PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9A OF 15th March 2021

AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1900-1975

PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9A of 15th March 2021 BACKGROUND TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR PNG

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Editor R B McCarthy5 2021

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1908 Annual report for Papua

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1908 Gilbert Burnett Timber Trees of the Territory of Papua Reports and catalogue 1925 C E Lane Poole Report on Forest Resources of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea Government 4 1953-1954 Annual Report to United Nation on Territory of New Guinea 5 District Forester TPNG 1963-1975 3

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TABLE OF CONTENTS “FORWOOD”

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Need to Address Market Demands for Forest Products Need to Protect Traditional Owners’ Rights.

Early Times – traditional owners Need to Correctly Identify Flora of PNG Forests.

Post-1900 Gilbert Burnett 1908 Need to Ascertain Timber Properties of Individual PNG Timber Species James Mann 1911 Need for Timber Preservation Treatment 1919 Need for Correct Institutional Framework for Forest Management 1908 Papuan timber ordinance, Timber Licenses 1918-1919 Need to Include Participation by Local People in Forest Management Need to Assess PNG’s Forest Resources.

1920/21 the Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition An Attempt to Assess PNG’s Forest Resources.

Charles Lane Poole and PNG 1921-35 An Attempt at Institutional Strengthening 1936 Timber Ordinace An Attempt at Forest Administration 1937 Establish Forest Administration.

Jim McAdam 1938-1959 Impact of World War 2 1942-1945 July 1943 Conference re Utilisation of the Forest Resources of TPNG May 1994 situation Need for Training and Development of Forest Industry Personnel Need for Research and Development of Forest Resources

page 6 Page 12 page 12 Page 16 page 16 page 17 page 20 page 20 page 22 page 26 page 27 page 30 Page 31 page 31 Page 37 page 37 page 44 page 45 page 46 Page 46 page 46 page 48 page 49 page 50 page 52 page 54

Summation of Development of Forest Management Systems to 1959 Jim McAdam MM 1952 Presidential address to PNG Scientific Society Summation of Development of Forest Management Systems to 1970 Bill Suttie Managing Director PNG Forest Service 1959-1970 Summation of Development of Forest Management Systems to 1975 Don McIntosh Managing Director 1970-1975 Kevin White Assistant Director till 1977

page 55 page 55 page 58 page 59 page 61 page 61 page 61

Contributors Timeline Gilbert Burnett 1908 Charles Edward Lane Poole 1921-1935 James Mann 1911 Jim McAdam 1938-1959 Don McIntosh 1970-1975 Bill Suttie 1959-1970 Kevin White 1970-1977 Acronyms

page 63 page 64 page 67 page 88 page 89 page 90 page 91 page 92 page 98

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“FORWOOD” PNGAF Mag # 9A traces the background to the development of forest management systems for PNG until 1975 including the need: • to address market demands for forest products; • to protect traditional owners’ rights; • to correctly identify flora of PNG forests; • to ascertain timber properties of individual PNG timber species; • for timber preservation treatment; • for correct institutional framework for forest management; • to include participation by local people in forest management; • to assess PNG’s forest resources; • for training and development of forest industry personnel; • for research and development of forest resources.

PNGAF Mag # 9A traces attempts: • to assess PNG’s forest resources; • at institutional strengthening; • at forest administration.

PNGAF Mag # 9A concludes with a summation of the three phases of development of forest management systems to 1959, 1970, and 1975.

By 1975, Forest Management in PNG was defined as a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, protection, and forest regulation of the forest estate. This included management for multiple use of forest resources as timber production, wood products, communities, recreation, water, wildlife, plant genetic resources, fire, and other forest resource values.

The question of how to make the best use of PNG’s forest resources has been and still is a complex issue. It is affected by the laws of the market, supply, demand, and competition, as well as by environmental concerns and even by history intertwined with traditional owners practices of subsistence agricultural systems using forest regeneration fallow methods.

Always 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.

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 3

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.

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.

At the same time, given the enormous demand for fuelwood throughout PNG, major forest extension programs were initiated and undertaken by Australian foresters to ensure fuelwood production, especially in areas of sparse tree cover.

Globally, wood is grown in three structures; State; industrial forestry companies and landowners. In Papua New Guinea, all wood fibre resources were privately owned by traditional owners. The issue facing landowners worldwide is that their wood fibre prices are taken from State forest revenue systems which are 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. Australian foresters had to ensure that any forest management systems developed, must have an ecological basis of rainforest management, within a sphere of multiple use of forest resources, encompassing subsistence agricultural methods.

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The Forests of Papua New Guinea are not owned by the government but by the clans and tribes, as in most of the countries of the Pacific.

In 1974 a mere 89 000 ha were State owned and even this was contested by the people.

The government must negotiate with the clans and tribes for the use of the forest resources. Many of the traditional ownership groups however are very reluctant to sell forest land even if it is not required by them for development. They usually are only prepared to sell the timber rights for a specific period up to 25 years.

Vol 8 # 3 of 1954

At the end of 1976, under the Forest Act 1936, government had purchased the timber rights of 2 226 000 ha. Often this purchase is quite complex.

For example, over an area of 63 000 ha in the Gogol and Ramu valley near Madang there are as many as 250 district land owning groups with 8 different languages among a population of only 2 300 people. With all owner groups an agreement must be reached before industrial development can start.

In the Land Groups Act of 1974 there is a provision to recognize clans as cooperatives and the “Land Dispute Settlement Act” provides for disputes over land, boundaries etc.

Under the Forestry Act of 1971 timber owners can directly deal with the logging company after the minister in charge of forestry matters declares the area as a “Local Forest Area”. Under Forest Act 1937 landowners may sell small quantities of timber up to approximately 50 m3. Some cutting is allowed on freehold property.

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Unasylva FAO 1981

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NEED TO ADDRESS MARKET DEMANDS FOR FOREST PRODUCTS ANNUAL LOG HARVEST7 Year Conifer Non M3 conifer M3 1951-52 17347 29894 1952-53 23065 28369 1953-54 35338 40548 1954-55 61015 55891 1955-56 59915 72838 1956-57 52653 69712 1957-58 48131 74111 1958-59 43721 77553 1959-60 42756 86086 1960-61 45634 109353 1961-62 46892 113018 1962-63 39541 143466 1963-64 50633 172585 1964-65 51647 205568 1965-66 54647 269471 1966-67 65431 306449 1967-68 73061 348020 1968-69 71052 332452 1969-70 70936 443573 1970-71 75149 655767 1971-72 75546 794114 1972-73 48323 650196 1973-74 66222 916780 1974-75 74629 729193 TOTAL 1293073 6725007

ANNUAL EXPORT STATISTICS Logs Sawn Ply Veneer Woodchip ‘000 ‘000 ‘000 ‘000 ‘000 m3 m3 m3 m3 Dry tonne 47241 4.6 2.5 51434 2.7 2.1 75886 1.9 3.3 0.96 116906 6.0 6.6 9.26 0.5 132753 6.4 9.3 9.56 0.1 122365 6.1 7.3 10.73 122242 2.4 7.2 11.85 0.1 121274 2.1 8.8 11.4 0.9 128842 3.5 11.6 13.64 1.0 154987 3.4 8.2 9.78 0.7 159910 4.8 6.6 11.79 0.8 183007 35.4 9.0 7.67 0.8 223218 46.4 11.0 9.26 0.7 257004 35.3 12.5 3.74 0.7 324118 113.6 12.4 7.67 0.9 371880 113.6 12.6 9.34 1.2 421081 143.6 14.2 10.69 2.2 403504 102.3 17.3 10.45 2.9 514509 193.3 17.3 11.94 2.0 730916 429.6 13.7 11.78 3.1 869660 409.1 24.9 9.09 2.9 698519 424.7 30.4 13.04 3.3 983002 655.2 51.6 15.71 5.0 7.2 803822 383.3 31 12.4 3.5 51.2 8018080 3129.3 331.4 221.75 32.7 58.4 Total M3

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During the early development of a country, it is not financially practicable to establish a series of properly integrated forest industries or special industries that can utilize all available products of a forest. Planning must be on a practical business basis and the initial start must be made with industries that are both technically easy to establish and sufficiently profitable to amortize the capital investment. It is a question, above all, of markets, although even the initial industries should be designed with a view to their ultimately fitting into a pattern of fully integrated use of the forest as markets and finance permit.

OPPORTUNISTS / ENTREPENEURS- Cedar, Sandalwood and New Guinea Walnut9 In the period from European contact and settlement in the late nineteenth century, to the outbreak of World War 2 in the Pacific, the timber industry was concerned mainly with speculative exploitation of cedar, sandalwood from around Port Moresby, and New Guinea 7

Dept of Forests PNG Annual Report 1974-75

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UNASYLVA Vol 8 # 3 of 1954

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J B McAdam 1952:” Forestry in New Guinea” Paper to Papua & New Guinea Scientific Society’s Annual Report 6

walnut from New Britain and New Ireland. The utilisation of the forests was mostly incidental to other activities like gold mining. Only ten sawmills at the outbreak of World War 2 were in operation - three in Papua and seven in New Guinea. They were primarily concerned with supplying local mission /company needs with any surplus being sold for use in small private and public building programs.

WORLD WAR 2 - Sawn Timber and Round timbers The great demand for sawn timber developed during the war years. The Allied Forces 10 decided to produce as much as possible of these requirements themselves within the islands. ANGAU and other units including the three military Australian Forestry Companies who had been serving in England, established sawmills in PNG. By the end of the war, approximately 190 thousand cubic metres of sawn timber had been produced. In addition, the forests had yielded a considerable quantity of round timber for encampments, corduroy, bridge timbers, telephone posts, piles, firewood, and many other needs of a vast army.

2/2 Forestry Company in Lae in 1944 Photo credit Australian War Memorial WAR EFFORT REBUILDING – Sawn Timber The cessation of hostilities in 1945 found that all the towns, with exception of Port Moresby, in ruins. Salamaua, Lae, Rabaul, and Madang were destroyed. Given the demand for timber in Australia and the scarcity of shipping space, it was necessary that the bulk of timber required for reconstruction be produced locally.

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Part A Page 38

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The provisional administration through the Department of Forests established and operated sawmills using war surplus equipment and staffed largely by personnel recruited from the wartime Army Forestry Units.11 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PNG- Sawn Timber/Plywood Manufacture By 1952, the local sawmilling industry had reached the stage where it was able to meet the local demand. Mill output had reached 24,000 cubic metres per annum.

In 1952, 4.5 thousand cubic metres and 2.4 thousand cubic metres of sawn timber were exported. Export earnings were some A$257,692 in 1952.

In January 1954, the establishment of a plywood mill at Bulolo by CNGT (Partners were the Australian Government and Bulolo Gold Dredging Company) costing some $A3 million dollars commenced production. Output rose from 2.14 million square metres on a 5 mm basis in the first year to 3.34 million square metres valued at some A$2.9 million in 1969-70.

Unloading Logs Bulolo Ply Mill Photo credit PNGAA

Overview of Bulolo Ply mill 1954 Photo credit PNGAA

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PNG – Potential of Wood Fibre The potential of tropical hardwoods as a source of raw material for cellulose fibre has been recognised for many years. Commercial utilisation has been low in development especially for

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J B McAdam 1952:” Forestry in New Guinea” Paper to Papua & New Guinea Scientific Society’s Annual Report

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the technical problems involved with pulping such a mixture of tropical woods given the range of diverse properties which is characteristic of the tropical hardwood forest.

Cutch in PNG, efforts to evaluate this type of forest resource for pulp and paper manufacture commenced in 1949. The impetus at this time was given by the commencement of a tannin extracting industry based on the mangrove forests of the Gulf of Papua, which threatened to leave to waste vast quantities of timber following commercial stripping of the bark.

The bark extract, which is called cutch, and is used to dye materials khaki and to preserve fishing nets. The bark extract, then made from a type of wattle in India, was used to colour British military uniforms khaki last century after the War Office had decided that the resplendent redcoats were too easily spotted by the enemy.

Cutch Factory, Aird Hills, Papuan Gulf. The steamer 'Narani' was used to transport processed cutch to Port Moresby in the early 1950s. Photo credit National Library of Australia Perome is a small village near Aird Hills on the Delta of the Kikori River. Most of the Delta area is a flood plain largely supporting Sago Palm. Aird Hills is relatively close to the Gulf of Papua and deep-water access to the volcanic hills. It is these conditions that allow mangroves to develop and provided a resource for a cutch factory to be established.

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Pulp and Paper The impetus to a more intensive evaluation of the pulping potential of mixed tropical hardwood species from PNG was given by the demand from the pulp and paper industry of Japan for raw material from throughout the Asia Pacific region. The technique of bulk transport of wood chips developed in conjunction with growth of this demand. The potential size of the industry was of national significance.

JANT Project Madang Gogol Woodchip Project near Madang

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Davidson J 1983 Forestry in Papua New Guinea. A case study of the Gogol Woodchip Project near Madang. 19138 in Hamilton L S (ed) Forest and Watershed Development and Conservation in Asia and the Pacific: Westview Press Boulder Colorado 560 pp.

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Case Study - Pulp and Paper -Vanimo Timber Area Project.

The PNG Administration initiated a project designed to evaluate the pulping and papermaking potential of mixed tropical hardwoods in the Vanimo Timber area in detail. The intended outcome of this work is that it would then identify other timber resource areas in PNG as a source of wood chips.

To determine the quality and potential market quality of the PNG forests for pulping potential, the Department of Forests through its Forest Products Research Centre Hohola engaged CSIRO Forest Products Laboratory13 to undertake that work.

Vanimo Township 1990’s Photo credit Evan Shields

Vanimo Timber Area A productive forest area of some 207,000 hectares making allowance for village reserves, stream reserves, inaccessible areas, and areas for preservation of significant natural features.

The Timber Rights to the Vanimo Timber Area were purchased in 1967.

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CSIRO Division of Chemical Technology Technical Paper # 1 1975 “The Pulping and Papermaking Potential of Tropical Hardwoods 1 Phillips F H and Harries E D

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NEED TO PROTECT TRADITIONAL OWNERS RIGHTS

EARLY TIMES The early inhabitants of Papua New Guinea were hunters and food gathers. It was not until about 5000 years ago that new arrivals brought with them the knowledge of gardening and the plants to cultivate, most of which had their origin in the forests 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, the dog, and chicken. A few native plants suited to cultivation they found in PNG already as the sago palm, sugar cane, certain types of banana and breadfruit.

Establishing their subsistence economy, the people settled along coastal strips, on densely wooded islands, on jungle clad ranges and in the great rainforests of the hinterland. Living in such isolation from one another, they developed distinct customs, traditions and over 700 languages and dialects. For unknown centuries, these early inhabitants split in groups and clans and living in remote hamlets and villages, were completely lost to the rest of the World.

Yet, varied as they were in tribes, clans, customs, and languages, they shared in one common invaluable friend – the natural forest of the land. Despite the centuries of subsistence gardening, over 70 % of PNG’s land mass is still covered by forest.

To the early inhabitants PNG’s forests made a vast contribution to their lives and livelihood. To the hunter, the forests meant birds and animals for food and for personal adornment, fur, and plumage more brilliant than the rest of the world had seen. In the forest clearings the people made gardens. From the forest wood, they shaped their primitive garden tools, carved their spears, bows and arrows, their clubs and other weapons for the hunt and war. The forest gave them fuel, bark, and fibres for clothing. It provided timber for dwelling, thatching for roofs, plaiting for walls.

From the smallest yam storage house to the great Haus Tambaran 30 metre long and 15 metres high, their skills were practical and often highly developed.

Haus Tambaran or spirit house. Photo credit J K McCarthy Patrol into Yesterday 1963.

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Photo credit Crawford House Press ISBN 1863330364 Coastal dwellers looked to the forests for materials to fashion their canoes, fishing nets and traps, for the fibre to bind their great multiple log sea craft and even caulking for their craft came from the fruit of a jungle tree. In the whole of the land, the canoe log was the basis of their sole means of transport, for these people used neither wheel nor beast of burden.

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Early people realised the importance of forests for their source of their livlihoods and they have acted both to protect them and to promote the growth of useful trees. PNG Forests have been managed sustainably for thousands of years.

Photo credit Crawford House Press ISBN 1863330364 14

Photo Credit Mary Jenkin Gogol Rest House under construction 1963

Photo Credit Mary Jenkin Vanimo 1962 Launching sea canoe.

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NEED TO CORRECTLY IDENTIFY FLORA OF PNG FORESTS Post-1900 The nineteenth century brought far-reaching and permanent change with the arrival of the Europeans and a slow but inevitable mutual awakening of PNG to the rest of the World.

Initially, the newcomers had little impact on the role of the forest in the customary life of the people.

McAdam14 reported that with the arrival of the white man, it was found there was a scattering of valuable trees which were attractive to buyers elsewhere. Some attempts were made to float out easily accessible logs of species such as cedar.

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PAPER BY J B McAdam Papua and New Guinea Scientific Society’s annual report of 1952 “Forestry in New Guinea” 15

Page 1 nia.obj-15829293502 National Library of Australia

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On Page 51 of the Annual Report Gulf Division 1/7/1908, the Resident Magistrate Kerema, reports on lands and timbers including the illegal cutting of cedar and Gilbert Burnett’s visit.

Extract from Page 51 of the Annual Report Gulf Division 1/7/1908, the Resident Magistrate Kerema reports re lands and timbers.

Very little land is situated near the Coast. What there is, is fully occupied by the natives with their gardens. Beyond that and behind that extends a sago belt the whole length of the coastline.

During the year, a trip was made up the Vailala River with Mr Burnett, who had come over from Queensland for this government specifically to look into the timbers.

It is much to be regretted that in the past many thousands of feet of valuable cedar had been cut and allowed to float out to sea. The result is that the Vailala River has now no cedar of any extent within a considerable distance of its mouth.

I fancy the main difficulty will be in transporting the logs from where they are cut to the river and a light line of rails laid on sleepers made of the saplings with which the scrubs are full, might be of value.

From what one hears from the natives, it would appear that the heavier timber will be found on the Purari River. There is a considerable quantity of cedar up this river, and as it has never been touched, is likely to be more easily got at.

I have cut cedar trees close to Kerema, growing almost in the company of mangroves and with total streams quite close to them.

Gilbert Burnett 1908 The Australian administrators of Papua and New Guinea first attempted to survey the timber potential of parts of Papua in 1908. By arrangement with the Queensland Government, a Queensland Forest Inspector Mr Gilbert Burnett went to Papua to report on its timber resources.

He stayed there for seven months and visited various places along the coast from the Purari Delta to Samarai and in the vicinity of Buna Bay to the north- east. Mr Burnet16 reported he had some difficulty in penetrating into the country, but he produced a report of an optimistic nature and a list of about 120 species, mostly indicated by their native names.

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1908 Gilbert Burnett Timber Trees of the Territory of Papua Reports and catalogue 17

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NEED TO ASCERTAIN TIMBER PROPERTIES OF INDIVIDUAL PNG TIMBER SPECIES James Mann 1911 In 1911, James Mann17 (1857-1921), presented a paper of his work on six Papuan timber species titled 18Papuan timbers - some of the properties of six specimens, by James Mann, 1911.

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James Mann was a leading researcher and authority on determining the strength and durability of Australasian timbers, and pioneered methods for identifying species using microscopic examination, and splinter tests. Mann was Government research scholar at the School of Engineering, University of Melbourne, 1910-1912, and oversaw the Engineering Laboratory, for 20 years when Professor W. C. Kernot occupied the chair of engineering.

James Mann wrote several papers in conjunction with the Victorian Institute of Engineers, the Royal Society of Victoria, and other technical bodies, and was consulted by the Victorian Forests Department after it was formed in 1908.

He published a textbook Australian Timber: its strength, durability, and identification, 1900. An extended second edition was published in 1921, that included more detailed research based on test samples with known age, forest location, and soil conditions, as well as including details about imported timber species from Papua, Burma, New Guinea, and New Zealand.

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Entry in Encyclopedia of Australian Science https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/itemdetails/33805 Vol 24 of 1912 pages 20-45 19 Hawkins BT & Ryan A 1975 Light timber framing for Papua New Guinea CSIRO Division of Building Research 20 Bolza E & Kloot N H 1976 The Mechanical Properties of 81 New Guinea Timbers CSIRO Building Research 18

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NEED FOR TIMBER PRESERVATION TREATMENT 1919 As noted earlier, 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.

Back in 1920, the problems of a lack of timber preservation treatment were highlighted in the 1918-19 PAPUA Annual Report.

In an extract of W R Smith’s Acting Director of Public Works, Public Works Department. Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 1919 (pages 67 to 70), the problems of the lack of timber preservation treatment are described.

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PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT. ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH June 1919. Pages 67 to 70 The staff consisted of the Acting Director, Superintendent, Road Engineer, Draughtsman, Acting Accountant, and a temporary Clerk for part of the year, together with a storeman and two or three overseers for varying periods. The Superintendent--Mr. J. MacDonald-returned from vacation leave on the 21st of October 1918. Mr. G. M. Turnbull draughtsman, acted in Mr. MacDonald’s place during the latter's absence, and Mr. Turnbull went on six months' leave on the 23rd of August 1918, returning on 4th March 1919.

With regard to the office staff, I have had to be content with an acting accountant, who had no assistance during the greater part of the year, the result being that much of the work got seriously behind and any attempt at keeping correct records and costs of work had to be almost abandoned. I also had to manage with a shortage in the mechanical staff, both these difficulties being due to the reluctance of the Government to fill positions which might at any day be made available to officers returning from the Front. When all the returned men who can reasonably claim positions have been absorbed, it will still remain necessary to find more men for the mechanical staff, as a large amount of maintenance work, which in normal times would be regarded as absolutely essential, has been permitted to stand over, partly owing to the shortage of men, but mainly due to the high cost of materials and the scarcity of shipping.

However, the new position will have to be faced, as the general opinion throughout the world appears to be that the tendency during the next few years will be for the cost of both material and labour to increase. For the reasons already stated, the majority of our buildings are falling into a dangerous state of disrepair, so much so that if they are not attended to very soon, they will not be worth repairing. These remarks apply to the buildings at Moresby and Samarai, but much more so to those on outstations, where, in addition to the shortage of labour and the high cost of materials, I have had to contend with the very serious shortage of local shipping, with the result that an inspecting officer would be occupied for months in going the rounds of all the stations to ascertain what is required.

Owing to the very high cost of Australian timbers, and the increased freights charged by the small amount of shipping available, I have endeavoured to get along with timbers supplied by the local sawmills, but the results are very far from satisfactory. The timbers being cut from immature logs and badly milled as well, the result being that a perfectly straight stick is quite an exception, thus involving considerably more labour in the construction of a building than would be necessary when using properly milled timber. I am, therefore, going into the question as to whether it would not pay better to obtain Australian timbers, even at the enhanced prices prevailing.

This all leads to the question as to whether it is any longer the best policy to erect wooden buildings, which are all open to the dangers of being attacked by white ants, wood-borers, dry rot, and all the other disabilities to which timber is subject in the tropics.

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I am seriously considering the question of erecting all future permanent buildings with concrete walls.

At the present time, Government offices are scattered all over the town. They are all timber structures, some of them having been erected more than twenty years ago and are now quite inadequate in size to provide for the increasing staff. A proposal to construct one building to contain the whole of the Administrative staff has been discussed, and should this idea be carried out, it would become a great convenience to both the public and the Government staff. At present, much time is lost in getting from one Department to another.

New Wharf -As mentioned in my previous annual report, work was suspended in November 1917, pending arrangements being made to obtain expert advice from Australia as to whether the work was being carried out on the best lines. A report was obtained from Mr. Mann on the preservation of timbers in tropical sea waters, and Mr. Hall, of Brisbane, also visited Port Moresby, and made an inspection and report. Subsequently it was arranged that before proceeding further with the work, the advice of Mr. T. Hill, of the Commonwealth Works and Railways Department, should be obtained, but Mr. Hill was apparently never able to visit the Territory, and therefore nothing has been done with the exception of fixing some bollards and fenders. Arrangements are in hand for the erection of a cargo shed, 140 feet by 30 feet, on the shore end of the wharf, and this work will be put in hand immediately, thus very much relieving the congestion which has recently existed.

Complaints have been received for a long time from residents at Samarai regarding the inadequacy of wharf and shed accommodation at that port, and as the existing wharf is getting into a state which is almost beyond repair, the question is under consideration as .to whether funds should be made available to grant the facilities demanded.

The question of better hospital accommodation for natives, both at Samarai and Port Moresby, has been much discussed, and preliminary schemes have been worked out, but the matter is now .in abeyance pending the return of Dr. Buchanan, C.M.O. and Dr. Giblin, G.M.O., Samarai, from active service.

About 3 acres of land have been reclaimed from low-lying ground at Samarai, ·and arrangements are now in hand to segregate the gaol accommodation, police barracks and native hospitals on this area. The main gaol, head gaoler's cottage, warders' quarters, kitchen, and latrines have already been erected.

With regard to the road from Port Moresby to Sapphire Creek, a large copper mine is in course of development at the end of this, and the company is using heavy traction -engines, weighing up to 13 tons, for the transport of their ore to Port Moresby. As it was recognised, both by the Government and the company, that this could only be regarded as extraordinary traffic, an arrangement was come to under which the company undertook to maintain the road during those months of the dry season when they are using it. The company has put in several deviations to reduce curvature and grades, which was done entirely for their own convenience, but is certainly an advantage to the public. I regard the result of the arrangement as entirely satisfactory from both the Government and the public point of view.

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Arrangements were made to construct a road from the coast at Kapa-Kapa to the KempWelch River, a distance of about 17 miles, to serve some plantations there. About half of this length has been constructed sufficiently well to carry wheeled traffic in the dry season, but a large expenditure in metalling, bridges and culverts will be necessary, to make the road fit to carry wheeled traffic throughout the year. I do not consider that the traffic at present in sight justifies this expenditure.

On the high country in the Sogeri District there is some excellent rubber land, where several thousand acres are in bearing, and difficulties of transport are generally recognised as a serious handicap. The Government has recognised for a long time that these difficulties should be remedied, but the mountainous nature of country offers many obstacles to road construction. I have always advised that thorough survey should be made to ensure the best location before any money is expended on construction. This, of course, takes time, but the surveys have now been completed, and I am convinced that the route now pegged is in the correct place though it is not all easy going. A start is to be made immediately on the construction of a good mule track along this route, which can eventually be improved to carry vehicular traffic. Even this, although only a mule track, will be a great boon to the planters, as the existing track contains many almost impossible grades.

The water supply of Port Moresby is provided by a corrugated iron catchment, about twothirds of an acre in extent and a reservoir capable of holding 500,000 gallons of water. The water is distributed through the town by a 4-inch 'main, with standpipes 300 or 400 feet apart. The Department delivers water into tanks at the various tenements at a charge of l0s. per 1,000 gallons. With this very limited supply we could not dare to reticulate each household, as we would very soon find ourselves without water even with all the care exercised, we are sometimes on the verge of finding the reservoir entirely exhausted, and it is probable that eventually some better arrangement will have to be made. At a distance of about 20 miles from Port Moresby we have the Rouna Falls, on the Laloki River, at an elevation of some 1 400 feet above sea level, with a flow which would be sufficient to provide a water supply for a city with a of many thousands. It is my intention to go into this question in the near future and submit a proposition and estimate of cost.

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NEED FOR CORRECT INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR FOREST MANAGEMENT

Early attempts to institute forest management legal frameworks are highlighted in the Papua Annual Report of 1908.

Timber Ordinance of 1907 Annual Report Papua 1908 page 5.

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Annual Report Papua 1908 Page 6

Annual Report Papua 1908 Page 8 Timber Licences

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Timber Licenses 1918-1919 Papua Page 72

Annual Report to the UN re the Administration of New Guinea 1/7/1933 to 30/6/1934 p 96

Annual Report to the UN re the Administration of New Guinea 1/7/1933 to 30/6/1934 p 62

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Annual Report to the UN re New Guinea 1/7/1953 to 30/6/1954 page 57/58 Reports that the forest law of the Territory is embodied in the Forestry Ordinance 1936-1951 and Regulations thereunder. It provides for the protection of forests and forest produce, afforestation, establishment of timber reserves, acquisition of land and timber rights, the issue of timber permits and licences, control of exports and the collection of fees and royalties. Control in regard to forestry diseases and pests is provided for under quarantine legislation.

Photos from Annual Report to the UN re New Guinea 1/7/1933 to 30/6/1934 29

NEED TO INCLUDE PARTICIPATION BY LOCAL PEOPLE IN FOREST MANAGEMENT The aim of development has always been to reduce poverty. In its earliest forms, the emphasis was on overall economic growth. Later there was increasing focus on distributional impacts and improving the welfare of the poorer. More recently, focus on meeting basic needs, then on food security and later livelihood enhancement. The evolution of forestry development has reflected these changes.

Landowner touches the pen as Patrol Officer Bob Willis places an “x” on the document that has her “x” mark. DIES September 1967 Timber purchase article by Chris Borough to follow in later Forest management magazine series.

Mambumutka Simbali receiving the TRP money from Patrol Officer Bob Willis – Dengnagi Purchase Wide Bay Timber Area Photo credit Chris Borough 1967.

30

NEED TO ASSESS PNG’S FOREST RESOURCES. In 1920/21 the Commonwealth Government commissioned the Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition who presented an interim report titled Reporting on the Natural Resources of the Mandated Territory. May 1922.

31

Page 8 Interim Report Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition 9/12/20-14/11/21. During the military occupation of the Territory, no organised effort was made to ascertain its actual and potential resources. Casual reports occasionally came through from the Administrator to the minister of defence and were based for the most part on observations by police masters, deputy district officers etc. or sometimes through the Rabaul Lands department. Just before the introduction of the New Guinea Bill, the Prime Minister decided that an expedition suitably equipped for the purpose be sent to New Guinea. The writer had a conference with him and also the Minister of Defence and the Expedition was outlined in several official memorandum submitted to and approved by Mr Hughes.

General instructions were that the expedition should not cost more than 10,000 pounds and should not be absent for more than a year, be under the sole control of the Prime Minister’s department and a roving commission within the Territory.

The main purpose of the Expedition was to conduct investigations regarding natural resources along every possible avenue which would yield reliable information helpful to the Federal Government. The Territory had a land area of 72,000 square miles and it was not part of the objects of the expedition to attempt to explore such an area. The main object in making a voyage was to gain information at first hand relating to general questions such as land, manpower, trading, recruiting, waterways and power, anchorages etc. and also to visit the more remote and little-known parts away from the shipping routes and in uncharted waters.

During its currency, provision was made for conducting the customary observations of a scientific expedition such as meteorological work, mapping rivers, reefs, mountains, measuring potential power of waterfalls, determining latitudes and longitudes, measuring altitudes, taking soundings, recording natural phenomena such as earthquakes, geysers etc.

A boat was purposefully built called The Wattle.

32

33

Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition 9/12/20-14/11/21 photo credit.

Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition 9/12/20-14/11/21 photo credit.

34

Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition 9/12/20-14/11/21 photo credit.

Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition 9/12/20-14/11/21 photo credit.

35

Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition 9/12/20-14/11/21 photo credit.

Commonwealth New Guinea Expedition 9/12/20-14/11/21 photo credit.

36

21

AN ATTEMPT TO ASSESS PNG’S FOREST RESOURCES. Charles Lane Poole (1885-1970) introduced systematic science-based forestry to Western Australia. He made the first thorough inspection of PNG forests. He was the first Commonwealth Inspector General of Forests and trained many of Australia’s professional foresters at the Australian Forestry school in Canberra ACT. He graduated in 1906 from the French National Forestry School L’École Nationale des Eaux et Forêts. He was sent to South Africa as a district forester in the Transvaal Province.

The Colonial Office then sent him to Sierra Leone where he drafted forest legislation, set up the first Forestry Department, laid out the first forest reserves, established nurseries, plantations, and an arboretum, and collected herbarium specimens.

While on leave in 1911, Charles married Irish-born Ruth Pollexfen (who in later years designed the interiors of the Lodge and the Governor-General’s residence in Canberra).

Charles Lane Poole came to Australia in 1916 to take up a role as Western Australia’s Conservator of Forests, in which he was charged with putting forestry on a proper footing.

State archives, parliamentary papers and debates, and published reports tell of five years of intense activity. He drafted a new Forests Act and saw it passed in the face of strong opposition from the timber industry and unions. He reorganised the Forestry Department, started long-term planning for sustained timber yields, established arboretums and arranged for herbarium specimens to be collected across the State. Nationally, he argued that Australia should set up its own school to train forest officers.

In 1921, Charles abruptly ended his flourishing and energetic career in Western Australia.

The State Government would neither heed his advice against renewing forest concessions to a timber company, nor would it declare the State forests he wanted. He resigned in protest.

Charles needed new employment. Aware of his availability, the Australian timber industry pressed the Commonwealth to have the resources in Papua examined to see if they could be profitably exploited. Charles was offered the task to survey the forests of Papua, then an Australian territory, and later those in New Guinea. He traversed the forests from the swamps to the high mountains, surveying the country, measuring trees, and collecting herbarium specimens and timber samples. He did not find extensive stands of timber that could be exploited economically but took broad-ranging notes of other forest products such as resins, nuts, oils, and medicinal plants.

The Western Australian Senator, George Pearce, recommended to Prime Minister Stanley Bruce that the Commonwealth needed its own forester. Lane Poole was appointed the Commonwealth’s Forestry Adviser in 1925.He led the Commonwealth Government’s involvement in forestry through the Depression of the 1930s and World War II. He also found it extremely difficult to build cooperative relationships with the States at a sensitive time in Commonwealth – State relations. In 1928 he submitted a case to the Royal Commission on the Constitution that Australia’s forests should be a national, rather than a State responsibility. This did nothing to endear him to his State counterparts. Despite these difficulties, Charles energetically pursued his vision for a national approach to forest management. Charles Lane Poole retired in 1945 and died in 1970.

21

Summary of bibliography from Australian National Herbarium (cpbr-info@anbg.gov.au)

37

In 1919, C E Lane Poole commenced a role for the involvement of the Federal Government in forestry that was to extend over thirty years. In a long article in 1919 titled “A forest policy for Australia” –he saw the remedy in the adoption of a forest policy for the whole of Australia and nominated what he saw as the most important items for it, including land classification and forest reservation, the compilation and implementation of working plans by professional foresters, one professional forestry school, a training scheme for subordinate staff, research institutes for forestry and forestry products and an extensive publicity campaign.

After his resignation from the Western Australian Service in 1921, he was commissioned by the Commonwealth in 1922 to report on the forest resources of Papua. This commission was extended to the Mandated Territory of New Guinea in 1923.

In 1923 and 1924, Charles Lane Poole completed a forest resources survey of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea. In 1925, he published his report which recommended the establishment of a forest service.

Charles Lane Poole at Madang, 1924, showing the remains of a radio damaged in the raid at Kohu. Note his gaunt appearance after the rigours of his expedition to Mt Otto. Source: C. E. Lane Poole, Forest Resources (1925), facing p. 198, courtesy of the National Archives of Australia

38

Forestry page 81 of Annual Report Papua 1921-22. Very little had been done during the year in commercially exploiting the timber resources of the Territory. A great proportion of the timber licenses have been cancelled during the period under review.

The only licences at present in existence are five held by the New Guinea Copper Mines aggregating 17,340 acres (one on Woodlark Island of 12,000 acres, and one on the mainland near Samarai of 2,600 acres.

Mr C E Lane Poole, a forester of long experience in various parts of Africa and in Western Australia and possessing very high credentials was engaged for twelve months from 16th March 1922 to report generally upon the timber resources of the Territory. Mr Lane Poole arrived on 9th April 1922 and up to present has only been able to inspect the country around Galley reach in the Central Division. No detailed report has as yet been received but generally speaking, his views regarding the timber resources of that locality are not very favourable.

39

Forestry page 37 (Report to the League of Nations on New Guinea 1923 to 1924).

The investigation and classification of the timber resources of the Territory were commenced during the year, the work being entrusted to Mr C E Lane Poole a forestry expert, who had just previously completed a similar task in the neighbouring Territory of Papua.

In 1924 the Commonwealth Government took a positive step towards involvement in forestry by the appointment of Lane Poole as its Forestry adviser.

In 1925, Lane Poole presented his Report Forest Resources of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea, to Federal Parliament.

40

22

22

Cover page C E Lane Poole 1925 Report on Forest Resources of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea Government Printer Melbourne 209 pp

41

In 1927, Lane-Poole became the Commonwealth Inspector-General of Forests and Acting Principal of the Australian Forestry School (1927-44) in Canberra. He was also the Administrator of the Forestry Bureau which he had proposed to co-ordinate education, research, and policy (not formally established until 1930). The research section which he first promoted in Western Australia to include research into making paper from eucalypts was developed in Melbourne as the Division of Forest Products of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The forestry research section of the bureau eventually developed as the Division of Forest Research, C.S.I.RO., in Canberra.

In 1935, Lane Poole presented a report title 23Report on the Forests of the Goldfields of New Guinea: Together with recommendations regarding a forest policy for the whole Territory.

The history of PNG Forestry is intrinsically linked to the development of the Bulolo Wau valleys gold fields and their natural stands of Araucarias. Readers need to refer to separate authors as James Sinclair24 who have described in detail the history of the Bulolo Wau goldfields.

Lane Poole25 in his report on the forests of the goldfields of Bulolo Wau in 1935 stated: that the only asset that he could see to replace the wasting product, gold was timber. The region is purely a forest one, and its climate is decidedly a forest climate – in short proven forest country.

In contrast to the emphasis placed on industry use – values by miners and government officials in the mining office, government forestry officials emphasise the potential for an industry and the wastefulness of the mining community. In his 1935 survey of timber in the Morobe goldfields, Lane Poole was concerned with value of timber and overly critical that the timber was not being used appropriately by mining companies. For example, cedar was used as an allpurpose resource when durability was necessary. He quoted the use of cedar for a water race when the cedar would have been put better to use in the production of fine cabinetry.

Lane Poole as the then Commonwealth Inspector General of Forests for the colony charged with making recommendations on the use of the resources found in the colony, enforced a set of values that sought to match grain and strength with products. He argued that the mining community needed to better use the resources available to them. They were too wasteful, knowing nothing of timber’s value.

Evan Shield demonstrated this point with the following photograph of a bridge made from cedar.26

23

Unpublished TS, 1935. NAA A11938/802 James Sinclair 2019 ISBN 978-1-876561-15-4 “UP THE CREEK - Edie Creek and the Morobe Goldfields” Pictorial Press Corinda Qld 25 Lane Poole, C.E., 1935. ‘Report on the Forests of the Goldfields of New Guinea: Together with Recommendations Regarding a Forest Policy for the Whole Territory.’ Unpublished TS, 1935. NAA 26 Evan Shield Personal Comm 21/4/2020 “the misuse of timber species referred to by Lane Poole in 1935”.

24

42

Cedar Bridge over Bulolo River above confluence with the Watut River before World War 2. Photo Credit Evan Shield

Photo Credit Evan Shield Jensens Bridge Bulolo Valley

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AN ATTEMPT AT INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING In 1936, the Timber Ordinace of New Guinea was superseded by the Forestry Ordince 1936.

Responsibility for the administration and development of the forest resources of Papua New Guinea and control of its forest industry was vested in the Department of Forests under powers conferred by the Forestry (New Guinea) Ordinance 1936-62 and the Forestry (Papua) Ordinance 1936-62 and the Forestry regulations as amended.

Nearly all forest in PNG is grown on customary-owned land. The Department of Forests after 1945 had to create a forest concession system that catered for all parties i.e., landowners, government agencies and developers.

For any timber to be harvested on an area, the State had first to acquire timber rights from the landowners before allocating the rights to a logging company. Prior to 1992, this was done through either the negotiation of a timber rights purchase or a local forest agreement. Since 1992, when a new Forest Act came into force, state acquisition of timber rights has been through the negotiation of forest management agreements between the PNG Forest Authority and customary owners.

The Territory policy for the extraction of timber from customarily-owned (‘native’) forests was developed over time through the mechanism of a ‘timber rights purchase’ (TRP) agreement, which was a way of purchasing so-called ‘timber rights’ from customary owners of forests, but not alienating the land. Virtually all logging companies in the territorial period were Australianowned or Australian-based. Some of these did a degree of processing locally, but most timber was exported as round logs. The legal framework for forest exploitation had three main elements: Timber Rights Purchase (TRP). Under this arrangement the State acquired timber rights where customary owners were willing to sell. The State then issued a permit or licence to remove the timber on agreed terms and conditions, including the payment of royalties, a portion of which was passed on to customary owners. The TRP arrangement was intended for largescale exploitation and was managed by the Department of Forestry.

Timber Authorities (TA) could be issued, on payment of a fee, to enable any person to purchase a limited quantity of timber directly from a customary owner. Without a TA no one other than a Papua New Guinean could purchase forest produce from a customary owner.

1971 Passage of Forestry (Private Dealings) Act However, there was no management control over TAs other than limitation on the quantity of timber purchased. Forestry (Private Dealings) Ordinance, 1971 (which became an Act in 1974).

This enabled customary owners to dispose of their timber to whomever they wished, provided that (a) the interests of the owners were protected, (b) there was no conflict with national interest, (c) prospects for economic development were considered, and (d) the Administrator gave his approval. (Carson27 1974). At the time, many forestry officers were concerned about these private dealings since their impact was diametrically opposed to proper management of the forest resource.

1974 Passage of Land Groups Incorporation Act and Land Acquisition Act.

27 27 Carson, G.L., 1974. Forestry and forest policy in Papua New Guinea. Commonwealth Fund for Technical Aid.

20 p.

44

TPNG Department of Forests 1961 Log Measurement (Full Volume) Tables Super Feet regulation 35 (1) Forestry Ordinance

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AN ATTEMPT AT FOREST ADMINISTRATION In 1937, in New Guinea, there was a sudden interest in log export, which caused the Administration28 to revise its legislation and consider the establishment of a forest service. In that territory, there was a mill at Waterfall Bay and mission mills also at Finschhafen, Alexishafen and Marienberg. Mills had also started at Bulolo and Wau, having been flown in from the coast. Sawn and milled timber, however, was still being imported from Australia and the Philippines to Rabaul when McAdam arrived in New Guinea in 1938 to initiate the new Forest Service.

By 1937-1938, although nothing had eventuated in Papua or the Northern Territory, an assistant forester had been trained in Canberra and a forest policy had been initiated for Norfolk Island; and a qualified forester J B McAdam had been appointed to the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. 29 Les Carron summarised Jim McAdam’s PNG Forestry career.

Jim McAdam (1910-1959) was born in Lancashire England. His family emigrated to Queensland. He attended state schools and then Toowoomba Grammar School. In 1922, he joined the Queensland Forest Service as a cadet. He attended the University of Queensland and the Australian Forestry School (Dip. For 1934), where he was dux and awarded the Schlich Medal. He excelled at sport, particularly rugby union. He then undertook field work with Queensland Forest Service.

On 19th January 1938 he married a schoolteacher Eileen Ewing. That month he was appointed a forest officer in the public service of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea.

With the threat of war in the Pacific, McAdam enlisted in the Australian Military Forces on 19th September 1940 at Wau together with Jim Cavanaugh and Reay Weidenhofer. He began full time duty with New Guinea Volunteer Rifles on 22nd January 1942 and promoted to sergeant. After the Japanese invaded Salamaua in March, he led a party of scouts including Jim Cavanaugh, which established an observation post within a mile (1.6 km) of enemy positions. The intelligence gathered by the team was crucial to the success of the Australian raid in June. McAdam acted as a guide in the foray. Transferred to ANGAU in September, he was awarded the Military Medal for his outstanding service at Salamaua. In April 1943, he was commissioned Lieutenant.

Promoted Major, McAdam was appointed Commander, Royal Australian Engineers (New Guinea Forests) in February 1944. His unit’s task was to assess and map the forest resources of Papua New Guinea for war needs and for future management in peace time.

He relinquished the appointment in September 1945. On 8th February 1946, he settled in Port Moresby as acting secretary (later Director) of the Department of Forests TPNG. He was a member (1949-59) of the Territory’s Executive Council and an official member (1951-59) of its Legislative Council. McAdam was active in the affairs of the Papua and New Guinea Scientific Society. (President 1951). He died of a heart attack on 27 February 1959 on leave in Queensland. McAdam National Park near Wau was named in his honour.

28

PNG Scientific Society Presidential Address 1952 “Forestry in New Guinea” J B McAdam

29

Carron L T 1985 A History of Forestry in Australia ANU Press ISBN 0080298745 and Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 15, (MUP), 2000

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Photo Credit Cliff Southwell Headquarters of Department of Forests Konedobu till 1970

Photo Credit Mary Jenkin. 30Gogol Survey Boss Boys 1963 L to R Norm Endacott; Johnny Lowien; David “dokka” Reid, Eric Hammermaster, Jim Cavanaugh, Evan Shield, Peter Eddowes, Pilot Hurrell; Don McIntosh, Bill Jenkin, unknown, unknown, Kevin White, unknown

30

Personal Communication Eric Hammermaster 11/3/21. Gogol trial survey Nov to Dec 1963. Based at Utu Catholic Mission Station. Unknowns would include helicopter mechanic of Helicopter Utilities, soils staff of DASF as Paul Aland and DIES. One of the PNG forestry assistants was Gallope Mato who trained under Jim Cavanaugh post war.

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IMPACT OF WORLD WAR 2 1942-1945 The outbreak of the Japanese War in January 1942 ended all civilian activities in the Territories of Papua and New Guinea.

31

.

3 L to R Geoff Archer (gold miner Wau), Jim Cavanaugh (forester,) Jim McAdam (forester). Photo taken by war photographer Damien Parer in July 1942 just after the famous Salamaua raid. Photo Credit Australian War Memorial Ken Granger pers com 10 May 2018 provided details from the US Strategic Bombing Survey of the campaign against Rabaul in 1942-5 of the locations of 29 Japanese sawmills in Rabaul. It was reported that the Japanese forces on New Britain took advantage of the large stands of timber there to supply themselves locally with much of their building material. Both Army and Navy operated sawmills and in 1943 there were some 20 of these with a total output of about 185,000 board feet per week.

Presumably, similar sawmilling operations were operated in areas as Wewak and Madang,

Photo Credit Ken Granger – location of 29 Japanese sawmills Rabaul and environs 1943

31

Details from Linda Cavanaugh Manning 9 April 2019

48

Sawmilling remained quiescent for about a year but as the Australian and Allied forces commenced to build up, a great demand for sawn timber developed.

Owing to the shortages of supply and difficulties with shipping, it was decided to produce as much as possible of these requirements in the Islands themselves. In 1943, ANGAU reorganised the three pre-war mills and established a fourth at Waigani near Milne Bay. Many engineering units established small operations. The Americans brought in sawmilling units. The Australian Government recalled the three military Forestry Companies from England and threw them into the fight for timber in New Guinea early in 1944. The New Zealand Air Force also had sawmilling units attached.

At the end of the war, as far as can be ascertained, some 80 odd million super feet of sawn timber had been produced by these units and in addition, the forests had yielded thousands of pieces of round timbers for escarpments, corduroy, bridge timbers, telephone poles, firewood, and the many other needs of a vast army. It was roughly estimated that this effort had saved two million pounds worth of Australian timber and over three quarters of a million pounds worth of shipping space. Figures, of course, would be very much higher at present day prices.

July 1943 Conference re Utilisation of the Forest Resources of TPNG In July 1943, a conference convened to consider the utilisation of the forest resources of Papua New Guinea to meet the requirements of the Allied Forces in the area, recommended to the Commonwealth Government that a central timber control be set up to do this, and that any timber surplus to the needs of the service be sent to Australia. As a result, the Engineer in Chief of the Australian Forces was instructed to raise a New Guinea Forest Service within the Royal Australian Engineers, composed of a Headquarters Unit and three or more Survey (reconnaissance) Units to perform in New Guinea, those functions normally carried out by a civil forestry department. Its duties were outlined as 1. The implementation of forest policy as determined by the Commander in Chief.

2. Prior allocation and survey, as far as operational conditions permitted of areas to be milled by all Australian Army sawmilling units.

3. The compilation of information on milling necessary for compensation purposes.

4. Liaison with United States of America forces to bring all timber liaison in New Guinea under a common policy and to obtain records necessary for reverse lend lease adjustments.

5. Liaison with Australian New Guinea Administration unit (ANGAU) on civil rights.

6. The undertaking of surveys to provide the maximum forestry information.

7. Correlation and maintenance of forestry information and records in such a manner that they could be handed over to a civil service at an appropriate time.

At the conference in Melbourne on 29/7/1943 representatives of the Australian and US Armies (including Jim McAdam), ANGAU, the Australian Inspector General of Forests (Lane Poole), the Allied Works Council, the Australian Controller of Timber, Department of Munitions and Department of External Territories, focused on three main questions - shipping, sawmill plant and manpower with a central timber control to come under ANGAU led by Jim McAdam.

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May 1994 The ensuing structure to meet the requirements of the July 1943 plan is reflected in the table below describing the Royal Australian Engineers Forestry Units as of 5 May 1944.

UNIT 2/1 Aust Command Royal Engineers (Forestry) 2/1 Aust Forestry Coy 2/2 Aust Forestry Coy 2/3 Aust Forestry Coy 1 Aust CRE (New Guinea Forests) 1 Aust Forest Survey Coy 2 Aust Forest Survey Coy

Strength – established 23 165 165 165 38 127 127

McAdam was tasked with: • • • • • •

organising a survey of possible harvesting areas; assemble all information pertinent to the timber resource and milling of such timbers; advice on sawmill equipment and supervision of all Australian sawmill personnel; maintain records of the quantities of timber milled by Australian and USA forces; The Australian command had difficulty with USA forces. They were suspicious that such data would be the basis for a claim against the USA. McAdam deserves credit for insisting that all timbers harvested be recorded for eventual recompense to be made to the native owners for use of their trees. This became part of official Australian orders.

The major tasks were the location of supplies of timber for immediate operational requirements of the various war services, and an assessment of the forest resources of the south-west Pacific Area, for both operational and post-war purposes, to the extent that available transport, communications, and enemy occupation permitted. In this, considerable use was made of airphoto interpretation supported by ground reconnaissance and sampling.

To undertake McAdam’s task, the raising of 1 Command Royal Engineers (New Guinea Forests) was complete with the Headquarters Unit, where Lieutenant Colonel Jim McAdam MM (head of pre-war New Guinea Forest Service) as the Commanding Officer of 1 Aust CRE (New Guinea Forests) (the headquarters unit); Major WT (Bill) Suttie commanded the 1 Australian Forest Survey Coy and Major A E (Bert) Head (Victoria) in command of the 2 Australian Forest Survey Coy were functional by May 1944.

Major Max Jacobs headed the technical unit in Australia responsible for organising wood testing etc.

Early in 1944, the Australian Army decided to form under the Engineers, a unit to record the many sawmilling operations and make surveys of the forest resources, using all the advantages of operational mapping, air photos and transport facilities then available. The CRE - NG Forests was thus formed with two Forest Survey Companies. McAdam was placed in command of the CRE-NG Forests and given authority to recruit as many personnel experienced in forestry as he could lay his hands on. Two officers of the pre-war service Mr Cavanagh and Mr Vickery were recruited. The Air Force, the Navy, Malaria Units, Engineers, the Infantry, and the Artillery all contributed, with the result that they had a concentration of foresters representing every state in Australia.

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The unit had come together about mid-1944 and for the next three months at Lae was put through an intensive training in recognition of New Guinea species and handling New Guinea conditions. Senior officers of the unit closely followed the establishment of each new base to report on immediate timber supplies for operational purposes. During this time, a plan was draw up for the survey of the timber resources of as much of the Territories as possible. This survey was launched about the end of 1944 and continued till the war ended, and the units were disbanded about October 1945. One of the functions of the CRE-NG Forests written in instructions at the formation was “the maintenance of forestry records in a manner suitable for handing over to a Civilian Forest service at the appropriate time.” Consequently, when the unit was disbanded, Mr Vickery, who was now the Forest Ranger at Bulolo, was left in charge of the records, which he handed over to Mr Cavanaugh, when he returned to the Islands in his civilian capacity.

In a paper presented to the Fifth National Conference on Australian Forest History32 by Judith A. Bennett, Department of History, University of Otago, New Zealand titled “Allied logging and milling in Papua New Guinea during World War 11 describes in some detail following the war, the compensation program undertaken

by McAdam and his officers between 1947 and 1960, paying customary owners for the timbers harvested during the war.

33

Note the format for TPNG patrol reports included a section on war damage compensation for applicable customary owners.

32

Fifth National Conference on Australian Forest History edited by John Dargavel, Denise Gaughwin and Brenda Libbis in 2002 ISBN 0867405309 33 https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb9046273d/_1.pdf

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NEED FOR TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST PERSONNEL. Jim Cavanaugh came to New Guinea in 1938 and joined the New Guinea Public Service in 1940. In 1941, he enlisted and served - first with the New Guinea Volunteer Riflemen (NGVR) and later with the 2nd Australian Forest Survey Company. He also conducted intelligence work with the Central Bureau. He spent almost all the war years outside Australia often behind Japanese lines. He was a commissioned officer and was demobilised in December 1945.

In January 1946, he returned to Papua New Guinea as a forester and was put in charge of the Northern Region. He was based in Kerevat near Rabaul, and he set himself the task of getting the sawmill at Kerevat working to produce timber to rebuild the town of Rabaul after the ravages of the war. When he needed engines and gearboxes, Jim converted abandoned Japanese motors and gearboxes to power the mill. He initially ran a team of Chinese labourers that had been abandoned in Rabaul by the Japanese army and later a team of Papuan New Guineans. Pat, his wife, did the books.

Training Forest Industry Workers Kerevat Sawmill New Britain after World War Two Year 1946 Pat Cavanaugh standing near one of the stacks of swan timber.

Photo credit Linda Cavanaugh Manning

Year 1946 One of the saws in Kerevat sawmill Photo credit Linda Cavanaugh Manning

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For future development of forest management systems need to develop professional institutions – education training facilities such as the Bulolo Forestry College.

Forestry College Bulolo L to R. Norma Collis, Blue Ramsay, Joe Havel, Bill Finlayson, Heinar Streimann. Photo credit Norma/Cheryl Collis 1964/65.

Forestry College Bulolo group photo was taken of the staff and students. L to R Norma Collis, Olga Woolcott, Heiner Streimann, Arthur Ramsay, Leon Clifford, Evan Shield, Gerry Cullen, Vivienne Shield, Pat Cattanach. Photo Credit Janelle Clifford 1966.

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NEED FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST RESOURCES To administer forest management systems in PNG, Australian foresters needed to undertake natural forest studies including silvicultural and increment studies to improve the sustained yield of the natural forest stands.

These studies into the mixed tropical forests needed to ensure practicable cost effective silvicultural systems without impairing the maximum and perpetual productivity of the site. At the same time these studies needed to ensure prevention of undesirable changes in forest composition and site factors so that needs could be met from forests managed on a sound ecological basis.

Australian foresters commenced detailed field studies into afforestation and reforestation activities of both natural (Araucarias as hoop and klinkii, and E. deglupta) and exotic timber species (e.g., teak).

Australian foresters involved in major forest extension programs, especially in the Highlands, undertook extensive studies into wood fuel including surveys of present and future fuelwood requirements in relation to available and potential supplies, and on increasing the efficiency of wood fuel burning equipment.

Australian foresters undertook studies into the financing of silvicultural operations for regenerating logged over natural forests. Separate studies for the establishment of timber tree plantation forests were undertaken.

Studies into Mangroves especially the need for preventing the clearing of the protective mangrove fringe in TPNG were considered of high importance.

.

Photo Credit Barry Gray Entomology Building Forest Research Centre Bulolo 1968 54

SUMMATION OF DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TO 1959 Jim McAdam’s forest management achievements as Director of the Department of Forests PNG reflect a rational economic approach to forest politics. His post-war activities were associated with providing timber for reconstruction of war damage and laying foundations for future forestry development. 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 in Australia for woods, made visible for the first time a live picture of forest development.

McAdam took PNG as information of the forest resources accumulated, from a scene of early exploiters of PNG’s forest resources for sandalwood, with a small sawmill industry supplying local needs and a small export trade of walnut logs to a sophisticated export industry of plywood, sawn timber, and logs to global markets, especially Australasia. It took World War 11 to provide an impetus to expand the scope of the forest from its traditional role.

McAdam undertook ongoing initiatives to ensure forest resources for future development capitalising on the results of the Army Forest Resource Survey group he commanded. At the same time, he continued to ensure traditional owners’ rights were enshrined in forest legislation.

McAdam’s foresight saw development of initiatives for reforestation and afforestation to ensure long term forest resources availability for the country of PNG. At the same time, he established training initiatives for ongoing professional forester development with the establishment of the TPNG Australian Forester cadetship scheme.

His objective was that this be the forerunner to the training of PNG foresters.

Jim McAdam MM 1952. Part of his Presidential address to PNG Scientific Society34.

In the period from European contact and settlement in the late nineteenth century to the end of World War 11, the timber industry was concerned mainly with speculative exploitation and reconnaissance. The utilization of the forests was mostly incidental to other activities like gold mining. Only ten sawmills were operating supplying local mission or company needs, with any surplus being sold for use in the small public and private building programmes.

The only other trade was speculative exploitation of selected species as sandalwood (Santalum macgregorii) from around Port Moresby and New Guinea Walnut (Dracontomelum mangiferum) from New Britain and New Ireland.

34

PNG Scientific Society Presidential Address 1952 “Forestry in New Guinea” J B McAdam

55

In New Guinea, there was a sudden interest in log export in 1937, which caused the Administration to revise its legislation and consider the establishment of a forest service. In that territory, there was a mill at Waterfall Bay and mission mills also at Finschhafen, Alexishafen and Marienberg. Mills had also started at Bulolo and Wau, having been flown in from the coast.

Sawn and milled timber, however, was still being imported from Australia and the Philippines to Rabaul when McAdam arrived in New Guinea in 1938 to initiate the new Forest Service. From its inception shortly afterwards until 1942, the one mill established in Rabaul led a precarious existence. However, under the stimulus of a depressed copra market and an active interest by American buyers in New Guinea walnut, many planters in New Britain and New Ireland commenced harvesting logs. In 1940/41, exports in logs and flitches of this species reached about seven and a half million super feet.

There were various attempts to establish sawmilling operations in Papua. The most tenacious of these was the Port Romilly venture and that, with Kwato Mission sawmill and the Labe Labe sawmill, which was established mainly to produce cases for shipping desiccated coconut from Milne Bay, formed the whole of the milling operations when the Japanese entered the War in 1942. Those three mills, later controlled by ANGAU, but manned with their peacetime personnel, produced a very credible supply of timber during the early days of the struggle.

During the War, the Allied Armed forces, especially ANGAU established their own sawmilling companies. By the end of the war, approximately 190,000 cubic metres of sawn timber had been produced. With the cessation of hostilities in 1945, except for Port Moresby all the cities were in ruins. This devastation coupled with a revised policy of economic activity, created an immediate demand for sawn and seasoned timber. The demand for timber in Australia and the scarcity of shipping space, made it necessary for the bulk of timber for reconstruction to be produced locally. The Provisional Administration established, and operated government run sawmills in Lae and Rabaul.

FAO in 194835, reported that in TPNG, there were some 11 sawmills operating which in 1947 produced about 21,000 m3 (740,000 cu. ft.) of lumber. The Australian government operated a sawmill to train local sawyers and some skilled laborers. It was estimated that rehabilitation requirements will need almost 23,600 m3 (830,000 cu. ft.) a year for the next five or six years.

Minor forest products include sago from the Metroxylon palm, nipa palm leaves for thatching, mangrove bark for tannin, dammar gum, canes, and bamboos.

Since the War, and owing partly to devastation by war, and partly due to the expanded services needed to cope with development of the community, there has been a greatly increased demand for sawn timber in the Territory. This has led to the gradual building up of the local sawmilling industry. In 1952, the sawn output will reach about 10 million super feet of timber requiring some 20 million super feet of logs. Since the War, there has been an embargo on the export of sawn timber, but this has been eased. For some time, we have been sending out six and a half inch square bulks of hoop and klinkii pine to provide battery separator veneer which is in critical supply in Australia. Last year, our exports of this highly selected material exceeded 400,000 super feet. Now general lines can be exported provided the millers keep a sufficient stock in their yards to ensure local supplies.

Since the War, logs have been exported annually but these exports remain constant between one and one and a half million super feet. Recently a tender has been accepted for the purchase of some 70 million super feet of timber on the Trans Busu at about 7-8 million super feet per year.

It is expected that this will boost the log export considerably in about twelve months. Within the 35

UNASYLVA Vol @ #6 Nov -Dec 1948

56

last few months, exports of private logs from agricultural leases in the Lae area has commenced because of active clearing for the establishment of cocoa crops.

FAO reported that shortly, a modern plywood manufacturing industry will be established for processing the pines of the Bulolo Valley. It is expected that within three years the output will reach 30 million square feet of plywood on a 3/16-inch basis.

McAdam reported that shortly, a modern plywood manufacturing industry would be established for processing the pines of the Bulolo Valley. It was expected that within three years the output will reach 30 million square feet of plywood on a 3/16-inch basis. Already a start has been made on reforestation with the same species. (Hoop and Klinkii). Last year, 45 acres were planted. In 1952, 100 acres were planted, and in the nursery, there is stock for 300 acres of plantation next year. It is expected that the future plantings will be about 600 to 700 acres per year. At the end of the rotation (50 years), it is calculated that the annual cut will exceed 60 million super feet of logs as against the rationed cut of 10 million super feet from the virgin stands. There will be a great volume of early thinnings from the plantations in about ten years and this may well lead to the establishment of the first pulp factory in the Territory.

36

By 1952, the local sawmilling industry had reached the stage where it was able to meet the local demand and output was some 24 thousand cubic metres per annum.

In 1952 though, only 4.5 thousand cubic metres of logs and 2.4 thousand cubic metres of sawn timber were exported.

In 1954, a plywood mill was established in Bulolo by Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers, a joint enterprise between the Australian Government and Bulolo Gold Dredging Company. By 1969 this plywood mill was producing some 3.34 million square metres of plywood.

By 1969, forest product exports had risen to 147 thousand cubic metres of logs, 17 thousand cubic metres of sawn timber, 2.48 million square metres of plywood and 12.4 million square metres of veneer.

37

Interesting publications produced included PLANIM DIWAI YAR - Grow Casuarina by the Dept. of Forests 1967 where extensive community plantings of Casuarina in the Highlands were undertaken especially for fuel wood and shelter requirements.

36 37

UNASYLIVA Department of Forests 1967 Planim Diwai Yar

57

SUMMATION OF DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TO 1970 Bill Suttie Managing Director PNG Forest Service 1959-1970 Bill Suttie’s Presidential address to PNG Scientific Society 1962 38 Photo credit Linda Cavanaugh Manning •

•

•

Suttie linked political directives of Spender in 1951 and Hasluck in 1957 with development of the functions of the Department of Forests in resource investigation, forestry education, biological and utilisation research, reforestation, afforestation, and acquisition of a permanent forest estate.

Suttie noted that this marks a change from a period of exploitation to one of a consciousness of the need for a long-term forest conservation policy primarily in the interests of the native inhabitants of the Territory and the future need to train them in an awareness of the value of its forest resources.

He outlined the extent of forests required for permanent or sustained supply of wood products and proposed measures in acquiring such a forest estate.

The Late 1950’s to 1975 In 1969, JANT produced its first trial batch of wood chips in Madang from PNG tropical hardwoods.

The export earnings of the PNG forest industry grew from 48,704 kina in 1947 to 25.4 million kina in 1969.

38

PNG Scientific Society Presidential Address 1962 “A Transition Period” W R Suttie

58

39

39

Department of Forests 1970 Second Trade Note Properties and uses of Papua and New Guinea Timbers (Peter Eddowes FPRC)

59

SUMMATION OF DEVELOPMENT OF FOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TO 1975

Don McIntosh40 Managing Director 1970-1975 Photo credit Photo Credit Janelle Clifford 7/4/20 1966 Bulolo Forestry College

Kevin White Assistant Director till 1977 at Brown River Plantation 1970 with Evo Vai.

40

PNG Scientific Society Presidential Address 1976 “Australian Forest Policy in the territory of Papua and New Guinea” K J White

60

Under McIntosh and White’s management, the Department of Forests achievements by 1975 were: Forest Resources. In the period 1946-1963 some 600,000 hectares were assessed by conventional methods. From 1964 to 1967 some 2.8 million hectares were assessed. As of 1975, a total of 5.2 million hectares had been assessed. The investigations confirmed that there was a resource of magnitude, it quantified the resource, and identified the areas considered suitable for development.

Botany •

• • • •

Collection and maintenance of specimens of Papuasia plants. From the collections commenced in 1944, the herbarium collection at 1975 has over 250,000 PNG specimens. From the collections, followed taxonomic studies of the flora leading to various publications and training manuals.

Development at Lae of the National Botanical Gardens with living collections.

Intensive service in identification of plant specimens.

Communication; extension services.

National staff training.

Forest Industry • • • • •

From two sawmills in 1946 to 1975 with some 90 sawmills, one plywood plant; three veneer plants and one wood chip mill.

An annual log harvest of some 800,000 m3 as of 1975.

By 1975, export earnings of some Kina 15 million.

Establishment of a Papua New Guinea Timber Marketing Advisory Panel.

Development of an appropriate wood utilisation research program: (a) Determination of the properties and uses of PNG timbers. (b) Development of appropriate timber preservation treatments for sawn and round timbers. (c) Determination of kiln drying schedules. (d) Development of minor forest product industries. (e) Provision of mill wright services and extensive industry advice services. (f) Timber design services. (g) Technical publication services especially for building designs using local materials. (h) Training of mill operators.

Forest Management •

Development and administration of complex forest management agreements including regeneration treatment.

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Reforestation • •

• • •

Over 16,000 hectares plantations established at Bulolo/Wau, Kerevat, Port Moresby, Goroka, and Whagi Valley.

Nursery and field techniques established for species as teak (Tectona grandis); Kamarere (Eucalyptus deglupta), hoop and klinkii pine (Araucaria cunninghamii and A. hunsteinii), Eucalyptus and Pinus spp.

Country wide extension programs, especially in the Highlands.

Natural regeneration techniques for cut over forests, growth studies, enrichment planting techniques.

Intensive research programs for plantation species covering species selection, tree breeding, nutrition studies, protection from insects and fungal pathogens, growth studies, range management; extension practices, environmental planning.

Training •

•

•

Sub professional training program commenced in 1962 at Bulolo Forestry College which by 1975 had successfully trained some 421 trainees. In 1975, BFC could accommodate some 170 students.

1. Inservice for expatriate field officers.

2. Two-year technical certificate with entry level of form 2-3.

3. Short vocational courses for supervisory staff training.

4. 1967 – three-year course leading to a Diploma in Forestry.

5. 1973-75 selected field staff 12-month course for a Certificate in Forestry.

6. 1969 three-year Diploma of Cartography course.

Professional Training Program 1. Course activated in 1971/72 for a Forestry Degree course, commenced with 2 years science and two years at UNITECH Lae. 2. Four graduates expected in 1976 and 10 in 1977.

Industrial training 1. Closure of government sawmills had a detrimental impact on training of industrial staff.

2. Negotiations in recent years will lead to the establishment of an industry training centre in Lae (TITC).

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CONTRIBUTORS TIMELINE 1908

Gilbert Burnett

1911

James Mann

1921-1935

Charles Edward Lane Poole

1938-1959

Jim McAdam

1959-1970

Bill Suttie

1970-1975

Don McIntosh

1970-1977

Kevin White

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BURNETT 190841

41

1908 Gilbert Burnett Timber Trees of the Territory of Papua Reports and catalogue Public Library of Victoria 31 Aug 1911 64

2 65

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NAME DEPT OF FORESTRY PNG OCCUPATION WHAT LOCALITIES DID YOU WORK IN

Career Achievements

Charles Edward Lane Poole 1885-1970 1922-24 Forester Forest surveys of Papua in 1922-1923 Forest Surveys Mandated Territory of New Guinea 1923-1924 Reports for the Commonwealth Government of Australia 1908-10 District Forest Officer Transvaal 1911-16 Conservator of Forests Sierra Leone 1916-21 Conservator of Forests Western Australia 1922-24 Report PNG Forest Resources for Commonwealth Government 1925-27 Forest Advisor to Commonwealth Government 1927-45 Inspector- General of Forests – Commonwealth Forestry Bureau Acting Principal Australian Forestry School

Obituary: Charles Edward Lane Poole (1875-1970), with special reference to his forest surveys of Papua and New Guinea.

Originally published as: From exploitation to science: Lane Poole’s forest surveys of Papua and New Guinea, 1922–1924. Historical Records of Australian Science 17: 71–90. by John Dargavel School of Resources, Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2000, Australia. Email: john.dargavel@anu.edu.au (Reprinted here by kind permission of the author.)

Summary Charles Lane Poole (1885–1970) was engaged from 1922 to 1924 to locate forest resources that could be exploited for a timber export trade from the Territories of Papua and New Guinea. He took his brief beyond this to establish a scientific base for forestry, explore country beyond the limits of white contact, and contribute to the mapping of the Territories. He did not find a timber resource for export, but he classified the forests, assessed likely areas, and collected some 800 herbarium specimens. This paper examines his surveys considering these dimensions, the context of time and place, and Lane Poole’s beliefs and energy.

Introduction Charles Edward Lane Poole (1885–1970) conducted a forest survey of the Australian Territory of Papua in 1922 and 1923, and another in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea in 1923 and 1924. He classified the forest types, assessed timber areas, collected some 800 herbarium specimens, ventured into areas unexplored by white men, climbed mountains, took star sights, and made trigonometrical observations. His report on both Territories was printed in the Commonwealth’s Parliamentary Papers in 1925.1 It is a lengthy document of 209 pages containing not only his descriptions of the forests and their economic potential, but also detailed scientific descriptions of 517 species, lists of the common names of species in different languages, diaries of two expeditions, rainfall records, geographical data of altitude, latitude and longitude, and policy recommendations. The Queensland Herbarium has his collection of 345 species of which forty-four are type specimens from which the species are identified. More 67

personal information about the surveys is contained in letters that he wrote to his wife, Ruth, that are now held in the National Library of Australia.2 Lane Poole extended his ostensible purpose of conducting a timber resource survey to that of providing a scientific basis for understanding the Territories’ forests and hence for their eventual management on forestry principles. His work can be seen as a late moment in the reach of colonial science into new lands, albeit one articulated through Australia. He held a passionate belief in the progressive and redemptive power of science. As he wrote during the Second World War, ‘science … alone can pull humanity back from the brink and … lead to higher evolution’.3 He was determined to make his surveys science-based and thorough, as he put it in a letter towards the end of his time in New Guinea: ‘I can generally get through in places where others find the difficulties insuperable. It is cussedness more than anything else’.4.

Lane Poole was born into a distinguished intellectual and academic English family of British Museum curators, Egyptologists, and historians.5 His older brothers were officers in the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy. Charles Lane Poole received the last years of his schooling in Dublin and spent at least a year studying engineering there. He lost his left hand in a shooting accident when he was about 19 and wore a steel hook in its place for the remainder of his life.

He did not continue with engineering but obtained a cadetship from the Colonial Office to study forestry in the French National Forestry School, L’École Nationale des Eaux et Forêts at Nancy, from which he graduated in 1906. The Colonial Office sent him to South Africa where after a few months he was appointed as a District Forester in the Transvaal. He worked there very effectively but resigned on principle in 1910 when he disagreed with the Government’s forest and employment policies. His next posting was to Sierra Leone where he set up the tiny Forestry Department, established an arboretum, collected herbarium specimens that he sent to Kew for identification, published a plant list, and undertook significant surveys to locate forest reserves.

He married Ruth Pollexfen (1885–1974) whilst on leave in 1911 but returned to Sierra Leone by himself. In 1916, he secured the significant appointment as Conservator in charge of Western Australia’s Forest Department and was joined in Perth by his family. He worked with prodigious energy there, reorganizing the Department, publicizing forestry, drafting the new Western Australian Forests Act 1918, and seeing it passed, establishing a series of arboreta, and taking part in InterState Forestry Conferences and the first Empire Forestry Conference held in London in 1920. He gained a substantial reputation and was regarded by many people as the most able forester in Australia. However, at the end of 1921, when he was 36, he again resigned on principle as he disagreed with the State Government’s action in extending the licences of a large timber company.

It was most unusual for a man with Charles Lane Poole’s experience and status as former head of a State Government department to undertake resource surveys, but he needed the work. He brought strongly held views and great energy to the task. He was bitter that the Western Australian Government had not followed his professional advice about forest conservation that he believed should be a paramount concern. He saw it as a failure of ‘party government’. His training at Nancy had immersed him in the culture of the French Forest Service, which at the time was centralized, disciplined, uniformed, and led by a social elite.6 And his years in Sierra Leone, which was run as a Crown Colony without local representation, had given him an experience of direct rule. It had strengthened his belief that ‘a sufficient staff of competent and energetic foresters … with similar staff in the Agricultural Department will go a long way to solving the serious question’ of economic dependence on a limited range of exports.7 He saw the situation in Papua and in New Guinea in much the same light.

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Origins of Lane Poole’s Surveys Australia administered Papua from 1901 and declared it a Commonwealth Territory in 1906. It took over German New Guinea during the First World War and was mandated to administer it by the League of Nations in 1920. The Territories attracted little interest in Australia in the 1920s, their combined European population was slightly under 2000, their exports were unimportant to Australia, their commercial history was poor, and they required grants to administer.8 Nevertheless, they attracted men, like Judge Hubert Murray (1861–1940) and Staniforth Smith (1869–1934) who were remarkably dedicated to good government. The only scientist they employed was the Government Geologist, Evan Stanley (1885–1924). However, their botany had long attracted collectors, particularly of the orchids. A formidable British Lieutenant-Governor, Sir William MacGregor (1846–1919), had even sent specimens gathered on his ascent of Mount Victoria to Ferdinand von Mueller, the Government Botanist in Victoria, in 1889.9 When Murray was appointed Administrator of Papua in 1907, cedar logs were being exported, but there was only a little practical knowledge of the other species. He obtained a tropical forest inspector, Gilbert Burnett, from Queensland to examine the possibilities. Burnett visited eight river and coastal areas and, although limited by where he could get to, he listed 120 species of trees by their Papuan names, obtained wood samples and classified them according to use, but not botanically. He believed that there would be good timber on the higher lands he had not explored.10 In 1918 the Department of Home and Territories tried unsuccessfully to engage an experienced tropical forester from the Philippines or to borrow one from India with the wider brief ‘to inspect the timber resources … and report … the best means of conserving and developing these resources’.11.

Parts of the Australian timber industry became worried about their supplies when New Zealand had banned exports of its white pine (Podocarpus dacrydioides) and kauri (Agathis australis) that were used for butter boxes, while at the same time supplies of Australian kauri (Agathis robusta) and hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) were diminishing.12 In 1920 a Melbourne timber agent, Victor Trapp, arranged for one of the timber companies to investigate the possibilities of obtaining case, match and plywood material from Papua.13 Nothing came of the industry investigation, but when Trapp learnt of Lane Poole’s resignation from Western Australia, he suggested that the Commonwealth should secure his services.14 With no other job in sight, Lane Poole accepted a 12-month appointment that was later extended by 6 months. For New Guinea, W. M. Hughes, in one of his more erratic actions as Prime Minister, supported an ineffective private scientific expedition at about the same time. This took with it a forest inspector from Queensland, F. W. Hayes, who fell ill, and it was left to the geologist, Evan Stanley, to write the report, including a few notes on timber.15 The new administration knew little else about New Guinea’s forests, but when it heard that two companies were being formed to exploit their timber, it asked Lane Poole to continue his Papuan survey for a further year in New Guinea.16 Location, Classification, Assessment, and Identification Conducting forest resource surveys in the Territories posed problems that Lane Poole had to overcome. In the 1920s the frontier of contact and pacification was still being extended, so that travelling safely required caution and armed native police to mind up to forty carriers with equipment and food.17 Lane Poole was able to join one patrol into the Upper Era River led by an experienced District Magistrate and another to Mt Obree led by Stanley, but otherwise he travelled ‘with the speed, absence of fuss, and economy of transport of an experienced District Officer’.18 The Government stations in Papua and the Lutheran mission stations in New Guinea helped him with information and in recruiting carriers. However, he had to train local people on 69

the job with all the difficulties of language and education that that entailed. It is not clear from the records whether he took some of the assistants he trained from area to area as only one man, Peter, who looked after his herbarium specimens, is mentioned from several areas.

Charles Lane Poole at Madang, 1924, showing the remains of a radio damaged in the raid at Kohu. Note his gaunt appearance after the rigours of his expedition to Mt Otto. Source: C. E. Lane Poole, Forest Resources (1925), facing p. 198, courtesy of the National Archives of Australia.

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Location Lane Poole’s first task was to locate the forest areas that might be of timber interest. Burnett’s report, a handful of small mission sawmills, a mill recently started by Lewis Lett in Papua and another in New Britain provided information about places to start his surveys in the coastal areas. These were under Government control and simple maps of the major features were available. However, to find any major resource he had to explore the more distant, higher country where, as he knew from MacGregor’s report, valuable conifers might be found. In doing so he had to go beyond the pacified areas and into country where the rivers and ridges had not been charted. The problems that this entailed were inherent in the general extension of Australia’s rule and basic knowledge.

Lane Poole took an aneroid barometer, a boiling point thermometer, a theodolite, and a radio with him. On journeys, he typically read the barometer several times during the day to calculate altitude and the thermometer at mid-day and evening to confirm it. He took rounds of angles to and from peaks with the theodolite, and at various places set up his radio to receive time signals with which he could calibrate his watch and calculate longitude and latitude from star sights. In the expedition that they did together, Stanley asserted that ‘numerous bearings and triangulations are essential to the preparation of a map sufficiently accurate for Geological and Forestry matters’, and that he was ‘exceedingly grateful for his [Lane Poole’s] assistance from time to time in determining our positions at various points’.19 Lane Poole took a camera on his journeys and developed his own glass plates in the field.

Classification The second tier of the work was to classify the forests into broad categories. Lane Poole adopted a simple scheme of recognising a dry forest belt and classifying the remainder on altitude. Given that climate is strongly correlated with altitude and significantly influences vegetation, it proved a robust system. He was able to assign altitudes to the classes as he accumulated observations on his journeys through the Territories (Table 1).20 Assessment Where Lane Poole found timber stands, he made strip assessments by the standard method of the time.21 It involved cutting straight lines through the forest, about 20 chains (403 m) apart, and measuring the girth of every tree over 6 feet in girth (1.8 m, or 0.58 m diameter) within 1 chain (20 m) either side of the lines. Lane Poole estimated the height of the bole from which sawlogs might be cut and could then calculate the volume of potential logs per unit area. As he tallied the measurements by species, he could report the proportion of valuable species in the total. These calculations were critical to evaluating the feasibility of any logging operation, the economics of which are governed by the volume per unit area that can be extracted and sold. Although the criteria were not laid down, Lane Poole needed to find reasonably large and accessible areas carrying at least something of the order of 30 cubic metres per hectare (weighing 20–40 tonnes per hectare when cut, depending on species) of saleable logs before the investment required for any significant export operation could be considered.

Table 1. Forest classification

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Class Lowland forests Foothill forests Mid-mountain forests Mossy forests Alpine forests

Altitude Feet Metres 0–1000 0–305 1000–5500 305–1677 5500–7500 1677–2287 7500–11,000 2287–3355 >11,000 >3355

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Lane Poole used a gang of nine to cut the lines, climb trees and carry the equipment and herbarium material. He was able to train his ‘boss boy’ to site the lines with a prismatic compass and to lay out the 5 chain (100 m) steel band that was used to place markers at intervals along the lines. Assessment in tropical rain forests is slow, tiring work. The understorey vegetation with creepers and vines makes it difficult to get to each tree. Many of them are buttressed so that taking a girth measurement involves clambering up to a clear part of the bole above the buttresses. Estimating the bole height can be difficult because lower layers in the canopy frequently obscure the view. The damp ground is often slippery and keeping the record sheets dry in the frequently wet conditions requires care. Leeches and stinging trees (Urticaceae) add further miseries. Lane Poole made nineteen strip surveys in the lowland and mid-mountain rainforests of the two Territories. The records of two were subsequently destroyed in a raid at Kohu (described later), but the records of the remaining seventeen show that he laid down a total of 105 kilometres of lines and measured 4330 trees.

It was a substantial effort for one forester working with assistants he trained on the job.

Identification A major problem for Lane Poole, as for anyone working in a new area of tropical forest, was to determine the species of each tree, given that there were 50–60 different species at each site and about 400 overall. Although botanical nomenclature is determined primarily from the buds, flowers, fruits, and leaves, these are hard to gather and, in the case of flowers and fruits, are seasonal. Even when the flowers and fruits are present, it is hardly possible to examine their fine structural detail and consult reference books in a tropical rain forest. Even if this had been possible, some of the species he encountered had not been classified — these are the type specimens now held in the Queensland Herbarium, mentioned earlier. However, people with an intimate knowledge of the trees of a particular area can name them from the look of their leaves, bark, trunks, crowns, and many small details. Lane Poole found that ‘The bush native has a really wonderful knowledge of his trees’.22 He used their skill in identifying each species to record them consistently across each site. For each new species he encountered, he collected specimens of the bark, wood, and leaves, as well as the flowers or fruit when they were present, sometimes trying to shoot material down from the crowns but more commonly having someone climb up. He used a pre-printed sheet of headings to record each species by its herbarium number and local name and to give a detailed description of the living tree.

Although his focus was on export possibilities rather than ethnobotany or linguistics, he frequently noted local uses and names. The occurrence of many languages in Papua and New Guinea meant that trees with the same botanical name had different local names. For example, he reported that the widespread Octomeles sumatrana is known as Ilimo (Motu and Suka), Benumba (Binandele), I-ohea (Vailala), Erima (Rabaul), Usa (Yalu) and Kakerim (Yabim).23 He recommended that some single common name should be adopted for any species that became commercially traded, and what he called ilimo in his report is now known as erima throughout Papua New Guinea.24 As he travelled through the country, he also collected herbarium specimens at places where he did not make timber assessments, and from plants other than trees if they were in flower, in order to contribute to general botanical knowledge (Table 2).25 Lane Poole devised a metal drying box that he used to dry his specimens instead of pressing them between paper in the conventional way. Even when dried initially and kept pressed in paper, he passed them through the drier periodically to ensure that they were kept free of 73

mould until they could be despatched to the Queensland Herbarium for identification.

Overall, Lane Poole collected about 800 herbarium specimens, of which some were destroyed in the raid at Kohu. Five hundred and seventeen species are listed in his report.

Table 2. Number of species collected as herbarium specimens.

Type Number Percentage Trees, large and/or tall Trees, medium Trees, small Subtotal

243 68 82 393

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Bamboo Palms Climbers and Lianes, ratten Subtotal

1 6 15 22

4

Shrubs Orchids Creepers Ground covers, herbs, sedges, nettles, etc.

Subtotal

21 16 12 53 102

20

Total

517

100

The specimens sent to the Queensland Herbarium for identification arrived in good condition, thanks to Lane Poole’s attention to drying them carefully. They were examined by C. T. White and W. D. Francis, helped by E. D. Merrill, the Director of the Philippine Herbarium who visited Australia for the 1923 Pan-Pacific Science Congress. K. W. Braid at Kew and A. Guillaumin at the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris also gave advice on two specimens sent to them. White and Francis provided Lane Poole with as many names as they could for his 1925 report but could not publish their final identifications until 1926 and 1927.26 They particularly valued Lane Poole’s focus on the larger trees; these had been largely neglected by previous collectors, which no doubt accounted for the inclusion of the forty-four type specimens, a remarkable result for someone who was not a botanist.27 They noted that the collection showed that the flora of the Territories was closer to that of Southeast Asia than to Australia’s.

Lane Poole collected wood samples that he examined himself using a set of hand lenses. He recorded a general description of each, the width of the sapwood, the colours of sap and heartwood, and measurements of the frequency of the rays and pores. He also remarked on how the wood cuts in general categories of ‘cuts hard’, ‘cuts firm’, ‘soft to cut’, ‘splits easily’, and so on. Lane Poole also collected and described samples of the bark. His report includes measurements of the basic density of the wood samples and of the colour and presence of precipitates in solutions extracted from many but not all the wood and bark samples. He does not report whether he made the density measurements and extractions himself.

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Territory Journeys Lane Poole could not make a systematic survey of all the forests in both Territories because the basic mapping and exploration was still incomplete in the 1920s. However, he tried to cover the most promising areas and the major forest types in a series of journeys to different parts (Fig. 1). Each journey had to be organized separately with food, sea transport to the starting point, native policemen — ‘police boys’ in the argot of colonialism — and carriers who were recruited locally. Feeding his party of up to fifty people was a limiting factor on the more distant journeys where rice had to be carried in. In the closer areas, he was often able to obtain food, kai, from local villagers.

Lane Poole made his first journeys to the lowland forests of the coastal regions where the country was better known and controlled. Some of his later journeys were expeditions into the higher country and into regions where white men had not been before. The change was partly a matter of seizing opportunities to make such expeditions as they arose, and partly reflected an increased emphasis that he gave to the scientific dimension of his surveys.

Indeed, the expeditions that he mounted in New Guinea, discussed later, had only trivial resource and commercial dimensions.

Assessments in Papua, April–December 1922 Lane Poole arrived in Port Moresby on 7 April 1922 and was helped to organize his journeys in Papua by Staniforth Smith, the Commissioner for Crown Lands, Agriculture and Mines, who had extensive knowledge of the Territory. Over the next eight months Lane Poole made three journeys to locate and assess lowland rainforests and two expeditions into mountainous country in the Upper Era, discussed later.

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Lane Poole conducted his first assessment of lowland rainforests on the banks of the Veimauri and Vanapa Rivers about 70 kilometres north-west of Port Moresby during April and May. He measured 1013 trees of 132 different species along 27 kilometres of strip lines, but when he calculated the volumes, they were disappointing. Although the log volume was a modest 30 cubic metres per hectare, the commercially valuable species made up only 6 percent, so that the area was clearly not suitable for an export operation.28 He collected herbarium specimens of all the species and went on to inspect forests on the Aroa River, a few kilometres further away.

In June he sailed round via Samarai to the small port of Buna on the north-east coast. He spent two months investigating the region of the Kumusi River, the Hydrographer’s Range and Lake Embi. He examined remnant patches of forest in the fertile, grassy plain behind Buna and deduced that it must have been an extensive dipterocarp forest that had been converted to grassland by native agriculture and fires over a long period. He then searched for areas of forest that might have escaped. He assessed one area of lowland rainforest, at Soputa on the edge of the plain, that he found to have fewer and less valuable logs (24 m3 ha–1 of logs of which 2% were valuable species) than the areas he had measured at Veimauri and Vanapa.29 However, he did manage to find some forest on the flood plain of the Kumusi River that had survived because the land was unsuitable for agriculture. His assessment found it to have a higher overall volume (39 m3 ha–1 of logs) but none of the commercially valuable species.30 He then found a 300-hectare patch of what appeared to be virgin rainforest at Sagari with a reasonable volume (53 m3 ha–1 of logs) and some magnificently large trees, but not of the species that the Australian industry wanted for box and plywood manufacture.

Again, the results of his assessments showed no prospects of a commercially viable export operation.

In August Lane Poole replenished his supplies and recruited fresh carriers at Buna before investigating some forest at Lake Embi, south of Buna. At last, he felt that he had ‘found some good timber’ and he spent three weeks there to assess it thoroughly along 14 kilometres of strip lines.31 He found that there was a higher volume of logs (57 m3 ha–1) than he had found anywhere before and it was concentrated on two species.32 He concluded that there might be commercial prospects if this type of forest could be found to extend more widely.

He was diverted from his commercial brief to investigate some unusual floating islands of vegetation on the lake and to collect herbarium specimens of attractive climbing plants that were in flower at the time. He left Buna on 24 August and walked back to Port Moresby over the Kokoda track, stopping in places to inspect the forest and collect herbarium specimens.

Lane Poole spent September in Port Moresby waiting for news that his third daughter had been born safely in Ireland and preparing for a journey to the Gulf region. He went first to the Baroi River where he assessed a narrow strip of forest that went for 40 kilometres up the river and collected further herbarium specimens. The timber resource (40 m3 ha–1 on forty-five different species) was little different from that at Veimauri and Vanapa.

When he had found so little of interest on the Baroi River, Lane Poole decided to explore higher country heading from the Baroi up the Purari River and then to cross over the mountains to the Vailala River. It was an ill-prepared trip as he had only two police with him and no reasonable map to go by. He met with some local hostility, discovered no forest of interest, and returned safely down the Baroi and on to the Government Station at Kikori. He still needed to explore the higher country, but rather than let him lead another expedition on his own, R. A. Woodward, the experienced Resident Magistrate in charge there, decided to 76

take him on a well-equipped patrol with a police sergeant, nine constables, two cooks and twenty-four carriers. They aimed to make contact with the people who had been hostile to Lane Poole and then to cross from the head of the Era River to the head of the Purari River.

They were away for three weeks and struggled through some of the roughest country that either of them had encountered, only to return down the Era without having found any timber of consequence.33 After these two abortive expeditions, Lane Poole moved to the Vailala River and made another assessment. With sixty-eight different species, it was the most diverse lowland forest he assessed, but commercially it was of no interest (27 m3 ha–1 on 45 species) and he returned to Port Moresby early in January 1923. He had worked hard for nine months, mostly in the lowland rainforests, and had demonstrated that they offered no immediate prospects for an export trade in sawlogs.

Mt Obree to Kagi Expedition, January–February 1923 In Port Moresby, Lane Poole joined forces with Evan Stanley (1885–1924), Papua’s Government Geologist, on an expedition that took them on to the crest of the Owen Stanley Range and enabled Lane Poole to traverse the altitudinal range of forest vegetation.34 The expedition had many things in its favour from the start and turned out to be the most successful of his journeys. Lane Poole and Stanley were the only two people in Papua with scientific training, they were the same age, and most importantly, Stanley had seen pines in the headwaters of the Kemp Welch River on his earlier expedition in 1916. Stanley organized the transport, food, and equipment. After picking up their porters and police from the Government Station at Rigo (50 kilometres south-east of Port Moresby) on 17 January 1923, they travelled along the valley of the Kemp Welch and gradually climbed up the Range into the midmountain forest zone. They established a base camp at 1450 metres on the Laruni Spur of Mt Obree and on 26 January climbed to its top, the altitude of which they recorded at 3100 metres.

The forests on the slopes of Mt Obree were the best that Lane Poole had seen and included hoop pine (A. cunninghamii) and four other conifers (Phyllocladus hypophyllus, Libocedrus pauana, Podocarpus cupressiana and Podocarpus amara). Lane Poole knew hoop pine well from its widespread occurrence in Queensland and northern New South Wales and was interested to find the Phyllocladus that is closely related to Tasmania’s highly prized celerytop pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius). He assessed three areas and found that they carried 60 m3 ha–1 of logs, of which over half were conifers, hoop pine being the most plentiful.35 If only the conifer belt spread far enough, he felt that there would be ‘a forest heritage worth looking after’.36.

Their ascent of Mt Obree and other peaks took them through the mid-mountain forests into the moss forests. Lane Poole found the boundary between these belts to be clearly defined, although as its altitude varied with topography, he considered that better meteorological knowledge would be necessary to sort out the relative influence of humidity, rainfall, temperature, and exposure. He collected some herbarium specimens in the moss forest and noted as curious the presence of xerophytic epiphytes growing together with mosses and ferns on the trunks of the stunted trees. Although the moss forests were normally swathed in clouds and saturated with moisture, he found the one at Mt Obree dry on the day he was there and noted that some areas had been burnt, presumably when there had been two or three dry days together.

77

3500 Mt Obree Mt Niori

3000

Mt Urawara, 10 Feb

Mt Ubu

2500

2000

Moncabi Range Oriri Range

Kagi 1500 Laruni Base camp, 25 Jan to 3 Feb Minari, 16 Feb

1000

Tahui River 500

Inimu Creek, 9 Feb

Nonu River, 5 Feb Rigo 18 Jan

Port Moresby, 20 Feb

0

Sequence

Figure 2. Altitudes recorded on Mt Obree–Kagi expedition. Note: observations are charted in sequence and are not to a spatial or temporal scale.

They left their base camp at Laruni on 4 February and for the next two weeks found their way north-west across the headwaters of rivers running out of the Owen Stanley Range, over the ridges between them, and up Mt Urawara on the crest of the main range. It was an exhausting route of climbs and descents that they carefully measured as they went (Fig. 2). On 16 February they reached Minari on the Kokoda trail. They spend a few days there, investigating the geology and forests, and returned to Port Moresby on 20 February.37 Lane Poole spent several weeks in Port Moresby calculating the volumes of his assessments, preparing the detailed records of the species he had collected and drafting his report for the Territory of Papua. He learnt of his appointment to New Guinea for a further year and accepted it, even though it meant another year away from his wife and daughters, the youngest of whom he had never seen. He returned to Australia, visited White and Francis in the Queensland Herbarium, took some recreation leave, and reported to the Department of Home and Territories in Melbourne where it was confirmed that he would be employed for two more years as the Commonwealth’s Forestry Adviser once the New Guinea survey was done. He sailed to Rabaul in October 1923.

New Britain and New Ireland, October 1923 The expedition to Mt Obree with Stanley had shown Lane Poole that the most promising forests were likely to be found in the mid-mountain belt. On arriving in Rabaul, he decided to inspect the lowland forests of New Britain and New Ireland as quickly as he could and then direct his major effort to exploring the higher forests of the main island.

His first journey was to Korindal in New Britain where a sawmill had been built to cut stands of kamarere (Eucalyptus deglupta). It had trees up to 73 metres tall with clean boles to 50 metres; it reminded him of the mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests of Victoria.38 He 78

assessed a remarkable stand at 940 m3 ha–1, but the stands were confined to narrow strips along rivers and streams and were too limited to support an export trade.39 While he was there, he assessed 7 kilometres of strip lines through two areas of rain forest on the nearby Powell River. There were fewer species than he found in similar forests in Papua, but the volume of logs (43 m3 ha–1) was little different.40 Lane Poole had hoped to find it virgin forest but believed it to be regrowth, which caused him to speculate that it might have arisen on land once farmed ‘in the distant past’ or might have regenerated after fire. His observation presages the much later recognition by rain forest ecologists of the importance of rare fires.

In New Ireland, he trekked along the northern part of the island, climbed hills, and went over to the island of Lavongai (New Hanover). He found no forest worth assessing and observed that most of the once considerable forests had been converted to a regrowth of weed trees, scrub, and grass. He was puzzled by Lavongai’s low population density and speculated that either the people must have been overcome by disease, or the island must have been swept by devastating fires.41 Expeditions to Sarawaket and Mt Otto, November 1923 to April 1924 Lane Poole always hoped that ‘some fine day I will come on a grand valley clothed in magnificent forest with a big waterway running through it to carry logs to the mill and the sawn timber to the sea’.42 He also considered that the identification of ‘trees and their range and distribution’ was the most important part of his work, as he ‘should have added many new species and possibly a genus to the world’s flora’.43 These aspects governed his two expeditions in New Guinea. The aim of the first expedition into the Finisterre Range was to ‘cover all possible regions of vegetation from mangrove to Alpine Grass’, and the aim of the second into the Bismark Range was expressed similarly as being to ‘so traverse the country from sea level to the highest possible point as to embrace as wide a range of forest regions as possible’.44 These aims made no mention of the Territories’ need to find the resources for an export trade, and while he still hoped to find his ‘grand valley’, he knew that the lowland forests offered few prospects and that the mid-mountain forests were inaccessible.

Nevertheless, he went ahead in pursuit of his scientific aim, apparently without question.

The New Guinea administration provided Lane Poole with police but as there were no opportunities to join other expeditions, as he had with Woodward and Stanley in Papua, he had to organize and lead his own expeditions into difficult country. However, the longestablished German Lutheran Mission with headquarters at Finschhafen provided him with advice, maps, and a mission teacher, Ngezienuc, to accompany him and help organize the carriers on his first expedition. He left Finschhafen on 7 November and headed inland with his police, assistants, cooks and thirty-five carriers. They proceeded steadily for a week through the Mission’s hill-station at Sattelberg and along well-cut tracks, gradually working their way to higher country through a series of villages. As they journeyed, Lane Poole measured altitudes and took notes of the forest, finding hoop pine (A. cunninghamii) and sighting klinki pine (Araucaria hunsteinii), an important conifer, on ridge crests.45 On 14 November they passed over a 2000 metre ridge to Ogeramnang where he thought that the well-cut tracks and ‘a hot lunch of boiled fowl, potatoes and cabbage… speaks volumes for the civilizing influence of the Lutheran mission’.46 Ogeramnang was at the limit of mission influence, so Lane Poole left his spare gear and food there before setting out to climb the Range as lightly as possible. He climbed through difficult limestone country into a high mid-mountain forest that was mixed in patches with grass country and a mossy forest at the higher altitudes. He observed that hunting parties 79

had burnt many areas and concluded that this had influenced the patch distribution. On 19 November he reached the top of Mt Sarawaket and enjoyed a magnificent view over the cloud-filled Markham valley. He measured the altitude at 4101 metres, but cloud descended before he could take a round of angles on the distant peaks.47 He collected specimens of any plants he found in flower at the higher altitudes because properly equipped collectors rarely visited these areas. He listed eighty-five species of rhododendrons, bushes, herbs, and trees that he had collected, and sent them to the Queensland Herbarium.48 On the return journey, he assessed a small area of mid-mountain forest at Ogeramnang and found that without hoop pine its volume (33 m3 ha–1) was only about half that of similar forests he had measured at Mt Obree. He also assessed a lower forest at Joangey and another near the Mission, but the results were later destroyed at Kohu.

He ended his first expedition on 24 November at Sattelberg where he spent a few days writing up his notes and drying his specimens. The expedition had not found any great forest resource, but it had effectively achieved his objective of inspecting the range of vegetation and it had returned safely.

Before he started on his second expedition, Lane Poole quickly inspected the lowland forest along the coast between Finschhafen and Lae, and in December cut 14 kilometres of lines through a forest near Yalu in the Lower Markham River searching unsuccessfully for the valuable red cedar (Toona australis).49 Although some locals were able to show him three trees, valuable for the best canoes, there was obviously no resource for an export trade and he could turn his attention to mounting his second expedition into the higher lands.

Lane Poole’s second expedition was far longer and more difficult than his first due largely to his undertaking it at the end of the wet season when the low country was flooded, and the rivers were running high and fast. The District Magistrate at Madang may well have tried to dissuade him, but as Lane Poole’s appointment was for a fixed time and he was an incredibly determined man, he would have persisted anyway. He left Madang on 1 February 1924 with a police corporal, three police boys, a few assistants including Peter to look after the herbarium drier, a couple of cooks, and a long line of about fifty carriers. He took a route from the coast to a mission station at Keku, then over a saddle at the western end of the Finisterre Range and through very broken country to the swampy valley of the Ramu. He found the river was 75 to 110 metres wide and he measured it flowing at 16 kilometres an hour. At a miserable campsite plagued by mosquitoes, he went down with fever. He had suffered occasional bouts of malaria since his days in Sierra Leone and dosed himself with quinine. He sent most of the carriers back to Madang to get more rice while his remaining people built a raft with which they tried unsuccessfully to cross the river on 11 February. He had to look for a crossing further up the Ramu and tried to find one a few days later near the mouth of the Boku River only to find the low-lying scrub country under water. For several more days the party trekked across a succession of ridges, rivers, and streams, using whatever trails they could find. On 27 February he arrived at the village of Kohu50 only to find that a party he had sent off for food had returned, claiming that they had been attacked and Waitim killed. Although he did not believe them and Waitim turned up, he had to lead the whole party back to Madang by a different route. After six more days of hard travelling, rain, and river crossings, he arrived there on 5 March. He had travelled hard for five weeks and had achieved virtually nothing apart from a few observations and specimens.

A less determined or perhaps more prudent man might well have given up, but not Lane Poole. He wrote to his wife that he was ‘often attacked by the horrid feeling of the 80

uselessness of my endeavours’ and was ‘filled with loathing for it all’, yet felt it was up to him to ‘push on’.51 He took only a week in Madang to change over his police, pack fresh supplies, buy axes and adzes, and recruit fresh carriers. He took a route up the Mindjim River, which he found to be madness in the wet season, but finally made his way over the range to the Ramu Valley and back to Kohu on 19 March.52 He pressed on, trying unsuccessfully to find a higher crossing of the Ramu. On the way he found some hoop pines on a mountain side and quickly assessed a strip through them. He returned to Kohu on 30 March and decided that his only hope of forcing a crossing was to make a canoe with the adzes and axes he had brought from Madang. Following his earlier practice at Ogeramnang he packed the minimum he needed to climb the Bismarks and left everything else at Kohu with Peter, a few of the carriers and three police, including the corporal. On 4 April he managed to get the loads and people over the Ramu and could at last explore the higher country.

Four days later Lane Poole, with a policeman and two carriers, climbed through a moss forest to the steep rocky top of Mt Otto only to find that the rain and mist made surveying impossible. When he returned to the Ramu the next day, he learnt that his base camp at Kohu, across the Ramu, had been raided.53 On 10 April he led his party across the Ramu and cautiously entered the deserted Kohu where he found that ‘what the natives did not want they smashed…my diary was gone with all other papers and books, and my negatives and prints I found stamped into the mud…the herbarium had been taken…and the wood specimens too’.54 He found only a few notes, some ammunition and some odds and ends. After trying to catch the culprits, he evacuated to Madang, which he reached on 15 April. The carriers who escaped from Kohu turned up unharmed but without Peter, his herbarium assistant. It eventually appeared that the raid had been in retaliation for the rape of a Kohu woman by some of his police and the interpreter a few days before. Lane Poole never knew whether Peter had been killed or had died in an accident.55 Lane Poole’s second expedition had taken him twelve exhausting weeks, discovered almost nothing of value, and cost him about 200 herbarium specimens and many of the records of his first expedition, including the assessments at Joangey and Ogeramnang. On top of that, he contracted a tropical ulcer that laid him up in Madang for the next two months. He despaired that he might have to return to Australia for treatment, but the ulcer improved in early June and he was determined to finish his survey of New Guinea, even if only to ensure that he would never have to return should his Australian job be made permanent.56 Sepik River, June–July 1924 Lane Poole finished his New Guinea survey by travelling up the Sepik River. On 26 June he arrived by schooner at the mouth and travelled up to the Roman Catholic Mission at Marienberg. He discussed a small sawmill that the Mission planned for local use and inspected the nearby forest. On 10 July he chartered a small boat to take him up-river, passing and sometimes stopping at villages until he reached the Government station at Ambunti, some 370 kilometres from the mouth of the Sepik. He searched the slopes and crests of the Hunstein Range with his binoculars and went another 100 kilometres up the river. He found nothing of forest interest in the wide swampland with sago palms but inspected and measured the large patches of floating grass that he compared with the floating islands at Lake Embi. On 13 July, he headed back down the river, duly noting the times of his trip in his small field notebook.57 It was the end of his field work in New Guinea as he persuaded the authorities in Rabaul that continuing it to Bougainville would be a waste of money.

81

From Science to Public Policy The transition from exploitation to science suggested in the title of this paper was followed by an equally ambiguous transition to public policy. This concluding section examines these ambiguities in Lane Poole’s work in the context of the times and his own beliefs.

The first transition was from Burnett’s survey in 1908 to Lane Poole’s survey in 1922–1924.

Burnett’s knowledge of the forests was based on his practical experience of working in them, regulating sawmill logging, and inspecting areas for land settlement. His report focused on the opportunities for exploitation and his classification of the trees was based on their timber uses. Lane Poole’s knowledge was based on his tertiary training and subsequent wide experience. His report also deals with exploitation, but his classification of the forests was based on science, using altitude as a proxy for ecology and botany for the trees. The difference reflected the emergent form of Australian forestry that was to be led by a cadre of science graduates, many of whom were to be trained by Lane Poole in the Australian Forestry School.58 He was grossly dismissive of the older Australian foresters who lacked his scientific credentials.59 The transition from exploitation to science within Lane Poole’s surveys is more ambiguous.

The chronology of his work shows that he gave his first attention to assessing the immediate opportunities for exploitation and when these proved slim, he emphasised the exploration of the higher lands. However, this was partly a matter of opportunity to join other expeditions in Papua, while in New Guinea he investigated and assessed areas before, during and after the expeditions he led. The scientific content of his work can be seen most clearly in his collecting of herbarium specimens, and their despatch for identification and retention in the Queensland Herbarium. Notably his collection extended beyond the large timber trees and into the understorey species and in places to other plants he found interesting or in flower.

The transition can be seen most clearly in his examination of the moss forests that were of no possible timber value, although he was aware of the value of high-altitude forests in protecting catchments. His measurements of altitude, latitude and longitude, and bearings on distant peaks, although conducted in a most scientific manner, contributed more to cartography than anything else. However, his ascent of peaks in mist and rain can only be put down to the culture of Englishmen at the time.

Lane Poole, having finished his fieldwork in July 1924 and taken a joyous holiday reunited with his wife, spent the next months in Melbourne preparing his report. He finished writing it in January 1925 and it was finally printed and presented to Parliament in August 1925, two days before his fortieth birthday. It was not debated and appears to have had little influence on trade or policy at the time. The onset of the Depression meant that trade did not develop, and virtually nothing was done about forestry in Papua and little in New Guinea until the end of the 1930s. It was not until after the Second World War, when Lane Poole had retired, that a Forestry Department was set up to cover the then combined Territories. Nevertheless, the content of these aspects of his report should not be forgotten.

His assessments of the lowland rain forests showed that the low volumes and large number of species per hectare ruled out the commercial prospects for a timber export trade to Australia.

Although he had found ‘a host of beautiful timbers, precious woods which should command a price’, he had a sanguine view of Australia where he thought ‘people are too busy to really develop a large demand for the very beautiful in the decoration of home life’, while more distant markets were ruled out by the shipping costs.60 Although he had found some conifer resources in the mid-mountain forests, they were on difficult terrain and would be too costly 82

to extract. Lane Poole also considered the timber needs of the Territories but thought that their small needs could be largely met by pit-sawing.

Although assessing the prospects for a timber export industry was Lane Poole’s main task, he also looked at the prospects for exporting other forest products, conventionally named “minor forest products”. Bark that could be used for tanning leather was the most likely prospect and he collected and dried samples from mangroves, oaks, and other species. The Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry’s Forest Products Laboratory in Perth tested his mangrove samples, but the samples had deteriorated in transit and the results were not conclusive.61 He sent the oak (Quercus spp.) samples to I. H. Boas (1878–1955), then Chief Chemist for a Melbourne firm of leather merchants, and they were found to be comparable to the widely used bark of European oak. He had found extensive areas of nipa palm in Papua and thought that the possibility of developing an industrial alcohol industry might be promising, given that the Philippines had already proved that a distillery based on it could be established. He had observed that the local people used plant fibres for many purposes and thought that, like the bark, these might find a place in Australia’s imports. Similarly, he recorded the occurrence of resins, gums, kino, gutta, rubber, oils, dyes, and medicinal plants that might find a market if developed.

Advocating, developing, and applying policies to conserve and manage the forests was a passionate concern and a matter of conscience for Lane Poole throughout his professional life. The imperial model of state forestry implemented by an energetic, scientifically trained cadre of professional foresters, operating on sound forestry principles without political interference, was his ideal. His saw his experience in Western Australia as political interference and an example of the failing of democratic practice to conserve forests. Lane Poole’s final report to Parliament included a section on policy for each of the Territories, the one for Papua having been prepared towards the end of his period there when its first audience was the small group of officials administering the Territory. It is remarkable, even by the freer standards of the time, that it ever appeared in print as it implicitly disparaged the Territory administration and railed against democracy, the foundation of the Parliament to which it was presented. He characterized Papua’s Timber Ordinance (Consolidated) 1909 that had been enacted in Murray’s time as ‘an excellent example of the kind of laws a young democracy passes to ensure the destruction of her natural resources as quickly as possible’.62 While he noted that the Ordinance had been merely copied from old Queensland legislation, the statement was hardly likely to endear him to Murray. He thought that because the ‘Government of Papua is not democratic… it has a chance even in this democratic age of establishing a forest policy that will be appreciated by the people when they have reached the stage of civilization which is expected of them’.63 To counter the argument that a forest policy was not needed when there was so little trade, he conjured up a duty for Papua, ‘as part of the Empire… [to be] …producing their quota or food or raw materials’. While Lane Poole’s attitudes can be seen to reflect his training and background, his expression of them was tactless, to say the least.

He recommended setting up a forest service on a particularly authoritarian version of the imperial model that would give a Conservator of Forests exclusive control of forest policy and complete power to hire and fire the staff. While this proposal rested on his imperial and political outlook, he made a series of detailed recommendations for each type of forest in both Territories that rested on the scientific observations of his surveys.

For the lowland rain forests, he urged that their minor products should be investigated and developed by industrial chemists, and he believed that the future of forestry there would be 83

being closely related to their development. He recommended that the rain forest along some riverbanks should be converted to pure stands of erima (Octomeles sumatrana). He recommended that the mid-mountain resource of conifers should be increased by planting hoop pine. Although he recognised the difficulty of doing so, he recommended trying to convert some of the unproductive grasslands to plantations of teak (Tectona grandis), an exotic species.64 If we look at Lane Poole’s report from today’s perspective, it is striking how little connection he saw between the forest policies he advocated and any benefits to the indigenous people.

This was in spite of the fact that the Administration ‘carefully and wisely safeguarded’ their interests, as he put it, and had health, education and other policies aimed at their well-being.

He had recorded many examples of their use of forest plants for food, basic shelters, elaborate communal houses, bridges, fibre, and medicines; he knew that they used the forests to hunt game; and he had praised examples of native forest management. But if we look at the situation from the international forestry perspective of the time, it was the conversion of forest land for agriculture — deforestation — that had to be countered by strong state policies to conserve and manage the forests wisely for the long term. Although the report was largely focused on wood, the major traded commodity, it did not deny the harvesting and use of all of the other products of the forest; it was simply that they had to be controlled, usually by licensing. Lane Poole followed this by recommending the dedication of permanent forest reserves and the issue of permits to gather forest products.65 He was convinced that the forestry of tree planting and wood conversion that he recommended ‘cannot in any way prove harmful to the native’ and indeed would have a ‘great civilizing effect’.66 Lane Poole’s perspective was one in which he saw an enlightened science conserving the forests against deforestation by tradition and ignorance on one hand, and by the Australian democracy in which he was embedded on the other. Such a science, rigorously applied, would avert environmental deterioration and be of great human benefit.

It was a view of the world that Charles Lane Poole pursued with remarkable diligence and energy in these surveys, and throughout his professional life.

Acknowledgments I am most grateful to Mrs Charlotte Burston and Mrs Phyllis Hamilton, daughters of Charles and Ruth Lane Poole, who donated their parents’ papers to the National Library of Australia and discussed their parents’ lives with me. I was engaged by the National Archives of Australia to research and write the content for the Uncommon Lives feature in the Archives’ web site on the lives of Charles and Ruth Lane Poole. In doing so, I appreciated working with Kellie Abbott, Kate Bignall, Lenore Coltheart, Fiona Kilby, Merilyn Minell, Tikka Wilson and Yvonne Wise. I gratefully acknowledge help and advice from Lyn Craven, Martin Golman, Hartmut Holznecht, Laurie Jessop, Wally Johnson, Carol Priestley, Mike Roche, Ray Specht, and Bob Thistlethwaite.

References The following abbreviations are used throughout the references: CLP Charles Edward Lane Poole NAA National Archives of Australia NLA National Library of Australia RLP Ruth Lane Poole

84

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

C.E. Lane Poole, ‘The forest resources of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea: report’, Commonwealth of Australia, Papers Presented to Parliament, 2 (1925), Paper 73 [pp. 209], 2687–2896 + maps (hereafter CLP Forest resources with the page numbers 1–209 of Paper 73).

National Library of Australia (hereafter NLA), MS 3799, Papers of Charles Lane Poole.

National Archives of Australia (hereafter NAA): A2430, 1941 POL ASS 1, C.E. Lane Poole (hereafter CLP), Letter, addressee unknown, 7 July 1941.

NLA: MS 3799/7/243, CLP to Ruth Lane Poole (hereafter RLP), 26 June 1924.

CLP’s grandfather (Edward) Stanley Poole (1830–1867) was an Arabic scholar in the British Museum, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (http://www.oxforddnb. com.virtual.anu.edu.au/view/article/22522/ 22512/, accessed 7 July 2005). His father, Stanley Edward Lane Poole (1854–1931), was an oriental numismatist and historian, and prolific author. He was Professor of Arabic at Trinity College, Dublin 1898–1904. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (http://www.oxforddnb.com.virtual. anu.edu.au/ view/article/35569/, accessed 7 July 2005). His uncle, Reginald Lane Poole (1857–1939), was a medievalist who became Keeper of the Archives at Oxford University, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (http://www.oxforddnb.com.virtual.anu. edu.au/view/article/35568/, accessed 7 July 2005). For Charles Lane Poole’s life, see Australian Dictionary of Biography (Melbourne, 1986), Vol. 10, pp. 660–661; Athol Meyer, The Foresters (Hobart, 1985), pp. 3–15; John Dargavel, ‘Charles Lane Poole in the transition from Empire’, in A Forest Conscienceness: Proceedings of the 6th National Conference of the Australian Forest History Society, eds. M. Calver, H. Beigli-Cole, G. Bolton, J. Dargavel, A. Gaynor, P. Horrowitz, J. Milles and G. WardellJohnson (Rotterdam, 2005), pp. 65–74.

See J.L. Reed, Forests of France (London, 1954), pp. 63–72.

C.E. Lane Poole, Report on the Forests of Sierra Leone (Freetown, Sierra Leone, 1911), Appendix 2.

Lewis Lett, Knights Errant in Papua (Edinburgh, 1935), p. 2; W.J. Hudson, Australia, and Papua New Guinea (Sydney, 1971), pp. 1–2.

Ferdinand von Mueller, ‘Brief report on Papuan highland plants gathered during Sir William MacGregor’s expedition in May and June 1889’, in British New Guinea: Report of the Administrator for the Period 4th September 1888 to 30th June 1889 (Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, 1890, XLVIII, C.5897.33) Gilbert Burnett, Timber Trees of the Territory of Papua: Reports and Catalogue (Melbourne, 1908).

NAA: A518, DA821/1 (pp. 370, 371) Atlee Hunt, Secretary, Home and Territories Department, to Secretary, Prime Minister’s Department, 1 July 1918; 30 August 1918.

Michael Roche, History of New Zealand Forestry (New Zealand Forestry Corporation), pp. 163–166.

NAA: A518, DA821/1 (p. 359) R. McKay Oakley, Acting Deputy Comptroller-General, Department of Trade and Customs, to Secretary, Prime Minister’s Department, 28 September 1920, citing resolution of Interstate Conference of Fruit and Preserves Manufacturers of 30 June 1920; NAA: A518, DA821/1 (pp. 360–363) V.B. Trapp to Atlee Hunt, Secretary Home and Territories Department, 29, 30 July 1920.

NAA: A518, DA821/1 (p. 331), copy of telegram addressed to Honourable Massy Greene

by V. Trapp, 11 July 1921.

85

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

Evan R. Stanley, ‘Report on the salient geological features and natural resources of the New Guinea Territory including notes of the dialects and ethology’ in ‘Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the Territory of New Guinea from 1st July 1921 to 30 June 1922, Appendix B’. Commonwealth of Australia Papers Presented to Parliament, Paper 18 (1923).

NAA: A518, D821/1 (197), J.J. Cummins, Civil Engineer, Brisbane to Prime Minister, 9 January 1922.

It was not until 1938 that the Hagen-Sepik Patrol finally crossed the highlands. 18. NAA: A518, DA821/1 (55), Secretary, Department of Home and Territories to Secretary, Prime Minister’s Department, 17 May 1923.

NAA: A1, 1923/25024, Evan R. Stanley, ‘A geological investigation of the unexplored mountain region between Mount Obree and Kagi’, p. 2.

CLP, Forest Resources, p. 4.

John Dargavel and Damien Moloney, ‘Assessing Queensland’s forests’, in Australia’s Ever-changing Forests III: Proceedings of the Third National Conference on Australian Forest History, Jervis Bay, Australia, ed. John Dargavel (Canberra, 1997) pp. 74–88.

CLP, Forest Resources, p.174.

Ibid., p. 201.

Bob Thistlethwaite, personal communication, 16 August 2005.

Calculated from CLP, Forest Resources, pp. 72–162.

C.T. White and W.D. Francis, ‘Plants collected in Papua by C.E. Lane-Poole’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 38(15) (1926), 225–261; C.T. White and W.D. Francis, ‘Plants collected in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea by C.E. Lane Poole’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 39(6) (1927), 61–70.

Laurie Jessop, personal communication, Queensland Herbarium, 28 May 2005.

Calculated from CLP, Forest Resources, tables 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9.

Calculated from CLP, Forest Resources, tables 10, 12.

Calculated from CLP, Forest Resources, table 13.

NLA: MS 3799/7/458, CLP to RLP, 10 August 1922.

Calculated from CLP, Forest Resources, table 17.

NAA: G91, 375, R.A. Woodward, Kikori Station, Patrol Report 18/22–23, 19 April 1923.

NAA: A1, 1923/25024. E.K. Stanley, ‘Geological investigation of unexplored mountain region between Mount Obree and Kagi’.

Calculated from CLP, Forest Resources, tables 24, 25, 26.

NLA: MS 3799/7/366, CLP to RLP, n.d. February 1922.

Although Lane Poole is now credited in Papua New Guinea with the ‘discovery’ of Eucalyptus tereticornis on Mt Obree and also on the Kokoda Track near Efogi and Launumu (Bob Thistlethwaite, personal communication, 16 August 2005), there is no mention of it in his report or in the Queensland Herbarium records.

Lane Poole recorded kamarere by the synonym E. naudininana.

Calculated from CLP, Forest Resources, pp. 55–57.

CLP, Forest resources, pp. 61–62.

Ibid., p. 62.

NLA: MS 3799/7/186–188, CLP to RLP, 15 March 1924.

NLA: MS 3799/7/478, CLP to RLP, 12 April 1923.

CLP, Forest Resources, pp. 173, 181.

Araucaria hunsteinii was known as A. klinkii in Lane Poole’s time.

86

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

59.

60.

61.

62.

63.

64.

65.

66.

CLP, Forest Resources, p. 177.

His measurement with simple instruments is remarkably close to the current estimate of 4121 m.

CLP, Forest Resources, p. 181.

Ibid., pp 57–58. Lane Poole recorded it as Cedrella toona var. Australis.

Kohu is now known by people outside the area as Kesawai 1 (Carol Priestley, personal communication, 7 September 2005).

NLA: MS 3799/7/179–188, CLP to RLP, 13–15 March 1924.

CLP, Forest Resources, p. 190.

Ibid., pp. 197–198.

Ibid., p. 198.

Ibid., p. i. As the oral history at Kohu as presently known has no account of such a killing, it is most likely that Peter drowned when escaping (Carol Priestly, personal communication, 22 March 2005).

NLA: MS 3799/7/ 216, 242–243, CLP to RLP, 5, 26 June 1924.

NLA: MS 3799/7/505, CLP Field book, 13 July 1924.

L. T. Carron, A History of Forestry in Australia (Rushcutters Bay, NSW, 1985), pp. 258– 267.

Lane Poole caused great offence to those running the States’ forest services who had learnt their forestry by experience, private study, or in the Victorian School of Forestry at Creswick, when he asserted that there were only ten trained foresters in Australia; C.E. Lane Poole, ‘Forestry Position in Australia’, Commonwealth of Australia, Papers Presented to Parliament, Paper 72 (1925).

CLP, Forest Resources, p. 171.

Ibid., p. 163. The species tested were Bruguiera Rheedii, Rhyzophora mucronata and Xylocarpus granatum.

Ibid., p. 45.

Ibid., p. 45.

The German administration had planted teak in plots near Madang on the north coast and Kokopo in New Britain (Bob Thistlethwaite, personal communication, 16 August 2005), but Lane Poole does not report having seen them.

CLP, Forest Resources, p. 46.

Ibid., p. 6

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JAMES MANN James Mann was a leading researcher and authority on determining the strength and durability of Australasian timbers, and pioneered methods for identifying species using microscopic examination, and splinter tests. Mann was Government research scholar at the School of Engineering, University of Melbourne, 1910-1912, and oversaw the Engineering Laboratory, for 20 years when Professor W. C. Kernot occupied the chair of engineering.

James Mann wrote several papers in conjunction with the Victorian Institute of Engineers, the Royal Society of Victoria, and other technical bodies, and was consulted by the Victorian Forests Department after it was formed in 1908.

He published a textbook Australian Timber: its strength, durability, and identification, 1900. An extended second edition was published in 1921, that included more detailed research based on test samples with known age, forest location, and soil conditions, as well as including details about imported timber species from Papua, Burma, New Guinea, and New Zealand.

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REFER TO PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 3 of 30th October 2020 for Jim McAdam’s story leading to being first Director of the Dept of Forests TPNG “JB” James Bannister McAdam MM 1910-1959 was a graduate of University of Queensland and Australian Forestry School. (dux in 1932/33). In 1934, he joined Queensland Forestry. In 1938 he joined the TPNG administration and made Chief Forester 1939.

With the threat of war in the Pacific, McAdam enlisted in the NGVR. After the Japanese invaded Salamaua in March, he led a party of scouts which established an observation post within a mile (1.6 km) of enemy positions. McAdam acted as a guide in the foray and was awarded the Military Medal for his outstanding service at Salamaua.

From 1944/45 he was Lt Col 1 Aust CRE (New Guinea Forests). In 1946 he became Director of Forests TPNG. He died in 1959.

Photo Credit Ian Whyte McAdam Park Wau 1975

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DON McIntosh THIRD MANAGING DIRECTOR DEPT OF FORESTS 1970-75 Don McIntosh 1927 -2015 joined Forests PNG in 1948 as a cadet forester. After graduating in 1952, he held positions included Regional Forest Officer Lae, Chief of Forest Management before becoming the third Director of Forests in the Dept of Forests PNG.

Presentation of Certificates Bulolo Forestry College. November 1966. L to R. Don McIntosh Director Department of Forests; Sir Leslie Johnson CBE Assistant Administrator TPNG; Horrie Niall Morobe District Commissioner; Leon Clifford Acting Principal Bulolo Forestry College. Photo Credit Janelle Clifford 7/4/20 Don’s military service was in the Royal Australian Navy Service Number S10526, home port Sydney NSW with the rank of Able Seaman. He enlisted on 31 May 1945 and was discharged on 6 January 1947 (most fitting defence service for sailing the political seas of forestry later in his career). After completing his studies at the Australian Forestry School Canberra 1950-51, under the TPNG Forestry cadetship scheme where his classmates included Ted Gray and Kevin White, Don returned to PNG. 42

He was responsible for greatly increasing natural forest assessment with trials using helicopters as transport in the Gogol area in 1963.

42

Eric Hammermaster personal communication 11 April 2019

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BILL SUTTIE SECOND DIRECTOR TPNG FORESTS After graduating from the Australian Forestry School, in 1932 Bill joined the Queensland Department of Forestry. He was a founding member of the Institute of Foresters of Australia in 1935.

During the second world war, he was in command of 1 Australian Forestry Survey Coy in Papua New Guinea. This was under 1 Command Royal Engineers (New Guinea Forests) as the Headquarters Unit, with J B McAdam (head of prewar New Guinea Forest Service) as commanding officer, with 1 Australian Forestry Survey Coy, with W R Suttie (Queensland) in command and the 2 Australian Forestry Survey Coy, with A E Head (Victoria) in command. They began in January 1944, and the units were able to function in May 1944.

LT Carron in his book on Australian Forestry described the purpose of these Forest Survey Companies in PNG. Their major tasks were the location of supplies of timber for immediate operational requirements of the various war services, and an assessment of the forest resources of the south-west Pacific Area, for both operational and post-war purposes, to the extent that available transport, communications, and enemy occupation permitted. In this, considerable use was made of air-photo interpretation supported by ground reconnaissance and sampling. The units were gradually phased out towards the end of 1945, after the war in the south-west Pacific had ended.

After the war, he held several positions with the Department of Forestry in Queensland, the last being District Forester Atherton in North Queensland until he resigned in 1956 to join the Department of Forests in the Territory of Papua New Guinea.PNG. Here, he rose to be the second Director of Forests in PNG. After retiring from TPNG he lived at Caloundra until his death in 1982.

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KEVIN WHITE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR TPNG FORESTS Kevin 1924-2012 joined TPNG forests in 1957. He completed the first stage of secondary education in 1941 and then worked for a spell in the Queensland Public Service in Brisbane, enlisting in the AIF in 1942 (QX57633/Q144919). He shipped out to New Guinea where he was taken on by 39 Light Wireless Air Warning Section as an electrician and later returned to Australia for radio technician training. Back in New Guinea he was attached to the 2nd Australian Corps Signals at the transmitter centre on the Sattelburg trail above Finschhafen, and later at Torokina on Bougainville. There at Torokina Kevin celebrated his 21st birthday and the end of the Pacific war.

After his discharge (26 Sep 1946), he re-joined the Queensland Public Service but opted for retraining under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. He firstly completed his secondary schooling and then became a Cadet Forest Officer of the Queensland Department of Forestry. His four-year degree entailed two years at the University of Queensland followed by two years at the Australian Forestry School in Canberra, graduating with Dip. For. in 1951 and B.Sc. (For.) in 1952.

The next five years were largely spent on rainforest management research in North Queensland, partly at the Forest Research Station at Atherton, where he became familiar with many of the species of the rainforest flora, established a large botanical collection, and discovered new species. He, along with his boss Eddie Volck, were honoured by Dr Lindsay Smith, Queensland Government Botanist, by naming one of the tree species from the vicinity of Kuranda as Neorites kevediana (Fishtail silky oak) (Proteaceae).

Kevin transferred to the Forest Department of the Territory of Papua & New Guinea in 1957 as Assistant Botanist and Plant Ecologist at the Botany Division of the Department in Lae rising to Assistant Director Dept of Forests PNG. After PNG he undertook various consultancies including FAO Bangladesh and ADB Nepal.

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Eulogy by Rex Wiggins43 Kevin Joseph White or, as many of us addressed Kevin, just K.J. In the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, it would be Papa bilong Lapegu.

Our paths first crossed back in 1958 when I 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 them Kevin, who was at the time in charge of the Lae Botanical Gardens.

I was single at the time and it was much easier to move singles around than married couples.

It was not long before I found myself transferred to Lae where I met my wife to be Anne.

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 we got together on many occasions in Lae and later, when Anne and I moved to Rabaul. Following my permanent relocation to Port Moresby some years after, Kevin visited our home quite often and we reciprocated having meals at his and a close bond developed which has lasted more than fifty years. I can still see the array of food warming receptacles brimming with curries and seafood and his houseboi Glass hovering round as we sat at Kevin’s teak dining table – they were great times.

Kevin’s contribution to the reforestation of PNG forests and to the training of local forestry personnel has been clearly demonstrated and I leave it to the words of the current Managing Director of the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority Mr. Kanawi Pouru and I quote: “The late Kevin White was a professional colleague who had dedicated a good part of his life in Papua New Guinea to help build and establish a strong foundation for a future National Forest Service as part of the national preparedness program leading towards Independence in the mid-seventies. He was a great forester and an administrator that made a huge contribution to shaping the future direction of PNG’s forest management and development.” End of quote.

Many of Kevin’s colleagues and friends have responded to his passing with emails and phone calls expressing condolences. Such was this person who made friends easily, readily gave advice, guidance and instruction and I would like to quote again, this time from Professor Simon Saulei. “I am fortunate to be trained by Kevin during the period when some of us where selected to undergo Forestry Cadetship tenure. We, Oscar Mamalai, Dike Kari, Joe Ben and later joined by Jack Noah underwent a series of field exercises with Kevin including Gogol, Open Bay, Omsis, and Bevani forest areas,” End of quote, Simon attended UPNG and says that he visited Kevin at HQ who then provided information, especially books and manuals and when he graduated and joined forestry, he met up with Kevin in Thailand at various FAO Forestry meetings. This typifies the strong leaning that Kevin had for educating local officers in the field of forest management.

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 successful and he had a great delight in showing me, when I visited, the use of his thinnings from the plantations for electric light poles in various towns and villages. The timber was also a great and necessary resource as firewood and scaffolding. It was here that Kevin teamed up with his mate Bhagirath Sharma and together they collected, photographed, and published the book “Wild

43

Personal communication Rex Wiggins 10 April 2019 and Bob Thistlethwaite 13 March 2018

93

Orchids in Nepal” which is a fine achievement given the terrain that had to be covered to obtain the material and take quality photographs – this book is here on display.

Kevin was well known throughout South east Asia as a forestry advisor to governments and earned a high level of respect for the work that he accomplished and was very keen to pass on his knowledge to up-and-coming local professionals in his field. Many forestry students, especially from PNG, Nepal, Cambodia, and Laos kept in contact with Kevin and after he retired to Thailand he was forever advising and editing their assignments and theses.

The letters of appreciation and plaques from various authorities also displayed here speak for themselves and are testament to the work that Kevin undertook in developing countries and the commitment he gave to achieve the results that he did accomplish. Kevin undertook considerable research into the growing of teak in Asia which earned him the title TeakWallah in some quarters.

We, as a family arrived in Brisbane late 1978 and it was not long after that Kevin contacted me to see if I would look after his financial affairs here in Australia and so our association developed further.

After my wife passed away in 1996, it was Kevin who suggested that I visit him in Thailand with view of us undertaking some travel into some of the more remote areas of S.E. Asia and so it eventuated that over the past 15 years there was usually a trip each year somewhere off the tourist track quite often involving extremely basic transport and accommodation, but Kevin obviously enjoyed such trips. I would get a running commentary of the flora as we motored up the Mekong in Laos or have orchid trees pointed out to me in Sabah and Kevin was always a wealth of knowledge when it came to wandering through markets where he was keen to explain the origin and attributes of unusual fruits and vegetables.

I visited Kevin several times at his unit in the condominium in Jomtien Thailand and for years I would see reams of paper, photographs, slides etc. as Kevin laboured on his last major project - the White Family History. The results of many years gathering information, travelling to Ireland, the UK. USA and Australia are also displayed here in memory of a great achievement and something the White Family will surely treasure.

Kevin dearly loved to go to the small island of Koh Samet which entailed an hour’s drive to the fishing town of Ban Phe and then a 40-minute ferry run to the island. The tranquil setting, the wonderful restaurants at the water’s edge and basic accommodation was the ideal place for Kevin to spend time relaxing and editing his many research manuscripts. Kevin has been a great friend to myself and my family over the years and in fact, one of the family, a wonderful travelling companion and I will sadly miss his dry sense of humour, his quick wit and most definitely the vast knowledge he possessed on the history of S E Asia which he readily passed onto me. Kevin always travelled with a book and usually this was of a historical nature and related to the country we were visiting. I must say I cannot think of an occasion where I have seen Kevin reading a book of fiction.

His life has been most interesting and varied and his travels have taken him to all corners of the globe. His work and achievements in the forestry field must have been extremely rewarding to himself and the legacy he has left behind will continue through the graduates that he guided. A job well done Kevin, rest in peace my friend.

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Vale Kevin Joseph White by Bob Thistlethwaite Source IFA publication The Forester Volume 56 No 1 March 2013 Kevin Joseph White (Kev or just K.J. to many) died on 28 Jun 2012 at Pinjarra Hills, Brisbane. He was born in 15 Apr 1924 in Marrickville, Sydney. His family home was at Wyong (north of Sydney) where his father had a dairy and mixed grain farm. By 1930 the family had moved to North Queensland where his father pioneered a tobacco farm (on Tinaroo Creek, some 13 km from Mareeba) and subsequently grew sugar cane on the Upper Mulgrave Valley (about 11 km by road from Gordonvale).

He completed the first stage of secondary education in 1941 and then worked for a spell in the Queensland Public Service in Brisbane, enlisting in the AIF in 1942 (QX57633/Q144919). He shipped out to New Guinea where he was taken on by 39 Light Wireless Air Warning Section as an electrician and later returned to Australia for radio technician training. Back in New Guinea he was attached to the 2nd Australian Corps Signals at the transmitter centre on the Sattelburg trail above Finschhafen, and later at Torokina on Bougainville. There at Torokina Kevin celebrated his 21st birthday and the end of the Pacific war.

After his discharge (26 Sep 1946), he re-joined the Queensland Public Service but opted for retraining under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. He firstly completed his secondary schooling and then became a Cadet Forest Officer of the Queensland Department of Forestry. His four-year degree entailed two years at the University of Queensland followed by two years at the Australian Forestry School in Canberra, graduating with Dip. For. in 1951 and B.Sc. (For.) in 1952.

The next five years were largely spent on rainforest management research in North Queensland, partly at the Forest Research Station at Atherton, where he became familiar with many of the species of the rainforest flora, established a large botanical collection, and discovered new species. He, along with his boss Eddie Volck, were honoured by Dr Lindsay Smith, Queensland Government Botanist, by naming one of the tree species from the vicinity of Kuranda as Neorites kevediana (Fishtail silky oak) (Proteaceae).

Kevin transferred to the Forest Department of the Territory of Papua & New Guinea in 1957 as Assistant Botanist and Plant Ecologist at the Botany Division of the Department in Lae, and in 1958 oversaw the Lae Botanic Gardens. He continued to work with the Department of Forests for 20 years in various capacities as a Silvicultural Research officer, Assistant Director (Research & Development) and, prior to his departure in 1977, as Acting Director of the Department.

Kevin was responsible for establishing the Bulolo Forestry School (now the Bulolo Campus of the University of Technology) and was actively involved in the development of the Degree course in Forestry at the University of Technology at Lae. He was awarded the Imperial Service Order on 11 June 1977 “For Faithful Service”, and in 2000 was honoured by the Governor General of Papua New Guinea “For contribution in services to the development of Papua New Guinea” commemorating 25 years of PNG Independence.

Kevin made a major contribution to forestry development in PNG, especially through the training of local forestry personnel, a process he commenced long before self-government’s drive for localisation of government administration. It was that core of professionally qualified staff who became the backbone of forestry administration post-independence and the later National Forest Service. The Managing Director of the PNG Forest Authority, 95

Kanawi Pouru, wrote “The late Kevin White was a professional colleague who had dedicated a good part of his life in Papua New Guinea to help build and establish a strong foundation for a future National Forest Service as part of the national preparedness program leading towards Independence in the mid-seventies. He was a great forester and an administrator that made a huge contribution to shaping the future direction of PNG’s Forest Management and Development.”

In 1977 Kevin left PNG and commenced work on international projects, firstly on an FAO project in Bangladesh to rehabilitate the Forest Research Centre at Chittagong. This was followed by a six-year Asian Development Bank-funded eucalypt plantation project in Nepal at Sagarnath in the Terai where he trained 80 forestry technicians. The plantations supplied thinnings for electric light poles and for scaffolding and were also a necessary and valued firewood resource. He maintained contact over the next 20 years regularly visiting Sagarnath and other areas of Nepal, a country he had come to love. After the close of the ADB project he became an independent consultant providing services to China, Cambodia, Bhutan, Indonesia, and Brazil and maintained forest interests in many Asian countries. During the 1990-1991 period while working in Cambodia, he lectured in Forest Ecology at Champadong University in Phnom Penh.

Kevin undertook considerable research into teak silviculture in Asia and contributed widely to the development of teak plantations there and in Brazil. He maintained a keen interest in Eucalyptus silviculture and was also a staunch advocate for Dalbergia sisoo and Pterocarpus indicus which he championed as species that are readily propagated and appropriate for village production systems, and with a wide range of end uses from furniture to firewood.

Kevin was well known throughout South East Asia as a Forestry Adviser and earned a high level of respect for the work that he accomplished. He always was concerned to pass on his knowledge to local professional foresters. Many forestry students from Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Cambodia, and Laos kept in contact with Kevin and after he retired to Thailand he was forever advising and editing their assignments and theses. The letters of appreciation and plaques from various authorities testify to the work that Kevin undertook and his achievements.

He had a passion for orchids, collected extensively, and co-authored “Wild Orchids in Nepal” with Bhagirath Sharma, a close friend. This was a fine achievement considering his age and the terrain that had to be traversed to obtain the material and take quality photos.

Kevin was always ready to provide advice, guidance and instruction to those upcoming forestry professionals who sought it and is fondly regarded by many from PNG to Nepal for his generosity of time and resources in this regard. Professor Simon Saulei (University of Vudal) wrote that he was fortunate to be trained by Kevin during his Forestry Cadetship.

Simon attended UPNG and when he visited Forestry HQ at Hohola, Kevin freely provided him with books, manuals, and other information. This was typical of Kevin in his drive to foster the tertiary education of local officers.

Kevin was a sociable person who made friends easily. He had a quick wit and subtle sense of humour, coupled with a certain panache. His BBQs were notable. Not for Kevin some rustic rough and ready affair, eating off a paper plate and drinking out of a plastic cup; out in the middle of the bush in an idyllic setting you were confronted with a 25 kg bag of green prawns, scallops, oysters, fish, steaks and other goodies, a table covered with crisply starched white tablecloth, crystal goblets, silver wine buckets, rafts of ice-cold refreshments and all the trimmings — and, of course, wood fired BBQs! And as for Kev’s dinners and Australia Day parties.... memorable affairs!

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His life has been most interesting and varied and his travels have taken him to all corners of the globe. His forestry achievements in PNG and SE Asia are his legacy, one which will live on through the graduates he guided.

Information collated largely from an obituary by close friend Rex Wiggins delivered at K.J.’s funeral, from Kevin White’s published family history (2003) and from my own reminiscences - Bob Thistlethwaite.

▪

Forester, vol 56, no 1, March 2013, pp 29-30

97

ACRONYMS ACT AEC AFS AFPNG AIF AMF ANBG ANGAU ANU APMF APPM ASIO ASOPA BCOF “Beer Time” BFC BGD BUC C cm CALM CFA CNGT CRE CRE

CSIRO CHAH DASF DEPT DOF FAO F &TB FPRC Forkol GIS ha IBRD IFA ITTO L of N m3 MM

Australian Capital Territory Administrators Executive Committee Australian Forestry School Association of Foresters of PNG Australian Infantry Forces Australian Military Forces Australian National Botanical Gardens Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit Australian National University Australian Paper Manufacturers Forestry Pty Ltd Australia Paper and Pulp Manufacturers Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Australian School of Pacific Administration British Commonwealth Occupational Force 1945-52 Any time.

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 Commander Royal Engineers 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).

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria Dept of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries Department Department of Forests Food and Agriculture Organisation Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra Forest Products Research Centre Hohola Bulolo Forestry College Geographic Information Systems Hectare International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Institute of Foresters of Australia International Tropical Timber Organization League of Nations cubic metre Military Medal 98

NAA NARI NB no.

NG NGF NGIB NGVR NZ NSW P or p PIB PIR PNG PNGAA PNGAF PNGFA PNGFIA PNGRIS PNGUT POM Q QF RAE RPC SFM SP UK UN Unasylva UNE UNI UNITECH UNRE UPNG UQ US USA TPNG TUBL TA TA TRP VSF WA WB WW2

National Archives Australia National Agriculture Research Institute New Britain Number New Guinea New Guinea Forces (relates to plant collection of Lae Herbarium) New Guinea Infantry Battalion New Guinea Volunteer Rifles New Zealand New South Wales page Papuan Infantry Battalion Pacific Islands Regiment Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Australia Association Papua New Guinea Australian Foresters Magazine Series Papua New Guinea Forest Authority PNG Forest Industries Association Papua New Guinea Resource Information System PNG University of Technology Port Moresby Queensland Queensland Forestry Royal Australian Engineers/Australian Army Royal Papuan Constabulary Sustainable Forest Management South Pacific United Kingdom United Nations Journal of FAO of UN University of New England Armidale NSW University University of Technology Lae PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment University of Papua New Guinea University of Queensland United States United States of America Territory of Papua and New Guinea Territory United Brewery Ltd Timber Area Timber Authority Timber Rights Purchase Victorian School of Forestry Western Australia World Bank WORLD WAR 2

99