The Setting

It’s always best starting with the locale. The island of New Guinea straddles the equator, North of Australia and East of Indonesia. Today this endowed place teems with mines, plantations and bustling cities. The Western part of the island is the Indonesian province of West Papua. The East is Papua New Guinea; a peaceful, prosperous Commonwealth democracy. This Web series starts in PNG and will end here. The first tale from, “Niugini,” (the Tok Pisin or Pidgin English name) comes from Port Moresby, during its’ fledgling years.

Image via Wikipedia

British Papua

In the late nineteenth century the powers of Europe were taking an interest in New Guinea. The Dutch, who were in Indonesia, were establishing their town of Hollandia on the Western part of the island, known now as West Papua. European explorers, pirates and seafarers had skirted the archipelago since the eighteenth century. The earliest European landing was on New Ireland, by the explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, around 1767.

Also, Indonesian and Chinese explorers had visited the place before this time in search of the prized Bech de Mer (Sea Cucumber).

By 1880:

• The Germans had established Rabaul, in New Britain, with towns skirting the Northern part of present day Papua New Guinea’s mainland at Finchaffen and Madang.
• The Dutch were settling the West
• The British were interested in the South, establishing Port Moresby, as the capital by 1900
• The London Missionary Society had established a school on Kwato Island, on the very Eastern-tip, of New Guinea’s mainland.

European settlement of New Guinea was well underway by 1895. It was into this picture walked the young Justice Christopher Robinson, under the auspices of the then Administrator, Le Hunte.

Queensland New Guinea

The young English-speaking colony of British New Guinea may well have been named, “Queensland New Guinea.” The English then were intent on present day Papua – the South-Eastern region. This was to prevent Dutch and German expansion south. The Germans had built a successful colony right across the North, with a prosperous settlement in Rabaul. This is in current day New Britain. Queensland was given, “administration-by-proxy,” of British New Guinea and the place was run from Brisbane.