My life in Morobe Province

By HUGH GREER

I first arrived in Lae, March 1969 and worked for several weeks as a student Teacher at Bugandi High School under the immortal Jack Amesbury.

Hugh Greer

At that time Lae was an immaculate garden city with beautiful parks and gardens and amazing avenue of rain trees that lead out of the city to the Highlands Highway.

The legendary Jack Amesbury, Bugandi High School Headmaster and his wife,  waiting for a plane at Lae Airport 1974.

 The airport was in the middle of town and Burns Philip was a true department store in “top town”.

There were two cinemas, the Huon at Eriku and the Lae theatre not far from BP’s.

On my graduation from ASOPA, Australian School of Public Administration,  I was posted in 1970 to Mt. Hagen High school.

I spent almost six years in Hagen and then had postings as the first Deputy Principal of Aiyura National High School and Deputy Headmaster of Chuave in the Chimbu.

I returned to Morobe in January 1977 as Headmaster of Kaiapit High school.

Malampi Nanivah from Ragidumpiat helping with the fortnightly mumu, Kaiapit High School,1977.

 I loved the Markham Valley but my second year there was spoiled somewhat by the flooding of the Maniang River that made access to the school very difficult.

Subsequently, a couple of years after my leaving Kaiapit the school was moved out to the highway at Mutzing.

My next and most-memorable school was Dregerhafen.

My mother and local friends on the verandah of the headmaster’s house, Dregerhafen High School, 1979.

 I arrived at Finschhafen by plane  January 14 1979.

 The headmaster’s house, Dregerhafen High School, 1979.

  In those days the “karanas” road from Gagidu to Dregerhafen was, in parts, beautifully shaded by raintrees similar to those in Lae.

The Headmaster’s Beach at Dregerhafen High School from the headmaster’s house 1979.

I was pleased to note that on arrival at the school, I found that most of the roads, in the school proper, were also blessed with shady large mature raintrees.

These trees sheltered a blanket of orchids, called Morobe Shower.

When they bloomed later in the year they made the most beautiful sight imaginable.

I arrived two weeks before the school year was to start so that I could settle in and become familiar with the place and the people.

  The school was badly run down and needed maintenance but the site itself was magnificent.

  The school occupied a peninsula (officially known as Cape Cretin) that jutted out into the Vitiaz Strait .

A couple of the Dregerhafen High School  teachers with my boat 1979.

The harbour itself was formed by numerous unoccupied small islands that were connected by barrier reefs.

The sea was an amazing blue and the beaches were sparkling white.

The staff and students arrived and we jointly attacked the work of the 1979 school year.

A class of Dregerhafen High School students near the beach in 1979.

The students were keen and hardworking and we quickly cleaned up the school, including Dreger Lodge, the only available accommodation in Finschhafen.

Dreger Lodge, Finschhafen.1979.

  I hired Alex Namoa, as school carpenter, son of Namoa who was the original land owner of the school area.

Alex Namoa with his boat at Dregerhafen 1979.

 Instead of having the manual arts classes making pencil cases and coat hangers, Alex took classes and taught them how to do house maintenance and how to make simple furniture.

As a result by mid 1980 most of the school buildings and houses were in good repair.

The school was the centre of the community with markets held at the school every Wednesday and Saturday.

Sports competitions in soccer and basketball were also a regular feature at the school.

At the end of the school year we had a Cultural Week when people from the community came in to teach the students traditional skills like basket making, fishing, making lime, weaving floor mats etc.

  The most popular activity was story telling; an old local man told “Tales of the Tumbunas” and the kids loved it.

The Lutheran Health Centre provided excellent health services and was responsible for saving many a sick student.

 One incident comes to mind; a grade 10 boy had been severely ill with malaria so I rushed him off to Butaweng for treatment.
Dr Hershey, an American volunteer doctor, treated the boy.

The doctor said that unless he got an immediate blood transfusion he would die.
He had an unusual blood type so we were in dire circumstances.

 “Wait a minute” says Dr Hershey “we have you listed as blood type 'O' in our records.”

They laid me out on the bed next to the sick lad and I provided the blood that saved his life.

  I can honestly say that I gave my blood sweat and tears for the school and the students.

I often went fishing with Dr Hershey and the fishing around Finschhafen was excellent.

Some Dregerhafen High School students after a successful fishing trip 1979.

 On one occasion, we went out to the Tami islands with Dr Hershey’s little son, Sean.

 We had a great day fishing, swimming, water skiing and snorkelling.

The local people could not say Sean so he was called “Ocean” and he is now a famous singer of PNG music.

At the end of the 1980 school year 35% of our grade 10’s were selected for National High School.

This was an outstanding result as the national average was 5%.

 1979/80 were the best two years of my life; I loved Finschhafen and the wonderful people there.

 I was then posted to Lae in 1981 as Assistant Secretary of Education but this did not last long as I had a serious clash with Utula Samana, the then Premier.

 Strangely I taught Utula and Boyamo Sali in Bugandi in 1969, while Practice Teaching.

After 11 years in Education, I had a short stint at the Hagen Hauliers depot in Lae and then took up management of KSS Transport on Laurabada Avenue until the end of 1983.

 This involved transporting fuel, freezer goods and general cargo up to the Highlands.

  From 1983 to the end of 1986, I was manager of the KSS Group of Companies in Kainantu.

  I then took up management of Harcros Trading in Kimbe in 1987.

 I left KImbe and returned to Lae 1990 in the role of Personnel and Training manager with British Petroleum, living at a beautiful architect built compound at 9-Mile.

My BP house at 9-Mile, Lae, 1990.

In the middle of 1994, I was posted to Rabaul to handle sales and operations for BP Oil in the Islands Region.

  While there I went through the eruptions of Tavurvur and Vulcan.

 I returned to Lae with BP in 1997 to perform various managerial operations roles.

 My final job in Lae was with Niugini Oil as operations manager from 1998 to 2004.

My last 10 years in Lae, I served as Senior Vice President of the Lae Chamber of Commerce, working with my old friend Alan McLay.

  I was also an active Rotarian in the Huon Gulf Rotary Club, serving as President in 2000.

I finally left Lae and PNG in August 2004.

I have lived in Cairns ever since and I have worked 10 years, part time and full time,
with Caltex, giving me 34 years experience with the oil industry.

  I have also worked almost 10 years part time for the Australian Public Service and I am still busy with the APS.

  For almost eight years I had the two part time roles simultaneously with Caltex and the APS.

Morobe took up a large part of my life and I will forever have fond memories of my years there.