Tingting I Kamar

21Evan 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. 22Personal 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. 28

be calculated, and a draftsman drew up each plot from these measurements as two adjacent triangles and measured their areas. (This could have been done on computer by using the measurements in triangle formulae, but never mind.) While travelling between plots a handheld counter was used to count the number of trees on each side of the line. These counts were then used to estimate stocking per acre. These stocking estimates by counter were inaccurate - on sloping ground the actual spacings between trees and rows were often less than the nominal spacing, because tree planters often laid their measuring sticks along the slope instead of holding them horizontal. Gary compared the actual tree stockings from the measured plots with the estimated stocking from the counts and found that the counts underestimated stocking by an average of about 5 percent. In individual compartments on steeper slopes the underestimates would have been even greater. Ken Granger26 recalls that the forest assessment surveys he was involved with from 1963 to 1967 included:

AREA DISTRICT LEADERS YEAR Trans Warangoi East New Britain Bartlett & Granger 1963 Munawai TNTA New Ireland Bartlett & Granger 1963 Cape Hosking extend West New Britain Bartlett & Granger 1963-4 Derembat NTA Manus Bartlett & Granger 1964 Bagum West New Britain Bartlett & Granger 1964 Kuriendal Plantation East New Britain Granger 1964 Empress Augusta Bay Bougainville Hammermaster 1964 Fulleborn-Uvol East New Britain Hammermaster 1965 Hoskins-Matnakunai West & East NB Brightwell 1965 West New Britain West New Britain Brightwell 1966 Middle Ramu Madang Shield 1966 Wau extension Morobe Shield 1967 Ioma-Kumusi Northern Hammermaster 1967

Mike Jones recalls 27 the 1971 Bulolo plantation assessment. Chris Done28 and Ian Whyte29 ran the assessment with him and Francis Tigi running the mapping and plotting of assessment lines. The mapping was supplied by contractors. He remembers setting out the lines in a grid formation through the established plantation. It was Chris and Ian’s first major project, certainly Chris’s. He remembers Chris became extremely ill and spent a lot of time in hospital with scrub typhus. Mike Jones30 recalls past assessments he was involved with.

Cape Hoskins with Rex Grattidge 1969 Gogol river and Vanimo 1970 with Dick McCarthy and many others Bulolo plantation 1971 with Chris Done and Ian Whyte. Open Bay 1972 with Dick McCarthy

26 Personal communication Ken Granger 15th April 2021 TPNG Forests 1963-1971. 27 Personal communication 15th April 2021 Mike Jones TPNG Forests 1967-1973. 28 Chris Done TPNG Forests 1966-1975. 29 Ian Whyte TPNG Forests 1969-1979. 30 Personal communication Mike Jones 22nd April 2021 TPNG Forests 1967-1973. 29

Kainantu with Ken Hart31 1972 which was aborted by hostile landowners Western Fly 1973. We stayed at Kiunga at the Kennecott mess (it was a great camp, plenty of food, beer, and movies every night). He read that Fred Kleckham must have run the camp for Kennecott sometime after we left. The assessment was run by Eric Hammermaster and Chris Done.

Peter Eddowes32 recalls he did a lot of survey work together with Greg McDonald and Maru Kumul (1964 onwards) but these forest surveys mainly regarding the collection of large (authentic) sawn material to go to CSIRO. This included data of forest type(s), location, habitat, species by volume etc., incl., Oriomo river, Tonolei Harbour, Goroka (Lufa) Highlands, Vanimo, Papuan Islands, New Britain, etc. Records for most of this work, at that time, would have gone on file at H.Q (Konedobu). Later work (1966 onwards) was typed up and put into the "Research Notes" (grey covered booklets) as was, at that time, compiled, kept, and maintained at the FPRC library Hohola. John Godlee33 recalls that he did a couple of minor surveys in the Sepik and the Hoskins area but would hardly rate them as important. As you know he was mainly running Keravat and then, Bulolo plantation operations. Neil Brightwell34 recalls many of the concerns are probably wrapped up in the New Britain General 90-10-1 (1) file under Brightwell 1966. If memory serves (and it often does not) the volumetric calculations and area assessments, for the Tiauru-Pandi and Open Bay surveys which were conducted in the field in 1965 together with the Kandrian-Gasmata, Arawe and Kapaluk areas which were conducted in 1966, took so long that they decided they would be best rolled into one general report for the island of New Britain. All these surveys were run by Neil Brightwell together with Ken Granger. This report may also include a note on the Nakanai plateau, visited and sampled in the TiauruPandi assessment.

The 90-10-13 Keravat-Vudal report Brightwell 1965, however, does confound him. He has no recollection of either doing or reporting on this area except as may be included in the 9010-1- (1) file noted above. This file may refer to a small survey done out of Keravat in 1963 by Ken Granger independently. In 1963 Neil was based in Keravat and produced a short (five(?) year) working plan for the Keravat plantation and timber stand improvement areas. Neil doubts that such a report (lacking any volumetric data) would have been filed in the 90 series files. On recall Alan White35 may well have placed it in the round file. It would have been impossible to file the report on the Bulolo plantations assessment 1970 in the conventional filing system as it was produced on large size continuous computer paper and was quite bulky. This survey was run by Neil Brightwell using variable sized triangular plots and a Hoop pine tree volume table (ex -Queensland}, programmed in Fortran by Neil

31 Ken Hart TPNG Forests 1963-1980. 32 Personal Communication 16th April 2021 Peter Eddowes TPNG Forests 1961-1981. 33 Personal communication 18th April 2021 John Godlee TPNG Forests 1955-1980. 34 Personal communication 18th April 2021 Neil Brightwell TPNG Forests 1961 – 1984. 35 Alan White TPNG Forests 1956-1977.

30

Brightwell and heavily transcribed by Dave Num into a language acceptable to Treasury's new IBM 360 computer. In relation to the Bulolo Plantation assessment 1970, Neil suspects that the field plots were actually quadrilateral with the areas being calculated using bearings and distances from the corners to calculate and sum two triangles. With the loss of all those records, it must give you some satisfaction to realise that your magnum opus may shed some light onto yet another dark age. Neil regrets that he is unable to assist with anything that transpired between Sept 1967 and December 1969, as he was largely tied up with Antarctic activities and some long service leave in Africa, Europe, and southern Asia. Evan Shield36 recalls missing from the list are two in which he had personal involvement: (a) the Cape Rodney inventory in 1963 ... Was it for a TRP purpose? and (b) the Imila River inventory (on the top of Marshall Lagoon) in 1964 ... Dave Num 37 recalls missing is a survey Neil Brightwell did in Bulolo plantations. It was after he returned from Antarctica and probably in early 70's. He remembers doing the computer processing. Chris Borough38 recalls he has some recollection re ERAVE - Pai - A but he did do a small survey out of Kikori and maybe this was the report? All others seem correct. Re Tuolumne Corp. Chris’s interaction was with John from Tuolumne on a visit to Canberra in July 1969 to run a simulation model of the entire forest resource using the CSIRO supercomputer (The IBM1130 with 8k RAM at UPANG was a bit short on capacity!). The concept was to use the flash model to optimise the use of the entire PNG forest resource. Chris was very dubious of the practicality of the goals of the project - it seemed to fizzle out after he returned to POM and Tuolumne was sent packing. Chris think Don MacIntosh must have got cold feet on the project. Paul Ryan39 recalls he was on an inventory survey of Markham/Watut area in 1967 under Neil Brightwell. That could well be the Lae TA. Evan Shield also ran the Gogol inventory of about May/June 1970, perhaps the one for which there is “data only”. He was not involved with any Hoskins survey in 1966 but was there with Chris Borough and others about 1968/69. He ran the Jimi Valley inventory in 1968, then the Mt Giluwe inventory survey the same year. Jim Riley40 He was sorry to hear of Chris's passing. Most PNG forestry types probably do not know Chris shared Jim’s donga at Bulolo for about 6 months when out of the bush from Helicopter surveys. When back from a survey at Jim’s Donga, Chris became extremely ill. Jim took him down to Bulolo hospital where he spent a week or two, before they sent Chris to Lae Hospital. He was there for a few weeks where they could not figure out what was wrong with him. Jim heard Chris was coming back to Bulolo and went to the airstrip to meet

36 Personal communication Evan Shield 19th April 2021 TPNG Forests 1958-1971. 37 Personal communication Dave Num 20th April 2021 TPNG Forests 1966-1979. 38 Personal communication Chris Brough 21st April 2021 TPNG Forest 1960-1971. 39 Personal Communication 22nd April 2021 Paul Ryan TPNG Forests 1962-1972. 40 Personal communication 16th Dec 2020 Jim Riley TPNG Forests 1967-1977. 31

his plane. An apparent skeleton, covered with skin that looked a bit like Chris walked off the plane. Chris had signed himself out of Lae hospital and was very determinedly heading south for salvation! A few weeks later via Bulolo hospital nurses, Jim found out that they had finally diagnosed Scrub Typhus, which then had about a 5% survival rate. So, Chris was probably lucky to enjoy another 50 years of life. Jim is sure Pip could confirm all this and probably add to it. Jim caught up with Chris again in 1972 or 73, at Popondetta. He was with Groome & Associates, a NZ Forestry Consultant firm. They jointly showed a group of Japanese around the Kumusi Log export area. (Which Fletchers took on with disastrous results!) An amusing aside. Coming down the road from a visit to Kokoda, (Jim thought only one of the party, who was in the other vehicle spoke English) an old Sawmiller in the back suddenly said in perfect English, "This is a lot different to the last time he came down this road!”

Jim Riley41 recalls he does not recollect any Bulolo Surveys 1969-70. Being at the College it is likely he did not know. However, he was called to a high-level Fletcher Forests conference Auckland when they were contemplating purchasing CNGT. The only Bulolo Survey figures he saw was one Ralph Butterworth and he did as an exercise for students on one of the BFC's courses at the Gorge area. He was surprised that was used. That had to be in 1975-76 When Ralph was there. No other Bulolo Survey figures were available, but the Wau area figures of the Oak Forest areas were okay.

Paul Ryan 42 recalls playing the kiap role. We did it out at Brown River for Turi and the Trees. PNG Dept of Forests publication 1968. Jim Belford43 recalls that there must have been a “decentralization” of surveys of sorts in the 1973 + era as while he was District Forester in Vanimo. He was tasked with drawing up contingency plans for inventory of Siassi Island and the Cromwell Mountains in Morobe Province, and completion of the whole of Manus Island (He had done Derimbat Extension and other areas in ‘72/’73). These were co-ordinated through HQ and were fully funded with helicopter support with up to 50 field officers under the standard field practices with main camp messes and supply. And yours truly- besides being the only Forest Officer there was everything from Camp Commandant, planner, field checker, heli workload organizer and chief cook and bottlewasher etc -that was it, no other support. Our Base Camps were at the Patrol Post at Sialum for Cromwell Mountains, the Patrol Post on Siassi for that one, and at Ango-American’s geological survey camp on the south coast of Manus. They were carried out in ’74 and ’75 from memory with Cromwell the last in two parts. Manus took about 3 months (?) and the others a bit shorter. From memory, Gabriel Samol helped with Cromwell at the end. It was the hardest logistically. He suspects the reports would be buried at HQ if not gone in the fire. There are probably records in the provinces, but they appear missing from any listings so far.

41 Personal communication Jim Riley 24th April 2021 TPNG Forests 1967-1977. 42 Personal Communication 15th May 2021 Paul Ryan TPNG Forests 1962-1972. 43 Personal communication Jim Belford 26th May 2021 TPNG Forests 1970-1981. 32

Eric Hammermaster 44 recalls early helicopter surveys included:

• 1963 Gogol • 1964 April 14-25 Cape Rodney • 1964 Sagarai • 1964J aba River Bougainville • 1965 Kandrian to Uvol — West New Britain

With Bill Wallace45 as the pilot for the whole job was also an advantage. Bill was quite a raconteur and a great promoter of “games of skill and chance”. Many an evening was spent at liar dice or seven card brag (for matches). Photo credit Ken Granger.

44 Personal communication 28th May 2021 Eric Hammermaster TPNG Forests 1956-1979. 45 Wallace W G 1966 Cutting Pads in the Forest for Bell 47G-3B-1 Helicopter Operations. Government Printer Port Moresby 1966.

33

Field team and their equipment, Aiome, June 1966. Photo credit Ken Granger.

Sling loading for a pad cutting team, Aiome, July 1966. Photo credit Ken Granger.

A typical cleared pad, Ramu area, July 1967. Photo credit Ken Granger.

34

John Davidson46 reported that William “Bill” Wallace was the pilot on the Ioma survey and is in this photograph taken by Ken Granger in May 1967.

Alick and Molly Dockrill47 in the Kassam Pass area, Jan 1968. Botanical survey. Photo credit Mark Coode.

46 Personal communication John Davidson 1 May 2021 TPNG Forests 1962-1980. 47 Alick Dockrill TPNG Forests 1966-1972.

35

A Bell 47 3B1 helicopter on the ground at Baiyer River during one of our forest inventories. Photo credit Paul Ryan.

Villagers clustered around the helicopter at Tabibuga Patrol Post (near Koinambe Mission) prior to our flying into the Jimi Valley. Photo credit Paul Ryan.

36

Crossing a cane suspension bridge with part of our gear. Photo credit Paul Ryan.

Carriers resting on the track between villages. Fresh leaves for the rear end each day. Photo credit Paul Ryan.

37

Chris operating VL8PN radio to Rabaul Sept/Oct 1967. Photo credit Chris Borough.

9/10/1967 Massive Waves at Matanakunai. Dave Num, Gary Flegg and Ron Turner. Photo credit Chris Borough.

38

Chris receiving hair cut from TO Sylvanus Gorio Ioma July 1967. Photo credit Chris Borough.

Loading chopper on river pad. Photo credit

Chris Borough.

39

Chris communicating by field radio to base at Ioma. Photo credit Chris Borough.

Engineer Rod Turner servicing chopper. Photo credit Chris Borough.

40

Janet and Robyn Borough at Stockholm Plantation M V Mangana. Photo credit Chris Borough.

48 Bob Lyons and Ross Lockyer camped out in the jungle somewhere north of Bulolo in

1969 for about a week wandering about through miles of bush surveying for klinkii pine and other hardwood resources. He was Forestry Dept from Lae or it may have been Moresby at the time. Ross was Bush Boss at CNGT. He was a bloody good bloke. The photo's not good. It was off an old 35mm slide. Photo credit Ross Lockyer.

48 Ross Lockyer personal communication 6 May 2020 CNGT Timbers bush boss 1967-1970 and then TPNG Forests 1971-1973. Bob Lyons former patrol officer and then TPNG Forests 1966-late1970’s. 41

Gogol Survey 1970 forest survey helicopters and Gogol bridge June 1970. Photo credit Ian Whyte49 .

Survey Camp on the Gogol River 1970. Photo credit Ian Whyte.

49 Ian Whyte TPNG Forests 1969-1979.

42

The leaders of each forest survey were responsible for documenting the survey and preparing future development plans for the area. One such example was the 1970 assessment of the timber potential of the Tiauru Pandi Timber area – part of the North Coast of New Britain designated area for agricultural development such as oil palm plantations by Dick McCarthy with Bob McKeowen as the cartographer.

1970 Dick McCarthy50 on Tiauru Pandi Survey (We did find a tree or two at Bialla.) Photo credit Dick McCarthy.

50 Dick McCarthy TPNG Forests 1963-1975.

43

Bob McKeowen in disguise on Tiauru Pandi Survey 1970. Photo credit Dick McCarthy.

Ulamona Catholic Mission Dick McCarthy, Bob McKeowen TPNG Forests 1967-1976, Francis Tigi 1970. Photo credit Ken Granger.

44

Pages 56 to 72 describe details of individual resource assessments from 1943 to 1971. This work was detailed in the Resource Information System update by forester Peter Connell51 in November 1971.

Several PNG Forestry identities were involved in the assessment of PNG’s forest resources up until 1975. These included Don McIntosh, Jim Cavanaugh, Eric Hammermaster, John Lowein, Ken Granger, Bill Jenkin, Norm Endacott, Evan Shield, Kevin White, Peter Eddowes, Ian Whyte, Alan White, “Docca” Reid, Chris Brown, John Lake, Robin Hoskins, Phil Ainsworth, Gerd Streihler, Bob McKeowen, Paul Ryan, Chris Borough, John Davidson, Jim Belford, Gary Archer, Dave Num, Alec Hart, Neil Brightwell, Rex Grattidge, Bob Bruce, Heinar Streimann, Cliff Southwell, Alan Cameron, Dick McCarthy, Murray Day, Chris Done, Mike Jones, Des Harries, Gabriel Samol and others.

Many botanists, cartographers and other technical specialists accompanied these inventories including Peter Eddowes, John Womersley, Ted Henty, Mark Coode, Barry Conn, Bob Johns, Heinar Streimann and others.

The national forest inventory in PNG was largely completed by 1968 describing standing log volume and areas for specified timber areas. This was described in New Horizons 197252p7.

Locality

Total land mass

Area in hectares

46,886,000 Tree cover 40,000,000 Commercailly accessible forest 13,000,000

In 1972, the Department of Forests publication New Horizons53 p8, detailed an appreciation of the work performed and of the assessed resource by major forest types.

Forest System Specified Timber Area Area in thousands of hectares Volume in thousands of cubic metres (M3)

Volume in thousands of cubic metres (M3)

0.5 – 1.5 metres 1.5 metres + GAB* GAB* Western Papuan Not available 3000 (est) Not available Not available Papuan South Abau 90 3540 4365 Coast

South East Coastal Aroa 45 1179 1179 Sagarai Gadaisu 48 4250 3303

Musa 80 4719 2478 Kumusi 28 2360 2360 Ioma 182 11780 10380 Mai’ama 24 2830 2950 Bismarck Open Bay 104 4480 7080

51 Peter Connell TPNG Forests 1971 to 1978. 52 New Horizons – Forestry in Papua New Guinea a Dept of Forests Publication 1973 Jacaranda Press. 53 “New Horizons – Forestry in Papua New Guinea a Dept of Forests Publication 1973 Jacaranda Press. 45

Ania Kapiura 110 7080 5660 Kandrian 121 7790 8260 Arowe 157 8260 8730 Kapaluk 103 6135 6135 Melkoi 27 2360 1650 Nakanai n/a 2360 4955 Kaut 10 470 470 Solomons Torakina 13 945 1160 Sepik Ramu Vanimo 239 8495 10620 Middle Ramu 131 5665 5665 Highlands Giluwe n/a Not available 1840 Jimi n/a Not available 5190

TOTAL * Girth above buttress 1,512 81,600 83,000

The Dept of Forests reported that the forest resources were extensive and varied in composition. Some 200 species have economic potential but only some 30 species account for the bulk of merchantable timber.

By 1972, approximately one-third or 4.4 million hectares had been classed as having economic potential and assessed to a level where development planning was possible. The forests are divided into seven fairly homogeneous systems.

By 1975 some 4,800,000 ha had been covered. By the late 1980’s, over 7,400,000 hectares had been covered.

Forest Systems 54 Dept of Forests PNG 1970.

By 1974 the Resource Atlas of PNG stated that the merchantable area was some 1699000 ha with a further 900,000 ha already under existing operations, a total of 2,599,000 ha.

54 Dept of Forests PNG 1970 Forest Systems of Territory of Papua and New Guinea. 46