Women Pioneers In
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
N. Guinea
Letter to the Editor AGAIN sneaking of “The Road to Wau” (published in October “PJM”) I would like to recall the fact that Mrs. Doris Booth was, by three years, the first woman pVER THE MOROBE RANGES—not merely of “Edie Creek” (or “.Ka-inde”), as mostly inaccurate reports limit her. It would be, even now, an epic journey for a woman; but in those wild days it ranked with an explorer’s achievements.
Incidentally, the now famous Kokoda Trail of Papua also was traversed by a grand and intrepid woman adventurer (I have been told). Miss Helen Bridges, when visiting Port Moresby many years ago, obtained a permit from Sir Hubert Murray to go over the lonely trail from Port Moresby, with the police boys and mail carrier. Both natives did a weekly trip at that time.
Although Miss Bridges was not a very young woman then, she made the trip in excellent time; and the famous kunda bridges proved no obstacle, in spite of all local warning.
Proudly we remember that so much development and pioneering work of Papua and New Guinea has successfully accomplished by its European women.
I am, etc.,
Alice Allen Innes.
Vaucluse, Sydney.