AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975
PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9B-5B4W6 of 30th Dec 2023 FOREST MANAGEMENT. Eminent TPNG Forestry Administrator Rex Wiggins TPNG Forests 1958 - 1972. Editor R B McCarthy1 2023
Rex’s last trip was with Kevin and Elliot Tuckwell to South-East Asia and PNG. It was something of a full circle for Rex, revisiting where he had had some of his most enjoyable lifetime experiences. (around 2008) Photo credit Mark Wiggins.
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Dick McCarthy District Forester TPNG Forests 1963-1975.
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- clerk
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PNG FORESTRY DAYS NAME D.O.B. Joined Forestry PNG Occupation
Work Localities
Departure PNG LIFE AFTER PNG
Rex Wiggins 1936 July 1958 Accounts Clerk Regional Clerk Accountant Executive Officer Port Moresby, Bulolo/Wau, Lae Regional/Sawmill/Botanic Gardens Rabaul Regional/Keravat Port Moresby In 1971/72 Rex moved to Dept of Finance Port Moresby. April 1976 Retirement. His wide range of postings have brought him into contact with most staff up until his move to Finance
2 Source. Cartoonist Bob Brown South Pacific post Port Moresby.
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Offices of Rex Wiggins #1 KUSKUS (chief clerk).
Bulolo Forestry Office 1965. Photo credit Ian Smith (his father John Smith’s collection).
Head Quarters Department of Forests Konedobu 1965. Photo credit Cliff Southwell.
Sori Rex, the new buildings of 1972 not for you. Rex outside the new NFS offices in Port Moresby in the early 2000’s. Photo credit Mark Wiggins.
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Rex’s story in PNG parallels in many instances Kevin White’s story which Rex described vividly in his eulogy re Kevin.3 Rex and Kevin White’s paths first crossed back in 1958 when he made a trip from Bulolo in PNG to take in the bright lights of Lae for the first time. A group of forestry personnel gathered at the Lae Club and amongst these were Kevin who was, at the time, in charge of the Lae Botanical Gardens. Rex was single at the time, and it was much easier for the Department of Forests to move singles around than married couples. It was not long before he found himself transferred to Lae where Rex met his wife to be, Anne. Anne Wiggins4 was born in Wau in 1940 and spent all her early life there. After completing her education at Stuartholme, Brisbane, she joined the Education Department in PNG and was very involved in the education of pre-school teachers in Rabaul where she started the first Kindergarten of the Air. Later, in Port Moresby, she oversaw pre-school teaching throughout the Territory.
Ann and Rex Wiggins in PNG. Photo credit Mark Wiggins. Kevin had moved back to Headquarters in Port Moresby but was a regular visitor to all the outstations in his official capacity as Chief of Division Silviculture, so they got together on many occasions in Lae and later when Rex and Anne moved to Rabaul.
3 Personal communication Rex Wiggins 10 April 2019. 4 Source PNGAA 1966
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Following Rex’s permanent relocation to Port Moresby some years after, Kevin visited their home often. They reciprocated having meals at his, and a close bond developed which lasted more than fifty years. Rex recalled seeing the array of food warming receptacles brimming with curries and seafood and his houseboi Glass hovering round as they sat at Kevin’s teak dining table – they were great times. Following Independence in 1975, Kevin took a position with United Nations FAO and carried out work for a period in Bangladesh advising on plantation management. On completion of this project, he moved to Nepal and commenced work on a plant nursery at Sagarnath in the Terai, establishing eucalypt plantations that proved very successful. Rex and Anne visited Kevin in Nepal where Kevin had a great delight in showing them the use of his thinnings from the plantations for electric light poles in various towns and villages. Rex, Anne, and their two boys arrived in Brisbane in late 1978, having spent two years travelling Europe in a campervan. Back in Australia, Rex continued to assist in managing the financial affairs of many ex-PNG colleagues while Anne took on positions teaching English as a Second Language to migrants and refugees. Rex and Anne sponsored several migrants, particularly from Vietnam, to be reunited with family in Australia. Many of these migrants were young and referred to Rex and Anne as ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad.’ After Rex’s wife Ann passed away in 1996, it was Kevin who suggested that Rex visit him in Thailand with the view of them undertaking some travel into some of the more remote areas of S.E. Asia. It eventuated that, over the past 15 years, there was usually a trip each year somewhere off the tourist track, usually involving very basic transport and accommodation. Rex would do the organising, while Kevin would give a running commentary of the flora as they motored up the Mekong in Laos or highlight orchid trees in Sabah.
Rex Wiggins with Elliot Tuckwell in Thailand. (2008) Photo credit Mark Wiggins.
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Sequel 2023 Son Mark Wiggins advised the PNG Mob that Rex had passed away in late November 2023. PNG Mob’s Queensland Correspondent Ken Granger attended the memorial service at Buderim. Ken attended the service in memory of our old colleague Rex Wiggins held at Buderim on the Sunshine Coast on 4 December. It was a simple service with a focus on family and memories. Rex’s two sons Mark and Simon spoke of their father and their growing up with Rex and Ann. They had little memory of PNG times but were very aware of the father’s love for the place and his time with Forestry. They made special mention of Rex’s travels in South-East Asia with Kev White after Ann had passed away in 1996. They also spoke of his close mateship with Kev and his arranging for Kev, in his last stages of dementia, to come to Brisbane where Rex arranged his palliative care and ultimately his funeral. Two years ago, Rex moved to the flat near Maroochydore, that he and Ann had owned for many years, following a diagnosis of bowel cancer. Fittingly, as the service ended and they moved outside the chapel, the skies opened in a Rabaul wet season-type deluge.
Rex is survived by his two sons, Mark, and Simon and their families (pictured).
. Photo credit Mark Wiggins.
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