisement for the post following the departure of Professor Dennis Richardson.

function, end of January 1980. Left: Gloria, Mrs Evans, Joanne and me. Right: I give my last speech at the University, while Acting Vice-Chancellor, thanking numerous people, including the student representatives in the foreground.

We leave PNG

We flew out of PNG from Nadzab via Port Moresby on 4 January 1980.25 In Brisbane we spent a couple of days to clear and collect our airfreighted effects from customs at Brisbane airport and took delivery of a new car, the purchase of which we had pre-arranged from Lae. Fortunately, the cost was almost recovered by the quick sale of our two cars that we had left behind in Lae. Then it was a rush to drive to our future home in Armidale26 and get our two children into their schools which had already commenced from the beginning of the previous week.

In Armidale we were reunited with our Hilux that we had purchased in 1976 and had loaned to Gloria’s dad for safekeeping and use on his fruit orchard west of Armidale.

25 I ended up never returning to PNG. Despite my expertise in forestry and forestry education in PNG, I was never approached to contribute to any of the projects launched in PNG by AusAID, ACIAR and others after 1980. 26 This was the house that we had purchased in 1976 and rented out until we left PNG.

Chrysler Sigma Scorpion purchased from Austral Motors in Brisbane Jannu Yellow and Beige Price back then was $8,575.90 plus air conditioner $635; total $9,400 (K7,182).

Forestry students in early 1980

1980 saw the entire Forestry course located at the PNGUT. In 1980, 41 students were enrolled in Forestry: 1st year 10, 2nd year 15, 3rd year 5 and 4th year 11. Some mature applicants (graduates of the Forestry College Bulolo) unfortunately had to withdraw after they failed to gain National Scholarship support.

Despite having no substantial Head yet on campus, Bob Johns and Nick Legge kept the course running and generated a number of good projects. Guy Hilton was planning to do research in Bulolo for an MSc thesis from PNGUT. George Vatasan was waiting for an acceptance to the University of Hawai‘i.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the Department of Forestry shared the Natural Resources building with the Department of Agriculture. (The Department of Fisheries Technology left the PNGUT for Port Moresby in the early 1980s.)

Staff and students of the Department of Forestry PNGUT early 1980s. Seated 3rd from left George Vatasan, 4th from left Bob Johns, 7th from left Kingsley Tesseverasinghe, three staff from my era. Student numbers were swelled by all four years of the Forestry course being located in Lae. Several women were enrolled.

Release of a book on University development in PNG 1961 - 1976

In 1980, author Ian Howie-Willis published “A thousand graduates Conflict in university development in Papua New Guinea, 1961-1976”. The book covered events up until the time I joined the PNGUT, including arguments and conflicts over the introduction of a degree course in forestry. Frequent reference has been made by me to this book in this present account (see the relevant footnotes).

Somare Government loses vote of confidence in parliament

In 1980, the Somare Government lost a vote of confidence in parliament and Julius Chan became Prime Minister.

Recreation and study leave

My departure from PNG on 4 January 1980 marked the commencement of my recreation and terminal study leave from the PNGUT which would keep me on the University books until April 1981!

In was invited to spend two tranches of three months each at the CSIRO Division of Forest Research in Yarralumla, Canberra. I stayed free of charge in one of the two former caretakers’ flats near the Forestry

School building. The time was spent mainly in library research on the planned co-authored book on breeding eucalypts and on preparation of a case study on the woodchip operation in the Gogol. This case study was selected for further development and peer review in a Workshop held by the East West Centre in Honolulu (see later).

The local newspaper in Kempsey attempted to keep track of what I was doing in 1980 but the usual editorial errors crept in, like substitution of “University of Papua New Guinea” for “Papua New Guinea University of Technology”.

IUFRO Symposium and Workshop on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species, Brazil

A IUFRO Symposium and Workshop on Genetic Improvement and Productivity of Fast Growing Tree Species was held in Aguas de São Pedro, São Paulo, Brazil, 25 – 30 August 1980. My attendance at the symposium, and study tours before and after, formed part of my paid terminal study leave from the PNGUT. Overall, I spent the period 17 August to 6 September (three weeks) in Brazil. I flew Armidale

Sydney

Honolulu

Los Angeles

Lima - São Paulo City, arriving on Sunday 17 August 1980. 18 to 20 August were free days. (See companion article Rainbow Eucalypt Man.)

There was considerable delay in the publication of the proceedings containing the two papers I presented. They appeared in the July/August 1983 edition (No. 31) of the journal Silvicultura with summaries in Portuguese.27

27 Davidson J 1983 Provenance trials of Eucalyptus deglupta in Papua New Guinea. Silvicultura July/August 1983 (31):434-440. IUFRO and SBS (Sociedade Brasileira de Silvicultura), and, Davidson J 1983 Progress in breeding Eucalyptus deglupta Silvicultura July/August 1983 (31):529-533. IUFRO and SBS.

Workshop on Forestry Case Studies

From 1-12 September 1980, I attended a Workshop on Forestry Case Studies at the East-West Centre, Honolulu, Hawai‘i. My case study on the Gogol Woodchip Project was published later (in 1983).

The highlight of my trip to Brazil in 1980 was a visit to the Aracruz pulp mill and its surrounding plantations.

Top: Participants at the Workshop on Forestry Case Studies at the East-West Centre, Honolulu, Hawai‘i Front row: Savitri Gunatilleke, William Fleming, Fannie Lee Kai, Martin Reyes, Eric Hyman, Ghaus Khattak. Back row: David Field, W R H Perera, M M Pant, David James, Richard Carpenter, Maynard Hufschmidt, me, Lawrence Hamilton. Bottom: John A Burns Hall and adjacent garden, East West Centre.

Mission to Cameroon November 1980

The Government of Cameroon requested assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under its Technical Cooperation Programme to investigate the silvicultural aspects of species under trial at the Mangombe Forest Research Station, to investigate the problems connected with disease discovered in the trial plantations and to determine the effects any findings have on planned industrial plantation establishment in the Edéa region.

In compliance with this request two forestry consultants, Dr I A S Gibson (Pathologist) and myself (Silviculturist) were provided by FAO and worked for two weeks on site in Cameroon in November 1980, followed by two weeks of report writing by me at FAO in Rome.

A canker disease was found in Eucalyptus urophylla caused by Cryphonectria cubensis (Bruner) Hodges (Diaporthe) which had caused serious losses in Latin America, but which hitherto had not been found on the African continent. Root diseases caused by endemic fungal pathogens were found on a number of eucalypts.

There appeared little prospect of obtaining any significant margin of canker control through adjustments to espacement, silviculture or mineral nutrition of the crop. The best approach suggested for effective management of the canker in the Cellucam plantations was through the use of resistant provenances and varieties. Also, the intended eucalypt component in the proposed plantations would be dominated by E. deglupta, which thus far had proved to be highly resistant to C. cubensis. The mission was able to recommend that the reforestation project proceed in its report published in early 1981 (right). Separate notification of the disease was also published elsewhere.28

The first part of 1981 was spent in finalising my Study Leave Report. This was sent to PNGUT in early April where it was approved by the Study Leave Committee. As was required, a bound copy of the Report was lodged with the PNGUT Library and the remaining withheld study leave funds were released. This completed my final severance from the PNGUT, 14 months after we left PNG.

Cellucam logging operation near Mangombe in the Edéa region of Cameroon in 1980. An existing Cellucam pulp mill was taking wood from this operation in native forest, but intended to run the mill in future using plantation wood based on the work that had been undertaken on species trials at the nearby Mangombe Forest Research Station.

Bachelor of Science in Forestry graduates

Over 500 Bachelor of Science in Forestry (BSc (For)) students have graduated across the 45 years since the first class of six graduated in 1976 (an average of about 11 per year). In the first decade there were only four women graduates (table on next page). Data seem incomplete and I can give no explanation for the gaps for 1988-1991, 1997, 1998 and 2012 (graph on next page). The year 2012 was a particularly disruptive one on the Lae Taraka campus and there may well have been no graduates in that year.

Department of Forestry Logo

The logo of the tree and two nurturing hands that I designed for the Department in 1975 is still used 45 years later (in 2020) on signage and letterheads.

Postgraduate programmes were offered on an individually approved ad hoc basis at the PNGUT until 2000. From that year the PNGUT Council directed that all Departments develop and offer formal postgraduate programmes. There have been 31 postgraduate awards out of the Department of Forestry up to and including 2020 (table at bottom of this page).

NUMBER OF GRADUATES FROM THE FIRST DECADE OF THE BSc IN FORESTRY COURSE AT THE PNGUT

MPhil = Master of Philosophy in Forestry (by research and thesis); MSc = Master of Science in Forestry (by coursework and thesis); PGD = Post Graduate Diploma (by coursework and thesis. A PhD (Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry) (by research and thesis) is offered by the Department but there have been no graduates. The relatively high number of 13 graduates in 2019 occurred because of support of the National Forest Inventory. The total is 31, up to and including 2020.

In 2019 there were 15 graduates (including four women) with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry (two students graduating with Merit) and 11 (including 5 women) with a Diploma in Forestry (one graduating with Merit and a University Medal). The PNGUT 51st Graduation Ceremony was held on 5 April 2019 and was recorded in its entirety in an almost five-hour-long unedited video at

Number of PNGUT Bachelor of Science in Forestry Graduates by Year 19762020

https://youtu.be/m62klIgrWqQ (accessed 15 April 2021). The Forestry graduates appear in the procession starting at 11 min 40 sec and later are presented by Dr Mex Peki, Head of the Department of Forestry, to receive their certificates starting at 2 hrs 49 mins. The BSc (For) graduates wear black gowns with hoods lined in gold and yellow, the same as for all PNGUT Science graduates. The Diploma in Forestry graduates wear bright pink gowns without hoods, the same as all PNGUT Diploma graduates.

In the PNGUT 2020 list of graduating students (above) there are three postgraduates with Master of Philosophy in Forestry. In the Department of Forestry list there are 15 with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and 14 with a Diploma in Forestry.29 These numbers have held up during recent times while the flow of university forestry graduates in Australia from the Australian National University, University of Melbourne, Southern Cross University and University of Queensland has almost dried up (from a combined total of 75 per annum in both 2001 and 2002 down to less than 20 by 2010 and even fewer at present from those universities)

Over the years, a number of Bulolo Diploma holders has been successful in upgrading their qualifications by enrolling in the Degree programme at PNGUT, and some have gone on to obtain higher qualifications in PNG and overseas. Alec Chang (Fiji) was the first (1975-1976 via UPNG 1973-1974). Many more have followed, including Siage Kalogo, Andrew Tagamasau, Goodwill Amos, Dr Osia

29 Both the 2020 and 2021 graduation ceremonies were delayed because of Corona Virus restrictions in PNG.

Opening of new Forestry buildings

New forestry buildings were constructed on the Taraka campus beginning in mid-April 2000. Three separate buildings linked by covered walkways, with the main building fronting on Laloki Street (photograph below, sourced from the PNGUT website), were completed in September 2001. Cost was K4.8 million, funded as a gift by the Australian Government through its aid agency AusAID, within a wider Human Resource Devel

I was bitterly disappointed when I learned years after that the Department of Forestry had been bumped from its purpose-built, mainly timber building, that I had a hand in designing, into an expensive (seven times the cost of the original building) reinforced concrete and steel framed edifice where a minimum of timber was used. Poor design has meant many of the small rooms have had to have individual air conditioners installed later to provide a degree of comfort for the occupants (evident in the photograph above, where also steel supports for the awning over the entrance already are visibly rusting away!). The original timber building was designed to operate without air-conditioning, except for a couple of small spaces housing instruments like balances and microscopes.

Rubbing salt into the wound was the revelation that the new forestry building was built on the plot of land that Associate Professor Quartermain (then Head of the Agriculture Department at the PNGUT), then Acting Vice-Chancellor Matt Tigilai and myself had identified back in 1979 as to where the future

Gideon, Tevita Faka’osi (Tonga), Ed Dolaiano (Solomon Islands), Dr Kulala Mulung, Dr Mex Peki (current (2020) Head (Chair), Department of Forestry, PNGUT), Dr Cossey Yosi and others.

Agriculture building would be constructed after all four years of the Agriculture course were amalgamated in Lae. Agriculture needed a new building not Forestry!

Issue No. 1429 on Friday 7 September 2001 of The Reporter publicising the impending opening of the new Forestry building on the PNGUT campus at Taraka on Thursday 13 September 2001.

Walkways between the new buildings of the Forestry Department with steel posts and beams supporting a metal roof. The wooden carvings (left) were hollowed out and bolted to the steel posts! The carvings have since received several coats of black paint, obscuring the wood grain. (Source: PNGUT website, accessed 2018)

In regard to greenhouse gasses and global warming, the former Natural Resources timber building (except for the concrete slab ground floor, glass louvres and fittings) for 45 years (to 2022) has stored in the wood half its weight in carbon that was originally sequestered from the atmosphere, while the new Forestry building with its predominantly concrete and steel construction has resulted in high carbon emissions from their manufacture and little ongoing storage during the life of the building.

The course in “International Social Forestry for students in the Asia and Pacific Region”, with possible twinning arrangements with the ANU in Canberra Australia, mentioned in The Reporter article above, apparently did not progress. However, the ACIAR has since conducted a couple of social forestry projects in PNG, one of which is in its final year in 2021 and includes the PNGUT as one of the partners.

Changes to the former “Natural Resources” building to accommodate Agriculture alone

The former “Natural Resources” building in 2018. It was vacated by the Forestry Department and “renovated” in 2001 and further altered since then to accommodate the Department of Agriculture alone. The original building had a design life span of 25 years. In 2022, it is 45 years of age!

Extensive changes have been made to the building, especially to its western end. The shingle roof has had a corrugated metal roof over the top. Compared with the 1977 photograph on the left, “eyebrow” sunshades have been added to the upper extremities on the southern side, the “tunnels” through the roof essential for air circulation up and out of the void space have been removed, a verandah has been added around three sides of the western end and the durable kwila wood exterior has been painted a blue-grey colour, locking in an expensive periodic maintenance cost in this Lae environment.

Two videos celebrating Agriculture’s contribution to the University’s Golden Jubilee (50th Anniversary 1965 - 2015) celebrations show glimpses of how the building looks nowadays.

At https://youtu.be/_FMX5HDejkc (2016, accessed 15 April 2021), the Part I video at 1 minute and again at 2 minutes shows the then Head of the Department of Agriculture in my old office which still had the vertical tongue-and-groove solid kwila timber wall cladding and kwila bookshelf.

Elsewhere, on the ground floor, the decorative plywood interior panel wall cladding had been painted over in pastel colours and the kwila frames around the louvered windows had been painted in the exterior blue-grey colour.

At https://youtu.be/UW9POuyo6CY (2016, accessed 15 April 2021), the Part II video starts off with an introduction recorded in the integral greenhouse of the former “Natural Resources” building. Here the inclined kwila tongue-and-groove boards used as external cladding had remained unpainted as designed, but the kwila roof beams and other structural elements and kwila window frames had been painted over with the exterior blue-grey colour.

Former students of the PNGUT

After the departure of Director Don McIntosh in 1977, Andrew Yauieb followed by Oscar Mamalai were the only heads of the Forest Department/Authority with a forestry degree until Kanawi Pouru was appointed in 2007. Oscar was the first PNGUT graduate to head the National Forest Service as Secretary of Forests.30

Dike Kari went on to occupy senior forestry positions including Divisional Manager Policy and Planning in 1995, and later the Director, Policy and Aid Secretariat, PNG Forest Authority.

The other two inaugural Papua New Guinean forestry graduates from the PNGUT, Joseph Matlaun Ben and Jack Pidik Noah, are believed deceased. No other information about them has been forthcoming.

Dike

Director, Policy and Aid Secretariat, PNG

Authority)

Lisanne Losier (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretariat) (centre) and a fellow participant confer at the United Nations Conference for the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the ITTA 1994 (Second Part), 14

18 February 2005 in Geneva, Switzerland.

30

Later, after leaving the Public Service, he was Country Director, Innovision, Port Moresby, a company that managed a number of forestry projects.

Kari (then

Forest

(left),

Dr Ruth Caroline Hitahat Turia (née Ruth Polume, from Manus) (right), in 2018, was Director of Forest Policy and Planning, PNG Forest Authority. Ruth was one of the first two women graduates from the Forestry Department at the PNGUT in 1980.31 In her former role (as of 2018), she engaged with both national and international agencies on issues relating to forestry, but also on general policy issues relating to natural resource management and climate change. Ruth has spent more than 34 years working in the PNG forestry sector, 24 of which have been with the government forestry agency, working in sections varying from industrial forest monitoring (enforcement and compliance) to forest policy and planning, and 10 years as an academic (seven as a postgraduate student32 and three as an academic staff member). Ruth has also worked with external research and education partners, in research and learning directed at addressing the challenges of forest management and sustainability, and on general natural resource management.

Left: Dr Miriam Ese Gatau Murphy. The second Papua New Guinean woman PNGUT forestry graduate to be awarded a PhD in forestry (from Southern Cross University, Australia, in 2008). Her other qualifications: MSc – Southern Cross University, Australia; Diploma in Horticultural Science – Massey University, New Zealand; BSc in Forestry – PNGUT, Lae, Papua New Guinea. Miriam resides in Australia.

31 Ruth went on to complete a PhD at the Australian National University in 2005, becoming the first Papua New Guinean woman to gain a Doctorate in forestry. The other woman graduating in 1980 was Agatha Pokatou from New Ireland. Later a second Doctorate in forestry achieved by a Papua New Guinean woman was awarded to Miriam Ese Gatau Murphy, a PhD from Southern Cross University, Australia in 2008. Miriam’s PhD thesis: What is free about fuelwood? A critique of the value of fuelwood in the rural and squatter settlement households in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia

32 Ruth’s PhD thesis: Cannot See the Land for the Trees. The forest management dilemma in Papua New Guinea. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia in April 2005. 242 pp.

Of the two overseas inaugural graduates, Fijian Alec Chang (photographed right near retirement) went on to head the Fiji Forest Service and the Fiji Pine Commission. Later he was CEO of Fiji Forest Industries and Tropic Wood Industries Ltd.

Sampson Gaviro from the Solomon Islands went on to serve as head of Forestry in the Ministry of Lands, Energy and Natural Resources in the Solomons.

Papua New Guinea Vision 2050 released in 2009

In December 2008, the Somare government tasked the National Planning Committee with the responsibility of setting a visionary development strategy to guide the country’s socioeconomic development. This resulted in the release by the National Strategic Plan Taskforce in 2009 of the Papua New Guinea Vision 2050.

Vision 2050 is underpinned by seven Strategic Focus Areas, which are referred to as “Pillars” (see diagram on previous page):

• Human Capital Development, Gender, Youth and People Empowerment;

• Wealth Creation;

• Institutional Development and Service Delivery;

• Security and International Relations;

• Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change;

• Spiritual, Cultural and Community Development; and

• Strategic Planning, Integration and Control.

The nation was expected to focus all its efforts and strive to achieve the following key outcomes:

• changing and rehabilitating the mind-set of our people;

• having strong political leadership and will power;

• improvement in governance;

• improvement in service delivery;

• improvement in law and order;

• development of strong moral obligation; and

• rapid growth potential which can be realized in a reasonable time.

Opportunities would be created for Papua New Guineans to take part in the development processes:

• empowering the people through improved education and life-skills;

• working the land and benefiting from spin-offs from major projects; enhancing the level of service delivery and basic infrastructure; and

• increasing trade volume

The strategic direction for Vision 2050 is that, “Papua New Guinea will grow the manufacturing, services, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and eco-tourism sectors from 2010 to 2050”. “This strategic direction will enable economic growth by 2050 to be broad based, ensuring that disposable household incomes will be much higher.” In 2009 the economy was dominated by the mining and energy sectors that contributed about 80% of the country’s export revenue. The challenge therefore is, “How do we shift an economy that is currently dominated by the mining and energy sectors to one that is dominated by agriculture, forestry, fisheries, eco-tourism and manufacturing between 2010 and 2050?”.

This Forestry Sector Outlook Study for PNG was prepared in response to the initiative by the Asia Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It was intended to update the last study that was concluded in 1998 by all member countries and in doing so assess the probable scenarios for forests and forestry in PNG to the year 2020

Yet another PNG Universities Review delivered in 2010

In 2009, Professor Ross Garnaut (Melbourne) and Sir Rabbie Namaliu (Kokopo) were asked by the Prime Minister of PNG, the Right Honourable Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, and the Prime Minister of Australia, the Honorary Kevin Rudd, to review the PNG universities and to make recommendations on how they might be strengthened to make their necessary contributions to PNG development.33

In regard to the three State universities UPNG, PNGUT and UNRE, Garnaut and Namaliu tendered the following statement in their Review published in May 2010:

“In our view, a State university system with three universities with defined functions and multiple campuses would be appropriate. The University of Papua New Guinea would be the leading general University, offering courses across the range of social sciences and natural sciences and humanities, as well as Medicine and Law. The University of Natural Resources and Environment would provide education and undertake research related to the biological and social sciences, with a special focus on rural development. The University of Technology would be specialised in education and research related to industry, especially the large-scale production of petroleum, energy from other sources, minerals, manufacturing (including the use of Papua New Guinea minerals and energy sources in processing), construction and infrastructure development (including the provision of power, water and telecommunications and information technology), and on business disciplines related to this development. It is, on balance, desirable to eventually absorb the Geology Department from the University of Papua New Guinea, although arrangements would need to be made to continue to make use of the synergies with earth Sciences programmes at the University of Papua New Guinea. The University of Technology would release its forestry responsibilities and capacities to the University of Natural Resources and Environment. Core disciplines in the University of Technology would include Mathematics and the Applied Sciences, Engineering (including mining, civil and electrical engineering), Metallurgy, Geology and Architecture, with supporting strengths in related commerce disciplines. The University of Natural Resources and Environment would offer sub-university courses in agriculture, forest management, fisheries and village business management. A base has been laid for agricultural components of these courses at Vudal and Popondetta, and fisheries courses at Kavieng.”

They stated further, if only two State universities, the UPNG and the PNGUT, could be supported by government budgets in future, the UNRE could be rolled into the PNGUT. There are historic precedents in that the UNRE, back when it was the Vudal Agricultural College, was part of the PNGUT, and a Diploma of Fisheries Technology was taught at the PNGUT, also in the late 1970s. Sub-university courses in forest management currently are taught at the Bulolo University College (Diplomas), and forest industry courses are taught the Timber Industry Training College in Lae (Trade Certificates in wood processing skills), and both are already affiliated campuses of the PNGUT. The PNGUT also is already housing the four-year Degree courses in both Forestry and Agriculture. Agriculture operates a

33 At the time the six universities in PNG and their Vice-Chancellors were: Professor Ross Hynes, UPNG; Dr Misty Baloiloi, PNGUT; Professor Philip Siaguru, UNRE; Dr Gairo Onagi, University of Goroka; Father Jan Czuba, Divine Word University; and, Dr Branimir Schubert, Pacific Adventist University.

39ha farm on the PNGUT campus and Forestry manages a rainforest conservation area and over 20ha of tree plantation plots established on campus for teaching purposes.

Events of 2012 - 2013

The years 2012 and 2013 saw some two decades of various challenges and issues simmering on the main campus of the PNGUT come to a head with a stand-off that involved the University Chancellor and the Council on the one hand and the students and staff on the other. The student body and some staff members were disillusioned by years of alleged poor governance practices and maladministration by the University Council. This situation was exacerbated by factors outside the University’s control such as the difficulty of accommodating increasing numbers of students from high schools and a declining allocation of financial support from the national government.34

A Report dated 17 April 2013 by a Committee and Mediation Team set up in the OHE to examine the situation up until 2012 published a number of findings (quoted below) that had been submitted to the National Executive Council towards the end of 2012:

• Broad and gross dereliction of leadership – Council’s leadership of the University was seen to be lethargic, derelict, lacked foresight and vision, weak and comprised governance.

• Weak management by the previous Administration, which allegedly led to extensive maladministration, poor staff discipline, staff infighting and poor policy design and implementation.

• Ineffective administration with antiquated structures, systems, processes and bureaucracy.

• Poor funding of the University over many years by the National Government.

• Poor synchronisation of Government policies – in this case, the haste to push through top-up high schools but not preparing tertiary institutions including PNGUoT to carry the extra student load with the quality of students required.

• High turnover of qualified staff caused mainly by better employment conditions elsewhere. This led to a significantly higher level of reliance on expatriate staff, which then became a financial burden for the University.

• National teaching and support staff members had for a long time, felt that their welfare and career development and progression issues had not been adequately attended to or addressed.

• Mismanagement practices that aided and abetted corruption and fraud.

• Students feeling that they were not getting the type of attention or services that they expected and deserved.

• Quality of higher education had deteriorated and many courses offered at the University were, in most instance, incongruent with industry and labour market expectations in Papua New Guinea.

• Prudential financial controls had broken down.

• Increase in student numbers had outstripped resources and institutional capacity.

• Institutional infrastructure had fallen into dilapidation and aged due to poor discipline of maintenance and upkeep. Financial pressure had inhibited investments in new infrastructure and utilities.

34 For example, the womens’ dormitories at the PNGUT went from their design capacity of one student per room progressively to four students per room, while there were no capital funds provided to expand the student accommodation on campus while student numbers tripled!

Intervention by the National Government in early 2013

The National Executive Council in a special meeting on 23 January 2013 made the following strategic decisions to provide a framework for rebuilding the PNGUT (quote):

• Directed the then Minister of Higher Education, Hon. David Arore, MP to exercise his mandated power to:

o Terminate the maladroit University Council

o Appoint an Interim Council consisting of:

§ Sir. Nagora Bogan, KBE – Interim Chancellor.

§ Mr. John Napu (Lawyer) – Interim Councillor.

§ Mr. Ken Ngangan (President – CPA PNG) – Interim Councillor.

§ Mr. Joseph Hamylton, OBE (President - IEPNG) – Interim Councillor.

§ Mr. Alan McLay (President – Lae Chamber of Commerce) – Interim Councillor.

• Approved the appointment of a retired Judge – Justice Mark Sevua and allocated funds for the Judge to head up a team of five to investigate and report on the insidious problems plaguing the PNGUoT.

The Interim Council worked closely with Management to (quote):

• Mediate and diffuse the stand-off between students and staff and the National Government.

• Confirm and substantiate the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor in order to diffuse the standoff and restore order peace and stability.

• Assist with logistical support for the Retired Justice Mark Sevua Investigations Committee.

• Implement the recommendations of the Committee and the Namaliu/Garnaut Report.

• Lead a team of inhouse and external lawyers to mitigate and resolve most frivolous legal actions.

• Commence work to streamline and formalize appointment of a full Council with a mix of skills and competencies to assist, restore and provide effective leadership and stewardship of transforming the PNGUoT.

Sir Nagora Bogan presided as Chancellor from 2012 before resigning in December 2016. Madam Jean Kekedo took over as Chancellor and continued the programs put in place to transform the University.

Accomplishments from 2013 onwards to transform the University

Under Chancellors Sir Nagora Bogan and Madam Jean Kekedo numerous accomplishments were achieved from 2013 onwards, including (quote): The University -

• Initiated and reconstruction of Institutional Governance with good mix of competent Council members from private and public sector and civil society. Better oversight of strategy, policy and stewardship of management was ensured.

• Introduced best practices and processes of accountability and prudential financial management which culminated in proper and robust audit of all back year accounts up to 31 December 2018.

• Streamlined and rationalised the accounting processes in the Bursary including recruitment of a competent Bursar.

• Streamlined Human Resources functions, systems and processes to ensure effective oversight and rendering of better services to staff.

• Commenced programs to rehabilitate dilapidated infrastructure with repairs and sealing of campus roads and streets, repairs and building of new dormitories. Made investments in sequential repairs and construction of staff houses to meet increasing intake of new staff. Constructed the campus wide perimeter fence, including the internal dormitory fencing to improve student security.

• Commenced processes to rebuild and repair the institutional reputation and brand of the University through active interface, network and interaction with the Public and Private Sectors and Civil Society.

• Established PNGUoT Alumni.

• Introduced online student registration and administration to improve level of service and weed out malpractice.

• Commenced process to make the PNGUoT more congruent with modern best practices of University Administration.

• Reformed student by-laws on Student Representative Council to promote National Unity, cultural tolerance, diversity, inclusiveness and peaceful co-existence.

• Invested initially in installation of O3B Satellite to improve internet accessibility and latency. Progress made on new and cheaper options to migrate to the new fibre optic cable managed by DATACO Ltd.

• Introduced laptops supply to all first-year students.

• Commenced work on due diligence to obtain International Accreditation of all Engineering courses with plans to extend to all courses offered at the PNGUoT.

• Intensified and expanded leadership and management training for administration and academic staff.

• Expanded collaboration with other Universities, both local and overseas, to strengthen interface and support through partnerships such as:

o Twinning Arrangements with James Cook University.

o Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with University of Queensland to collaborate and cooperate on a rural electrification program.

o MOU with Swinburn University to explore viability of PNGUoT being a dual sector University, which can offer wide range of courses as pathways for Grade 12 School Leavers, improve TVET course content quality, customise course content relevant to needs of mainstream society and private sector and efforts to guide bench-marking of TVET courses to international standards.

• Reviewed and introduced stringent governance and prudential financial audits and oversight of the business arms such as the University Development Company (UDC) and NATSL.

• Terminated outsourcing of catering because of exorbitant costs and established inhouse campus catering for students.

• Formalized amalgamation of Forestry College in Bulolo, Timber College and Unitech Nursing College and improved overall institutional governance, oversight and prudential financial accountability and controls.

• Commissioned master plan for the effective utilization and mobilization of PNGUoT land. This culminated in establishment of a University Master Planning Committee with a charter to support the Council in planning to:

o Develop a City within a City on PNGUoT Campus.

o Conduct a comprehensive survey of the campus land with better planning and utilization of the land with contingency plans for further expansion.

o Conduct a comprehensive audit and inventory of all University infrastructure, buildings, installations and public utilities.

o Oversee and co-ordinate construction of new campus infrastructure such as the new dining facility, multipurpose hall, student amenities and establish plans for consistent renovation and refurbishments of decrepit assets and infrastructure

• Commenced processes in 2019 to formulate a 5-year Strategic Transformation Plan 2020 – 2024 and accomplish the PNGUoT Vision of “Growing World Class Technocrats for the Real World”.

The PNGUT Strategic Plan 2020 - 2024

In 2020, the PNGUT released its Strategic Plan 2020 – 2024. The Plan took on the aspirations, ideals and goals of the National Vision 2050 (see earlier) to provide a tangible plan and roadmap for the University “to remain progressive, modern and continually in step with change and the pace of development”. The Plan is intended to build on the accomplishments from 2013 onwards listed above to carry the University forward.

PNGUT Vice-Chancellors

The Foundation Director of the PNGIT was Dr E. Duncanson who took up the post in 1966. He was succeeded by Dr. J Sandover as Director of the PNGIT and as the first Vice-Chancellor after the Institute became a University in 1973. After J Sandover left in December 1976, the office was held in an acting capacity for three years by the former Director of the Office of Higher Education and latterly Deputy Vice-Chancellor Mr M Tigilai until the second substantive Vice-Chancellor Dr A Mead was appointed, serving from December 1979 – 1983. Dr M Moramora took over until he resigned in 1990. Professor S Pearse served for a year and was replaced by Mr Misty Baloiloi in 1992. Dr J Kaiulo took over from 1997, only to resign in March 2000. Dr Philip Siaguru was appointed Vice-Chancellor in an acting capacity for just over a year, until Mr M Baloiloi was appointed for a second time from July 2001. The latter left the University to contest the PNG General Elections in 2012, having served a total of 17 years in two tranches as Vice-Chancellor. Dr Albert Schram succeeded him from 7 February 2012 before leaving PNG in April 2018. Dr Ora Renagi was appointed in April 2019 as then current (as of 2020), and ninth, substantive Vice-Chancellor of the PNGUT.

Expatriate Heads of the Department of Forestry

After I moved from HOD Forestry over to the Pro Vice-Chancellor’s office at PNGUT in 1979, Napoleon Vergara was made Acting Head of the Department of Forestry for most of 1979. Under him Bob Johns joined as a Senior Lecturer Botany/Ecology in 1979. Professor S D (“Dennis”) Richardson from New Zealand was appointed Professor from late 1979 to late 1986, with Bob Johns continuing on under him as Senior Lecturer, and later Reader of Forest Botany from 1985. It was only after Prof Dennis Richardson left PNG that Bob Johns served as the substantive Prof and Head of the Department of Forestry PNGUT, i.e., from 1987 to 1989 Bob arranged to open a University Guest House in 1982 and managed it until he left PNG in 1990. Dr Geoffrey Stocker was Professor from 1989 to 1992, leaving to become the Director of the PNG Forest Research Institute in Lae from 1993 to 1996.

From 2012 until his death in Lae in PNG on 6 July 2017, Associate Professor Dr Larry Orsak (right) was Head of the Department. Under his leadership the Department was transformed to teach more broad-based environmental science and studies in addition to the traditional forestry subjects.35

35 A link to a video of the time is: https://youtu.be/O-hypvBx51s (accessed 15 April 2021) This episode on the Forestry Department is the third of a series of 11 episodes of UNITV. UNITV is a production of SAVE PNG to commemorate the PNGUT’s Golden Jubilee (50th Anniversary 1965 - 2015) in 2016.

Typical advertisements placed internationally giving the terms and conditions then being offered to expatriates on contract to the PNGUT during the 1980s. These appeared in New Scientist. The one on the left published on 26 June 1986 was for Professor and Head of Department of Forestry after the departure of Professor Richardson. The one on the right published on 22 October 1988 was for lecturers in forest management and forest economics.

Present PNGUT Organizational Structure

The post of Pro Vice-Chancellor was revived after I left and soon expanded to three (Pro ViceChancellor Academic, Pro Vice-Chancellor Administration and Pro Vice-Chancellor Planning and Development. The Forestry Department is one of fourteen Departments under the Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic

PNGUT Campus Master Plan 2015

In November 2015, the PNGUT’s Golden Anniversary Year, the draft Campus Master Plan was released. The plan was prepared by Atlas Urban. At the same time the PNGUT Uni-Citi Commercial Precinct Project proposal was published inviting expressions of interest. (Source: www.unitechpng.com )

See also https://youtu.be/VB_d0eoEWXU (accessed 15 April 2021), and, https://youtu.be/qMLouRWdQEc (accessed 15 April 2021).

PNG Forestry Planning Retreat 2017

A sector Retreat for Forestry was held from 30 August to 1 September 2017. The focus was on working towards a strategic direction for support to the PNGFA from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility REDD+ Readiness Project (Phase 2) (RCPF 2) and a list of actions that would be included in the REDD+ Finance and Investment Plan (RFIP) that was expected to be partially funded through a request to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The intent of the RFIP is to provide a roadmap of actions that would be required to implement the National REDD+ Strategy (NRS) and ensure finance is in place to support its implementation. The Retreat focussed on key action areas within the NRS as well as stated objectives of the PNGFA including:

• Strengthening Sustainable Forest Management, and Monitoring

• Increasing PNG’s Wood Supply Capacity (Natural Regeneration, Rehabilitation of Degraded Lands and Afforestation)

• Increasing Downstream Processing and Exports of Forest Products.

The PNG Forest Authority aims to develop 240,000 ha of commercially viable and sustainable plantations, 4,000 ha by private investors, in the medium term, and attain a headline target of 800,000 ha by 2050.

I was most interested in Session 5 that focused on current strategies and experience of forest plantation development. While the identification of three different scales of plantation development and three different types of land agreement are laudable (see pages extracted below), the issues raised by the then Minister for Natural Resources in an article on page 5 of the Post Courier 31 July 1975 (see page 338 this document) are still constraints today, especially those related to land tenure and the time scale required to grow trees to maturity, and it is difficult to see how the projected area targets can be reached.

Back in January 1991, that is two decades ago, forest plantations in PNG were at their zenith, covering about 37,000 ha in the proportions shown in the graph below.

Today the proportions are much the same, but the overall area has been in decline. Plantations have been felled and not replaced with timber trees in the Gogol (Kamarere and Mangium), Brown River (Teak), Keravat (Kamarere) and Bulolo (Klinkii and Hoop pine) areas to give a few examples. Conversion has been to settlements and gardens by smallholders and to oil palm plantations by smallholders and large enterprises, the latter especially in the lowlands of New Britain on land previously occupied by Kamarere plantations. While Kamarere is still the most planted tree species, little interest is shown in any type of tree improvement programme of the kind in which I was involved in the 1960s and 1970s. Plantation managers are concerned any cost of establishment over K1,000/ha is way too much and prefer to cut as many corners as possible. In areas where very young Kamarere regeneration is found on stream banks they prefer to collect and tube wildlings rather than get involved in raising planting stock from seed.

Tubed wildlings of Kamarere under high shade in a nursery at Ulamona soon after being transported from a nearby river bank. While this method is low tech and avoids the risk of damping off in germination trays and the specialist care required for pricking out very tiny seedlings into tubes, it also precludes the use of tree breeding to improve growth rates and wood quality.

Dr Julian Evans served in the posts of Lecturer (Plantation Silviculture, Forest Mensuration and Forest Protection), and at times Acting Head of the Forest Department at the PNGUT from 1975 to 1980.

Dr Evans joined the UK Forestry Commission in 1971, first serving as a District Officer at Neath in South Wales, then in research at Alice Holt Lodge. He took unpaid leave from there to come to the PNGUT. He left the Forestry Commission in 1997 from the post of Chief Research Officer and Head of Station, Alice Holt. He was appointed OBE in 1997 for “Services to Forestry and the Third World”. From 1997 to 2007 he served part time as Professor of Forestry at the Imperial College, London. He served on several bodies in an honorary capacity including Chair of the UK’s Department of International Development Forestry Research Advisory Committee, and Chair of the Commonwealth Forestry Association. In 2017 he was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Bangor University. He has written some 15 books on forestry, including his first, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (Clarendon Press Oxford 1982), editions of which are still available and used as a prescribed text at PNGUT and other forestry institutions, and a mammoth four-volume Encyclopaedia of Forest Science (Elsevier 2004).

Former expatriate staff, before and after leaving the Forest Department at PNGUT36

Dr Julian Evans

36 Where information has become available. The whereabouts of some of the early expatriate staff of the Forestry Department after they left PNG are unknown to me, including Kingsley Tesseverasinghe and George Vatasan.

Left: Professor Julian Evans OBE, FICFor, BSc (Hons), PhD (Wales), DSc., photographed here in 2019.

Dr Evans’ first book included a dedication to the first graduates in forestry from the PNGUT. The first edition in 1982 was in hardcover, subsequent editions and print runs were in paperback format (below).

Left: Second (1992) and third (2004, with John Turnbull) editions of Plantation Forestry in the Tropics. Below: Hardcover editions apparently have become expensive collectors’ items, in 2020 three have been advertised for sale on Amazon for US$890 to US$907.99! (below)

Professor Stanley Dennis Richardson

Professor Richardson, or “SDR” as he was known to many, was born on 28 March 1925. He served in the military during WW II, at one time in the honour guard for Churchill at the Allied Conference in Yalta. In 1945 he resumed university studies with a forestry scholarship at Oxford, earning an MA, BSc and a D Phil in tree physiology. A position at Aberdeen University followed. From there he was recruited to become Director of Research at FRI Rotorua from 1961 – 1965.

From the FRI he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Forestry and Wood Science at the University of Wales from 1966 – 1974. From there and as a onetime Member of the FAO’s Advisory Committee on Forestry Education, Professor Richardson (right) was invited several times to consult and advise various committees in PNG on forestry education. In these roles not all of his advice was welcomed by bureaucrats and politicians. His view that very few forestry graduates at a Bachelor Degree level were required in PNG, and those could be trained outside the country, was controversial and caused much angst in the government Department of Forestry.

From 1975 to 1980, he was Senior Forestry Specialist at the Asian Development Bank. From there he was recruited for his term as Professor and Head of the Department of Forestry at the PNGUT. Then it was back to New Zealand as Director of the New Zealand Forestry Council in Wellington.

From his home in Motueka, he continued his consulting for regional and international agencies in many parts of the world until his death on 23 November 2000 at age 75.

Dr Frans Arenz

The name Frans Arenz first became known to me when he was assigned to accompany Professor Lindsay Pryor on a charter flight from Port Moresby to Milne Bay and Raba Raba on Friday 23 August 1968, immediately after Lindsay had travelled with me to several other locations in PNG to explore the range of E. deglupta. Frans and the Professor visited natural stands of E. deglupta along the Kutu River south east of Raba Raba, returning to Port Moresby on Monday 26 August. (See page 94 in the companion article Rainbow Eucalypt Man.)

Frans’ name then appears in the postgraduate student list for the ANU in 1971 (see page 219, this document). He graduated with a PhD from the ANU in 1974; his thesis title was “Studies on Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands”.

Dr Arenz was appointed as a Pathologist at the Forest Research Station Bulolo from August 1974 to December 1985. From January 1986 to December 1987, he was Senior Lecturer at the Forestry College Bulolo teaching forest ecology, botany and pathology. During that time, he published with Jack Simpson a landmark paper on the distribution of Phytophthora cinnamomi in PNG (right). From January 1989 to December 1990, he was at the Forestry Department PNGUT lecturing in plantation and natural forest silviculture, forest pathology and plant physiology.

Frans spent several years associated with the Papua New Guinea Forestry Human Resource Development Project from September 1995 to September 2001, in the roles of Team Leader and Project Director. This six-year A$20 million Project was funded by AusAID. The Project comprised the revision of the curricula for the forestry degree and diploma courses being offered at the PNGUT, as well as strengthening the qualifications and research abilities of lecturing staff, strengthening technical training being provided to industry through the Timber Industry Training College, assessing the training needs of the PNG forestry sector and developing training programs to meet these need, providing direct infield support for forest monitoring to enforce compliance with PNG's environmental regulations and logging code of practice by logging contractors. A key element of this Project involved the sourcing of local expertise, through subcontracting arrangements, to develop and undertake appropriate training programmes. Capacity building and institutional strengthening was a focal point of the Project, and was achieved through the utilisation of skills and expertise of private sector consulting firms and government agencies. Monitoring and evaluation of training development and delivery was also an important aspect of the Project. The project incorporated a two year, multi-million-dollar construction programme on two campuses of the PNGUT involving all aspects of construction from project design through to tendering, construction and supervision.

This was the Project responsible for bumping the Department of Forestry at the PNGUT out of its purpose-designed-and-built timber building!

I crossed paths with Frans again in Nepal in May-June 2004, when I was involved in a study of regeneration of the high-altitude oak forests, part of the Nepal – Australia Community Resource Management and Livelihoods Project, for which he was Team Leader.

Dr Arenz has continued his work on Phytophthora cinnamomi and has continued to publish on the subject, the paper on the right published in 2017 is another referring to the organism in PNG as well as Australia.

His latest paper on the subject was published in January 2021.

Mr Napoleon T Vergara

‘Nap’ Vergara served in the posts of Lecturer (Forest Management, Forest Policy and Forest Economics and Finance), and at times Acting Head of the Forestry Department at the PNGUT from 1975 to 1980.

Mr Vergara came to the PNGUT with a background as Associate Professor of Forestry Economics at the University of the Philippines, Consultant Presidential Economic Staff Philippines, National Economic and Development Authority Philippines, and Consultant Presidential Commission on Wood Industries Development Philippines.

After PNG he went to the Environment and Policy Institute at the East West Centre in Hawai‘i, then on to the FAO in Rome, where we sometimes crossed paths.

Mr Robert (Bob) Johns

Bob graduated from the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1966 with a B.Sc. and in 1968 with a M.Sc. He first came to Papua New Guinea in 1968 as a Research Assistant for the Department of Geography, Australian National University to manage their field station on Mt Wilhelm. He joined the PNG National Herbarium in 1969. In 1971 Bob took up a lecturing position at the PNG Forestry College, Bulolo to teach botany, dendrology and forest ecology before moving to the PNGUT in 1979 as Senior Lecturer, and later Reader. He was Professor and Head of Department from 1987 until 1990 when he moved to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to take up the position of Curator for Ferns and Gymnosperms. He retired from Kew in 2004, but continued as a Research Fellow, which allowed him to continue his work on the ecology of the flora from both Papua New Guinea and Indonesian New Guinea (Papua), with particular emphasis on the ferns. In addition to Kew, Bob continued to be a familiar face at herbaria in Leiden, Lae and Bogor. He was an active participant of the Flora Malesiana Project, attending all of their symposia, which commenced in 1989. Bob passed away in London on 21 April 2019 after a long illness

Dr Geoffrey Stocker

Dr Geoffrey Stocker, latterly a Senior Principal Research Scientist with the CSIRO, was, in semiretirement, an agri-businessman and consultant specialising in tropical forest management and policy.

Bob Johns in 2006

Dr Stocker was Professor of Forestry at the PNGUT (1989 -1992) and Director of the PNG Forest Research Institute in Lae (1993 - 1996). He also undertook consultancies for various organizations in the Asia/ Pacific region (including FAO/UNDP, JICA, UNESCO and AusAID). He was co-author (with Dr Colin Hunt) of a submission Facilitating Commerce in Papua New Guinea to the Enquiry into Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea and other Pacific island countries. 37Geoff passed away on 25 January 2021.38

Dr Larry Orsak

Dr Larry Joe Orsak was born on 15 October 1953 in the USA. Larry obtained his PhD in entomology in 1988 from the University of California Berkeley. His PhD studies led him to Hawai‘i, French Polynesia and Australia, and later to PNG. He arrived in PNG in 1985, travelling as a backpacker during his PhD research. He returned again as a volunteer at the Wau Ecology Institute (WEI), which years earlier had been founded in 1963 by the Bishop Museum in Hawai‘i. One of the projects at the time at the WEI was butterfly farming. After the demise of the WEI, Larry moved to Madang in 1993 where he worked as the Director of the Christensen Research Institute, where he oversaw a strong growth in sponsorships and grant funding. He engaged closely with the local communities, including training local school dropouts as insect collectors. These activities later led to the creation of the Binatang Centre, with which he was later to collaborate closely as the Head of the Department of Forestry at the PNGUT. This Centre is now managed by Charles University in Prague, and is one of the leading research centres in the world on tropical insects. In 1997 he joined the World Wildlife Fund in PNG.

Dr Orsak started working directly for the PNGUT from 2011, first at the Bulolo University College (Forestry) as a volunteer. Soon after he started his career as a lecturer in the Forestry Department on the main Taraka campus by taking over the lecturing load of a member who left to study in the USA. He was promoted to Associate Professor and Head of the Department in 2012. His final years as Head of the Department of Forestry took a heavy toll while dealing with the internal squabbles and issues at the time in the Department and on campus. He reportedly followed an unhealthy lifestyle, did not exercise and slept little in irregular hours, sometimes on the floor in his office. His great passion for

37 See also Stocker, G 2002 Substitution of government services to forestry by the private sector, In Hunt, C, (ed.) Production, Privatisation and Preservation in Papua New Guinea Forestry Instruments for sustainable private sector forestry series, International Institute for Environment and Development, London; Monograph 38 National Research Institute, Port Moresby. ISBN 1 1899825 89:122-148. 38An obituary, with photographs, for Dr Geoff Stocker (28 May 1941 - 25 January 2021) can be found in The Forester, February/March 2021, pages 46-47.

his mission in PNG, combined with the disregard for his own health, are alleged to have caused his sudden and untimely death from a stroke/heart attack in Lae on 6 July 2017 at age 64.

With the permission of his brother and family in the USA, he was buried in his adopted village Baitabag, Madang Province, where he did some of his most significant work, in a country which he unconditionally loved. There is an amazing ongoing blog with huge numbers of photographs and comments at https://lifeworklarry.wordpress.com/ .

Myself

After my study leave ended, I spent over two years (1982 – 1984) as a Senior Forestry Officer (P5 Level 10) with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. I met frequently with then FAO staff member Napoleon Vergara in Rome, also on one occasion John Godlee when he was passing through Rome on an FAO assignment.

Looking

allowed one to dine outside in summer while looking across the city over the ruins of the Roman Circo Maximo (off the left side of the photograph). My accommodation was just off the top of the photograph near the Colosseum and I could walk to work down the Via Di San Gregoria past the Porta Capena, or take one of the metro trams shown here, avoiding having to drive in the ferocious Rome traffic and fight for a parking spot. The Via Delle Terme di Caracalla, given as the FAO street address, runs off to the right from the Piazza.

FAO cafeteria

down from the FAO main building in Rome. Winter was approaching with the plane trees losing their leaves. The building at the centre top is the Piazza di Porta Capena. The terrace on the right was outside the

and

After FAO, for some 20 years I was a Partner, Principal and Managing Director in two forestry and natural resource management and planning consultancy businesses based in Armidale NSW Australia (Eucalyptus and Forestry Services (EFS), Resource and Environmental Services (RES))

RES operated on projects mostly in north-eastern NSW, especially in the early days preparing Local Environment Plans for local government councils, following the introduction of NSW legislative requirements (Councils later employed their own environmental staff).

Other work by RES included but was not restricted to preparation of technical submissions for landholders seeking action in the courts on environmental matters such as definition of wetlands on their properties, assessment of the health of street trees, landscape design for public areas such as carparks and environmental control measures for projects such as quarries.

EFS operated almost exclusively in forestry and land use planning projects overseas and through my own contribution specialised in eucalypts. Projects were undertaken in over 20 countries, many for the FAO, but also for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, The World Conservation Union, the United Nations Development Programme, AusAID and private companies such as the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines. I invested almost five person-years of my time in Bangladesh and almost two years in the broadleaved forests of eastern Bhutan and made considerable contributions in Ethiopia and Nepal. Other countries included Indonesia, India and Timor Leste.

On one of my visits to Nepal, Kevin White and I met up for lunch in Kathmandu. At the time he was working on an Asian Development Bank supported project at Sagarnath on the Bhabar Terai. Kevin also attended and contributed papers on eucalypts and teak to Meetings and Workshops that I organised at the FAO Regional Office for the Asia-Pacific (RAPA) in Bangkok.39

39 For example: Davidson J 1992 Tree Breeding and Propagation – Some Concepts. Pages 39-67 In Vivekanandan K, Davidson J and Kashio M (ed.) Tree Breeding and Propagation. 2 vols. UNDP/FAO Regional Project on Tree Breeding and Propagation. FAO/RAPA, Bangkok; Davidson J 1995 Ecological aspects of Eucalyptus plantations. Pages 35

73 In White K, Ball J and Kashio M (ed.) Proceedings of the Regional Expert Consultation on Eucalyptus, 4

8 October 1993, FAO/RAPA, Bangkok. Vol. 196 pp.

Top left: Assessing eucalypt species trials in Bangladesh that were established earlier by Kevin White in an FAO Project he ran out of the Bangladesh Forest Research Institute in Chittagong, his first post after leaving PNG. Above: Explaining to visitors my research in the broadleaved forests of eastern Bhutan on the effects of grazing cattle on regeneration in strips clearfelled during cable logging by using fenced and unfenced plots. Left: In Inner Mongolia, China, appraising a challenging project on breeding hybrid poplars to withstand temperatures of -40ºC in winter and +40ºC in summer.

While most of my consultancies were by invitation, placing a successful bid for advertised work was always helped by being able from time to time to draw attention to membership of various professional bodies, such as the examples illustrated here, that certified one’s skills and experience over and above bare academic qualifications.

I continued in my role as Co-Chairman of International Union of Forest Research Organizations’ (IUFRO) Working Parties on eucalypts and member of several other IUFRO Working Parties for over a decade.

Co-chairmen of the IUFRO Working Party on Breeding Eucalypts (S2. 03. 10) at Carçans, France in 1983. From left: Me, Gerrit van Wyk (South Africa), Ken Eldridge (Australia) and Arno Brune (Brazil).

Also, for a decade, I was a Member of the Commission on Ecology (COE) of the (then) World Conservation Union (earlier and again now called the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)) and Chairman and later Co-chairman with Tom Lovejoy of the USA of its Working Group on Tropical Moist Forests. The Commission during most of my time was chaired by Professor Ovington and included Professor Pryor and Len Webb as the other Australian Members. Meetings were held in many parts of the world including Manaus in the Amazon, Malaysia, Spain and Australia where I made a number of significant contributions.40

By 2005, the stress of working overseas was taking its toll on my wellbeing, particularly effects from working alone in assignments in countries where there was ongoing armed conflict at the time (e.g., Ethiopia 1990, Sri Lanka 1990s). Long hours of international air travel were also taking their toll. There was a risk of developing a full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

After another stressful FAO/UNDP forestry mission to Timor Leste in 2005, I decided to give up overseas work, and have not travelled internationally since.

40 Including: Davidson J 1983 Conservation of Tree Genetic Resources: The role of Protected Areas in Amazonia. Pages 62 – 74 In Ecological Structures and Problems of Amazonia, IUCN Gland Switzerland, Commission on Ecology Papers No. 5. The Environmentalist 3: Supplement No. 5. 77 pp.; Davidson J 1985 Economic Use of Tropical Moist Forests. IUCN Gland Switzerland, Commission on Ecology Paper No. 5. The Environmentalist 5: Special Supplement. 28pp.; Davidson J 1985 Plantation Forestry in Relation to Tropical Moist Forests in South East Asia. Pages 101 – 110 In Davidson J, Tho Yo Pong and Bijleveld M (ed.) The Future of Tropical Rainforests in South East Asia. IUCN Gland Switzerland, Commission on Ecology Paper No. 10. The Environmentalist 5: Supplement No. 10. 127 pp. Davidson J 1987 Methodology to Tap the Genetic Resources of Tropical Moist Forests. IUCN Gland Switzerland; Davidson J 1987 Bioenergy Plantations in the Tropics -Ecological Implications and Impacts. Commission on Ecology Paper, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland 48 pp.

Instead, I decided to work in a full-time day job in Australia and applied for and was recruited as a Research Scientist in the Land and Forest Sciences Programme, Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS), Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), Canberra (now the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), the science and economics research division of the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment). Among a number of projects, I worked in the National Plantation Inventory Team with Mark Parsons, Mijo Gavran and Tracey Lutton on the five-yearly comprehensive report Australia’s Plantations 2006 and the annual supplement The National Plantation Inventory Update 2007. My major contribution of the time was in writing parts and science editing of all of the Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2008. These efforts were recognised with a number of awards (below).

My work in Canberra continued through to 2009, when I decided to retire from full-time employment. We moved from Armidale to Melbourne in March 2011.

While I was in Canberra, I was Member of the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Interim Steering Committee for the Australian Life Cycle Inventory (AusLCI) Database Initiative and two of its Subcommittees, AusLCI Data Collection Guidelines, and industry sector Working Group on Wood Products.

I am probably best known for my co-authorship, with Ken Eldridge, Chris Harwood, and Gerrit van Wyk, of the book Eucalyptus Domestication and Breeding published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK. My other substantial writing and editing work after I left Canberra has included: The State of Australia’s Forest Genetic Resources (with co-authors from CSIRO and ABARES), a report by the Australian Government to the FAO 2012; Writing criterion summaries and case studies, and science editing of Australia’s State of the Forests Report 2013; writing Criterion and Thematic summaries for Victoria’s State of the Forests Report 2013, an article on E. deglupta in the Institute of Foresters of Australia publication The Forester August 2015 and a chapter on E. deglupta in the ACIAR publication Trees for Life in Oceania 2018.

I am currently “semi-retired” and have invested 100s of hours in the project led by Richard McCarthy on documenting foresters’ and others contributions to forestry development and conservation in PNG pre-Independence in 1975.

I am still an avid scale model aircraft modeller especially of those examples used by the Royal Australian Airforce, but also of other types (below).

Me in 2019.

Former PNG locations, as seen now in satellite imagery

There have been huge changes in the locations mentioned in this account. The places revisited here are Gusap, where my dad served during WW II, and Keravat, Bulolo, the Gogol, Brown River and Lae where I lived and worked during the 1960s and 1970s.

Gusap aerodrome and environs in 2019

The flat land surrounding the Gusap area airstrips where my father and uncle served with the 6 MGB during WW II is now completely covered with oil palm plantations. A main road, present day Gusap airstrip and a parallel aircraft taxiway occupy the sites of the three main parallel runways that existed in WW II. At least in 2019, the ghostlike images of the other runways, taxiways and revetments were still visible among the young oil palms and in some cases also now are followed by curved and straight access tracks which depart from the usual rectangular grid pattern of the oil palm compartments.

ettlement of Gusap occupies a different site from the wartime village of the same name.

Gusap aerodrome and environs on 27 July 2019. In the centre of the image near the small aircraft symbol the three main parallel runways from WW II have formed the bases of a main road, main runway and aircraft taxiway. The pattern of other former runways, taxiways and revetments is still vaguely visible. The former earthen dummy runways have been planted up but components of the complex that were compacted gravel have not been planted and, in some cases, incorporated into access tracks among the compartments that obviously do not follow the usual rectangular grid pattern. (Image © 2019, 2020 Google LLC, used with permission. Google and the Google Earth logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC.)

Keravat and environs in 2015 and 2018

The last timber plantations were established at Keravat in 1973. The scaling back of forest management oversight allowed increasing encroachment into the plantations and to houses being built along the sides of roads and access tracks. By 2015, extensive clearing for oil palm development had occurred, especially south of the University of Natural Resources and Environment (formerly the Vudal Agricultural College). This was in effect a second wave, displacing the first wave of squatters’ houses and gardens! In contrast, the Lowlands Agricultural Station north east of Keravat had maintained control over the bulk of its trial plantations.

By 2015, huge areas of secondary forest and timber plantations south of the University of Natural Resources and Environment had been cleared for oil palm establishment. West of the Keravat River there had been widespread encroachment and gardening on former government land that previously had been managed by the Forest Department. Along the Kalabus road a few regrowth remnants of the former teak and kamarere plantations remain. (Base image © 2015 Google LLC, used with permission; annotations by J Davidson 2020)

Only three years after the above image was obtained (i.e., in 2018, see image below) the young oil palm plantations south of the University of Natural Resources and Environment had more than doubled in area. Also, most of the flat land west of the Keravat River and both sides of the Kalabus Road formerly occupied by teak and kamarere plantations had been planted up with oil palms. This latter development displaced the squatters and their gardens and most of the remnant teak and kamarere.

Image of Keravat and surrounding area obtained in 2018 shows the area of oil palm plantations south of the University of Natural Resources had more than doubled and oil palm planting had spread to areas on both sides of the Kalabus Road west of the Keravat River. (Base image © 2018 Google LLC, used with permission; annotations by J Davidson 2020)

–

Keravat in 2018. 1. House in which we lived 1967

1969, still there 50 years later! 2. Site where the forest office used to be, 3. Site where the forest nursery used to be, 4. Derelict sawmill main building still there, but the long sorting shed for sawn timber that stretched north of it is gone, 5. Diesel powerhouse and compound, 6. Bridge across the Keravat River, straight ahead (west) to Vudal and the University of Natural Resources and Environment or turn left (south) to the Kalabus, 7. Location of the 1948 kamarere plantation, long since gone, 8. Location of the former trade store now a “Supermarket”, 9. Keravat National High School, now a much expanded boarding school with 800 students in Grades 11 and 12 and 50 staff. (Base image © 2018 Google LLC, used with permission; annotations by J Davidson 2020)

The original objective of the Gogol Woodchip Project in the Trans-Gogol local government area near Madang was to produce timber, veneer and chips for pulpwood at a volume of 330,000 to 380,000 m3 per year. With the original rate of cutting the natural forest resource was expected to last 20 years. Replacement was expected through forestry plantations and natural regeneration. Agroforestry, agricultural and cattle farming projects also were to be encouraged under an agreed land use scenario that would result in the unlogged, “selectively logged” and cleared areas shown in the plan at left.41

1983 Forestry in Papua New Guinea: A Case Study of the Gogol Woodchip Project Near Madang. Pages 19-138 In Hamilton L S (ed.) Forest and Watershed Development in Asia and the Pacific Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press. 560 pp.

The timber concession was taken up by Jant Pty Ltd which was incorporated in PNG in December 1971.42 The project officially opened 8/9 June 1974, and was the first woodchip project of its type in the world.43Having largely completed its logging of the concession ahead of schedule, Jant did not renew its concession agreement after the expiry date and folded up its operations.

On the land allocated to be cleared for agriculture and plantations, less than 5,000 ha of timber plantations had been established and growth rates and quality of both the kamarere and mangium therein were well below predictions and expectations. Despite what was planned, very little of this land was converted to any form of permanent agriculture or cattle raising.44

On the selectively logged foothill sites, at first successful natural regeneration was occurring with a good stocking of commercial genera, 45but this did not last once large numbers of settlers moved in along the access tracks and began clear felling the regrowth for gardens.

In the 2018 satellite photograph (© 2018 Google LLC, used with permission) on the previous page, the former concession area is now heavily settled. A comparison can be made with the planning diagram presented above it (taking care on the satellite image to discriminate between the darker green shadows cast obliquely by the clouds and the lighter green of relatively intact forest)

A fair proportion of the area planned not to be logged in the original plan indeed has remained unlogged. Other than a small patch that was set aside on flat land near the Gogol River as a benchmark reserve that remains largely forested today (black arrow on the image), these forested areas are on generally steep land, which was why they were included in the unlogged category in the first place, and were not attractive to squatters. However, the area set aside be selectively logged on lesser slopes and planned for natural regeneration has been occupied soon after the logging for gardens, as has most of the area that

42 “Jant” was a concoction of Japanese and New Guinea Timber.

43 Because of being based on the pulping of mixed hardwoods from lowland tropical rainforest. For technical aspects in addition to Davidson J 1983 loc cit., see Lembke C A 1974 New Era for PNG Forest Industries. Australian Forest Industries Journal 40:6-31, and, Cavanaugh L G 1976 The Gogol Woodchip Project. In Increasing Effects of Increasing Human Activities on Tropical and Subtropical Forest Ecosystems. Canberra, Australia: UNESCO, MAB, Australian Government Publishing Service.

44 See Montagu S 2018 Progress and outcome in the Gogol: Issues in Forest Planning and Management. Chapter 8. Pages 147-179 In The Political Economy of Forest Management in Papua New Guinea. Filer C (ed.) The National Research Institute, Monograph No. 32.

45 See Johns R J 1976 Natural Regeneration Following Chip Logging in the Lowland Tropical Rainforest: A Case Study from the Gogol River Valley. Paper presented at the Third Meeting, Botanical Society of PNG, University of Technology, Lae; Whyte I N 1977 Results of a Regeneration Survey in the Gogol. Paper presented at the Fifth Meeting, Botanical Society of PNG, Bulolo; Sauli S M 1985 The Recovery of Lowland Rainforest After Clear-fell Logging Operations in the Gogol Valley, Papua New Guinea. PhD Thesis, University of Aberdeen; Thistlethwaite R and Votaw G 1992 Environmental Development: A Pacific Island Perspective. South Pacific Regional Environmental Program, ADB, Manila, Philippines; Cameron A L and Vigus T 1993 Papua New Guinea Volume-Growth Study: Regeneration and Growth of the Moist Tropical Forest in Papua New Guinea and the Implications for Future Harvest. Report prepared for the World Bank. Canberra, CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology.

was clearfelled and meant for timber plantations. Some of the occupiers of these plots sell on the side of the roads and tracks fuelwood billets harvested from remnant and regrowth mangium.

The former Jant site in Madang in 2019 (Compare with 1974 photographs on page 185 of Rainbow Eucalypt Man). 1. Former sediment settling pond, 2. Area where incoming pulpwood logs used to be stored, 3. Debarking area, part of the debarking shed and twin tepee-shaped waste incinerators are still there and rusting away, 4. Chipper building, probably a long-lasting edifice, as its concrete walls were metres thick by design to cut down on noise, 5. Overhead conveyor from chippers to a still bare area where chips were stockpiled prior to shipping, 6. Conveyor from chip pile to wharf, 7. Mooring wharf and chip loader, the wharf is still used to load sawn timber from the sawmill still located at 8. Here a ship is tied up at the wharf with sawn timber being loaded on the forward deck. (Base image © 2019 Google LLC, used with permission; annotations by J Davidson 2020)

Bulolo today is very different to what it was when I was there as a Cadet in 1962-1963 and when we lived there from 1972 to 1975.

Bulolo 29 December 2019. The Bulolo River, PNG Forest Products Ltd complex, Golf Course and Airport are prominent easily-recognised features. After almost 60 years since gold dredging ceased, the original characteristic rockpiles left behind have been smoothed over by the meandering course of the river and have become revegetated also in many places. In the bottom left is the large mostly cleared area of some 600ha used for cattle grazing (carrying capacity more than 1,000 head) by PNG Forest Products Ltd. In the top left there are big gaps in the Araucaria plantations.

1. Little is left of the Geshes Road experimental area, plagued by frequent fires and neglect after forest research was transferred from Bulolo to Lae and now undergoing dense housing development to accommodate the thousands of workers employed in Bulolo by the timber industry and services.

2. The Heads Hump LAs and surrounds. Some plantation trees have been re-established after the catastrophic fire of 1972 (centre, of varying density stocking and divided by a power line and track), but most of this area east of the River (i.e., the righthand half of this photograph) is now permanent grassland, which is regularly burned except for the remnant vegetation in the moist watercourses. The road to Lae runs off the top left corner of the image. (Base image © 2020 Google LLC, used with permission; annotations by J Davidson 2020)

Forestry related areas of Bulolo 29 December 2019. The huge mill complex of PNG Forest Products Ltd occupies a large part of the image on the right. 1. After some 50 years, the house occupied by the Godlee then McCarthy households in the 1970s is still there, 2. Similarly, the house occupied by the Davidson household is still there, 3. The former buildings of the Forest Research Station, reportedly long derelict, and here apparently subjected to a fire in the end of the northeast wing, 4. Bulolo University College surrounding its oval, now an external forestry college of the PNGUT in Lae, 5. Area formerly occupied by one of the Forest Department nurseries now replaced by the PNG Forest Products Ltd nursery located in the centre bottom of the image. (Image © 2019, 2020 Google LLC, used with permission. Google and the Google Earth logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC. Annotations by J Davidson 2020)

Brown River 2019

The Brown River/Mt Lawes Territorial Forest Area has seen significant change since its peak as a forestry enterprise in the 1970s.

The image below dated 9 September 2019 shows the former teak plantation areas stripped bare and resulting large areas of grassland periodically subject to fire.

Former Brown River Forest Station location (at arrow) on 9 September 2019. The road from Port Moresby and the bridge across the River near the Station has allowed large numbers of settlers into the area along and to the north east of the River. The Teak plantations that occupied the large tract of land in the centre of the image during the 1970s (see pages 258 and 2264 in this document) are long gone and replaced by grasslands that are regularly burned. Recently burned areas here are brown. (Image © 2019, 2021 Google LLC, used with permission. Google and the Google Earth logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC. Annotations by J Davidson 2020)

Locality of the former Brown River Forest Station. The top image is from July 2002, 1. Former location of the recreation park between the Station and the River, 2. Staff houses, 3. Former location of the large teak nursery, 4. Brown River. The bottom image is from 9 September 2019, 17 years later of the same area, showing further huge changes. (Images © 2019, 2020 Google LLC, used with permission. Google and the Google Earth logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC. Annotations by J Davidson 2020)

PNGUT 2020

The PNGUT campus itself has not changed much since I first went there in 1974 (see oblique aerial photograph on p333 for the layout in that year). By 1993, not much had changed in the surrounding lands either, with very little permanent encroachment by settlers on the customary land to the north west and south east of the campus (photomosaic below).

PNGUT campus in 1993, with boundary indicated by the red-dashed line. Note the lack of settlements north west and south east of the campus and the rapidly developing Tensiti in hexagonal domains to the north. (PNG National Mapping Bureau photomosaic)

Between December 1983 and July 1992, Lae experienced two major flood and mudslide disasters. In both cases, hundreds of people lost their homes. The 1983 floods remain the worst since the establishment of the town in the late 1920s. These floods left hundreds of people homeless particularly those living along the banks of the Bumbu River. Many houses were damaged or completely destroyed

and hundreds of people at the Five Mile settlement along the Highland highway were also affected by mud-slides. Meanwhile, provincial and national leaders met to find solutions to the problem of how to resettle people displaced by the disaster and to the north of the PNGUT a block of land was allocated, planned and developed for the resettlement of the disaster victims. This 'Tensiti' (Tent City) settlement was rapidly established from 1992 on the former Serafini plantation with sealed road networks, water and electricity and with houseblocks laid out in a characteristic series of hexagonal (six-sided) domains.

PNGUT 18 February 2020. A 223 ha (550 ac) roughly-triangular campus (see the plan on p272 and the reddashed boundary line on the photomosaic on the previous page) surrounded by the burgeoning development of Lae city. More than half of the population of Lae now lives in settlements like these. Lae local government and businesses consider the University is underutilising now-valuable urban land, an opinion which seems borne out by this image, even with the knowledge that some patches of forest and agricultural plots shown here on campus are used in teaching by the Forestry and Agriculture Departments. 1. Road to Ingham Barracks, 2. PMV stop and north gate, 3. School and hostels, 4. Sogeri Market, in which some of the produce from the University farm is sold (pigs, broiler chickens (meat birds), ducks, fresh chicken eggs, sheep, goats, and manure (chicken and goat) from the livestock section and various roots, tubers, vegetables and dry cocoa beans from the crops section), 5. Agriculture Department farm (39 ha) for teaching, with plots of different tree and other crops in the south, and the group of buildings in the north housing a piggery, poultry shed, other livestock, farm machinery shed, greenhouse, a feed mill and a licensed cocoa fermentery and dryer, 6. Forestry plantation and tree plots (for teaching), 7. Rainforest habitat (conservation area, also used in forestry teaching), 8. Communal g arden area used by campus residents, 9. Staff Club, 10. Independence Drive, 11. Gate (Pedestrian), 12. PMV stop and Main Gate, 13. Oil palm plots, 14. Appropriate technology compound, 15. Settlement gate (Pedestrian only), 16. Staff housing, 17. Student accommodation blocks, 18. Academic area and facilities (teaching precinct), 19. Several sports fields and courts are located on the open space in the centre of the campus. (Image © 2020 Google LLC, used with permission. Google and the Google Earth logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC. Annotations by J

Davidson 2020)

Key to buildings in the academic area and facilities precinct at the PNGUT that can be used to identify individual buildings in the 2020 satellite image on the previous page. No 23 is the all timber former Natural Resources Building from which Forestry was bumped in favour of Agriculture (Source: Surveying and Land Studies Department, PNGUT.)

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ABARES Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences

ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation

ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

ACT Australian Capital Territory

ADAA Australian Development Assistance Agency

AFS Australian Forestry School

AIF Australian Infantry Forces

AITB Australian Infantry Training Battalion

ANA Australian National Airways

ANU Australian National University (Canberra ACT Australia)

ASAG Australian Staffing Assistance Group

ASOPA Australian School of Pacific Administration (Mosman Sydney)

ATDU Appropriate Technology Development Unit (at PNGUT)

AusAID Australian Agency for International Development

AusLCI Australian Life Cycle Inventory

AWM Australian War Memorial

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BRI Brisbane

BRS Bureau of Rural Sciences (Canberra)

BSBRC Bulolo Small Bore Rifle Club

BSc (For) Bachelor of Science in Forestry

C Credit

CCA Copper Chrome Arsenate

CCTV Closed Circuit Television

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CERES Controlled Environment RESearch

CEUD Committee of Enquiry on University Development

CFI Commonwealth Forestry Institute (Oxford UK)

CNGT Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers (Ltd)

COE Commission on Ecology

CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia)

Cth Commonwealth

CUO Cadet Under Officer

D Distinction

DAFF Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Commonwealth, Canberra)

DDT Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

Dip For Diploma of Forestry

EAPI East-West Environment and Policy Institute (of the East-West Centre in Hawai‘i)

EFS Eucalyptus and Forestry Services

Eq. Equal

ESS Employment Security Scheme

FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

FO Forest Officer

GAB Girth above buttress

GCF Green Climate Fund

HD High Distinction

HDA Higher Duties Allowance

HMAS His Majesty’s Australian Ship

HOD Head of Department

HP Horsepower

HPH Hak Pengus Hutan (Indonesian Timber Concession)

HQ Headquarters

IBM International Business Machines

IHTE Institute of Higher Technical Education (later PNGIOT)

ITCI Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia

ITTA International Tropical Timber Agreement

IUFRO International Union of Forest Research Organisations

JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency

K Kina

kg Kilogram

KHS Kempsey High School (NSW)

L Cpl Lance Corporal

LA Logging Area

LAES Lowlands Agriculture Experiment Area

MGB Machine Gun Battalion

MHA Member of the House of Assembly (PNG)

MHz Megahertz

MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly (of the NSW Parliament)

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

MP Member of Parliament

NATSL National Analytical and Testing Service Laboratory

NCDC National Capital Development Commission (Canberra)

NRS National REDD+ Strategy

NSW New South Wales

NZ New Zealand

OHE Office of Higher Education (PNG)

OIC Officer-in-Charge

P Pass

PhD Doctor of Philosophy

PICOP Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines

PMV Passenger Motor Vehicle

PNG Papua New Guinea

PNGDF Papua New Guinea Defence Force

PNGFA Papua New Guinea Forest Authority

PNGFP Papua New Guinea Forest Products (Pty Ltd)

PNGIOT Papua New Guinea Institute of Technology (later PNGUT)

PNGUoT Papua New Guinea University of Technology (2)

PNGUT Papua New Guinea University of Technology (1)

POM Port Moresby

PSA Public Service Association (of PNG)

PSAAA Public Schools Amateur Athletic Association (also PS3A)

PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Q Queensland (also Qld)

RAAF Royal Australian Air Force

RAPA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO Bangkok)

RCPF Forest Carbon Partnership Facility

REDD Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of forests

RES Resource and Environmental Services

RFIP REDD+ Finance and Investment Plan

RFO Regional Forest Officer

RSL Return Servicemen’s League (PNG)

RWG Research Working Group (of the Research Committee of the Australian Forestry Council)

SA South Australia

Sgt Sergeant

SR Silvicultural Research

SW Southwest

SYD Sydney

TAA Trans Australia Airlines

TAFE Technical and Further Education

Tas. Tasmania

TB Tuberculosis

TFTC Timber and Forestry Training College (Bumbu campus of the PNGUT)

TITC Timber Industry Training College (later TFTC)

TP&NG Territories of Papua and New Guinea

TSI Timber Stand Improvement

TSS Troop Steam Ship

TST Tuberculin Skin Test

TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training

UDC University Development Company

UK United Kingdom

UN United Nations

UNDP United Nations Development Project

UNE University of New England (Armidale NSW Australia)

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

UNRE University of Natural Resources and Environment (PNG)

UPNG University of Papua New Guinea

US United States (of America)

Vic. Victoria

VW Volkswagen (car)

WA Western Australia

WEI Wau Ecology Institute

WW I World War One

WW II World War Two