Steel to stone: a chronicle of colonialism in the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea / Jeffrey Clark ; edited by Chris Ballard and Oxford studies in social and cultural anthropology. Southern Highlands (Papua New Guinea) -- History.
Table of contents
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- 1. From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities
- Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée
The Challenge of Re visioning "Place" in the Pacific. Review article on A. Crawford Publishing House, Rethinking Western Motu Descent Groups. A Reply to A. Wittersheim, 'Jean Guiart and New Caledonia: A Drama of Misrepresentation. Fijian Christianity and Cultural Drama. People and Culture in Oceania , 17, Former Man and Culture in Oceania.
New Boundaries of Influence in Highland Papua: When Was Modernity in Melanesia? Social Anthropology , 9 2 , Ethnography as a Phenomenon of Contact. Land, Ancestors and Development. Anthropology Today , 17 4 , Paideuma , 47, Review article on Peter Lawrence, Road belong Cargo: Manchester University Press, History and Genealogy of Myth in Telefolmin. My Nephew is My Aunt: Lal and Tomasi R. Vakatori eds , Fiji in Transition , Suva: Vakatori eds , Fiji and the World , Suva: On a Journey through Indenture in Fiji, Canberra: Social Networks and Compensation Claims in Melanesia.
The Underground Life of Capitalism: The Queen of Sudest: Culture and Class in Papua New Guinea. David Lipset, Mangrove Man: Dialogics of Culture in Sepik Estuary , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ; 2. Gewertz and Frederick K. The Telling of Difference , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, The Gift in Abelam Aesthetics. Retoka Revisited and Roimata Revisited. Fiji Museum Archives and Manuscript Collection. Young Man, Must Like Adventure": A Review from the Field. Gilbert Herdt, Sambia Sexual Culture: Essays from the Field , Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Globalisation of the Garment Industry: Implications for Fiji's Economy.
Development Bulletin 55 , Not Feasting with Friends: The Meaning of Meat in Anganen. An Anthropology of Colonialism: Out of the "Last Unknown". Land Tenure System in Fiji: The Poverty Implications of Expiring Leases. Secrecy and the Sense of Ending: Comparative Studies in Society and History , 43 3 , Tense-Modality-Aspect Marking in Tayo. Ethnos , 66 3 , Tok Pisin and English: Origin versus Creative Powers: The Interplay of Movement and Fixity. Letter to the editor of JPS. Symbols and Identity in Papua New Guinea. Victor Kaisiepo, vechter voor de Papoea-zaak: Violence and Social Bodies: Ritualized Architecture in a Solomon Island Society.
The Politics of Religious Secrecy. Edited by Chris Ballard and Michael Nihill. Land Mobilisation in Papua New Guinea. American Journal of Physical Anthropology , , Connected by the Sea: The Journal of Pacific History, 36 2 , The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2 , Le peuplement initial de Pohnpei. Center for Archaeological Investigations. A Biocultural Perspective on Marianas Prehistory: Recent Trends in Bioarchaeological Research. American Journal Journal of Physical Anthropology , , The first five Governors of New South Wales realised the urgent need to encourage free settlers, but the British government remained largely indifferent.
As early as , Governor Arthur Phillip wrote: At present this settlement only affords one person that I can employ in cultivating the lands Land grants of crown land were made by Governors, and settlement schemes such as those of Edward Gibbon Wakefield carried some weight in encouraging migrants to make the long voyage to Australia, as opposed to the United States or Canada. Early colonial administrations were anxious to address the gender imbalance in the population brought about by the importation of large numbers of convict men.
Between and , around male to female convicts were landed at Sydney. Governor Macquarie's wife, Elizabeth Macquarie took an interest in convict women's welfare. Her humanitarian efforts later won her fame in England and great influence in achieving support for families in the colony. From the s, increasing numbers of squatters [] occupied land beyond the fringes of European settlement. Often running sheep on large stations with relatively few overheads, squatters could make considerable profits.
In , the British Colonial Office issued the Proclamation of Governor Bourke reinforcing the notion that the land belonged to no one prior to the British Crown taking possession of it and quashing any likelihood of treaties with Aboriginal peoples, including that signed by John Batman. Its publication meant that from then, all people found occupying land without the authority of the government would be considered illegal trespassers.
Separate settlements and later, colonies, were created from parts of New South Wales: The Northern Territory was founded in as part of South Australia. The transportation of convicts to Australia was phased out between and Massive areas of land were cleared for agriculture and various other purposes in the first years of European settlement. In addition to the obvious impacts this early clearing of land and importation of hard-hoofed animals had on the ecology of particular regions, it severely affected indigenous Australians, by reducing the resources they relied on for food, shelter and other essentials.
This progressively forced them into smaller areas and reduced their numbers as the majority died of newly introduced diseases and lack of resources. Indigenous resistance against the settlers was widespread, and prolonged fighting between and the s led to the deaths of at least 20, indigenous people and between 2, and 2, Europeans. The nature of many of these institutions enabled disease to spread quickly and many were closed as their populations fell. A group in Britain led by Edward Gibbon Wakefield sought to start a colony based on free settlement rather than convict labour.
In the South Australian Land Company was formed amid a campaign for a royal charter which would provide for the establishment of a privately financed "free" colony in Australia. While New South Wales, Tasmania and although not initially Western Australia were established as convict settlements, the founders of South Australia had a vision of a colony with political and religious freedoms, together with opportunities for wealth through business and pastoral investments.
The South Australia Act , passed by the British Government to establish the colony, reflected these desires and included a promise of representative government when the population reached 50, people. South Australia thus became the only colony authorised by an Act of Parliament , and which was intended to be developed at no cost to the British government. Transportation of convicts was forbidden, and 'poor Emigrants', assisted by an Emigration Fund, were required to bring their families with them.
The foundation of South Australia is now generally commemorated as Governor John Hindmarsh 's Proclamation of the new Province at Glenelg , on the mainland, on 28 December Land development and settlement was the basis of the Wakefield vision, so land law and regulations governing it were fundamental to the foundation of the Province and allowed for land to be bought at a uniform price per acre regardless of quality , with auctions for land desired by more than one buyer, and leases made available on unused land.
Proceeds from land were to fund the Emigration Fund to assist poor settlers to come as tradesmen and labourers. By the colony was experimenting with a partially elected council. In —99 George Bass and Matthew Flinders set out from Sydney in a sloop and circumnavigated Tasmania , thus proving it to be an island.
Aboard ship was the Aboriginal explorer Bungaree , of the Sydney district, who became the first person born on the Australian continent to circumnavigate the Australian continent. In , Gregory Blaxland , William Lawson and William Wentworth succeeded in crossing the formidable barrier of forested gulleys and sheer cliffs presented by the Blue Mountains , west of Sydney.
At Mount Blaxland they looked out over "enough grass to support the stock of the colony for thirty years", and expansion of the British settlement into the interior could begin. In the Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane , commissioned Hamilton Hume and former Royal Navy Captain William Hovell to lead an expedition to find new grazing land in the south of the colony, and also to find an answer to the mystery of where New South Wales' western rivers flowed.
Over 16 weeks in —25, Hume and Hovell journeyed to Port Phillip and back. They made many important discoveries including the Murray River which they named the Hume , many of its tributaries, and good agricultural and grazing lands between Gunning, New South Wales and Corio Bay , Port Phillip.
A theory had developed that the inland rivers of New South Wales were draining into an inland sea. Leading a second expedition in , Sturt followed the Murrumbidgee River into a 'broad and noble river', the Murray River, which he named after Sir George Murray, secretary of state for the colonies. His party then followed this river to its junction with the Darling River , facing two threatening encounters with local Aboriginal people along the way. Sturt continued down river on to Lake Alexandrina , where the Murray meets the sea in South Australia.
Suffering greatly, the party had to row hundreds of kilometres back upstream for the return journey. Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell conducted a series of expeditions from the s to 'fill in the gaps' left by these previous expeditions. He was meticulous in seeking to record the original Aboriginal place names around the colony, for which reason the majority of place names to this day retain their Aboriginal titles.
European explorers made their last great, often arduous and sometimes tragic expeditions into the interior of Australia during the second half of the 19th century—some with the official sponsorship of the colonial authorities and others commissioned by private investors. By , large areas of the inland were still unknown to Europeans. Trailblazers like Edmund Kennedy and the Prussian naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt , had met tragic ends attempting to fill in the gaps during the s, but explorers remained ambitious to discover new lands for agriculture or answer scientific enquiries.
Surveyors also acted as explorers and the colonies sent out expeditions to discover the best routes for lines of communication. The size of expeditions varied considerably from small parties of just two or three to large, well-equipped teams led by gentlemen explorers assisted by smiths, carpenters, labourers and Aboriginal guides accompanied by horses, camels or bullocks. In , the ill-fated Burke and Wills led the first north-south crossing of the continent from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Lacking bushcraft and unwilling to learn from the local Aboriginal people, Burke and Wills died in , having returned from the Gulf to their rendezvous point at Coopers Creek only to discover the rest of their party had departed the location only a matter of hours previously. Though an impressive feat of navigation, the expedition was an organisational disaster which continues to fascinate the Australian public. His expedition mapped out the route which was later followed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line. Uluru and Kata Tjuta were first mapped by Europeans in during the expeditionary period made possible by the construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line.
In separate expeditions, Ernest Giles and William Gosse were the first European explorers to this area. These barren desert lands of Central Australia disappointed the Europeans as unpromising for pastoral expansion, but would later come to be appreciated as emblematic of Australia.
As by English law all minerals belonged to the Crown, there was at first, "little to stimulate a search for really rich goldfields in a colony prospering under a pastoral economy".
The Colony of Victoria 's population grew rapidly, from 76, in to , by The causes of this were the colonial government's administration of the diggings and the gold licence system. Following a number of protests and petitions for reform , violence erupted at Ballarat in late Early on the morning of Sunday 3 December , British soldiers and Police attacked a stockade built on the Eureka lead holding some of the aggrieved diggers.
In a short fight, at least 30 miners were killed and an unknown number wounded. But a few months later, a Royal commission made sweeping changes to the administration of Victoria's goldfields. Its recommendations included the abolition of the licence, reforms to the police force and voting rights for miners holding a Miner's Right. In the s, visiting author Mark Twain characterised the battle at Eureka as "The finest thing in Australasian history.
It was a revolution-small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against injustice and oppression Melbourne Trades Hall was opened in with Trades and Labour Councils and Trades Halls opening in all cities and most regional towns in the following forty years. During the s Trade unions developed among shearers , miners , and stevedores wharf workers , but soon spread to cover almost all blue-collar jobs.
Shortages of labour led to high wages for a prosperous skilled working class, whose unions demanded and got an eight-hour day and other benefits unheard of in Europe. Australia gained a reputation as "the working man's paradise". Some employers tried to undercut the unions by importing Chinese labour. This produced a reaction which led to all the colonies restricting Chinese and other Asian immigration. This led to the enactment of the White Australia Policy.
New South Wales in was the first colony to gain responsible government , managing most of its own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia followed in ; Queensland, from its foundation in ; and Western Australia, in The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs, defence and international shipping.
The gold era led to a long period of prosperity, sometimes called "the long boom". During the boom, Melbourne had reputedly become the richest city in the world, []. The late 19th century had however, seen a great growth in the cities of south eastern Australia. Australia's population not including Aborigines, who were excluded from census calculations in was 3. Bushrangers , originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities.
The term "bushranger" then evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up " robbery under arms " as a way of life, using the bush as their base. More than 2, bushrangers are believed to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and ending after Ned Kelly 's last stand at Glenrowan.
Bold Jack Donahue is recorded as the last convict bushranger. Throughout the s he was regarded as the most notorious bushranger in the colony. Bushranging was common on the mainland, but Van Diemen's Land Tasmania produced the most violent and serious outbreaks of convict bushrangers.
Indigenous outlaw Musquito defied colonial law and led attacks on settlers. The bushrangers' heyday was the Gold Rush years of the s and s. The increasing push of settlement, increased police efficiency, improvements in rail transport and communications technology, such as telegraphy , made it increasingly difficult for bushrangers to evade capture.
Among the last bushrangers were the Kelly Gang, led by Ned Kelly , who were captured at Glenrowan in , two years after they were outlawed. Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish convict father, and as a young man he clashed with the Victoria Police. Following an incident at his home in , police parties searched for him in the bush.
After he killed three policemen, the colony proclaimed Kelly and his gang wanted outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police took place at Glenrowan on 28 June Kelly, dressed in home-made plate metal armour and helmet, was captured and sent to jail. He was hanged for murder at Old Melbourne Gaol in November His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folklore, literature, art and film.
Some bushrangers, most notably Ned Kelly in his Jerilderie Letter , and in his final raid on Glenrowan, explicitly represented themselves as political rebels. Attitudes to Kelly, by far the most well-known bushranger, exemplify the ambivalent views of Australians regarding bushranging. Traditional Aboriginal society had been governed by councils of elders and a corporate decision making process, but the first European-style governments established after were autocratic and run by appointed governors —although English law was transplanted into the Australian colonies by virtue of the doctrine of reception , thus notions of the rights and processes established by the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights were brought from Britain by the colonists.
Agitation for representative government began soon after the settlement of the colonies. William Wentworth established the Australian Patriotic Association Australia's first political party in to demand democratic government for New South Wales. The reformist attorney general , John Plunkett , sought to apply Enlightenment principles to governance in the colony, pursuing the establishment of equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists , then by extending legal protections to convicts, assigned servants and Aborigines.
Plunkett twice charged the colonist perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre of Aborigines with murder, resulting in a conviction and his landmark Church Act of disestablished the Church of England and established legal equality between Anglicans , Catholics , Presbyterians and later Methodists. Men who possessed 1, pounds worth of property were able to stand for election and wealthy landowners were permitted up to four votes each in elections. Australia's first parliamentary elections were conducted for the New South Wales Legislative Council in , again with voting rights for males only tied to property ownership or financial capacity.
Voter rights were extended further in New South Wales in and elections for legislative councils were held in the colonies of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. By the midth century, there was a strong desire for representative and responsible government in the colonies of Australia, fed by the democratic spirit of the goldfields evident at the Eureka Stockade and the ideas of the great reform movements sweeping Europe , the United States and the British Empire.
The end of convict transportation accelerated reform in the s and s. The Australian Colonies Government Act [] was a landmark development which granted representative constitutions to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and the colonies enthusiastically set about writing constitutions which produced democratically progressive parliaments—though the constitutions generally maintained the role of the colonial upper houses as representative of social and economic "interests" and all established constitutional monarchies with the British monarch as the symbolic head of state.
An innovative secret ballot was introduced in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia in , in which the government supplied voting paper containing the names of candidates and voters could select in private. This system was adopted around the world, becoming known as the " Australian Ballot ".
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This right was extended to Victoria in and New South Wales the following year. The other colonies followed until, in , Tasmania became the last colony to grant universal male suffrage. Propertied women in the colony of South Australia were granted the vote in local elections but not parliamentary elections in Henrietta Dugdale formed the first Australian women's suffrage society in Melbourne in This was the first legislation in the world permitting women also to stand for election to political office and, in , Catherine Helen Spence became the first female political candidate for political office, unsuccessfully standing for election as a delegate to the Federal Convention on Australian Federation.
Western Australia granted voting rights to women in Legally, indigenous Australian males generally gained the right to vote during this period when Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia gave voting rights to all male British subjects over Only Queensland and Western Australia barred Aboriginal people from voting.
Thus, Aboriginal men and women voted in some jurisdictions for the first Commonwealth Parliament in Early federal parliamentary reform and judicial interpretation however sought to limit Aboriginal voting in practice—a situation which endured until rights activists began campaigning in the s. Though the various parliaments of Australia have been constantly evolving, the key foundations for elected parliamentary government have maintained an historical continuity in Australia from the s into the 21st century. By the late s, a majority of people living in the Australian colonies were native born, although over 90 per cent were of British and Irish heritage.
Identifying strongly with family and mates , Kelly was opposed to what he regarded as oppression by Police and powerful Squatters. Almost mirroring the Australian stereotype later defined by historian Russel Ward , Kelly became "a skilled bushman, adept with guns, horses and fists and winning admiration from his peers in the district".
The origins of distinctly Australian painting is often associated with this period and the Heidelberg School of the s—s. Like the European Impressionists, they painted in the open air. These artists found inspiration in the unique light and colour which characterises the Australian bush. Their most recognised work involves scenes of pastoral and wild Australia, featuring the vibrant, even harsh colours of Australian summers. Australian literature was equally developing a distinct voice. Views of Australia at times conflicted—Lawson and Paterson contributed a series of verses to The Bulletin magazine in which they engaged in a literary debate about the nature of life in Australia: Lawson a republican socialist derided Paterson as a romantic, while Paterson a country born city lawyer thought Lawson full of doom and gloom.
Paterson wrote the lyrics of the much-loved folksong Waltzing Matilda in Dennis wrote of laconic heroes in the Australian vernacular, while McKellar rejected a love of England's pleasant pastures in favour of what she termed a "Sunburnt Country" in her iconic poem: A common theme throughout the nationalist art, music and writing of the late 19th century was the romantic rural or bush myth , ironically produced by one of the most urbanised societies in the world. While bush ballads evidenced distinctively Australian popular medium of music and of literature, Australian artists of a more classical mould—such as the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba , and painters John Peter Russell and Rupert Bunny —prefigured the 20th-century expatriate Australians who knew little of 'stockyard and rails' but would travel abroad to influence Western art and culture.
Despite suspicion from some sections of the colonial community especially in smaller colonies about the value of nationhood, improvements in inter-colonial transport and communication, including the linking of Perth to the south eastern cities by telegraph in , [] helped break down inter-colonial rivalries. Amid calls from London for the establishment of an intercolonial Australian army, and with the various colonies independently constructing railway lines, New South Wales Premier Henry Parkes addressed a rural audience in his Tenterfield Oration , stating that the time had come to form a national executive government: The numbers were about the same, and surely what the Americans had done by war, the Australians could bring about in peace, without breaking the ties that held them to the mother country.
Though Parkes would not live to see it, his vision would be achieved within a little over a decade, and he is remembered as the "father of federation". Increasing nationalism, a growing sense of national identity, improvements in transport and communications, as well as fears about immigration and defence all combined to encourage the movement, spurred on by organisations like the Australian Natives' Association. Despite the growing calls for unification, loyalties to the British Empire remained strong.
At a Federation Conference banquet in , Henry Parkes spoke of blood-kinship linking the colonies to Britain and a "race" for whom "the purpose of settling new countries has never had its equal on the face of the earth" []. In , representatives of the six colonies and New Zealand had met in Melbourne and called for the union of the colonies and for the colonial legislatures to nominate representatives to attend a constitutional convention. The following year, the National Australasian Convention was held in Sydney, with all the future states and New Zealand represented.
The delegates returned to their parliaments with the Bill, but progress was slow, as Australia faced its s economic Depression. Nevertheless, by five of the colonies elected representatives for a second Convention , which was conducted in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne over the space of a year, allowing time for consultation.
Queensland and Western Australia later moved to do the same, though New Zealand did not participate in the Convention. In July , the Bill was put to a series of referenda in four colonies, but New South Wales rejected the proposal. In , a second referendum put an amended Bill to the voters of the four colonies and Queensland, and the Bill was endorsed.
In March , delegates were dispatched to London, where approval for the Bill was sought from the Imperial Parliament. The Bill was put to the House of Commons and passed on 5 July and, soon after, was signed into law by Queen Victoria. Lord Hopetoun was dispatched from London, tasked with appointing an interim Cabinet to oversee the foundation of the Commonwealth and conduct of the first elections. There was a more radical vision for a separate Australia by some colonists, including writer Henry Lawson , trade unionist William Lane and as found in the pages of the Sydney Bulletin.
But by the end of , and after much colonial debate, the citizens of five of the six Australian colonies had voted in referendums in favour of a constitution to form a Federation. Western Australia voted to join in July From that point a system of federalism in Australia came into operation, entailing the establishment of an entirely new national government the Commonwealth government and an ongoing division of powers between that government and the States.
Labor declared it would offer support to the party which offered concessions and Edmund Barton 's Protectionists formed a government, with Alfred Deakin as Attorney-General. Barton promised to "create a high court, He proposed to extend conciliation and arbitration, create a uniform railway gauge between the eastern capitals, [] to introduce female federal franchise, to establish a The Labor Party the spelling "Labour" was dropped in had been established in the s, after the failure of the Maritime and Shearer's strikes. Its strength was in the Australian Trade Union movement "which grew from a membership of just under , in to more than half a million in ".
As noted by the historian Ross McMullin , "In the national sphere Labor had taken the Protectionists as far in the direction of progressive legislation as possible. In Western Australia, Forrest introduced a conciliation and arbitration bill in which brought trade unions into the state's social fabric for the first time. In addition, WA Labor scored another victory with the passage of legislation which extended workers' compensation.
Under the premierships of Storey and Dooley in New South Wales, various reforms were carried out such as the establishment of the Rural Bank and the elimination of high school fees. The Labor Party's rising support at elections, together with its formation of federal government in under Chris Watson , and again in , helped to unify competing conservative, free market and liberal anti-socialists into the Commonwealth Liberal Party in Although this party dissolved in , a successor to its version of "liberalism" in Australia which in some respects comprises an alliance of Millsian liberals and Burkian conservatives united in support for individualism and opposition to socialism can be found in the modern Liberal Party.
The Immigration Restriction Act was one of the first laws passed by the new Australian parliament. This centrepiece of the 'White Australia Policy' aimed to restrict immigration from Asia especially China , where the population was vastly greater and the standard of living vastly lower and was similar to measures taken in other settler societies such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand. While the law allowed for the use of any European language, the English version was standardised and became known as the "Stewart" test after the Federal MP Stewart Parnaby who originally penned the exam.
A few politicians spoke of the need to avoid hysterical treatment of the question. But there is obligation The law passed both houses of Parliament and remained a central feature of Australia's immigration laws until abandoned in the s. In the s, the Lyons government unsuccessfully attempted to exclude Egon Erwin Kisch , a German Czechoslovakian communist author from entering Australia, by means of a 'dictation test' in Scottish Gaelic.
Concerns emerged that the law could be used for such political purposes. Before , units of soldiers from all six Australian colonies had been active as part of British forces in the Boer War. When the British government asked for more troops from Australia in early , the Australian government obliged with a national contingent. Some 16, men had volunteered for service by the war's end in June Australians saw themselves in time of war a lonely, sparsely populated outpost. The Defence Act of reinforced the importance of Australian defence, and in February , Lord Kitchener provided further advice on a defence scheme based on conscription.
By , the battlecruiser Australia led the fledgling Royal Australian Navy. Historian Bill Gammage estimates that on the eve of war, Australia had , men "under arms of some sort". Historian Humphrey McQueen has it that working and living conditions for Australia's working classes in the early 20th century were of "frugal comfort".
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The Harvester Judgment of recognised the concept of a basic wage and in the Federal government also began an old age pension scheme. Together with the White Australia Policy and pioneering social policy, these developments have since been dubbed the Australian settlement. As a result of them, the new Commonwealth gained recognition as a laboratory for social experimentation and positive liberalism.
Catastrophic droughts plagued some regions in the late s and early 20th century and together with a growing rabbit plague , created great hardship in the rural area of Australia. Despite this, a number of writers "imagined a time when Australia would outstrip Britain in wealth and importance, when its open spaces would support rolling acres of farms and factories to match those of the United States. Brady , whose book Australia Unlimited described Australia's inland as ripe for development and settlement, "destined one day to pulsate with life".
With the encouragement of Queensland, in , a British protectorate had been proclaimed over the southern coast of New Guinea and its adjacent islands. British New Guinea , was annexed outright in The possession was placed under the authority of the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia in and with passage of the Papua Act of , British New Guinea became the Australian Territory of Papua , with formal Australian administration beginning in The world war marked a decisive moment in the history of Australia, remember to this day for the ANZAC story of the Army's sacrifices at Gallipoli, and the coming-of-age of a young nation.
The declaration of war by King George V in August automatically involved all of Britain's colonies and dominions. I sincerely hope that international arbitration will avail before Europe is convulsed in the greatest war of all time But should the worst happen Australians will stand beside our own to help and defend her to the last man and the last shilling. More than , Australian men volunteered to fight during the First World War between and [] from a total national population of 4.
After the Australian Imperial Forces AIF was withdrawn in late , and enlarged to five divisions, most were moved to France to serve under British command. Light horsemen of the 4th and 12th Regiments captured heavily fortified Beersheba from Turk forces by means of a cavalry charge at full gallop on 31 October One of the last great cavalry charges in history, the attack opened a way for the allies to outflank the Gaza-Beersheba Line and drive the Ottomans back into Palestine. The AIF's first experience of warfare on the Western Front was also the most costly single encounter in Australian military history.
In July , at Fromelles , in a diversionary attack during the Battle of the Somme , the AIF suffered 5, killed or wounded in 24 hours. Two bitterly fought and divisive conscription referendums were held in Australia in and Both failed, and Australia's army remained a volunteer force. John Monash was appointed corps commander of the Australian forces in May and led some significant attacks in the final stages of the war.
British Field Marshal Montgomery later called him "the best general on the western front in Europe". Monash made the protection of infantry a priority and sought to fully integrate all the new technologies of warfare in both the planning and execution of battles, thus he wrote that infantry should not be sacrificed needlessly to enemy bayonets and machine guns—but rather should "advance under the maximum possible protection of the maximum possible array of mechanical resources, in the form of guns, machine-guns, tanks, mortars and aeroplanes".
His first operation at the relatively small Battle of Hamel demonstrated the validity of his approach and later actions before the Hindenburg Line in confirmed it. Monash was knighted in the field of battle by King George V following the 8 August advance during the Battle of Amiens. Over 60, Australians had died during the conflict and , were wounded, a high proportion of the , who had fought overseas. While the Gallipoli campaign was a total failure militarily and Australians died, its memory was all-important.
Gallipoli transformed the Australian mind and became an iconic element of the Australian identity and the founding moment of nationhood. Bill Gammage has suggested that the choice of 25 April has always meant much to Australians because at Gallipoli, "the great machines of modern war were few enough to allow ordinary citizens to show what they could do". In France, between and , "where almost seven times as many Australians died At one point Hughes declared: Hughes demanded that Australia have independent representation within the newly formed League of Nations and was the most prominent opponent of the inclusion of the Japanese racial equality proposal, which as a result of lobbying by him and others was not included in the final Treaty, deeply offending Japan.
Hughes was concerned by the rise of Japan. Though Japan occupied German possessions with the blessings of the British, Hughes was alarmed by this policy. Japan obtained control over the South Pacific Mandate , north of the equator. After the war, Prime Minister Billy Hughes led a new conservative force, the Nationalist Party , formed from the old Liberal party and breakaway elements of Labor of which he was the most prominent , after the deep and bitter split over Conscription. An estimated 12, Australians died as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic of , almost certainly brought home by returning soldiers.
The success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia posed a threat in the eyes of many Australians, although to a small group of socialists, it was an inspiration. The Communist Party of Australia was formed in and, though remaining electorally insignificant, it obtained some influence in the trade union movement and was banned during World War II for its support for the Hitler-Stalin Pact and the Menzies Government unsuccessfully tried to ban it again during the Korean War.
Despite splits, the party remained active until its dissolution at the end of the Cold War. The Country Party today's National Party formed in to promulgate its version of agrarianism , which it called " Countrymindedness ". The goal was to enhance the status of the graziers operators of big sheep ranches and small farmers, and secure subsidies for them. Other significant after-effects of the war included ongoing industrial unrest, which included the Victorian Police strike.
Other major strikes occurred on the waterfront, in the coalmining and timber industries in the late s. The union movement had established the Australian Council of Trade Unions ACTU in in response to the Nationalist government's efforts to change working conditions and reduce the power of the unions. The consumerism, entertainment culture, and new technologies that characterised the s in the United States were also found in Australia.
A Royal Commission in failed to assist and the industry that had begun so brightly with the release of the world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang , atrophied until its revival in the s. Speaking in early , Bruce summed up the priorities and optimism of many Australians, saying that "men, money and markets accurately defined the essential requirements of Australia" and that he was seeking such from Britain.
In Australia, the costs of major investment had traditionally been met by state and Federal governments and heavy borrowing from overseas was made by the governments in the s. A Loan Council was set up in to co-ordinate loans, three-quarters of which came from overseas. Wheat and wool made up more than two-thirds of all Australian exports", a dangerous reliance on just two export commodities. Australia embraced the new technologies of transport and communication. In any public business arrangement, there has to be transparency.
An important question is whether the PNG government recognises this arrangement, given that the department responsible for these matters was recently reorganized. It could also be asked if the payments to landowners are to be taxed and who is responsible and accountable for the distribution of these public monies? The critical issue is whether these agreements will actually stop timber companies from cutting down the forests and how this will be policed. This has never been explained.
The Southern Highlands reportedly contain regions that are virtually in a state of civil war with limited government control. What happens when the initial payments are spent and a timber company then offers to buy the trees? Has there been a survey on which trees are in the area covered by the agreement and which trees are not covered?
Has there been a full and independent examination of who are the rightful owners of the trees? Three hundred people signed with Nupan yet the details of what was agreed have not been provided. An unnamed 'project scientist' is quoted as saying during the ceremonies that: The report also claimed: For those who have seen these promises so many times before, without transparency and proper planning, the initial hype of a project such as this so often leads to disappointment.
Without further details, the potential for this to be revealed as yet another 'cargo cult' or win moni ikamap nating seems great. If that is the case, it will only exacerbate the frustration of the forest owners and further enhance the plans of the logging companies. Posted in Issues Permalink Comments 1. It seems that our media is taking a greater interest in PNG affairs, with The Australian leading the charge. In the Weekend Australian magazine there was a detailed and insightful feature about the murders of patrol officers Szarka and Harris near Telefolmin in The story was linked with calls for greater recognition of the kiaps and their legacy, and included comment from former district commissioner and PNGAA president, Harry West.
You can read the article here. And this could be no better time to bring you this wonderful impression of the Montevideo Maru. In the glory days of shipping, maritime postcards were legion — providing somewhat romanticised views of the main ships of the line. A couple of weeks ago we provided an impression of what we thought was the Montevideo Maru - which turned out to be a successor ship of the same name. But this one is the genuine article, for which we thank collector James Hook and computer expert Vim Sharma.
The postcard was originally published by Osaka Shosen Kaisha, the shipping company that owned the ill-fated vessel. The purpose is to see what can be done to accord proper recognition to the soldiers and civilians who died as a result of the Japanese invasion of Rabaul and the New Guinea Islands in , including the estimated 1, who died on the Montevideo Maru.
The pursuit of proper official recognition of this worst Australian maritime disaster is well and truly on. Posted in Past times: Montevideo Maru Permalink Comments 3. It publishes a monthly newsletter on economic conditions and related matters. It has the largest port facilities and is the gateway to the highlands. But something is seriously wrong. The Lae of today suffers from neglect and lack of decisive political leadership. Never have we witnessed such a steady decline of a city. The heartbeat of industry hums, private sector endures, but the decline of infrastructure underlies a serious tale of woe.
Political leaders prefer the relatively more lucrative and workable capital of Waigani and, when in Lae, take refuge in the green zone — two or three comfortable establishments where, in air-conditioned comfort, their minders can praise them for their initiatives and tell them what they want to hear over glasses of red wine and cold beer. Outside the green zone, a totally different world emerges that should shake the conscience of any one who cares for the city.
Sex workers, desperate to etch out a living, bob up and down between the containers that overflow the old landing strip near town. If not there, they can be found under the verandah of Nasfund Haus, directly across from the green zone, where lucrative pickings can be had from well-heeled hotel guests. HIV is rife, as it is along the highway through to the Western Highlands and beyond. A recent HIV test of workers at one facility found 3 of 15 infected.
Young schoolies, whose parents have little, skip classes to join the sex worker throng so they can buy basics like clothes, food and soap. Many do it just to ensure they can pay school fees. A sophisticated network through mobile phones coordinates the sex workers with clients, including truck drivers and maritime workers from the port. Through mobile communication, client tastes can be ascertained - whether they use condoms or not, likes, dislikes, violent, kind, generous — as part of this highly visible trade. Lae cannot absorb the inflow of the huge urban drift from the highlands, and settlements abound with all the associated ills.
Crime -muggings to murder - is fuelled by home brew, grass and alcohol. The hospitals overflow from the rampage of disaffected, disengaged youths and communities who have worn the brunt of neglect for too long. The road system is in collapse. Not a stretch of road in Lae can be found without potholes, some so deep as to make sections impassable.
The two entrances to Lae look more like rural tracks. The poor state of the roads means drivers are easy pickings for criminals, and ensures security companies continuing work, even if it is just to ensure that access to the airport remains unimpeded. Over the last few months security of supplies of water and power have become serious issues. Water was recently unavailable for three weeks and power remains intermittent. Once again it begs the question how this has been allowed to develop in what is PNG's manufacturing hub and gateway.
Forget the appalling condition of the hospital for a minute; forget the lack of facilities to treat what in the West would be basic matters; forget the run down wards; forget the desperation on the face of women trying to get treatment for breast and cervical cancer; forget the collapsing hospital infrastructure or the piles of surgical rubbish dumped on a makeshift bonfire to the left of the building.
A collection of makeshift latrines and tents, a few iron beds and untied black plastic which fails to hide the camp from roadside visibility and now flaps in the breeze. Adults and children lying in tents getting treated for a disease that should not be in PNG and certainly not in our second largest city.
A government cheque for K3 million bounced and very little has occurred except through the assistance of AusAID and other donors. The government has pledged K13 million to assist in the cholera outbreak, and to this day has not released anything. It is a national shame beyond comprehension. In November, the national government announced its vision of a people happy and prosperous.
One could not but support such an initiative. However, the long suffering people of Lae cannot wait 40 years to secure and share that vision. They need a plan for A plan that delivers better roads, safer and secure water supplies, consistent electricity and major upgrades in the area of health and education. To continue to ignore Lae is a blight on the nation and corrosive to the collective soul. Posted in Issues Permalink Comments After World War II, as a survivor, he became an important link between the relatives of the men who died and the events on the Gazelle Peninsula in the early months of Japanese occupation.
For many people, he was able to bring the last account of their loved one's life in captivity. After the first day or so the nurses were able to come down from the mission, under guard, morning and afternoon and spend most of the day at the hospital Vunapope. Before long the guard was given up and they came and went quite freely. We were afraid that they might be molested, either at the mission or as they went to and fro.
They told us that on three occasions at night some soldiers Japanese probably drunk, did try to get into the convent, but were kept out. They also told us that they complained to the authorities and the nuisance was stopped. No one could adequately tell how much the nurses Australian did for morale. Their quiet competence in treating the sick, with only a meagre supply of the usual medicines, the mending and the other things they did--making two shirts for me from the BR cloth--their steady concern and cheerfulness, meant that we managed to keep up our spirits.
Each day we got two large loaves of bread and some other items. One rather tricky task was to cut the bread-- some 35 to 40 slices from each loaf, so that each person got one slice and there was not one left over. There was of course a demand for tobacco. Our meagre supplies did not last long. The mission people were generous in sending us some of the cigars made at the mission. These we cut up and shared. We acquired also sticks of trade tobacco, Beaconsfield Twist which we washed, cut up with old razor blades, dried in the sun and rolled in any sort of paper we could find.
We had no reliable source of news. If the Japanese were particularly pleased, they would make a big announcement, as when Singapore fell, about three weeks after we were captured. We heard an occasional report about some of our people from stragglers who came to give themselves up. On 28 April , the last of the staff and patients were taken into Rabaul. The nurses were kept at Vunapope. On 5 July they were brought to join the officers aboard the vessel Naruto Maru , and go to Japan.
The story of their subsequent privation and humiliation is yet another indictment of the behaviour of the Japanese towards the men and women who they took as prisoners. Early on the morning of Sunday 22 June, the whole camp was roused and all the civilians and military personnel except officers and eight civilians were later marched out of camp. I saw Mr Oakes march out with them.
The Japanese told us that they were being taken to a ship [which was the Montevideo Maru ]. Later we heard that they had left Rabaul and the Japanese report was that the ship had reached its destination, a journey supposed to be covered in 4 or 5 days. None of us saw the prisoners march on to the ship because the camp was not visible from the water, but there is not the least doubt in any of our minds but that the men sailed on that day.
While I was in Japan a certain camp official Lieut Hosotani told certain prisoners that the ship carrying the Rabaul personnel had been sunk. This was not official, nor was it public in the camp. From a personal standpoint, may I add that there has been no doubt in my mind that all those fellows have gone. It has been a grievous shock, especially when there has been so long a period of anxiety and uncertainty preceding it.
I knew Dan as we called him and can speak of the great help he was in a number of ways to his comrades. His health was good and his spirits of the most cheerful. Please accept my sincerest sympathy. This has been a distressing affair, but we can be glad in knowing that the end must have been swift and clean, and they are now at rest. God be with you and yours. Soon after he returned from captivity in Japan , John spent some time at Oxford in England and later he became chaplain at Royal Military College Duntroon.
He is survived by his wife, Mary, and family members. Mary has asked that donations be made to the Montevideo Maru memorial fund instead of flowers at the funeral. The fund's bank details are: Montevideo Maru Memorial Committee. Could you please drop an email to the Committee here if you do make a donation in this way. In what was to be his last contact with me in November, shortly before he became ill, John wrote: Posted in Obituaries Permalink Comments Hal, now pushing towards the venerable age of ninety, is still producing exciting work.
This service includes several large steel and bronze sculptures preying mantis, frog, dragonfly for the Port Moresby Botanical Gardens and a three-metre high bronze Bird of Paradise fountain at the University of PNG. His most recent sculptures include an eight-metre high stainless steel Bird of Paradise on a roundabout on a six-lane highway in Port Moresby, and a one tonne steel version of the National Crest on the Supreme Court building in Waigani. Hal is available for private and public commissions.
You can see more of his sculptures and obtain contact details for him here. Posted in People Permalink Comments 0. Will one man - bigman Sana or not - single-handedly destroy Earth's third largest remaining contiguous old rainforest expanses? Nowhere is this more evident than in Madang Province , which contains some of Earth's last remaining mostly intact tropical and marine ecosystems. Madang's rainforests and oceans feed and house all its citizens, regulate national and regional climatic patterns, and make the Earth habitable by providing global ecosystem services.
As Somare flits about in his new high-end private jet who paid for that? I married locally and for over a decade I worked as a PNG rainforest activist — helping stop many dodgy timber deals. Recently, on the basis of a hand-shake with German NGO Rettet den Regenwald Rainforest Rescue , I had the opportunity to have my personal expenses covered to research the situation, and to find local and international campaign opportunities, as we visited and holidayed with family. There have certainly been many adventures, successes and failures — some of which I will relate here.
You can read the complete article here. He is committed to communicating the severity of global ecological crises. And so Rabaul fell. While about people escaped through New Britain , most troops and civilians surrendered. Some were quickly executed, including a massacre of men at Tol and Waitavalo plantations. Most of the rest were interned at camps in Rabaul. And the majority of these — troops and civilians — ended their lives drowned on the Montevideo Maru. But some men stayed. These men were kiaps, planters and regular soldiers.
As they were operating in enemy held territory, they were all appointed to military rank. S o they would not be treated as spies, but as prisoners of war. As it turned out, t he subtle difference of being a serving member in the Australian military or a civilian meant nothing to the Japanese and those who were caught were summarily executed. Throughout the war, the Coastwatchers transmitted comprehensive and accurate information to the Director of Naval Intelligence. Knowledge of the terrain in which they operated and the friendship and assistance of the local people were the essential elements needed for Coastwatchers to operate and evade Japanese patrols.
Posted in History Permalink Comments 2. A couple of pars from the story will give you some indication of the flavour:. Despite facing the threat of being beheaded, speared, shot with arrows or dying of hideous tropical diseases far from medical help, Australians who served as New Guinea patrol officers are to receive only the same honours as long-serving SES volunteers and ambulance officers…. Last year a group of former kiaps and their families lobbied the federal government for a medal to recognise their service — similar to that given to the Australian Federal police who serve overseas on peacekeeping duties.
This was never a course that would have yielded the best result.
1. From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities
A more effective approach would have been emphasising kiaps' central role in nation-building, which encompassed a wide range of skills and functions including policing with the most important being those related to instilling structures of government and institution creation. I also think the proponents of this campaign have made an error of judgement in using the murders of kiaps Gerald Szarka and Geoffrey Harris to leverage their claim.
Governments these days respond better to evidence-based argument than to emotional intensity. The federal government will feel it has gone as far it intends to go in easing eligibility limitations so ex-kiaps can qualify for the award of the National Medal. The call for greater recognition is unlikely to progress further unless the ex-kiaps present more compelling arguments based on their consummate work in building a nation.
Yes, you read that right. I'm about to praise Chevron Oil. I'm no fan of Big Oil. But I realise we're going to be using petroleum products for a long time, so when an oil company does something right, I'm encouraged. Diamond has spent a great deal of time in New Guinea and is familiar with the obscene, flame-spewing, oil-spilling sites which are all too typical of drilling operations in the country. But during the months he spent at this site, he saw something different. The first time he flew over, Diamond was surprised to see an undisturbed expanse of rain forest and a thin stretch of roadway.
The road, he found when he landed, was only 10 yards wide, just enough space for two vehicles to pass each other safely. Diamond is a lifelong birder, and walking along the roadway, he saw bird species that usually can only be found in remote areas. They were practically tame, showing they had not developed a fear of humans.
Hunting and fishing were strictly prohibited. The chairman was the venerable Sinaka Goava and Bill Welbourne was the secretary. One of the main things that concerned the Commission was finding a way to free up customary land for economic development.
Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée
The eventual outcome was the passage of the Land Groups Incorporation Act in The Act never really worked very well and led to a rash of indigenous land group registrations, particularly in the resource development area, and widespread rorting and monopolisation of the system. Among other things there were no checks or verifications of land claims and many customary land owners were ripped off by their relatives and wantoks. Then in March last year, the recommendations of the task force were incorporated in two new Acts which amended the wonky version.
The new Acts introduce stricter governance and transparency rules for indigenous land groups, including mandatory reporting and the inclusion of women on management committees. The Acts also replace the reliance on dodgy genealogies to support land claims with a system which uses official birth certificates. The aims of the amendments are to make it easier to use customary land for economic purposes and to spread the benefits to all customary land owners so it is not monopolised by a greedy few.
It is hoped the amendments, by providing greater security of tenure, will also unlock the vast economic potential of customary land. The government describes the amendments as one of the first small steps towards reforms in customary land tenure. Despite all the hard work, the outcomes of the original Commission of Enquiry into Land Matters never seemed to me to be particularly satisfactory.
I always thought the overseas consultants had too much to say and the PNG commissioners too little. Hopefully these new steps will begin altering that perception. Congratulations, starting with Sir Puka Temu, are in order. To me it smacks of good governance. Local police were complimented on the effect their public patrolling of Lae was having on reducing urban crime.
The writer, however, still had to band together with others and defend a young person against thugs who were trying to rob her. So is putting your life on the line the only way to stop urban crime? At the moment, the answer might appear to be 'Yes! Creating a Neighbourhood Watch program, or some other organised arrangement between public and police, needs to be investigated. Members of the public cleared by police can then go about helping their community reduce personal assaults and petty crime. Standing up for public decency and reporting criminals to police without having to physically engage is an effective way of assisting police.
Effectively organised, People Power can work wonders. If each suburb and settlement had a Neighbourhood Watch program that wase the eyes and ears of the police, this intelligence could well help reduce urban crime. It will also make law-abiding citizens aware of how they can assist with their own security. Reports of modus opperandi or details of local crime can also help people become more aware of how they can help themselves.
While some people will always try to use a system to their own advantage, the overall benefits of Neighbourhood Watch in PNG cities might be worthwhile. The RPNGC could help themselves as well as the public by becoming more proactive rather than just reactive. Amongst other matters, there has been recent public controversy, reported in PNG Attitude , about funds deployed to the upgrading of Keravat National High School. Posted in News Permalink Comments 4. Former government minister Peter Yama last month won K7. Mr Yama, a former police officer and serial litigator, told AAP that BSP, their lawyers and two employees tried to defraud him because of a vendetta dating back to The law is on my side, I will beat them.
I win every case. While we are talking a few prominent lawyers will be charged. Mr Yama said he expected another Australian, James Kruse, a Deloitte senior accountant, to be arrested. Last year and in , New Zealand-born lawyer Erik Anderson was twice arrested on fraud charges after BSP paid him from money the bank recouped from Yama's account. Posted in News Permalink Comments 1. He was accompanied by Tony Crawford, who was later instrumental in reviving the distinct carving traditions of the Gogodala people in the Western Province.
Tony wrote and illustrated a lavish book about the Gogodala called Aida and went on to work for Robert Brown and Associates and later his own publishing company, Crawford House, producing many fine books on PNG and the Pacific. Des Clancy, the District Commissioner of the Southern Highlands , had colluded with Tony Crawford a year earlier to get the ball rolling. Graeme had been impressed by a collection donated to the South Australian Museum over a number of years from Menyamya and Yaramanda by Pastor Harold Freund. Graeme and Alan Mann split the collection in half and shared it between the two museums.
He said he wanted to capture the material culture of the Mendi and Tari before it was swept away. He said the world was quickly becoming homogenized and often alluded to the spread of men in grey flannel suits. He thought the material culture of the unspoiled Mendi and Tari was worth collecting because it was so different. I met Tony at Balimo in when he was working with the Gogodala carvers, showing them pictures of their old carvings and upsetting the local missionaries in the process. Graeme showed up a bit later when the retrieval of bodies from a crashed plane north towards Nomad showed up a cluster of longhouses belonging to a yet uncontacted group of Kamusi people.
I think meeting Tony and Graeme was probably what got me interested in anthropology and accounted for the many frustrated years I spent working in Aboriginal heritage and native title. Some years ago I spent several happy months working with a sprightly 94 year old Pastor Freund documenting his collection and, after Graeme died at a relatively early age , I moved on to documenting his collections from Graeme and his PNG collecting eventually had the rug pulled out from under it by Gough Whitlam, or more particularly Nugget Combs, who was hell bent on spending the money exploring his weird ideas about Aboriginal trackers and setting up an institute for the purpose.
Graeme had little choice but to go with the flow and never made any more large collections in PNG. Buying the odd fine axe or bow and arrow to hang on the wall I can understand, but mountains of it stored in boxes that nobody ever sees is, to me, slightly strange. Did you know the South Australian Museum is reputed to have 23 million stone chips picked up off Aboriginal campsites? They even gave some of it to Graeme free.