Overlanding Cattle In New Guinea

How a bride Was Introduced to the Junnle

WHEN, as a girl in Fiji, I went, with other nurses of the Suva Hospital, for a trip up the Lami River, and called at a plantation on the way, a very attentive overseer showed us his “pine apple crop.”

We Australian girls were greatly impressed by a plant 6 feet high, but very disappointed at not being able to find any fruit of proportionate size. Then, having thoroughly enjoyed our gullibility, the overseer confessed that he had been pulling our legs. The plants were really

sisal-hemp.

The leg-puller was Mr. Tommie Thompson.

Years later, in New Guinea, I had the pleasure of entertaining the same charm ing overseer as he returned to Salamaua from South, with his bride. He did not immediately recognise me, so at dinner I decorated the table of the bridal pair with pineapple tops. Picture his amaze ment when he discovered that his Sala maua hostess was one of the pro’s upon whom he had played that sisal-hemp trick long ago.

He was now a successful miner and storekeeper at Wau, and was hoping to introduce cattle .there. He and his bride intended overlanding the cattle from Salamaua—as a • sort of climax to their honeymoon.

The cattle —the first the natives had seen—caused a sensation in Salamaua.

The native issue of tinned meat is known to them as “bulla-ma-cow,” and it seemed to them that there* was a slight dis crepancy between the size of the tin and that of the animal it was supposed to contain.

“Now, Missus,” a monkey questioned me, “’ow ’e can fit that one bulla-ma cow long tin? ’E like broke em bel first time? Or ’e cut ’em an’ sit ’em long tin all same?” (Was the beast dressed

By Alice Allen Innes

before tinning, or were the innards and all tinned?) Natives love the innards of animals, and the monkey was hoping the lot was in the tin.

It was the intention of the Thomp sons to send the cattle round the coast to the Buang River entrance. But that first night) at Salamaua the animals were tied to trees by long ropes where the grass was good, and during the darkness a severe thunderstorm, coupled with native drumming nearby, panicked the cattle, whereupon they fled, smashing through native gardens and landing up in Kila village, a couple of miles away By lantern-light, at dawn, the cattle were herded, but Neya, one of the best bushmen of the party, was badly gored and had to be sent back to the Salamaua Hospital.

The cattle finally were got away from Kila to Buang, travelling round the coast, driven by native boys, while Mr. and Mrs Thompson dodged the reefs in a fraii canoe and so landed at Bubwak, a coastal village, where they were able to secure a very strong travelling- canoe, whose cap tain was a small lad somewhere about 10 years of age. Despite his age and size he seemed to know every reef passage, and brought them safely to Busamo, the next stop.

The morning had been clear and bright and the sea calm; the 12 miles had taken about four hours. The party passed several schools of porpoise, which caused great excitement among the boys who had never seen such large “fish” before “God damn,” said one native, “Big fella fish too much—all the same pig!”

AT the mouth of the Buang River the Thompsons left the sea behind and turned inland, beginning the trek that was to end at Wau some weeks later, with the couple footsore and weary, but infinitely experienced in the gentle art of overlanding cattle across the incredible mountains of Morobe.

Their road led for the first day along the course of the Buang River —heavily timbered country, intersected by many small creeks —and accomplished with no other incident than a slight mishap to one of the cows who slipped off the track and rolled down a hill. , , Camp was made at the base of the Buang Range and this next portion of the journey proved the most arduous of the trip. It took them up the slippery mud-slide that passed m the natives’ imagination, for a road—4,Boo feet up to a region of moss-forests and fog at the top of the range. No village existed “on top” and the cavalcade was forced to descend some distance into the head of the Snake River before a village in which to camp was reached.

The cow which had somersaulted down the Buang track again provided the day’s incident by collapsing on one of the steepest pinches. The boys immediately constructed a fence around her, to pre vent her falling off the mountain, and she was left behind in charge of a couple of natives until such time as she regained her strength.

The next few days found the party meandering down the deep, narrow val ley of the Snake River —enclosed by steep mountains, devoid of vegetation of any kind, continually crossing and re-crossing the swiftly-flowing river which increases greatly in volume as it descends the valley.

A day was spent climbing out of the valley by the almost perpendicular track

up the mountain until the party reached the summit of the mountain almost 4,000 fact above Snake River, which could be seen far below continuing its erratic course. Farther away still, could be seen the Wampit Valley and on the divide between the two valley systems, the emergency ’drome at Zenag.

From this point onwards, Queensland cattlemen, interested in the overlanding experiment being attempted by the Thompson couple, had advised taking the cattle over new, open, grass country, instead of by the usual —and shorter — route for native carriers via the Watut and Bulolo River junction. The new route across the kunai-covered hills was insufferably hot and few streams inter sected the area, but it was more suitable country for droving cattle and at last the exhausted party came to the Baiune River —a tributary of the Watut.

Of this arrival at the Baiune, Mrs.

Thompson writes: “ ‘Thank goodness! ’ we thought, ‘The worst is over,’ and sat down to rest, when suddenly a boy appeared to inform us that ‘One bulla-ma-cow ’e die finish.’

“This was a great blow, for this had been the best of the cattle, although too heavy for such hill-climbing. Also she had had a calf, which we sent boys down to collect and which, from then on, had to have a foster mother.

“In very glum spirits we made our camp that night and, to add to the gloom as darkness fell, the boys began a plain tive death-dirge. They had become quite fond of the cow, and gave her this honour now that she had ‘passed over.’ ”

A FIVE-DAY halt was called at this point, before the party completed the rest of the journey over the hills to Wau. The cattle were rested and the Thompsons, as the coping-stone to the city bride’s initiation to the jungle, went off to pay a call on Messrs. Wilson and

Duchatel, who were then mining about three hours’ walk down the Watut. The natives there were primitive and quite unspoiled by contact with Europeans, although, on occasions, they were given to treachery.

They lived on the peaks above the miner’s camp and, when summoned by bonfire, brought kau-kau down to trade.

No other white woman had visited the locality and, as a treat, the miners had promised them a ringside view of the new “missus.”

Therefore the bonfire was lit, and down came the whole village for the free enter tainment. The “Marys” became extremely excited and pushed forward to feel Mrs.

Thompson over with manj exclamations that coifld have denoted either amaze ment or excitement. But during the introductory session, one gentleman, genial, much-bewhiskered but very naked, had already sent the bride into the depths of embarrassment when, upon seeing the Thompson couple standing side by side, had asked in sign language, just which of them was, indeed, the “missus.”