Rabaul had been my jumping-off spot in the then Territory of Papua & New Guinea when I arrived there in early January 1970. It was everything I had expected of the Territory: it was a small community settled around picturesque Simpson Harbour. The climate was tropical with blazing sunshine and regular tropical downpours, the vegetation strange and exotic, and the social life a complete change from anything I had ever experienced before! And I loved the work which offered challenges only available in a small setting such as Rabaul where expatriate labour was at a premium.
I worked for Hancock, Woodward & Neill, a small firm of chartered accountants: the resident manager, Barry Weir, his wife Muriel as secretary, and two accountants, Peter Langley and Grahame Ward, plus myself. Grahame was destined never to leave the Territory. For him the old New Guinea aphorism came true that "if you spend more than five years in New Guinea you were done for, you'd never be able to get out, your energy would be gone, and you'd rot there like an aged palm."
During my short time in Rabaul - let the reference speak for itself: ten months! - advertisements began to appear in the local POST-COURIER for the Bougainville Copper Project. I applied to the project's managers Bechtel Corporation for the advertised position of Senior Contract Auditor and was invited by the Project Administration Manager Sid Lhotka to attend an interview at Panguna. I was successful and within a month I was flying back to Bougainville to start work with Bechtel.
I'd also lined up a job for my colleague Grahame in my contract audit group at Loloho looking after the construction of the Arawa Township, Loloho Port, and Loloho Powerhouse, as well as signing off (or not) on the services by Brambles Kennelly's road haulage and the supplies by Pioneer Concrete. Grahame actually flew across for the interview, got the nod and said he would return within the month but never did.
As we drank our tea laced with bromide to keep our minds on the job while we worked ten hours a day six days a week on Bougainville, Grahame continued to enjoy the social life and nocturnal delights of Rabaul which, unfortunately, came to an abrupt end in September 1994 when the town was unexpectedly wiped out by a volcanic eruption.
Grahame now lives in Port Moresby and seems to be a regular reader of this blog. Has he sometimes wondered what would have become of him had he joined us on Bougainville to drink his tea laced with bromide? (the effects of that bromide are only now beginning to kick in with me!)
