TOUR OF PORT MORESBY

To the newcoming tourist, Port Moresby is not an interesting town
with littleto remind us of the war and earlier colonial times. I stayed
in the town for many years and taken trekkers and tourists around
the area.

I have good friends who call on me to be tour guide for groups and I
find it a pleasant day and pays for a week of using internet. It is their
way of giving support to AIDS awareness.

Best place to start is downtown Port Moresby. Here we see how Port
Moresby started. The first ships anchored in Simpson Harbour and off
loaded the new settlers. Soon a wharf was built with Burns Philp on one
side and Steamships on the other.

Settlement started. A road was built around the coast past Hanuabada

with Government offices built at Konedobu. Back in town Anglicans
were busy at work taking over the highest land downtown and building
a cathedral. At the same time a court house was built followed by post
office and library.

We ponder on the impact of colonialism on villagers of coastal villages.

It is pointed out that children in 1800s were playing cricket in the village

square of Hanuabada. I talk of luxury toilets in houses over the water.

The village of Hanuabada had most senior officers in Government with
their proximity to Konedobu and priority in education. We talk of the
Hiri Moale festival and raise the fact that we are in the mythical South
Seas with girls in grass skirts doing the hula dance.

A road went over the hill to connect with Ela Beach and Koki village.
The road eventually went out to the hinterland where the airport was
built and expanded during the War to become Jacksons.

I like to explain the importance of Jacksons to the war effort. Bombing
of DC-3s on the strip led to the construction of revetments in which to
house the aircraft.

These were large horse-shoe shaped walls that once dotted Jacksons
and still dot the airstrip of Dobuduru like hordes of soldier crab holes
on the beach. We drive between revetments on the Hubert Murray
Highway at Erima. Sometimes we stop and the tourists climb over
the stone walls of the revetment.

On the way out to Jacksons, I show the intelligence/signals HQ that
still stands behind the NBC radio station. As the tourists are shown
the aircraft outside the Gateway Hotel used in Western Desert by
Field Marshal Montgomery.

We go out to Laloki to see Schwimmer’s Field. It is now a museum in
which the landowners have set up interesting displays. I remind tourists
of the movie Tora Tora Tora showing airstrips on Hawaii spread out
for strategic safety against enemy air attack. It was called dispersal.
So too Port Moresby.

We go to the Bomana War cemetery and tourists wander around. If they
are not Australian, I do not talk specifically about the war. Many from the
cruise ships come from all over the world. I point out the airstrip that was
once beside the cemetery during the war.

On the way home, we see the Marston matting or pre-fabricated steel
plate in its many uses. Even today, Marsden matting is in place below
the bitumen of the Jacksons runway.

Time permitting, we go to a secret place at Varirata national park where
tourists with cameras at the ready are taken to a special spot to view the
displays of the birds of paradise. We may also go out to Ower’s Corner
depending on interest.

From Varirata national park, we have a wonderful view of Port Moresby
and the mountains. I talk briefly about the tectonic plate history and show
how much of Port Moresby would have been under water. Mountain tops
would have been islands. For tour guiding email aholistics@hotmail.com.