1902 to 1928 Sacred Heart Mission Sawmilling NB

1902 to 1928. SACRED HEART MISSION NEW BRITAIN15 Toriu River to Kurindal NB16

The first Catholic missionaries from the French Most Sacred Heart of Jesus order, arrived at Matupit Island in Simpsonhafen in September 1882 and established a mission station at Vunapope near Herbertshoehe (Kokopo) in 1889. They actively sought commercial ventures establishing plantations, sawmilling, and investigated starting a brewery. They dominated the sawmilling industry in the Islands region for the next seventy years. Saw milling operations by the Sacred Heart Mission began on the Gazelle Peninsular in 1902 at Toriu River and then in 1917 moved to Kurindal and finally to Ulamona in 1928. Source Mandated Territory of New Guinea Annual Report 1921 1922 p 69 – 70. Their Toriu River Sawmill with a 700 mm gauge timber logging railway timber sawn was operational by 1902. It supplied sawn timber for their base at Vunapope near Kokopo.

Sacred Heart Catholic Mission (Vunapope) sawmill at Toriu River 1906 to 1913.

Source Michael Pearson.

15 End of the Line - A History of Railways in Papua New Guinea Bob McKillop & Michael Pearson UPNG Press 1997. 16 Reference PNGAF Mag #2 of 7/10/21 p2.

Mission labourers hauling a record Eucalyptus deglupta log on the Toriu River logging railway around 1910 with German missionaries supervising. Source PNG National Library photo 314 Historishes Bildmaterial our dem Archives des staatlichen Museums fur Volkerkunda Dresden.

Source. Der Transport zum Sagewerk; Das grobe Gatter; Arbeiter im Sagewerk; Das Sagewerk am Toriu.

View of the Toriu River Sawmill around 19021917. Source Michael Pearson PNG National Library photo 313. Source: Pioniere der Sudsee - Werden und Wachsen der Herz = Jesu Mission von Rabaul zum Goldenen Jubilaum 1882 1932. p117, 118, 132 & 177.

In 1917 the mill moved to Kurindal a few miles north. There was a small saw milling area of Nambung Saw Milling Company owned by Bolten Bros near Massava. Source: Mandated Territory of New Guinea Annual Report 1923 - 1924 p 80. In 1928, the application for a timber lease by the Catholic Mission of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus for 2010 hectares at Ulamona was successful. They closed their mill at Kurindal and established a new mill at Ulamona.