Eminent
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1 AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975
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Ross Wylie Bulolo 1968. Photo credit Barry Gray Dr Ross Wylie Science NationalLeaderRedImported Fire Ant Eradication Program Biosecurity Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Biography Dr Francis Ross Wylie BSc. MSc. PhD PNG Forests 1967 Entomologist Localities Bulolo PNG 1974 LIFE AFTER PNG Ross is an entomologist who commenced his career in 1967 with the PNG Department of Forests studying insect pests of trees and timber. From 1974 2006 he worked with Queensland Forestry, mainly researching pests of plantation trees and production native forests, forest health surveillance, native tree dieback and forestry quarantine. He has led research projects and carried out consultancies for agencies such as ACIAR, AusAID, FAO and Asian Development Bank in 18 countries in Asia and the Pacific. Ross has written over 100 journal and technical publications and four books, the latest being “Insect Pests in Tropical Forestry” (CABI). Since leaving forestry he has been Science Manager and now Science Leader in Biosecurity Queensland working on invasive ants, particularly red imported fire ant.
MAGAZINE ISSUE
Editor R B McCarthy 2022. 1 Dick McCarthy District Forester TPNG Forests 1963 1975. PNGAF # 9B-5B4W5 of 20th Aug 2022 MANAGEMENT. TPNG Forest Entomologist Dr Ross Wylie 1967-1974.
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Papua New Guinea Memoirs: Ross Wylie February 1967 to January 1974
One of my classmates, whose father was Chief Justice in Port Moresby, mentioned that she had heard there was a job available for an entomologist in the TPNG Department of Forests. I wrote to the Department saying that I was interested in the job if one was on offer. No reply. So, I wrote again and a few weeks later, 14 February 1967, a reply came from the Director instructing me to apply for an entry permit and to purchase a return air ticket. I had an interview, but I had to be there on 24 February, just 10 days away. A bit frantic, my parents lent me money for an airfare to Port Moresby, I got my permit, and off I went on my first trip out of Australia. At the Department’s headquarters at Konedobu my interview with the Secretary was informal and friendly, more of a chat, and I flew out to Bulolo the next day for my first term. I was met at Bulolo by my new boss, Barry Gray, an entomologist originally from NSW who had come to Papua and New Guinea about 9 months before me. I stayed in dormitory accommodation at the Forestry College and could walk from there to the Forestry Office and to Barry’s house which served as our base as there was no laboratory at that stage. Our equipment was basic, some collecting gear, specimen vials, storage boxes, ethyl alcohol, forceps, scissors, and a bit of stationery plus entomology books and scientific papers that Barry had secured from the library at Port Moresby. As an interim measure pending construction of a purpose built laboratory, we were given an old Company barracks building to convert. My main memory of the first few months in Bulolo was brooming, dusting, washing floors, walls, ceilings and fly wire to remove the grime. Everybody pitched in. Gradually it came into shape, and we added furniture, benches, a microscope, and insect breeding cages to make it feel like an insect laboratory. PNG was a paradise for entomologists, and no doubt still is. It has insects in abundance in weird shapes and brilliant colours and one in every three likely to be a species new to science.
How I came to be in Papua New Guinea is a story, but it was more by accident than design. During my undergraduate years at University of Queensland I did vacation jobs for a biting midge (sand flies to you) specialist who earned his living by doing consultancies for various city councils around Queensland controlling their midge problems. Those jobs were not glamorous but gave me a taste of what field entomology was about grunt work. For example, in Gladstone I played the part of ‘bait’ for midges. I would rub a test repellent on my left arm and right leg while my right arm and left leg were ‘controls’. When a midge bit me I would capture it and put it in a vial of alcohol and then record which appendage was bitten. Later in the lab we would identify the species of midge and that was duly recorded. Fortunately, I did not react badly to midge bites. When most sensible people were indoors, I was setting light traps at dusk in the mangroves and collecting them early next morning. I was promised a job on midges when I graduated but neglected to ask for details. It turned out to be in an isolated region for 6 months of the year for food, board and little more than pocket money. So, I said “no thanks” to the job and started looking around. Unfortunately, most of my classmates in entomology had already secured good public service jobs and there was nothing going.
I went collecting and light trapping at every opportunity in places all over the country and between all of us in the entomology team, including long serving local technicians Henry Ivagi and John Dobunaba, we built up a sizeable reference collection which is now part of the National Insect Collection. Those years in PNG were the grounding for my subsequent Mycareer.main
One of my early acquaintances and best mates in PNG was Peter Shanahan, whose family owned a coffee plantation in Wau. Peter was third generation New Guinean descended from German stock and boasting a connection to Queen Salote of Tonga. He was the font of all knowledge on the birds, animals and insects of New Guinea and had his own private zoo, including birds of paradise and tree climbing kangaroos plus eclectus parrots and various
Back to Milionia, outbreaks of the pest were found to be associated with tree stress, the most severe outbreaks being preceded by extended periods of low rainfall. The insect had a range of natural control agents including a fungus that caused high pupal mortality. I published four papers on Milionia one of which looked at behavior of the moth. It had some charming habits; while the female fed on nectar, the male dined on organic solutes contained in wet sand, mud, animal dung and carrion. I used to put out plates of decomposing toad and fresh cattle dung to attract the moths. Some of the males fed on dried toad and dung by moistening the surface with a droplet of liquid from the anus and then imbibing.
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research interest in the early years was a day flying moth Milionia isodoxa, whose larvae defoliated hoop pine, sometimes completely stripping trees. A very youthful Ross Wylie at a “sticky trap” flying insect sampling site in a hoop pine plantation at Bulolo. There were four panels oriented in cardinal directions, the ones on the left and right are edge on and the one at the rear is hidden in shadow and foliage. Photo credit John Davidson. It caused damage not just at Bulolo and Wau but through the Highlands, where it affected amenity plantings as well as plantation trees. This is how I came to be in Okapa in the Eastern Highlands in August 1967 on my first trip to the region. This was the only area in New Guinea where Kuru disease or ‘laughing death’ occurred. Thousands of local people were afflicted with it, and it is always fatal. At the Kuru Medical Centre, Awande, visiting specialists were studying the disease but at that time the cause had not been determined; it was thought to be viral or genetic. No European had contracted the disease which I was relieved about. Not long after my visit, researchers discovered that Kuru was transmitted among members of the Fore tribe via funerary cannibalism. Deceased family members were traditionally cooked and eaten, which was thought to help free the spirit of the dead. Corpses of family members were often buried for days then exhumed once the corpses were infested with maggots at which point the corpse would be dismembered and served with the maggots as a side dish. Women and children usually consumed the brain, the organ in which infectious proteins were most concentrated, thus allowing for transmission of Kuru. The disease was therefore more prevalent among women and children, but men were also affected.
4 snakes. I learnt an incredible amount from him in those early days. Peter joined our forest entomology unit in 1972. Near Wau was a Bernice P. Bishop Museum (BPBM) field station whose parent body was in Hawaii and had the charter of collecting, documenting, and storing the biodiversity, culture, and history of the Pacific. At that field station I met giants of the field in their day, people like Lindsey Gressitt, Joe Szent Ivany, Joe Sedlacek and Al Samuelson, all world experts in entomology or zoology. It was heady stuff for a new biology graduate. Peter Shanahan with Ross Wylie Wau 1968. Photo credit Ross Lockyer. Apart from having their own collectors, the Museum also paid money for specimens brought in by local villagers. For snakes, it was at that time a dollar per foot (length) of snake. Our Forestry Research Station at Bulolo was a sort of branch office of the BPBM and we often received all sorts of specimens from locals looking to make some money. On one such occasion, a large amethystine python in a box turned up on our doorstep; it had apparently been taking chickens at a local village. These pythons are one of the sixth largest snakes in the world and can measure up to 8 m. This one was on the larger end of the scale. Brenton Peters who was another great friend and colleague and I volunteered to take the snake to the Museum, and we set off for Wau in Brenton’s VW. En route the snake decided to void its stomach contents and there was this horrendous stench in the car; we drove with the windows open the rest of the way. At the Museum, the usual practice was to weigh such specimens and Peter volunteered. He stood on the scales to establish his weight and then the python was draped around his shoulders while he held its head. The idea of course was that he would then step back on the scales and by subtracting his weight, the weight of the snake could be established. The snake had other ideas. It is a constrictor so of course it began tightening its coils and Peter began to go red and struggled for air. Four of us rushed to grab the tail of the snake and gradually began to unwind it from Peter and eventually returned it to a holding pen. I do not think the weight was ever recorded. Every trip I made in New Guinea was a bit of an adventure but none with so many twists and turns as the work trip to Kui on the Morobe coast in 1970. I mention a shorter version of this story in the obituary I wrote for Brenton Peters (these Memoirs) who died in January this year, but this is the story in full. Part of my job was to conduct surveys of timber borers at various logging areas in forests and at sawmills around the country. In February 1970, Brenton who had joined our forest entomology unit the previous December, Neil Gough who was working at the Bishop Museum Field Station at Wau, Teng Arang a labourer with our section, and myself set out on a trip to Kui to collect insects in a logging area there. We took a lugger out of Lae and set off. All went well until we were just off Salamaua and then the rudder seized, and the boat began to go around in circles. A couple of the crew went below to make repairs but after a few hours of hammering and banging there was no progress, and we began to make escape plans. One was to use the foam-filled seat cushions to float and paddle
5 our way to the beach at Salamaua which seemed so close. What gave us pause was when a crewman who was fishing to while away the time pulled in an exceptionally large fish but the head only the rest had been taken by a shark. So, we waited. Eventually, repairs were made, and we resumed our journey with no further drama. Kui was a great success in terms of insects caught. The most spectacular find was a fallen tree with scores of the giant longicorn Batocera wallacei crawling on its surface. We filled all our collecting jars and containers and then wrapped up more of the beetles in our handkerchiefs and Brenton’s terry towelling hat. Most of these beetles made it back to the lab intact and I still have a few in my personal collection at Kenmore. Then came the return journey from Kui to Lae. Given our experience on the lugger down, we decided to get a speedboat back and made the booking via the logging company’s radio at Kui. The speedboat duly arrived complete with captain and mate who both looked a little worse for wear; they had been partying the night before in Lae apparently. We loaded our gear and set off. The waves were larger than usual, and the captain informed us there was a cyclone heading our way. The speedboat was meant to plane over the water and the captain tried to get it to lift but we kept slapping into the waves not over them. We were all hanging on for grim death with our arms nearly jolting out of their sockets every time we hit a wave. I remember my feet left the floor of the boat several times as I was jerked upward. Mercifully, it stopped when the motor gave up the ghost, with something shaken loose or broken. The mate opened a hatch under one of the seats, crawled beneath and started tinkering with the motor. All we could see of him was the lower half of his body protruding from beneath a seat. The boat bobbed around at the mercy of the waves, a recipe for seasickness. Sure enough, the captain ran to the side and was extremely ill, no doubt a hangover from yesterday’s big night out. He took no further part in proceedings until towards the end. So, we bobbed around in the boat, trying not to be seasick and endeavouring to protect ourselves from sunburn as well by putting our shirts over our heads. We were constantly scanning for other boats and saw a freighter in the distance; we signalled frantically, waving shirts and white insect nets but it sailed serenely by. Bummer, to say the least. In the meantime, the mate was still under the seat and there had been no movement for quite a while. We prodded him gently but no reaction, like the captain he was sleeping it off. So, here we were, drifting in the Huon Gulf and a cyclone on the way and no help in sight. It was 12th February 1970, my 25th birthday. Then we saw a timber barge, making its way to Lae and not too far away from us. Neil dipped a rag into the petrol tank and draped it around his rubber foot thong, attached it to the pole of a long handle insect net and set it alight. It sent up a plume of smoke which thankfully was seen, and the barge altered its course. Our captain at this stage suddenly woke up and decided to take charge. When the barge got close, he threw over a tow rope and then tied it to the transom of our boat. Big mistake. When the barge took up the slack it tore off the transom and then the tow had to be re established. Prudently, we transferred across to the barge and completed our journey back to Lae with no further drama.
Another of the fascinations of PNG for me was its war history. When I arrived in 1967, many of the place names were already familiar through stories of the campaigns there. Bulolo and Wau had their own encounters with Japanese forces with the towns strafed and an advance from the coast turned back at Wau. With some mates from the Bulolo banks I hiked the Black Cat/ ‘Skin diwai’ track from Wau to Salamaua, encountering plenty of war remnants on the way such as a hut filled with mouldering army boots and the wreck of a Japanese “Betty” bomber. There was war history everywhere I went in PNG; Nadzab airstrip, Japanese tunnels in Rabaul, fighter planes on old airstrips at Wewak, landing barges along the Morobe coast. What made it more poignant was that it was only 22 years since the war ended. This feeling of the immediacy of history in PNG extended to the first contacts between European
Mid 1970’s Entomology Section Bulolo Back Row. L R. Ross women.amongstRaeGrimsteadEvelynBettySecondBarryShanahan,Barber,Merrifield,LorneWylie,IanPeterandGray.rowNissen,mdJamiethe
Mid 1970’s Forest Research Staff Bulolo Back row, L-R, Ross Wylie, Peter Shanahan, Neville Howcroft, Jeff Fairlamb, Ian Barber, (holdingJamie,Grimstead,SecondBarryMerrifieldSimpsonJack,Lorne,andGray.rowEvelynRaeBettyNissenherchild).
Photo credit John Davidson.
6 explorers and local tribes. It was incredible to think that this was such a short time ago, and that people like the Collins and Leahys lived just down the road so to speak. I mentioned earlier the richness of the insect fauna in PNG. Barry Gray and I have been delving into this again just recently. Prior to the establishment of the forest entomology research unit at Bulolo in 1966, only five species of pinhole and shothole borers (Platypodinae and Scolytinae), which are important pests of trees and log timber, had been named in the Bulolo area. Since then, another 403 species have been discovered during studies by those in the unit. In 1973 1974 alone, 201 species were recorded in the Sticky trap No.3 and billet study at Upper Manki Logging Area, Bulolo by Barry, Peter, and me. When combined, the number of Platypodinae and Scolytinae species (408) in the Bulolo area probably makes it the richest for such a small area on earth I have many fond memories of PNG, and friendships made there last a lifetime. I am proud to have been part of PNG forestry.
Photo credit John Davidson.
7 ACRONYMSACT Australian Capital Territory ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research ACLMP AusAid funded World Bank Land Mobilisation program. AEC Administrators Executive Committee AFS Australian Forestry School AFPNG Association of Foresters of PNG AIF Australian Infantry Forces AMF Australian Military Forces ANBG Australian National Botanical Gardens ANGAU Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit ANU Australian National University APMF Australian Paper Manufacturers Forestry Pty Ltd APPM Australia Paper and Pulp Manufacturers ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Organisation ASOPA Australian School of Pacific Administration AusAID Australian Aid Agency BA basal area BCOF British Commonwealth Occupational Force 1945 52 “Beer Time” Any time. BFC Bulolo Forestry College BGD Bulolo Gold Dredging Company BUC Bulolo University College C Commonwealth cm Centimetre CALM Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management CFA Commonwealth Forestry Association CNGT Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers Bulolo CRE Commander Royal Engineers CRE CRE is a term inherited by RAE from RE and is the term for the Commanding Officer of a RAE unit which is headed by a Lt Col. Although the officer is called the CRE the name is also used for the name of his unit. E.g., CRE Aust Forestry Group or 1(NG Forests). CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation CHAH Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria DASF Dept of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries DBH/ dbh Diameter at breast height DEPT Department DPI Department of Primary Industry DOF Department of Forests e.g. For example Etc et cetera (more of the same) FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation F &TB Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra FIM Forest Information System FPRC Forest Products Research Centre Hohola
8 FRG Forest Red Gum FRI Forest Research Institute Lae Forkol Bulolo Forestry College GAB Girth above buttress Gbhob Girth breast height over bark Gubab Girth under bark above buttress GIS Geographic Information Systems ha Hectare IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IFA Institute of Foresters of Australia IFY International Year of the Forest ITTO International Tropical Timber Organization JICA Japanese International Cooperation Agency L of N League of Nations LRRS Land Resource Soils Survey (branch of CSIRO) m3 cubic metre MM Military Medal NAA National Archives Australia NARI National Agriculture Research Institute NB New Britain NFCAP PNG National Forestry and Conservation Action Plan no. Number NG New Guinea NGF New Guinea Forces (relates to plant collection of Lae Herbarium) NGIB New Guinea Infantry Battalion NGO Non Government Organisation NGVR New Guinea Volunteer Rifles NZ New Zealand NSW New South Wales NTSC National Tree Seed Centre PNG Bulolo OISCA Organisation for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement International Japan. P or p page PIB Papuan Infantry Battalion PIR Pacific Islands Regiment PNG Papua New Guinea PNGAA Papua New Guinea Australia Association PNGAF Papua New Guinea Australian Foresters Magazine Series PNGFA Papua New Guinea Forest Authority PNGFIA PNG Forest Industries Association PNGRIS Papua New Guinea Resource Information System PNGUT PNG University of Technology POM Port Moresby Q Queensland QF Queensland Forestry RAE Royal Australian Engineers/Australian Army RPC Royal Papuan Constabulary RRA Rapid Resource Appraisal SFM Sustainable Forest Management SP South Pacific
9 UK United Kingdom UN United Nations Unasylva Journal of FAO of UN UNE University of New England Armidale NSW UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNI University UNITECH University of Technology Lae PNG UNRE University of Natural Resources and Environment UPNG University of Papua New Guinea UQ University of Queensland US United States USA United States of America TPNG Territory of Papua and New Guinea TUBL Territory United Brewery Ltd TA Timber Area TA Timber Authority TRP Timber Rights Purchase Vol volume VSF Victorian School of Forestry WA Western Australia WB World Bank