AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975

AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975

PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 1 October 2020 A Short History of External Interventions into the PNG Forest Sector until 1975

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Editor R B McCarthy1 2020

District Forester TPNG 1963-1975

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TABLE OF CONTENTS PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 1 “FORWOOD”

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BACKGROUND PAPUA NEW GUINEA

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EDITOR BIOGRAPHY

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PNG LANDFORMS

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OVERVIEW

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A SHORT HISTORY OF EXTERNAL INTERVENTIONS INTO THE PNG FOREST SECTOR UNTIL 1975

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Cover Page Front Cover Page of 1955 Brochure Reprint for Cadet Forest Officer in TPNG

by Department Of Territories Commonwealth Government of Australia.

Courtesy Forester Des Harries 2019

PNG Coffee Table with inlay Photo credit R B McCarthy

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“FORWOOD” From 1922 when Lane Poole2 undertook resource investigations across TPNG, to the appointment of Jim McAdam3 in 1938 as Chief Forestry Officer, there was developed after the Second World War, a cadetship scheme “AUSTRALIAN TPNG FORESTRY CADETSHIP SCHEME4 1948 to 1963” by the Australian Department of Territories to train Australian Forest Scientists for TPNG; to ensure there were sufficient professional staff for the purposes of creating a functional Forest Department for TPNG; This PNGAF magazine series describes over several issues, the achievements and stories re those Australian foresters and their team.

By 1975, Australian foresters had undertaken initiatives for the development of: • detailed flora inventories of the various forest systems of PNG • community based forest management interventions including a forest concession system catering for all parties i.e. landowners; government agencies and developers • industrial wood processes for the conversion and treatment of PNG woods during this period coupled with development of a structured wood processing and construction industry.

• silvicultural techniques to grow PNG species in plantation format • technical and tertiary training initiatives The question of how to make the best use of PNG’s forest resources is a complex one and is affected by the laws of the market, supply, demand, and competition, as well as by environmental concerns and even by history.

However, one thing is certain: Globally, and PNG is no exception, wood now tops the list as the material of choice. The enormous headway made by this sustainable raw material is reflected in the versatility of wood. Wood has been rediscovered as a material for use in public and private sector construction projects, as an innovative element in furniture manufacture and in its potential for creating evocative and unusual forms. There is a renaissance towards exquisitely crafted furniture and wooden objects creating a growing interest in woodcraft and furniture design.

PNG’s forest sector today has a focused, dynamic and action orientated agenda, ensuring the appropriate consideration of new and emerging sustainable development challenges. The industry is made up of various sectors including harvesting, sawn timber, plywood manufacture, veneer production, furniture making and forest plantation activities. The wood business trade is based on price and individual consumer demand.

However, we live in a postmodern world where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.

The research work for this activity commenced in February 2018. The aim was to capture an understanding and appreciation of the work and lives of the PNG Department of Forests Australian officers until Independence in 1975.

This PNGAF magazine series has been made possible by the enthusiasm of many people.

R B McCarthy October 2020

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Lane Poole Commonwealth Government Forest Advisor; 1927-45 Inspector General Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, Acting Principal Australian Forestry School 3 Jim McAdam appointment chief forestry officer TPNG 1938 4 The appointments of Australian TPNG Forestry Cadets was summarized in LT Carron’s book in 2000 titled “A brief history of the Australian Forestry School (AFS)

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LOCATION TO AUSTRALIA

MAP 1 1931 Map of the Territory of New Guinea administered by the Commonwealth of Australia under mandate from the League of Nations and Papua, a Territory of the Commonwealth of Australia

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BACKGROUND PAPUA NEW GUINEA Much has been written by many authors re Papua New Guinea re its history and its economy and relevance to Australia and will continue to be written. PNG gained Independence from Australia in 1975.

It is very much the land of the unexpected because it is a land of immense agricultural potential to a land of still untapped mineral wealth within an envelope of rugged terrain and unique cultural and linguistic diversity.

At the end of 2009, the total population was estimated to be 6.5 million. By 2050 it is estimated the population will be 11.2 million. 80 % of the population are subsistence farmers living within tribal or clan communities on traditional lands. Less than 15% of the working population holds a formal job.

The land area is some 462,840 square km of which 97 % is traditionally owned. At no time was PNG completely joined to South East Asia, but it was joined to Australia until some 6000 years ago. As a result, PNG shares many species of plants and animals (including marsupials) with Australia but not with Indonesia. Botanically the Wallace line marks the deep water between Bali and Lombok and Kalimantan and Sulawesi in Indonesia that formed a natural barrier to animals and humans. To reach PNG people had to cross open water on canoes. Several waves of people have arrived in PNG from Asia and this is reflected in the distribution of Austronesia and non-Austronesian languages.

This gives PNG its unique cultural and linguistic diversity with over 800 different languages spoken amongst the various tribes. Because of trade, English is the official language while Melanesian Pidgin English (originally a trade barter language) and Hiri Motu languages are national languages.

PNG CUSTOMARY LANDOWNERS CARE FOR THEIR LANDS AND WATERS • Land rights are sacrosanct • They assert inherited rights and responsibilities over their lands and waters • They do not need to physically live on their lands or waters to do this • They are born to their lands; live for their lands and die for their lands; retire to their lands and desire to be buried on their lands.

If you then take climate change and sea level rising coupled with ongoing volcanic activity (i.e. still making ground) you have a country of a remote and wild character with the central spine of PNG being a high range of mountains with peaks over 4000 metres high. Big rivers flow from the mountains to the sea. The largest being the Fly and Sepik rivers.

Today most of the active volcanoes are in the Pacific Rim of fire on large volcanic islands off the mainland as is the case with New Britain although in 1951 Mt Lamington near Popondetta on the mainland erupted killing many people.

The climate is generally hot, humid, and wet year-round within a “matrix” of a wet and drier season. The exception is Port Moresby which is in a rain shadow with a distinct dry from May to October and wet from December to March.

The two transition months April and November can never make up their mind as to which way to go.

Australia is the largest trading partner followed by Japan then United States; Singapore; China; Great Britain; and New Zealand.

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Rabaul Harbour and airstrip from Matupit Crater 1968 Photo credit Ian Whyte

Rabaul Harbour from Malmaluan Hill 1968 Photo credit Ian Whyte

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Rabaul Volcanic Eruption September 1994 Photo credit R B McCarthy

Rabaul Airport Effect Volcanic Eruption September 1994 Photo credit R B McCarthy

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EDITOR BIOGRAPHY Richard (Dick) McCarthy B Sc (For); M Sc (For Man) Richard (Dick) McCarthy is a highly experienced operational forester with postgraduate qualifications in forest management. His many years of experience (especially PNG – Dept of Forests; PNG Forest Industries Association and Australia as Operations Manager APM Forests - AMCOR) in forest management and plantation development in the public and private forestry sectors, in both temperate and tropical forestry is recognized globally.

He is the Managing Director and Principal Consultant of McCarthy & Associates (Forestry), a global forest consulting and contracting practice.

Editor 2019 photo credit R B McCarthy

Editor 1970 Tiauru Pandi Resource Survey North Coast New Britain photo credit R B McCarthy

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PNG LANDFORMS Papuan coastline looking back towards Owen Stanley Ranges Central Province Photo credit R B McCarthy

Ramu River Flood Plain Madang Province Photo credit R B McCarthy

Gulf of Papua Delta Western Province Photo credit R B McCarthy

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Bulolo Valley Morobe Province Photo credit R B McCarthy

Mountainous Terrain of the Highlands Photo credit R B McCarthy

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Lowland rainforest Cloudy Bay Timber Area Abau Central Province Photo credit R B McCarthy

Typical Eucalypt Savannah near Port Moresby Papuan Region Photo credit R B McCarthy

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OVERVIEW This collation of stories reflects the lives and work by those Australian forestry officers and their families in PNG forestry through to 1975.

It provides an insight into the introduction of forest management practices and tree growing into the privately-owned forests of PNG It is hoped that this series of magazines (as a social history) explains the strange coming together of means, opportunity, and motives of early Australian foresters to enact lasting social changes within the PNG Forest Sector.

Through this knowledge of sharing opportunities, it is hoped that the lessons of the past help current, and future forest sector personnel develop their own perspectives.

The project publication as a magazine series covers three volumes: – Part A Summation – Part B Individual Contributors – Part C Appendices The 1973 publication of the Department of Forests “NEW HORIZONS”5, provides an overview of the Australian foresters’ technical achievements up to that year, but who were those nameless people? This PNGAF magazine series introduces those individuals and their achievements.

In PNG, many people are involved in working with wood. With a growing demand for PNG timbers and the work of its artisans, there was an enormous need to enhance the PNG identity in terms of cultural and artistic creativity (as pertaining to wood) which would enhance the value of timber as a commodity.

During the period up to 1975, there was a need for PNG as an emerging nation to develop its forest sector to assist in creating its own economy utilising its resources (including wood fibre) but at the same time ensuring peoples’ interests were protected. They owned the lands on which the forests grew. This was an enormous task because given the pattern of traditional land ownership, the traditional owners had no direct or community investment in an overarching forest sector institution.

Throughout PNG’s history, there were no long-standing timber structures. This was because the sapwood of all PNG timbers and the heartwood of some PNG timbers are liable to attack by wood destroying fungi, boring insects, and termites. In addition, all untreated timber placed in saltwater is liable to attack by a variety of organisms collectively known as marine borers. There was an enormous need to develop wood preservation methods for PNG timbers.

The early Australian foresters in PNG loved forestry and PNG. Against all odds, these early Australian foresters in PNG demonstrated the ability to not only create a forest sector but the ability to influence landscapes and environment in building the PNG nation.

Jacaranda Press “New Horizons” 1973

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There are many similarities between PNG Forestry and Australian Forestry in terms of • Similar forest types and forest produce.

• Similar forest product markets.

• Similar forest plantation species.

• Similar forest industry standards.

• Similar forestry training curriculum.

• PNG serves as an economic woodshed for the Australian timber trade.

• During the time to 1975, many forest industry investors were Australian.

• Similar timber treatment standards and building codes, (where used) are based on Australian standards.

• There were close linkages between Australian and PNG government and industry organizations.

The implications for Australia and PNG of political, economic and security development in terms of PNG forestry is that there is a long standing and enormous wood trade between Australia and PNG encompassed within a sphere of similar forest types and forest products bound by many existing long term areas of mutual co-operation within the respective government and private sectors.

The business of creating PNG forestry was to build a better PNG and at the same time ensuring PNG’s wood fibre was an increasingly strategic resource for tomorrow.

Globally, wood is grown in three structures; state; industrial forestry companies and landowners. In Papua New Guinea, all wood fibre resources were originally privately owned by individual landowner groups (clan/integrated landowner groups).

The issue facing landowners worldwide is that their wood fibre prices are taken from State level which is nominally negotiated at less than the cost of sustained production.

Much of the work of Australian foresters prior to 1975 was to establish some format by which individual landowner groups could expect reasonable returns for their woods. The involvement of communities in forest management was a cornerstone of Australia’s forest management development in PNG. It has become a significant feature of PNG National Forest Policy and Practice.

National Forestry Agencies are undergoing decentralization, restructuring, and downsizing. Faced with inadequate financial and human resources, governments are increasingly turning to local communities to assist them in protecting and managing State owned forests/plantations. For forestry agencies, greater reliance on resources at local community levels was perceived to be a potential solution to a growing resource problem.

PNG’s experiences in transformation of forest management to a multiple stakeholder, community-based approach has not been easy, even though the forests of PNG are privately owned by traditional communities.

However, a major issue in the implementation of development assistance efforts that adopt a sustainable livelihoods approach, is that to alleviate poverty in the first instance is to provide food and shelter and fuel. This necessitates cutting down forested land to grow crops and to obtain materials for shelter and fuel for heating.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF EXTERNAL INTERVENTIONS INTO THE PNG FOREST SECTOR UNTIL 1975 The first intervention into PNG’s forest sector was early Man who was a hunter and food gatherer. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans arrived on New Guinea perhaps 60,000 years ago. They probably came from Southeast Asia during an Ice Age period when the sea was lower and distances between the islands shorter. Although the first arrivals were hunters and gatherers, early evidence shows that people managed the forest environment to provide food. There are also indications of Neolithic gardening having been practiced at Kuk while agriculture was developing in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The Sunda and Sahul landmasses as about 50,000 to 60,000 years ago when people first came to Sahul6.

The second intervention into PNG’s forested lands occurred some 5-10,000 years ago when new arrivals brought with them the knowledge of gardening and the plants to cultivate, most of which had their origin in the rainforests of South East Asia. They brought basic elements for a subsistence economy: plants like taro, yam, banana, and coconut as well as three domesticated animals – the pig, dog, and chicken. A few native plants suited to cultivation they found in PNG as sago palm, sugar cane, certain types of banana and breadfruit. For thousands of years, these people as the sole inhabitants of PNG, the forests of PNG made a vital contribution to their lives and livelihood. To the hunter, the forests meant birds and animals for food and personal adornment. In the forest clearings people made gardens. From Bourke RM and Harwood T Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea. ANU Press 2009 14

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the forest wood, people shaped their garden implements, carved their spears, bows and arrows, their clubs and other weapons for hunting and war. The forests gave them fuel, bark, and fibre for clothing. It provided timber for shelter and thatching for roofs. The forests gave them their sole means of transport i.e. the canoe log. The people whose technologies included bone, wood, and stone tools, had a productive agricultural system. They traded along the coast (mainly in pottery, shell ornaments and foodstuffs) and in the interior (exchanging forest products for shells and other sea products.)

1887 Lakatoi used for trade between Port Moresby and the Gulf of Papua Based on trade winds

The third intervention came in the 19th century with the arrival of the European. Initially the newcomers had little impact on PNG’s forested land or the role the forests played in the customary life of the people. Lewis7 provides a detailed analysis of land settlement by Europeans and the early vicissitudes of plantation agriculture in British New Guinea and Papua up until the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1942.

Casuarina equisitifolia planted 1917 Port Moresby Photo credit R B McCarthy 2004

Lewis DC The PLANTATION DREAM -Developing British New Guinea and Papua 1884-1942

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The fourth intervention came in the 20th century with World War 2. The demands and devastation caused by the war, the expanded services needed to cater for the immediate development of the community, plus an increased demand for sawn timber in Australia provided the impetus to expand the scope of the forests from its traditional role.

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2/2 Forestry Company in Lae in 1944 Photo credit Australian War Memorial

The fifth intervention came in the 1960’s with the United Nations Sir Hugh Foot Report8 of 1962 and subsequent World Bank Economic Report9 of 1965 setting out the framework for agricultural and forestry development. This included a major assessment of PNG’s forest resources and the need for agricultural development for oil palm clearing large tracts of forested land for the planting of oil palm. The development of this agricultural pursuit also saw PNG enter the global log export trade because the large-scale clearings created an enormous quantity of felled trees, which if not sold were to be burnt.

Overview Bulolo Ply Mill 1954 Photo Credit PNGAA

Sir Hugh Foot UN Visiting Mission Report to Trusteeship Council May -June 1962 and refer to page 36 Refer page 37

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Unloading logs Bulolo Ply Mill 1954 Photo credit PNGAA

The sixth intervention came in 1968 with the House of Assembly announcing a development program for the PNG forest industry (1968-69 to 1972-73) which greatly impacted on the forested lands of PNG. Much of the existing Forest development in PNG today stems from that plan. The major objectives of that plan were to: o Rapidly increase the production of forest products o Increase export earnings and local employment by encouraging local processing of forest products o Improve the supply and quality of forest products for local use o Establish a fully integrated forest industry by the development of industrial complexes working within permanent forest estates o Foster a measure of local equity participation in such industrial undertakings o Increase the levels of training and employment in the industry o Enforce environmental protection standards o Adopt logging code of practice. (In 1996, the PNG logging code of practice was formally adopted by the PNG government) The establishment of the Bulolo Forestry College in 1962 was the commencement of formal technical training for Papua New Guineans. The first Principal was Joe Havel with Bill Finlayson, followed by Leon Clifford; then Robin Angus and later John Godlee. The College was opened by the Minister for Teritories, The Hon. C.E.Barnes MP on the 3rd of August 1965. It was then known as the Papua and New Guinea Forestry School Bulolo.

Joe Havel with students studying botanical specimens at the PNG Forestry College Bulolo Photo credit 1964 Dept. of Forests Port Moresby

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BULOLO FORESTRY COLLEGE

Bulolo Forestry College 1973 Photo credit Murray Day Dept. Of Forests

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ACRONYMS ACT AFS AFPNG ANBG ANGAU ANU APMF APPM ASOPA BFC BGD BUC C cm CALM CFA CNGT CRE CSIRO CHAH DEPT FAO F &TB FPRC Forkol ha IFA m3 MM NAA NB no.

NG NZ NSW PNG PNGAA PNGAF PNGFIA PNGUT POM Q QF RAE UK

Australian Capital Territory Australian Forestry School Association of Foresters of PNG Australian National Botanical Gardens Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit Australian National University Australian Paper Manufacturers Forestry Pty Ltd Australia Paper and Pulp Manufacturers Australian School of Pacific Administration Bulolo Forestry College Bulolo Gold Dredging Company Bulolo University College Commonwealth Centimetre Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management Commonwealth Forestry Association Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers Bulolo Corps of Royal Engineers Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria Department Food and Agriculture Organisation Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra Forest Products Research Centre Hohola Bulolo Forestry College Hectare Institute of Foresters of Australia cubic metre Military Medal National Archives Australia New Britain Number New Guinea New Zealand New South Wales Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Australia Association Papua New Guinea Australian Foresters Magazine Series PNG Forest Industries Association PNG University of Technology Port Moresby Queensland Queensland Forestry Royal Australian Engineers/Australian Army United Kingdom 19

UNE UNI UNITECH UPNG TPNG TA TRP WB

University of New England Armidale NSW University University of Technology Lae PNG University of Papua New Guinea Territory of Papua and New Guinea Timber Area Timber Rights Purchase World Bank

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TEMPL A TE B Y ISSUU

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