Trevor Donald Tells It All; Life in the Bureau from 1947 to 1989 (continued)

When I went to Angoram, which is on the Sepik River and well inland, I was staying with the District Officer, Ralph Ormsby, a very large gentleman and known to the local natives as 'The Big Bel Kiap'. Also staying with the District Officer was an artist, William Dobell, who was working on a commission for Qantas. I believe that his sketches were to be used to promote the Qantas 'Bird of Paradise' service between Australia and New Guinea.

The chap that I was teaching to carry out the various synoptic observations was a retired pre-WWII Patrol Officer known as 'Sepik Robbie'. On retirement he had settled at Angoram and opened a trade store. He was a very interesting man.

It must have been 1950 when I visited Telefomin Patrol Station, the station having only been open for a comparatively short time when I was flown in. The location has something of a history. This part of the valley was formed like a natural airstrip and during WWII it became an emergency landing field for aircraft damaged during bombing raids on Wewak and other targets. A glider was flown in to Telefomin with a pocket-sized bulldozer which was used to improve the surface of the emergency landing field. The bulldozer was still there in the Kanai grass at the side of the airstrip.

Telefomin is about 1500 metres above mean sea level, quite close to the border of Papua and then Dutch New Guinea, and is virtually located between the headwaters of the Fly and Sepik Rivers. When I arrived two Patrol Officers and about a dozen Native Police were in residence. About twelve months after my visit a patrol was attacked during the early morning hours. The Patrol Officer was killed and, if my memory is correct, so were a couple of the Native Police.

During 1950 we were transferred to Port Moresby for about six months prior to taking up appointment to the weather office at Honiara in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.

We spent approximately two years in the Solomons prior to going south for recreation leave. During that period our eldest son was born at Honiara on 3 March 1953. My duties included the recruitment of indigenous Solomon Islanders and their training as weather observers and later as teleradio operators. In all, my predecessor Ted Tindale and I set up and trained staff at five outstations including Vanikoro in the Santa Cruz group, some hundreds of kilometres to the south-east.

Bureau of Meteorology