Luck In The Louisiades

Early Memories of the Gold-seekers

Letter to the Editor

IN writing in December “PIM,” Captain T. L. Craig gives much additional information about early gold pros pecting in Eastern Papua, and corrects some of my memories. I should like to make it clear that all my articles are based on memories of reports and dis cussions which occurred over 40 years ago.

In those days, in the mining camps, lights and reading-matter were scarce,

and it was the custom for the miners to gather around the fires, at night, and exchange news and experiences. Some of the news we gathered in that way may easily have been distorted—it was often hearsay.

On the Gira field, in 1899, there were a number of men who had worked on Sudest, Misima and Woodlark. I always heard that the reason the anchorage at Sudest was named Griffen Point was that the prospectors landed from the “Grif fen” there. That was where the main camp and warden’s office were built.

Most of the creeks and gullies, from the Four-mile River, east of Griffen ■Point, to West End, carried gold. At the West End, miners blind-stabbed out in the salt water, at low tide.

My first visit to Sudest was on Feb ruary 2. 1901. I remained there over a year, mining most of the time. Then I returned to the northern fields, until June, 1910. The folks mentioned by Captain Craig I knew. Matthew Morton was the first gold warden appointed by Sir William McGregor to the Misima goldfield. Afterwards, Sudest, Misima and Woodlark were under one warden.

A Mr. Heely was one of the early war dens on Sudest. I inquired why a Sudest native walked with a limp. Pat Carney said he had attacked Heely with a spear.

Heely drew his revolver and broke his thigh with a bullet. Sir William Mc- Gregor instructed his men, if attacked by natives, to try and avoid killing—to shoot at their legs.

BEFORE the discovery of gold on Sudest there was nothing for trad ers. Sudest is a large island about 50 miles long by 15 miles in the widest place, but the land is poor, producing little food. The natives were small in physique. They were raided by the natives from the west, as far as Test Island. Men were slain, women cap tured and villages looted. There are extensive reefs around the island. They were poor for trepang, and most of the fish was poor in quality. There was no other marine product of commercial value at that time.

Mahoney and Carney sent away a sample of gum in the early days of Sudest, The returns were poor. Noth ing more was done with gum until 1916 or 1917.

Pearling boats visited Sudest to fill their water tanks. The creek is named Watering Creek. The pearlshell beds were in the passages between Sudest and Janet and Nemo, and passages towards Dadahi. Other passages along the Cal vados Chain carried patches of shell.

Most of the islands of the Calvados Chain are small, with poor soil and little water, and most of the water is brackish.

The inhabitants boil yams in sea-water.

The yams absorb the salt and then they drink the water. Some seasons they depend solely on coconuts for drinking purposes. The Calvados Chain people smoke and dry fish and clams, and trade with Misima for yams and sago.

The water around Misima is very deep and there is only one small patch of reef near the east end.

Several prospecting parties visited Ros sel Island without finding any payable minerals. Rossel, Sudest and Piron natives traded with each other and were always friendly.

Billy Lamb took a party of Sudest boys to Rossel. Lamb stayed with the boat, while the boys went inland. At that

time it was risky for a white man to roam about Rossel. They spent weeks there, and returned with 3 dwts. of gold; worth about 10/-.

JACK ANDERSEN and Harry Williams were with a party of miners who sailed round Woodlark without anchoring. They considered the island too low to be mineral-bearing. They may have been much farther off the land than they realised, thus making the island appear lower than it is.

A botanist named Burke was collecting orchids. He collected a record number on Sudest. Like the late A. S. Meek, he did not bother about gold-mining. He saw specks of gold on a rocky bar in a creek on Woodlark, and directed Dick Ede and Charlie Lobb to it. They re ported it. That is how gold was dis covered on Woodlark.

Once, off Woodlark, Ede and Lobb were in a 10-days’ calm in a small cutter.

The current set them away north, towards Rabaul. Their water was down to a cup-full. Both were afraid to sleep, for fear the other would drink the water.

A heavy thunder-storm came, and, by lowering the sail and making a trough, they caught enough water to fill all their utensils and have a bath. Wind sprang up, and they sailed to Woodlark.

IDO not know who were th'e prospec tors of Misima. I heard Mr. Mor ton describing how he was sent by Sir William McGregor to act as warden, and build a station. He was supplied with galvanised iron and nails. While he was selecting a site for the station, several miners asked him to go inland and settle a dispute. He said, “Wait until I have a roof over my head.” The dis pute was forgotten when the station was built.

Afterward, Mr. Morton was RM in the Eastern Division. He later transferred to the SE Division. After retiring from the Papuan Service he was private sec retary to Sir William McGregor, in Brisbane.

If Captain Craig refers to Government records, he will probably find that gold was discovered in Sudest in 1888, not 1886.

Sir John Douglas visited Rossell Island to land repatriated natives from Queens land canefields. The only person named was Cholmondeley, in the Government report.

Nicholas Minister was an uneducated man. Most of his yarns were expurgated —though interesting. In most of the tales of his adventures he had to be care ful not to disturb a skeleton in the back ground.

The late Hon. G. J. Nelsson reported the discovery of gold on Maclachlan’s Creek, head of the Mambare, on the mainland, and the late Dick Ede reported the gold find on Woodlark, the same day.

I am, etc.,

D. H. Osborne

Brisbane, Jan., 1944.

Resident in Fiji since 1913, Mr. E. F.

Taylor, died in Suva, on November 10, after a short illness. He was a prominent member of the Masonic Lodge, and be fore his retirement a few years ago was well-known in the commercial life of the Colony. He leaves a widow and two sons, Mr. C. O. Taylor, Assistant Postmaster- General in Suva, and First Class Warrant- Officer F. A. Taylor, of the Australian

Army Medical Corps, formerly X-ray Technician at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital p i j V 69 ye ri ars . a ? 0 ’ fT Louis Joseph St. Julian, died in the S° lonia J War Memorial Hospital, Suva, on

her o? the famX o^sf/’rharip^qt’

° f tS.® SI J c , Charle . s i ulian ’ wh ° was Chief Justice of the 5 u £ r< E me Court of undfir King oaKooau.

Omitted from our list of New Guinea’s ' ™f 0 sbl S men l n I ?^!P lber ’ 1942, and re-published October, 1943) was the name of Mr. W. Haydon, plantation manager for W. R. Carpenter & Com pany, on an island off the coast of New Ireland. His name has been supplied to us by Lieut. G. D. Casbolt, formerly of New Guinea, now of ANGAU. Mr. Hay don was well-known as a planter of many years’ residence, and as a veteran of World War I. It is presumed that he fell into enemy hands when the Japanese in vaded New Ireland.

Mr. Eric W. Trebilcock, radio operator at the Salamaua aerodrome in 1941, is now engaged on radio duties in Queens land. He was one of a party of 28 which, under District Officer Penglase, walked from Salamaua to Wau, in Janu ary, 1942, after enemy bombings had made Salamaua untenable.