Ships, Timber and SW Pacific
p. 86 · Read in the full issue
NORMAN K. WALLIS is a lead ing figure in the timber trade in Sydney, and since the war he has become an inveterate traveller in the Western Pacific in search oi suitable timber for Australia.
Before the war he was well-known as the owner and skipper of the deep-sea yacht Wanderer, of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, and as a keen officer of the RANVR.
After a University education he joined the family firm of Wallis Bros. Pty. Ltd., timber merchants of Annandale, and at present he is also President of the Timber De velopment Association. When war came he joined the Naval Reserve and, with the rank of Lieutenant- Commander, commanded Corvette Gympie and later a frigate.
In 1946 he went to Singapore, from whence he made a wide sur vey of timber in Java and Borneo on behalf of the timber merchants of Sydney. Since then he has done exploratory work in the New Hebrides, in the Solomons, and in New Guinea, where he has recently been taking thousands of feet of film. A year ago he was at Tenaru,, on Guadalcanal, building a narrow gauge railway to carry the logs out of the jungle. Norman Wallis isi an energetic worker, a fine writer, good speaker, an excellent raconteur, and he is doing a good! job for the Pacific Islands both asi a timber merchant and as an en thusiastic publicity merchant. —