Merauke

Australia’s Unknown Foreign Neighbour

ALTHOUGH Merauke is the nearest non-British town to Australia, probably not one Australian in one hundred thousand knows what and where Merauke is.

It is the chief town of the south-eastern part of Dutch New Guinea, and it is only a few hundred miles north-west of Cape York. It has been known to tropical wanderers for a hundred years, mainly as a centre for Bird-of-paradise shooters and shell-fishers, but otherwise it is just a sleepy little trading town on the New Guinea coast.

Recently, two Australians, Captain George Wyeth and young Stan Little, took a 26 ft. motor launch from the Queensland coast to Merauke: and Mr.

Little, back in Sydney, gave some in teresting impressions of the little Dutch port.

“We went through Torres Strait to Thursday Island,” he said, “and then, from TI, we headed straight across to the New Guinea coast. We simply followed the coast north-west to Merauke.

“Merauke is on a river, about a mile from the mouth. It is a sheltered port, but the country around is low-lying and mostly covered with tropical jupgle There are many native villages, and a number of coconut plantations, along the coast.

“There are not more than a score of Dutchmen in Merauke. There are half a dozen stores, run by Chinese, and a large community of Indonesians. There must be a considerable native popula tion —there seem to be always natives on the move through the town.

“There is no hotel accommodation in the place—the traveller has to be privately lodged. We lived on the launch. The Chinese stores sell liquor.

“A Dutch cargo vessel comes in once a month. We were told that a fortnightly plane service, connecting with Java, was to start in December.

“The Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission has a big establishment there, with hospital, schools, and so forth.

“We went up quickly, with the south east trade wind behind us; taut it was a different story when two Dutchmen brought us back in the same launch. We had to beat into it all the way. We were three days coming round from Merauke to Daru, in Western Papua, where we picked up the Qantas Catalina to Port Moresby.”

Mr. A. F. S. Ohman, a veterinary officer of the Queensland Agricultural Depart ment, has accepted an appointment as director of veterinary services, Fiji. Mr.

Ohlman left for his new post by the Sonoma on December 20.