Australian National Servicemen
We were very pleased to welcome Tristan to Brisbane in early May, 2011. He was very appreciative of the Chalkies who were available to be interviewed by him. A special thanks to those who made the journey to Ocean View…
Earlier this year, Terry (pictured) submitted an article to this blog site and it was printed along with a wide range of other pieces about PNG. What was interesting were the comments that came back to the site. One in…
Andrew Dalziel (1971-72) The Military Cadet School (MCS) in Lae was established in the 1960’s as the initial officer training school for PNG officer cadets. Cadets entered the school having either successfully completed Year 10 at high school or having…
I have been delighted to have met up with Tristan Moss in Canberra, recently. Tristan is a PhD student at the Australian National University who is researching the experiences of Australian soldiers in PNG in the lead up to independence…
Phil Adam (1969-70) The smell! What a shock it was to jump down from the back of the RAAF Hercules to be met by the heat and the unmistakable smell of rotting vegetation. Greg Ivey and I had finally arrived…
We assembled again at Ocean View for our annual get together. As well as the social part of the night, it was the occasion of the launch of our visual record of our service in PNG. (More on that later.)…
Ian Ogston (1970/71) The Chalkie experience at Goldie River was different. ‘Goldie’ was the Papua New Guinea Training Depot, to give it its full name. It was known universally as ‘Goldie’ because of its location on the floodplain of the…
Norm Hunter (1967-68) It’s 42 years since I arrived in Port Moresby in June 1967 as a Sergeant in the Royal Australian Army Education Corps. I’d completed three months of recruit training and three months of infantry training. On the…
Exactly forty years ago, I was based at the PNG Training Depot at Goldie River as a Chalkie – a National Serviceman with the rank of Temporary Sergeant in the Royal Australian Army Educational Corps. Looking back now, I can…
I initially went to PNG for the Australian National University to develop a program which would allow people to develop entrepreneurial skills. PNG was mainly a subsistence economy. With this system, you can never gain capital and therefore not be able…
Frank Cordingley’s experience in PNG Jun 67 – Nov 68 I was in the 7th national service intake in February 1967, having turned 20 the previous October. I had been teaching junior maths and science for one year at Clermont…