Going nutmeg!

 

To explore these islands on GOOGLE Map, click here
Read the book "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" here

 

It's been far too many years since my last island-hopping tour through the Indonesian archipelago - click here - and even longer since I had my last meal of 'gedämpfte Eier mit Muskatnuss', both of which bring back memories of the Spice Islands which I always wished I had visited but never did — and now it's too late anyway.

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic nation ('archipelagic' means 'about island groups and their interconnected waters', Des), comprising over 17,000 islands. You would need several lifetimes to visit them all.

William Somerset Maugham writes about them in his novel "The Narrow Corner", whose principal setting is Kanda-Meria, based on the actual island of Banda Neira, once a wealthy centre of the nutmeg trade.

"The dawn slid between the low, wooded islands, gravely, with a deliberate calmness that seemed to conceal an inward apprehension," Maugham writes on page 85. "The virgin forests on each side of them still held the night, but then insensibly the grey of the sea was shot with the soft hues of a pigeon’s breast. There was a pause and with a smile the day broke. Sailing between those uninhabited islands, on that still sea, in a silence that caused you almost to hold your breath, you had a strange and exciting impression of the beginning of the world."

 

No idea who this chap is, but he's doing what I wished I could do

 

Of the island itself, Maugham lets Erik Christessen, a Dane representing a Danish company, speak, "It’s a fine place. It’s the most romantic spot in the East. They wanted to move me, but I begged them to let me stay on" ... "The place is dead. We live on our memories. That is what gives the island its character. In the old days, you know, there was so much traffic that sometimes the harbour was full and vessels had to wait outside till the departure of a fleet gave them a chance to enter. I hope you’ll stay here long enough to let me show you round. It’s lovely. An unsuspected isle in far-off seas." ... "The old Dutch merchants were so rich here in the great days of the spice trade, they didn’t know what to do with their money. There was no cargo for the ships to bring out and so they used to bring marble and use it for their houses. If you’re not in a hurry I’ll show you mine. It used to belong to one of the perkeniers. And sometimes, in winter, they’d bring a cargo of nothing but ice. Funny, isn’t it? That was the greatest luxury they could have. Just think of bringing ice all the way from Holland. It took six months, the journey. And they all had their carriages, and in the cool of the evening the smart thing was to drive along the shore and round and round the square. Someone ought to write about it. It was like a Dutch Arabian Nights' Tale." (Pages 94 & 95)

 

Click on the website of the luxurious phinisi yacht PRANA here

 

I wrote about the swap of Rhun Island for New Amsterdam (Manhattan) elsewhere - see "The real estate deal of the millennium" - so I needn't repeat it here. Instead, I just concentrate on the two videos above, which are arguably the best and most comprehensive ones I have seen.

And how much I would have loved to visit those exotic Banda Islands! But perhaps not on board the luxurious phinisi yacht PRANA, unless someone else paid the eyewatering daily charter rate of US$20,000.

 

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Those lovely op-shop ladies have done it again!

 

 

There I was, aimlessly browsing the bookshelf marked TRAVEL at my favourite op-shop when, wedged in tight between an outdated Lonely Planet guide of Australia and an equally outdated "Europe on 5 Dollars a Day" — $5 wouldn't buy you a cup of coffee now! — I saw this book with the spine that read "The Wonder Down Under".

 

 

"Great!" I thought. "Another book about Australia" — until I read the book's subtitle (which those op-shop ladies must've missed too).

 

 

Funny, I felt a bit like the chap in this BIG JUGS video clip, except the other way around. What did I do with the book? I bought it for two dollars and added it to the SELP-HELP section in my personal library.

 

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The view is always on the menu

 

 

Slow start to another week. We have had some rain overnight which is good, and the place is alive with a whole mob of kangaroos enjoying the new sprouts of grass. I'm not so much into grass — not even the psychedelic variety — and am tossing up between a jam toast and a cooked porridge.

My social 'colander', which is usually full of holes, is quite a busy one this week: a trip to the solicitor to discuss what to do when a loan I gave to a good friend matures next month; then a get-together for lunch at the Catalina Club with a bunch of Germans who, like me, are glad to be here and not there; and then a dash to the GP for another burn-off of various sun spots which are a constant reminder that I have spent too many years in hot climates without sun creme or even a hat.

Polonius was right when he said, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be", because the friend I lent money to when no bank would touch him is no longer a friend, which again proves Polonius right when he continued, "For loan oft loses both itself and friend". Another lesson learnt too late.

So what's for breakfast? Does it matter? The view is always on the menu.

 

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Where are they all today?

 

 

From the air Bougainville is a romantic island. Lush and rugged, surrounded by reefs and an emerald sea. Cloud sits on the rain forest that mats the mountains. The tall volcanic cones of Bagana and Balbi smoke sullenly and glow at night.

But along the Crown Prince Range and down on the flat country, life was not always as romantic as it seems from a passenger's window.

Rain, mud, dust, heat, boredom. These are deep in the memories of the men who built the mine. But deeper in their consciousness is another feeling, almost of pride, that they were part of a tremendous and exciting adventure. That they were pioneers.

 

 

The Bougainville Copper Project in the then Territory of Papua New Guinea ran from 1966 to 1973 and cost some US$350 million. At its peak in mid-1971, it employed a labour force of some 10,700. The Bougainville Copper Project was not only the largest grass roots copper project undertaking in the world to that date - it was truly a monument to every man who turned his hand toward its successful completion.

 

See the BFD markings on the wing? That was Brian Frank Darcey's plane - click here

 

As the Mine neared completion, so did Arawa, the "dormitory town" for most of the mine workers. What had been a beautiful copra plantation on the long sweep of a black-beach bay, became a bustling town with supermarket, tavern, post office, and a general hospital which was the best in the Territory. A total of 446 residences were completed in 20 months employing a labour force of some 600. Seven different houses were built ranging from 3- to 4-bedroom residences, some fully air conditioned.

 

 

But there was always Kieta with its hotel, the Kieta Club, the sailing club, a branch of Breckwoldts, several Chinese shops, and Green & Co on the waterfront. This shop as no other catered to the "touristy" needs of the mine population with postcards of 'maris' suckling pigs, carvings, grass skirts, and tee shirts. And beyond it, Aropa Airstrip, the 'Gateway to Freedom' after the daily 10-hour grind of the construction work.

The Loloho Powerhouse had already been built to supply power to the copper concentrator, mine, portsite facilities and townships of Arawa and Panguna via a 132 KV transmission system. Loloho Port was also nearing completion. What a moment when the first Japanese ore carrier tied up alongside it! The beach at Camp 6 was always an attraction for those of us who lived at the Minesite and had to endure daily downpours and mud and slush.

 

 

The construction of the new 16-mile 24 ft wide Mine Access Road through the Crown Prince Range posed many problems and was the most spectacular of all the work undertaken. It became trafficable in October 1970 and, except for a few major deviations, followed the route of the first access road built by C.R.A. Building it involved a mammoth earth moving operation: ridge tops were cut off and sometimes used to fill ravines to provide a gradually ascending route. A complicated bench system often rising 200 ft. above the road was necessary in some sections to protect it against landslides and also to allow for the effect of earth tremors in the area.

 

Bougainville Island is 30 miles wide and 130 miles long with its dominant feature a range of mountains which rises to 8,000 ft. and runs the length of the island. This mountainous land is jungle covered and swampy in low lying coastal areas. The terrain formation for the most part consists of volcanic ash and fractured and weathered rock. The weather is tropical with coastal rainfall ranging from 100 in to 150 in. per year while the mountain areas receive from 150 in. to 300 in. per year.

 

Did you spend some time on the Bougainville Copper Project in the sixties and seventies? If you did, I want to hear from you! They aren't many of us left and it would be good to hear from those who lived with us in the camps or in Arawa or Kieta and shared with us the experience.

Wouldn't it be great to revisit Bougainville, drive up to Panguna or swim at Loloho Beach? The Bougainville Copper Project shaped our lives as many of us continued in overseas projects. Others returned to suburbia and ordinary jobs but they, too, were forever changed by the experience.

Where are they all today? Many are settled back in Australia while others stayed on in New Guinea and some are still on the move. When were you on Bougainville? Who did you work for and what did you do? Have you photographs or memories to share which I could publish on the Bougainville Copper Project website? [Read some of the other comments here]

As one contributor put it so aptly, "You only have to scratch the surface and you bleed PNG..." So next time you bleed a little and feel a bout of "Bougainvilleitis" coming on, share your thoughts and memories with us. I very much look forward to hearing from you and any of your mates who may have spent time on the Bougainville Copper Project.

By the way, do you remember the rumours about the stuff they put in our tea in the camp, to keep our minds off it...? Well, 50 years later, I think mine's beginning to work.

 

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Happy 90th Birthday, Ben!

 

For more of Ben Cropp's documentaries, go to his YouTube channel

 

If you watch this video clip, Ben, it should bring back many happy memories. How old is this video? Peter Allen died in 1992, just forty-eight years old, which dates it at least thirty-five years old but not before 1979 when Ben Cropp opened his Shipwreck Museum in Port Douglas. He still lives there today (as Peter Allen once did when he owned a 'shack' at Oak Beach).

(The end of the video showing the onset of cyclone Eddie finally gives the age of this video away, as cycline Eddie happened in February 1981.)

Ben is best known for his work as an Australian documentary filmmaker, conservationist, and shark hunter. He retired from that trade in 1962 to take up underwater filmmaking, producing some 150 documentaries.

 

Hubert, perhaps Ben can throw some light on where this is and who she is!
[Photo courtesy State Library of NSW]

 

As he said of himself in a radio interview in 2012, " I was born on Buka Island, which is just off Bougainville, back in 1936. My father was a Methodist missionary up there. I was christened Benjamin, which in the Bible means 'last of the tribe', but two more came after me. Let's face it - it was a beautiful tropical place, no TV though. Being a minister, my father had moved to a lot of different parishes - ah, Casino, Ballina, Bellingen - but he also bought a property down in Lennox Head - a beachfront there - and that's really where I grew up. And that's where I began my love of fishing. I was obsessed with spearfishing in those days. Though, you must appreciate, that people only went in the water to spear fish. Hans Haas, Cousteau - we all started as spearfishermen. Scuba diving came later. Wreck diving, underwater photography - all that came later. And that was the beginning of diving. I started to look at the possibility of earning an income out of it. And I decided, OK, the best thing is I take up underwater filming, and go north in the tropics and film sharks. But I was not a cameraman. I knew nothing about cameras. So, I teamed up with Ron Taylor, who was an underwater cameraman, and that's where we began an association. And our first film, 'Shark Hunters', was an enormous success. We released this film worldwide, before Cousteau had started his TV series, and after Hans Haas had retired from underwater filming. There was this gap. And we filled that gap. In '64, I was named the World Underwater Photographer of the Year. And appreciate that that was only three years after I started my shark hunting. I met Van Laman, and she became my first wife. She was a very good diver. Six months after I started teaching her how to spearfish, she was the Australian champion. And that's an awfully big - quick jump. Unfortunately, that marriage didn't last very long. We were just too young. And then I met my second wife, who was Eva - Eva Patt. And Eva was another Miss Gold Coast, or Miss Gold Coast charity Queen. And she was a diver already and we just hit it off. After eight years, Eva and I broke up. She wanted to go out and live - see the world in her own right. So, we parted. And I would say that my happiest times was when I was married. My unhappiest times was when I wasn't married. So, then I met my third wife, Lynn. And that was Lynn Patterson, she was a Canadian. We had eighteen years of wonderful marriage, yes. And two children. And I never regret in one iota that marriage and bringing up two kids. It was the best part and the most contented part of my life. Both my sons - they grew up in the film business, and in the diving. They tagged along everywhere we went, they became part of the films. In fact, the public enjoyed it, because they were seeing in every film my kids a little bit taller. And now that they're adults, they still want to come and join me on a trip every year. They love the adventure life that they led and still want to lead. Which is great - they're still in the film business."

 

Here are another three of Ben Cropp's many videos introduced by Peter Allen
Click on Watch on YouTube to view them

Untamed Gulf Trecherous Strait Exploring Cape York

 

A long life well lived! Happy 90th birthday, Ben!

 

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