Papua-N. Guinea News
p. 20 · Read in the full issue
From Our Own Correspondent
Port Moresby, Dec. 10
New Alternative Airstrip
Construction of the new air strip on Fishermen Island, off Port Moresby, is finished, and the aero drome will be opened as soon as the runway is consolidated.
This is an important airfield, as it will provide an alternative landing ground when adverse weather com pels the temporary closing of Jackson’s strip. Until now, when the latter has been closed, planes on the north-bound run have had to go straight through to Lae; and, similarly, south-bound aircraft from Lae were compelled to go on to the first North Queensland airport.
This has involved carrying extra fuel reserve, with consequent re duction of payload.
At certain seasons in the year too, heavy mists blot out Jacksons, and planes have then had to stay on a money-wasting circling flight until the fog lifted.
Undergrads As Medical
Assistants
Somewhere around 10 medical undergraduates from universities in Australia are going to have an exceedingly interesting long vacation over the Christmas and New Year period, working as medical assist ants in the Territory.
Last year, three future medicos put in their two-months Christmas vacation on this work in the Territory, and now the maximum authorised by the Territories Minister has been raised to 10.
They will pay their own return fares, and they will help to tem porarily overcome the Health Department’s shortage of European medical assistants. At present the number is 20 below strength.
More Volcanoes?
There are plenty of shortages in the Territory, but there is certainly no lack of volcanoes. Recently, a pilot on a routine supply flight in the Popondetta area ONE Papua) spotted a cluster of five small craters south of the Hydrographer Range, between Mount Lamington and the coast.
On the next aerial trip the official vulcanologist, Mr. G. A. Taylor, from the Sangara Seismic Station, went along and cast a professional eye over the countryside. His report said the group comprised three small, perfect cones, and two large vents, and they might be “parasitic vents of a major volcano,” which might be located in the near by Hydrographer Range. But this theory needed confirmation by a detailed survey of the district. He considered the well-preserved form of the craters suggested they were of comparatively recent origin. The slopes were grass-covered, and showed little evidence of erosion.