Doomsday

When Doomsday came to Rabaul

Tropicalities in the March PIM (p 19) featured a piece titled “Placating the fire god”, reporting that Rabaul had adopted an official emblem commemorating the disaster of May 29, 1937, when the volcanoes at Matupi and Vulcan Island, near Rabaul, erupted, killing several hun dred Tolai people.

With the article was a picture of Matupi in eruption.

It has brought from Mrs D. M.

Yeates, of Brisbane, the dramatic pictures on the right which are two of a set of six taken at 15 minute intervals during the eruption.

The top picture is of Vulcan and the lower one shows the people of Rabaul’s Chinatown in the streets as darkness approached The disaster had been heralded for many weeks by earth tremors which only became severe on May 28. The following day, at 4.20 pm, all hell broke loose as Vulcan began to erupt. PIM reported that “Vulcan Island blew up in a succession of terrifying explosions. Masses of smoke, steam and volcanic dust covered the sky; ashes and dust were showered over the entire countryside north-west and north of Vulcan, in cluding Rabaul; total darkness super vened within 30 minutes. Matupi crater also became very active, shak ing the town continuously. Frequent bursts of flame over Vulcan had the effect of lightning discharge—which continued all night”.

As the top picture shows so dramatically, there was real light ning, probably produced by the terrific convulsion below and thermal action.

White hot rocks hurled high in the air added to the terror. “Yet there was no panic,” said PIM. “The people gathered in groups, at first, to discuss the situation.”

Rabaul was evacuated the follow ing day and a refugee town was estab lished at Kokopo. Torrential rain added to the people’s ordeal. This was caused by condensation in the cold upper air of the masses of steam from the volcanoes.

By June 5 the worst was over.

Then there was another kind of eruption—a row between the Ad ministrator and the civil population.

He insisted on the re-occupation of Rabaul. June 9 saw the old BP steamer Montoro leave for Australia with 75 women and children. She had previously taken 180 Europeans and 3,000 natives to safety from Nordup beach.

The volcanoes had taken the lives

of two Europeans, who were killed by the Matupi eruption, and 424 villagers from Valaur (186), Tavoa (104), Letlet (25) and Rapolla (22), the villages nearest to the Vulcan eruption and 20 other villages to the north-west.

• More magazine on p 49.