Pen-pals in school and Army: the Peter Tavip story

by Peter Norman

National Service took me to PNG for several months in 1966 when I served in the Ordnance Corps at Murray Barracks. But my interest started much earlier.  My teacher for Grade 4 in 1954 at St. Patrick’s Wangaratta was a lay teacher.  She had a teacher friend or relative in New Britain.  The two teachers decided to arrange for the students of their respective classes to become pen-friends.  My allotted pen-pal was Peter Tavip from the Gazelle Peninsula near Rabaul.

Part of my roaming around Wangaratta in the 1950s included the railyards.  I was fascinated by the sounds and smells of the steam locomotives and especially loved to stand on the pedestrian bridge at Wangaratta Station to be engulfed in steam and smoke as the trains passed underneath.  While on this bridge one day a train from Melbourne arrived.  I watched as the passengers alighted and was intrigued to see one of the passengers struggling to carry a large wooden model war canoe, complete with outrigger. It was about a metre long.  I can clearly remember it now, because later that same day I became the proud owner of that canoe.  It had been carved by Peter Tavip’s grandfather at Rabaul, and it was a gift from Peter to me.
The New Britain students were a few years older than we Australian students, because at that time the Territory of Papua and New Guinea was well behind western educational standards, and they were in catch-up mode.  Peter Tavip and I continued to write to one another, mostly with Mum’s encouragement, right through our primary and secondary school years, and well into adulthood. When I was in Port Moresby in 1966, Peter was living and working in West New Britain.  It was half arranged that I would hitchhike in a RAAF plane to catch up with him, but the planets did not align and the opportunity was lost.  I had to wait another three years.

Peter Tavip came to Australia in 1969 and visited Anne and I, and Mum and Dad, in Preston, Melbourne. Later on, his wife Jessie Tavip also came to stay with Anne and I at Kilsyth.  But Peter’s letters stopped abruptly about 1971 when we received the news from Jessie that Peter had been murdered at his place of employment.  He was better educated than most New Britains of the era.  Peter had a tertiary education in agriculture and became the manager of a commercial operation. He had been trained as an athlete in Rabaul in 1962 by Australian champions John Landy and Kevan Gosper. Peter represented Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific Games held in Suva, Fiji, in 1963 and again in Noumea in 1966.
Unfortunately, Peter Tavip’s life came to an early end.  He was addressing his workers one day (all being local labourers) when they took offence that one of their own, Peter, was talking down to them, just like the white bosses apparently did.  Feeling betrayed, they pelted him with rocks until they killed him.  Peter’s demise was reported in the Melbourne Age on 3rd April 1971 as follows:
“Two West New Britain Magistrates this week fined 341 plantation labourers $5 each on riotous behaviour charges following a riot in which a well-known Territory athlete was killed. The athlete, Peter Tavip, an East New Britain Tolai who represented Papua New Guinea at the South Pacific Games at Noumea in 1966, died of injuries, after the labourers attacked him two weeks ago.”
The message we got from Jessie clearly stated murder.  But we had no idea at the time that there were indeed 341 perpetrators of this heinous crime.  If there was a single perpetrator, then a $5.00 fine was indeed an insufficient punishment not commensurate with the gravity of the crime.
Peter Tavip was a charismatic person and was very likely to have had a stellar career had his life not been cut short.  His two children, Helen and Sulipa looked somewhat different from the usual New Britains, having curly blonde hair.

The author has recently been in contact with Peter Tavip’s daughter Helen and his grand daughter in Lae, Hephzibah Romalus. Hephzibah wrote:
On the 25th of May 2026, I received a remarkable parcel from Australia containing five original pen-friend letters written in 1959 by my late grandfather, Peter Tavip, as well as family photos of Peter Tavip. For an incredible 67 years, Mr. Norman carefully preserved these letters and photos before returning them to our family. More than paper and ink, these letters are a testament to friendship, loyalty, history, and the enduring bonds that connect people across oceans and generations. This priceless gift has brought a piece of my grandfather’s voice, thoughts, and legacy back home to Papua New Guinea. Thank you, Mr. Norman, for safeguarding this treasured chapter of our family’s history.
Hephzibah is an 18-year-old accomplished athlete. Like her grandfather Peter, she has represented PNG in South Pacific competitions such as the Mini Pacific Games at Palau in 2025 where she won Gold and Silver Medals. Hephzibah is preparing to represent PNG in the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow this year.