Bougainville

The War Returns To

From a Bougainville correspondent The litter of World War II is still to be seen all over Papua- New Guinea and will probably remain where it fell until it rots away. Not so in a certain part of Southern Bougainville.

The war in this area was bloody.

With the Japanese firmly established in the immediate area of what is now Buin—Kangu, Kihili and Tonolei Harbour, the allies launched an overland drive to rout the enemy from the large base of Torokina on Bougainville’s west coast—now mostly overgrown. The Siwai area of what is now the Buin sub-district saw much action from both sides and there is still evidence in the jungle.

Konga is a small Administration out-station 30 miles up the west coast from Buin on the road to Morotana, and from here the Siwai people receive Administration as they require.

A Primary “T” school, agricultural station with cocoa/cattle emphasis and a Department of the Administra tor base camp complete the picture.

The thriving Siwai Local Govern ment Council revenue/expenditure of $40,000 —and the cocoa-orientated Siwai Co-operative Society are both nearby. Siwai is the home of the wrongly named “Buka” baskets. The society had a turnover last year of almost $200,000. A good road net work connects the 66 villages, and also provides access to Buin and the seaport of Kangu.

Barclay Bros. (NG) recently com

pleted a new stretch of road connect ing Konga with Boku Patrol Post, 18 miles further along the west coast.

Long days mean short nights, but even so, conversation among the men often turned to the part that area played in the Pacific campaign. And

so it was that Patrol Officer Frank Donovan and Barclay Bros, dozer operator Ray (“Kiwi”) Blanchfield, with the encouragement of the Siwai Local Government Council and Barclay Bros., have established the first war museum in Southern Bougainville.

Now an easy hour’s drive from Buin and one is brought face to face with the realities of a war. Two Matilda tanks and two Japanese field guns comprise the initial museum— more is to be added. Local enthusiasm is high and regular reports of other previously forgotten relics are forthcoming.

Against the stark backdrop of virgin jungle, one can visualise the war with these transplanted and rusting relics.

A recent visitor to see the museum was the Bougainville District Political Education Officer, ADO Graeme Dent. It turned out that his father, Lt. G. Dent, was a commander of one of these tanks, disabled in mid- June ’45 by mortar and now sitting where it stopped, adjacent to the busy access road from Buin to the Bougainville hinterland.

The bright yellow of Kiwi’s dozer returning from the jungle with another relic arouses little curiosity these days, for the local people themselves acknowledge this little museum as a reminder of a war about which they knew little but which affected them all.

• The outdoor museum: A Matilda tank and, in the background, the Japanese field gun which ended the tank's career. Since this photo was taken, the area has been fenced off and lined with hibiscus flowers.

• Back to Bougainville has come this Japanese war relic, a once submerged barge. CRA bought it recently from Rabaul businessman, Mr. Pat Roberts, who bought it him self as salvage after the war. CRA will use it to carry fuel; but when it becomes redundant, no doubt there'll be a home for it at the Bougainville museum.