First Impressions of Port Moresby

Indigenous Papuans were much in evidence walking on the roadside. Few white people were seen. Most of the Papuans were without shoes and wore no clothing from the waist up, the women dressed in thick grass skirts which swayed seductively as they walked. The men wore lap-laps, a short skirt made of coarse linen. The sight of bare-breasted women was a novelty for me and I noted that the young women were quite attractive. The colour and physique of the Papuans varied considerably, the smaller Motuans from eastern Papua being of slight build with light brown skins whilst others, from western Papua, were tall, muscular and quite black, with large aquiline noses.

Doc Hogan lived with his wife in a rudimentary but comfortable and roomy house in Pandora Crescent on a hill adjacent to the town of Port Moresby. The house (see Figure 3), which was to be our first home after marriage, commanded a magnificent view of the whole of the immense harbour as well as the town of Port Moresby, which consisted of the wharf, some warehouses, shops, churches, government offices, two hotels, a hospital, a small cottage housing the office of AWA and an open-air picture show.

Figure 3 Gibbs residence, Pandora Crescent, Port Moresby, 1941. (Photograph courtesy of A. K. Hannay)

Bureau of Meteorology