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Evan Shield22 recalls he and Bob Bruce sharing a somewhat leaky tent somewhere in West New Britain in 1966 while the rain poured down ...engaged in a lively discussion as to why it was necessary to make ground slope corrections when estimating tree / log height. Another instance was when Peter Bleeker (LRRS, CSIRO) who was a big guy and Evan (and others) were returning to base camp after a day's fieldwork, Evan was crossing a small stream by walking on a single log bridge some locals had provided long ago ... Evan sensed it was not secure and turned to ask Peter not to venture onto that log until he had completed his crossing. He was too late. Under their combined weight, the log broke, and they both ended up in said stream. Other party members thought it hilarious until they realised that they had no option but to get wet to the waist in fording that stream ... John Davidson23 recalls on the HQ fire (although he cannot find a date,) that the fire did destroy all the original survey books and maps from Keravat that Alan Williams had sent to HQ following his 1971-72 theodolite survey of the locations of all the deglupta “plus” trees that were tied into culverts on Kalabus Road. This was an upsetting loss to the breeding programme for the species at the time, since there were no other copies, and the field markers were disappearing and the paint rings wearing off the trees. It was definitely in the late 1970s as quoted. John would to this day appreciate if anyone comes up with an exact date. John often wonders if the fire was significant enough to be mentioned in the local press. Mark Coode24 botanist recalls being attached to Grant’s survey in Kaut New Ireland in 1967. Trying to sort out why some of the logs of Terminalia sank and some did not, without success - there seemed only the one species involved, a new one later called T. archipelagi. Gary Archer25 recalls for the surveys that he was part of that the Tonolei Survey shown by Peter Connell as 1970 was in fact August-November 1969, because he was allowed to stay back a week later than everyone else to see his first son Robert born. He was born on 12 August 1969. Gary Archer recalls that the Bulolo Araucaria plantation survey is omitted from the list. This was in 1970 and was led by Neil Brightwell. The 1970 survey was headquartered at the Bulolo Forestry College. He was lecturing at the College in 1972 and 1973, and he does not know of any plantation survey going on during that time. (Dick McCarthy was there in 1973 as well.) So, any extra Bulolo survey would presumably have had to be in 1971. The method was to run lines between plantation rows and establish plots at a spacing of 5 chains distance along these lines. The plot sides were pegged out midway between plantation rows, and because of variations in plantation spacing the plots were all somewhat different in size and shape. Each plot had all four sides and one diagonal measured to allow plot areas to 21
Cartoon from Bob Brown’s Grass Roots Guide to PNG Pidgin South Pacific Post. Personal Communication 14th Jan 2021 Evan Shield TPNG Forests 1958-1971. Bob Bruce TPNG Forests 1961-1982. 23 Personal Communication 2nd Feb 2021 Prof John Davidson TPNG Forests 1962-1980. 24 Personal communication Mark Coode 15th April 2021 TPNG Forests 1966-1972. 25 Personal communication Gary Archer 15th April 2021 TPNG Forests 1963 to 1973. 22
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