AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUANEW GUINEA1922-1975
PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9B-5B4D8 of 3rd April 2024
FOREST MANAGEMENT.
Eminent TPNG Forest Flying Typist June (Dowler) Monin TPNG Forests (1968)
Editor R B McCarthy
Flying typewriter by bonzaiaisation on devian art2
1 District Forester Bulolo Wau 1973/74.
2June Dowler (nee Monin) recalls flying in a helicopter with her typewriter somewhere in New Britain to type contracts.
NAME
June
DATE JOINED TPNG FORESTS 1968
OCCUPATION
WORK LOCALITIES
Typist
Port Moresby
Ulamona New Britain (as typist under Chris Borough) for documents concerning Timber Rights Purchase Hoskins New Britain. Bulolo (transferred there with my Husband Andre) who previously worked at Brown River under Bob Bruce
DEPARTURE PNG December 1971
Life after PNG
Returned to live in Switzerland until 2000; then Queensland till 2013; presently in Switzerland
Monin (nee Dowler) and Andree Monin
June Dowler. SP/Ox Palm country .
Loading June’s typewriter onto chopper. Photo credit C Borough.
Forestry Wedding 1970. June’s wedding St Mary's Cathedral, Port Moresby on 12.12.1970.
Bulolo National Forest.
Photo credit June Monin.
June’s adventures in the forests of New Britain were reported by Chris Borough in his article An Example of a Timber Rights Purchase: Chris Borough3 - A few months of Chris’s life as a Forest Officer in TPNG
This was but a small part of Chris’s experience as a Forest Officer in TPNG – an experience that made a lifetime impression on him.
It was September 1967 and Chris’s first Timber Rights Purchase – Collectively known as East New Britain TRP (DIES 1967) from memory. Jim Cavanaugh from HQ at Konedobu knew of Chris’s assessment experience in New Britain and gave him the task of organising a Timber Rights Purchase (TRP) covering an area from Wide Bay to Open Bay. It was a rapid learning process. The purchase of the Right to harvest timber was being used as a method of securing timber resources without the need to purchase land – land purchase was a concept that was totally rejected by the traditional owners across the nation. It was around this time that the Mandated Territory of New Guinea was under increasing scrutiny by the United Nations and activities that had once been taken for granted no longer applied. One of the constraints was that money could not be withheld to be paid over a longer period of time. Also, every person who was identified as an owner would need to be identified and their consent agreed. In addition, the money paid for the Purchase would have to be distributed in accordance with the area owned. For a Timber Rights Purchase this meant that Chris would be responsible for handing out a considerable amount of money and would need an accurate assessment of area by clan.
The project required a range of skills – few of which were part of Chris’s forestry training! A helicopter was hired from Helicopter Utilities with Bill Wallace as pilot and Brian Turner as engineer. Other staff on the project included Gary Flegg (draftsman) and Dave Num (Forest Officer) and local staff Technical Officers/TechnicalAssistants. The project would require legal assistance in the field and Patrol Officer (Kiap) Bob Willis was appointed. In addition, they needed a typist as the legal documentation required very accurate typing with NO mistakes as well as a lot of skill in translating names. As Chris recalled, the trickiest name to be translated from tok ples was a clan leader that he translated into English as Manas Lariangsenggerriu.
Step 1 was to identify the various clan boundaries. The helicopter had equipment (this is prior to GPS) that allowed the flight path to be downloaded and used by the draftsman to define clan boundaries. Initially this involved a Forest Officer flying with one of the clan leaders and then the other and noting on the air-photo the path taken. Where there are many clans and a huge area to cover, this can be very boring. None of the clan leaders had ever been in a helicopter before but, without fail, each clan leader would follow the same path. As a result, it was decided that the helicopter pilot would take up both relevant clan leaders and the whole process was simplified. Relatively few clan boundaries were established on the ground.
Step 2 was for the clan boundaries to be transferred onto the map that had been prepared at the time of the forest assessment. Using a dot grid, the area of each landholding was calculated. The assessment data collected in late 1966 were used as the basis for distributing the funds rather than specific estimates of forest volume by species for each clan area.
Step 3 was to ascertain the names of every person within each clan – regardless of age or gender. This was essential as all traditional owners had a right to vote and ultimately sign the
3 Eminent TPNG Forester Chris Borough 1960-1971.
legal documentation. The task was given to Bob Willis (Patrol Officer) and Chris. The ability to speak PNG Pidgin fluently was essential. For days on end Bob and Chris had to listen intently to the views of everyone involved. By some magic, a complete list was created for each clan and legal documents prepared. Initially the list of landholders was flown to Keravat to be typed up by Chris’s wife Robyn.
An appeal to Jim Cavanagh at Konedobu for a resident typist to join the team in the camp was accepted and June Dowler from the typing pool at Konedobu volunteered for the task. Armed with her trusty typewriter she flew to Cape Hoskins where the chopper picked her up to her new “home” at Ulamona – at the foot of The Father volcano. June was the subject of much interest at Ulamona – a Catholic Mission that was operated by Priests and Nuns. June was accommodated with the nuns for her protection from the rest of the team in tents nearby. June quickly adapted to the new typing environment and soon her typewriter became completely covered with SP beer labels.
The Money
As Chris recalled, Head Office in Konedobu set the value of the entire resource under consideration as $180,000 for the right to harvest the timber resource for the following 30 years. The task of calculating each owners’entitlement was laboriously undertaken with a hand-held FACIT calculator; this was in the days before electronic calculators.
Landowner touches the pen as Bob Willis places an “x” on the document that has her “x” mark.
DIES September 1967.
As it was TAMBU to withhold any money it was essential to have the capacity to pay each individual in cash. It was, however, also considered undesirable for landowners to spend their money on items such as speedboats, outboard motors or sewing machines. Chris was required to become an agent for the Commonwealth Bank and was duly issued with passbooks by the Rabaul Branch of the bank and told to use his negotiating skills to encourage landowners to save their payout.
How did we get the funds there?
The logistics of getting $180,000 in cash to Matanakunai as well as the need for a lot of change was mind bending. The Manager of the Commonwealth Bank was most reluctant to release such a large amount but agreed with some trepidation. The paper money was not too much of an issue as it could be carried by Bob Willis and Chris on the next helicopter trip.
The $20,000 in coin was more of an issue. Can you imagine several patrol boxes full of 10 and 20 cent coins being loaded onto the panniers of the chopper? This was the only practical option of getting the all-important cash to Matanakunai. The pilot was last seen struggling to achieve take-off along the long Rabaul airstrip. Hoping the chopper would not crash or the pilot head for SouthAmerica, Bob and Chris were relieved when the chopper returned a few hours later to take them and the paper money back to camp.
What happened to the money?
Chris Borough witnessing signature of Traditional owners with Bob Willis Open Bay TRP Matanakunai Sept/Oct 1967. Photo credit Chris Borough.
Mambumutka Simbali receiving the TRP money from Bob Willis – Dengnagi Purchase Wide Bay. Photo credit Chris Borough.
Only a relatively small amount was voluntarily deposited in the Commonwealth Bank. The great majority wanted what Chris and Bob had, and, in only a short time, it was noticed that a number of speedboats were pulled up at the village and Meris (Pidgin for women is Meri) were busy making clothes. They were witnessing a spending spree that was likely to be a “one-off” and who could blame them?
Cargo Cult
Part of the area covered a very remote area in the Baining Mountains. Chris had heard of the cargo cult where villages believed that the goods that the white man had would one day become the property of the villagers. You can imagine Chris and Bob’s surprise when they approached one particular village that had a very strange looking garden – quite close to the village itself. The garden was circular shaped with various areas of neatly organised crops.
What a great chopper pad! It was only when they explained to the villages that they had come to give them lots of money for the right to harvest timber that it was revealed that each section in the garden was established to provide food for the chopper. Lo and behold Chris and Bob had confirmed the existence of cargo cult beliefs. But they also had achieved their goal of having the TRP documents signed.
Food garden in Bainings designed to “attract” helicopter. Photo credit Chris Borough.
Protecting the Owner’s Rights
Chris was impressed by the local owners’use of the forest for food and building materials. In pidgin Chris was able to advise local landholders that areas of land could be excluded from the rights and conserved on the grounds of cultural significance, food and building materials. Chris was able to identify areas and have them excluded from the purchase documents.
Chris Borough operating VL8PN radio to Rabaul Sept/Oct 1967.
Photo credit Chris Borough.
4In New Britain, patrol officers involved in surveying potential Timber Rights areas and ownership were told that the acquisitions would not be approved unless the subsequently cleared areas had viable plans for future economic development. In other words, the cleared land would be used for economic activities such as cocoa, coffee, copra, or cattle. Obviously, later this also became oil palm.
4 Personal communication 15th April 2021 Ross Wilkinson ex kiap 1968-1981.