Helen Pollock Bio written August 2013

Helen Pollock, August 2013.

My ultra conservative parents were astonished when the great big fat envelope arrived in the post.  I remember the interview very well and came away thinking that it all seemed very exciting.  I knew little about TPNG.

As I lived at home with my parents in Epping it was an excursion merely to get to Middle Head every day but I soon hooked up with Lois who lived in Eastwood and she kindly drove me to ASOPA.  Having gone to an all girls’ school and only out of school for a year I found the lectures to be amazing.  Enough of the C group had had a year or two at university so had learnt “lecture behavior” from there and were quite happy to interrupt, challenge and engage in discussion and to …miss lectures.

Other memories from ASOPA include:

·      Members of parliament (?) who came for a visit and sat in the dining area discussing the “value” of the females at the college.  A kindly (?) pidgin speaker translated!

·      The health lecture that consisted of slide after slide of “toilets” from around the world but mainly from third world areas.

·  Jeannie’s obsession with whether or not we were pregnant and the dreaded worm infestations we would get if we went bare footed.

·  Being rostered on to make milkshakes at morning teatime.  I remember Jack Jensen’s having a collision with a surfboard and him living on milkshakes as his jaw was wired shut.

·      SRA reading…OMG

·      I loved Geoff England’s philosophy lectures.  Later studied philosophy at UQ and again loved it.

·      Life saving at Balmoral Baths.  It was a very windy day and the water was very rough.  I was very grateful that I had had the foresight to get a bronze medallion whilst at school as we were excused and allowed to sit by the water watching.  For some it was a nightmare.

·      Fred Kaad’s lectures where all the girls had to sit down the front.  I wonder if any of us accurately predicted the future of PNG in that second year assignment.

·      Games of 500.

·      The Noel Gash interpretation of history.

·      The St Patrick’s Day Balls.

It all came to its logical conclusion in November 1967.  My first trip in a plane was very exciting especially as we landed in Brisbane in the early hours with fire engines racing alongside! We arrived at Madang in the late afternoon.  It was spectacularly beautiful with the sea and the palm trees and much cooler, thankfully, than Moresby. 

Ros, Lois and Lesley in our first month in Madang.

Prac. Teaching was at Madang Tech.  The principal, Jim Watson, called me in for a little chat.  There are two school rules: the first was that the students must wear clothing to academic classes and I forget the second!  I was the only female on the staff.  The classrooms in pairs were roofed concrete slabs with a storeroom in the middle.  They were quite cool and breezy as the school was by the water.  However when it rained you moved the desks into the middle of the room and gave up.  Jim, found out it was my 21^st a week after we arrived and thought it was a good enough excuse for a party.  I don’t think he needed much of an excuse.

I spent my first TPNG Christmas with John Colwell and Bob Gray at John’s parents’ place in Moresby.  Christmas, Colwell style, beginning with midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, was another in a very long list of new experiences.

Back to Madang and where Ros (Marks) and I were allocated a three-bedroom house on the girls’ school at Tusbab.  We had a succession of housemates including one who rode a restored WW 11 BSA bike and did not wash her sheets for the 6 months or so she was with us.

Academic Classroom

Memories include:

·      Boarding school duties, with the girls using sarips to cut the grass and the snakes on the oval.

·      Sex education lessons with my care class… 14-15 year old all boys’ class.  My biggest surprise was the belief that you had to have sex eight times to have a baby!  They knew just having sex once did not result in a baby…but to believe that sex once, the baby got a body, twice a head etc. until the baby was given life on the eighth time was difficult to argue against in the light of their experience.  In their belief system this accounted for stillbirths and miscarriages. I kept all their written questions and interestingly this folder was missing from my effects when I came back to Australia.

·      School parades on the basketball courts.

·      Watching the landing on the moon (film) in the mess and being asked why we could not see the flag.  Thanks Bob Brown.

·      The dancing troupe.  Ros and I were not part of this but we had our photo taken in the gear.

·     The 7.1 earthquake that shook the town in the early hours.  Most of us had been to a function at the golf club the night before and to have the 6’ long bookcase fall over, the bed end up on the opposite side of the room and the contents of the kitchen cupboards on the floor added a whole new dimension to the term “guria”.

·      The visit by some Maths specialists from UQ who were interested in the developing mathematic concepts of our students.   They gave the kids a basic computation test and reported back that they had done appallingly. There was no logic to their answers just seemed like random guesses until someone realized that they had not specified base 10.  Seems the kids had guessed the base depending on the question…that sorted, the kids did very well! Some local villages had a base 25.

·      The visit of the Queen and Prince Phillip.  I believe that Ros Marks actually went to the function at the DC’s residence.  I was on boarding school duty and delivered several of the girls who acted as waitresses for the evening. 

·      Having two children at the Madang General Hospital.

Madang General Hospital.

·      Leaving daughter, Kimberley, born (21/6/72) in the care of two school girls when she was about 9 months old and finding that the girls had woken her to play. Here she was having had a bath and dressed in the most impractical clothing she owned.  She, however, seemed to enjoy the late night entertainment!   Lachlan arrived 10 weeks before we left PNG at the end of 1974.

By the end of the 70’s I had been diagnosed Type 1 diabetic, was a single parent, and had gone back to full-time teaching to support myself and my two children.  The only teaching position was at a Special School in a low socioeconomic area about 30 mins from home. For the first three weeks I wondered how I would survive.  My principal was a godsend.  He encouraged me to go to UQ to get a degree, as this was to become the expected standard.  So it was teach all day, collect the kids from school, off to Uni…I barely had time to scratch myself.  By the time my head was above water, I had the degree, kids were settled in school and we were OK, diabetes under control, well almost!

Kimberley studied Arts at UQ and became curious about PNG after several anthropology units.  She was very keen to go back (by herself!) and see where she was born.  After speaking to John Colwell one Christmas we flew back to PNG for a visit. Firstly, to Madang where Lach did some diving on the war wrecks off the coast and Kimberley and I played tourist.  Lach (still studying to be a paramedic) after visiting the hospital stated that it was irresponsible of me to have had him there. From Madang we flew to Goroka and travelled down into the Asaro Valley and finally flew into Moresby to be met by John.  Kimberley walked the Kokoda Track with John and the seniors from Sogeri and still believes this to be one of the most significant events of her life. Lach and I flew back to Australia.  That Lach did not walk the track when he had the chance is one of his greatest regrets.

Seems I have a job attention span of about 5 years…

I have been:   Classroom teacher of mildly intellectually impaired kids,

                        Classroom teacher of physically impaired kids,

Integration teacher at a High School

                        Education Adviser (Statewide)                                                                                           Advisory Visiting Teacher

Completed my 25 years for Ed Qld, got the Apple and retired in 2006.

My twenty-five years with Ed Qld saw the kids graduate from their respective high schools and go on to their respective universities.  Kimberley is a teacher at an international school in Seoul, is married and has two children…at last count I had been to Korea twenty six times in thirteen years.  Lach is also married with two young sons and works as an Intensive Care Paramedic with QAS and lives here in Brisbane.

I am spending some time trying to locate our colleagues and have been very interested in seeing the paths that others have taken since our common ASOPA and PNG experience.  I wonder who would have accurately predicted where they would be after 48 years.

The rest of my time is spent doing what I want to do: movies, theatre, lunches out, gossip sessions, reading, and grandmother duties.  I take one grandson to school three days a week and stay and volunteer in a composite one/two class.  Look after another for 3-4 hours on Tuesdays and of course my regular trips to Korea.  I have much to be grateful for…

Hope to see as many of you as can make it to the reunion.

Helen

Bob Brown Bio as written July/August 2013

BOB BROWN – ASOPA 1966/67

I never wanted to be a Cadet Education Officer.  In my final year at St Edwards College, Gosford, thanks to  prompting by my geography teacher Joe Driscoll  to consider a career in Papua New Guinea, my original intention was to do the Cadet Patrol Officers Course at ASOPA when I was old enough. My parents were horrified and managed to persuade me to do the CEO course instead.

My memories of ASOPA are doing all the hard swot in the first year and then enjoying the second year as co-tenant with Ian Johnson of 64 Vista St, Mosman – which tended to be the party house of 1967.

Practice teaching was at Tusbab High School and I was genuinely pleased to be posted there afterwards. Madang was as good as any place to be in TPNG. I never regarded being in TPNG as 'work' – it was just a wonderful & unforgettable place. Amongst my memories are:

·      All the students I knew

·      The student strike/riot of ’68 at Tusbab

·      The earthquake of ’70 at Madang

·      Being admitted to the Hansenide Colony at Hatzfelthaven with typhoid

·      Playing rugby league all over the Territory

BINARY BITS & ALL THAT

Teaching was never my chosen path and I was always considering alternatives. Whilst on annual leave in Sydney in 1969/70  - Ian Johnson had suggested we go to London instead - I rocked up at IBM in response to an ad for trainee computer programmers. I was offered a place the day before I was scheduled to fly back to Madang and asked them to keep the position open for me until I returned in a year's time. Not surprisingly, they declined.

Once my three years were up I returned to Sydney, not without plenty of regrets, and lived most of the time around Mosman and Kirribilli. I enrolled on a full-time Computer Programming course at the Control Data Institute in North Sydney. By the time I had finished the course I realised I didn't want to be a computer programmer – despite the terrific salaries on offer. No silicon chips in those days and everything had to be coded in 'machine language' – i.e. binary arithmetic. Punch cards were king!

A PRIVATE LIFE

Looking for jobs in the private sector I came across one at P Rowe International  who were Dupont's distributor in Australia. They were looking for somebody to implement a computerised inventory control system. My final course assignment at Control Data had been identical to what P Rowe International needed. At the interview I must have appeared like a whiz kid and my career in operations management was launched in the private sector.

Around this time I read two influential books. One was entitled 'How to Get Real Estate Rich'; the other on how to progress in business. A key feature of the latter was that you should never stay in a job any longer than when you had mastered the essentials of that job. Sell yourself to a higher bidder!. So just about every year I changed jobs. First to the Readers Digest and  then Select Distribution to launch the Readers Digest and Family Circle magazines at every supermarket checkout in the country – a hopeless task. I went six years without a holiday.

THE CORPORATE SPY

Next  came an intriguing project. Pykes Tours – the oldest tourist coach company in NSW – were having problems. Its ultimate parent company, British Electric Traction, which included P & O and Wembley Stadium amongst its portfolio – were  constantly having to inject funds into Pykes despite the business appearing healthy. The existing management of Pykes were being evasive.

I was planted in the business by the parent company as operations manager with the brief to find out what was going on. My reward if  successful was that I would get the top job at Pykes. It did not take me too long to discover a business beset by fraudulent invoicing; abysmal cash control and being dictated to by the Transport Workers Union. When I announced to head office that I could cut payroll costs by 25% without affecting the efficiency of the business and sort out the other issues   – the top job of General Manager was mine within days.

From there it was downhill. A merger with Australian Accommodation & Tours (AAT) - owned by TAA, helped prove that the business inherently was a rotten egg. It was time to move on – but where to?

WHERE TO NOW?

I had become good friends with the company accountant John Babula – we played touch footy on Sunday mornings for the same team in the South Sydney competition. During the summer of 77/78 we had gotten into the habit of taking a two hour lunch on Fridays and going to Maroubra beach for a surf. On one such February Friday while resting on the beach we addressed the issue of where we should move. John decided he was finished with the private sector and wanted the security of the public service. He went on to become Chief Financial Controller of the NSW State Railways.

For me, I declared that I  was going to buy 10 acres of land in the South of France and grow grapes and make wine! Having never been to Europe, let alone France, nor make wine this was some statement but my broad intentions were serious aided by a general disenchantment with Australia.

I discussed this with Joan, my long-term girlfriend of five years  – a '£10 tourist' from Britain' who had fled Britain during the '3 day week'  -  and she was not all that keen. But in July 1978 off we went to investigate - bumping into Ian Johnson in the toilets at Bombay airport, as you do.

By the end of our two month visit we decided that Britain and Europe was where we wanted to be. First Joan had to complete her 4 year Librarian course and me my external Bachelor of Business (Accounting) at Mitchell College of Advanced Education and we had to sell up property.

In the meantime, after a brief stint with Mr Icee – The Coldest Treat in Town - I left the private sector and spent my final year in Australia working for the Spastics Centre at Allambie Heights. Being responsible for having to move so many handicapped children and adults great distances across Sydney, I  left Australia a humbled person.

BRITAIN or BUST

When we arrived in Britain in April 1980 there were 3 million unemployed; interest rates were 15%; the inner cities were burning and Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. For me there was no turning back.

Job offers were few and far between but in September I was offered two good jobs on the same day. One was General Manager of  Cheshire-based Berkeley Travel who operated package tours to the south of France and Florida. They promoted their business throughout the workingmen’s clubs of Northern England on the basis that the first thing a person did when  made redundant was to spend some of their redundancy money on a holiday. And there were plenty of potential customers!

The other offer was from West Herts College, just outside London, who had initially interviewed me for a tourism lecturing position but then offered me a post lecturing in Accounting and Statistics. A return to education was not what I had planned.

In the end, Berkeley Travel were offering a better salary, a company car and lots of travel benefits. But also long, long hours. As a lecturer I would have 20 hours class contact a week and 14 weeks paid holidays a year. The road to France was clear.

Throughout that decade we prospered under the Thatcher Revolution and I did my part by canvassing for her party in General Elections. There were regular trips to France  - day, weekends and weeks - and plenty of looking at French estate agents windows and thinking “if only”.

FROM MAROUBRA BEACH TO NOIZERET

In 1990 the opportunity arose to buy an eight acre former vineyard in the heart of the Burgundy vineyards of France in the tiny hamlet of  Noizeret. Built in the late 18^th century the dry-stone property had not made wine since the mid 50's and was a bit of a wreck  The giant wine press , fermentation tanks  & cellars remained but, alas, no grape vines. For the next few years I spent the bulk of my 14 weeks' annual holidays renovating part of the property (the Farmhouse) with Joan accompanying me as often as possible. Having no children made this easier. Maroubra beach had been 12 years ago.

Changes were afoot in education with the government announcing that they were proposing to abolish the practice of teachers retiring on a full pension at 50 and then returning to work the next day as a part-time teacher. Retirement would be at 60 instead. I had no wish to go on to 60 so in 1997 jumped out of the paid workforce just in time to collect my pension.

WWW.NOIZERET.COM

We still had a need for additional income so we set about developing our French property as a holiday destination. First the Farmhouse was rented out successfully for short term lets when we were not there. Then we decided to do a total renovation of another detached building on the site where the wine had been made – The Winery.

We leased our house in Roman St Albans in England and moved to France. The Winery had no electricity, no water, no sewage, an outside dunny (just a hole in the ground - French style) and a huge hole in one of the floors. We had intended using the rent from our St Albans property to fund a lot of the works but our English agent cheated us and we had to move out of the Farmhouse so we could earn some rental income from it.

We lived in a single room in the Winery with a makeshift bathroom that had just a toilet; and a bathtub in which we washed ourselves, our clothes and our dishes. Our kitchen was an outside BBQ. Over 20 months the Winery was turned into a two bedroom & two bathroom character cottage forming part of the small portfolio of Noizeret.com.

Returning to live in the UK, for the past 13 years we have successfully marketed Noizeret.com to the English and German markets while also picking up bookings from North America and Australia. From late March to early November we do the 900 kilometre commute by car from St Albans to France every four weeks or so to do a little bit of 'Spring cleaning'.

RUGBY LEAGUE

Throughout all those years – and even before my ASOPA days – I have had a lifetime involvement in rugby league. When I initially settled in the UK in Hemel Hempstead there was no local rugby league club so I started one. At 34 I thought I would be an administrator but immediately found myself playing competitively until I turned 40. The club I founded –  now called Hemel Stags – started off as a pub team playing in borrowed shirts on a hurling pitch. Today it has over 40 employees, plays in the professional ranks and I am the full time (almost), voluntary C.E.O.

A couple of websites:

www.noizeret.com

www.hemelstags.com

Dawn McArthur (nee Taylor) Bio as written 2007 added August 2013

Dawn Taylor (now McArthur) Bio as at August 2013

from D Group ASOPA 1966/67

 

In Lae, I had my final prac at Busu High School along with Sharon McDonald and Penny Winser. I was totally amazed at the sheer volume of rain that could fall in one night and flood the path through to school up to our knees, a wet journey getting to work.

In the holidays, a group of us travelled up to a mission at Kaiapit, where Penny, Sharon and I stayed. But the guys, Denis, Hans, Brian, Keith, Tony and Kevin had to sleep in the village. Kevin managed to fit in a game of squash with the RI, Jeff Hodgeson. It was a learning experience doing a study of the life in a village. We all had Christmas together in Lae. In January, a group of us did a crash course in Home Economics (2 weeks) and stayed at the Boroko Guest House. All the 66/67 students were invited to a party at the Johnson residence. And, a really great time was had by all.

I was then posted to Lae High School, but on the first day of teaching was posted back to Busu (a fortunate thing as by my reckoning was written up for well over 40 periods at Lae HS.  In Lae, I was heavily involved in sport and as well as Subjects for which I was trained taught Art, Music, Commerce and PE and took the after school Sport. Also played in the School teams in the Town Comps - Basketball, Softball (badly, but always managed a walk) and was the only non-ethnic in the Netball (which meant umpiring Finals and Grand-finals, with John Budby enjoying himself on the sideline) Penny and I also danced with the band Johnny Deewy and the Splinters.... a bit of fun, but frowned on by the upper echelon. Was also involved in the Mainland Carnivals and got to see Moresby and Madang and ran the female events in the one held in Lae.

We were a small boarding School and only had the Headmistress Dorothy Davies and 3 on-ground teachers; Bruce McArthur, Penny and myself. Plus there were two married daytime-only teachers, so boarding school duties were fairly intensive, lasting until 9 at night and weekends. We had specially selected female boarders from all over the Territory. In 1968 the school became co-ed as some boys from the local villages also attended. Some of the males were much older as their English skills had to have reached a certain level and they were accepted, and, indeed were well spoken and articulate when questioned. I also brought a girl home with me for the 1968 Christmas holidays.

John Budby, Peter Beck and I decided to visit Wally and company in Goroka (and thanks for the loan of your jumper Wally) for Easter ‘68. The trip up there was one to remember. We started with 3 spare tyres, but managed to suffer our 4^th flat on the Lae side of Kassam Pass. I guess the roads were a bit rough. 

I recall another trip to Moresby on Air Papua with students travelling to the Mainland Carnival. The plane was an unlined shell and most of the students were violently air sick as the flight was rough.with much turbulence...a disastrous journey. The students were a delight to teach and so respectful, they were so well behaved and always gave all they could. They had very inquisitive minds and loved to hear as much as they could about Australia and the World in General.

I returned to Australia and taught Maths at Hurstville Boys High. Bruce McArthur and I married while he was studying medicine and we were involved in a serious head-on collision (critically injured) when a driver fell asleep. It was the first day of our honeymoon. That year I was attempting to study at New England Uni (but was in no fit state) and came across Warwick Irvine at a vacation School. I taught for 7 years at Hurstville Boys High and in my last year there set up a GA class, so managed to teach Maths, English, Science and PE to the boys. We moved to Newcastle for Bruce to do his residency, and did an extra year there. We had our son Michael and the same year moved to the same street as Phil & Lyn Turner (Phil was 65/66).  Not long after, Bruce I separated and eventually divorced. We still maintain contact.

I started doing casual teaching and after many years of virtually full-time casual, especially in Maths, was appointed to Broadmeadow High (which later became Hunter School of Performing Arts) to teach in Special Education (students with a mild intellectual disability).  Taught that for 15 years and we were a pilot unit (with 2 IM classes and a visual group) for the introduction of Transition Education. Finally, after doing Dem lessons and helping with the training of numerous SE Teachers, the Dept paid for my training at Newcastle University in the final year of my Special Education course in 1991. The Dept moved the 2 IM classes to other schools in 1998 (political and contentious), so I taught English till I retired late 2000.  I have always been involved in sport, especially coaching - coached Basketball at the Boy’s High, Athletics at Toronto High (officiated at Zone) and Netball at Broadmeadow. Also did Karate for a few years, but decided to stop at Brown belt (for my ribs) and coached the young students. Currently I go to the gym to stave off rheumatics and it stopped osteoporosis. 

I then started playing Demo poker on the net (Omaha High/Low) and made friends with some lovely people in the USA. After going to a wedding of a friend from San Francisco in Las Vegas in 2004, I went back to the States each year to stay with them. Have stayed in Orlando (at a resort and Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Have always maintained contact with Ros, Julie, Mal, Penny, John & Vera Budby- till his death in 2007 and then Denis, and more recently Don and Barry. Have also caught up with Les & Helen Pearson.

I went to the reunion in 1995 at ASOPA. It was amazing to catch up with so many familiar faces from the 1966/67 group at the 2007 reunion in Brisbane and we were fortunate to be welcomed by lovely weather so made our get-togethers so much more enjoyable. The only sad notes was that John Budby was desperately trying to go to this reunion, but sadly passed away before it. And Maurice Rousell has since passed away since, but what a treat it was to see him and his lovely wife Glenys. 

After the reunion in 2007, Julie Davies and I decided to travel to see some of our friends. So on Oct 1, 2008 we headed off to Dakha to stay at Barry Ison’s boutique Guest House and what an amazing city it was with such diverse and beautiful sights to see. Next we saw Denis Murrell in Macau and were treated to delicious food and views, a great place to stay. We caught the ferry across to Hong Kong where we caught up with a friend’s family and enjoyed Disneyland and an ancient culture and buildings mixed with the new. Finally we went to Bangkok, but unfortunately failed to catch up with Don Daniels as he had flown back to Brisbane after a close friend passed away. But we were fortunate that Julie’s brother Steve lived there and managed to see a range of sculptures and art - Indian, Burmese & Thai along with many temples, Siam Miramit - a show and a ride on the Death Train from the River Kwai. This fantastic trip would not have eventuated had we not gone to the 2007 reunion

Have led a quiet existence since ceasing the trips to the States apart from becoming an ardent supporter of Damien Leith (Idol winner 2006). I still maintain my 4 days of gym and have recently been involved with giving almost daily assistance to Michael’s partner with her 2 children as Michael is an Exploration Driller and works away 14 days at a time. My grandson, Aiden, is only 17 months old.                                                                                     

Other memories that just flashed up:

The hilarious interview, with Fred Kaad and a senior Education Officer, which they spent arguing as to who would make the better marriage material.

The first day at College which became a blurred haze after it was revealed that I was not enrolled in a Primary Teacher's Course for PNG

.

The time a student excused himself in a History lecture and then wrote in the College News how he'd missed 500 years of History during that visit to relieve himself - I believe full-on is the term.

The defiance of youth, when a group of non-smokers decided to light up after a lecture on the ills of smoking.

In Winter, the long, cold walks in the chilly winds from Mosman down Middle Head Rd to Georges Heights - a form of penance for those of us who enjoyed the heat of PNG. As opposed to the glorious Summer days spent in lectures wondering why we weren't outside to enjoy it all.

Driving around Mosman in a small sports car with no front windscreen, in the cold, with the wind creating crazy variations in the windswept look.

The College Athletics Carnival when it was suddenly realised that half the women's relay team was down on the beach at Obelisk Bay, so unprepared non-runners suddenly had to free their inner sprinters.

The Women's Basketball game against the cute little blondes who did spectacular shoulder throws so players slid down welts and along floors.

The day we were driving from College to Manly when a woman literally jumped in front of the car for our assistance with her asthmatic husband after a heart attack, unfortunately, too late. But we gave CPR until the ambulance, which we rang, arrived - the smell and taste remained with us for quite some time.

The scintillating review in Mosman Town Hall where the biggest prude in college dropped her clothes to change costumes in the wing, in front of an open-mouthed colleague, as time allowed no other option.

The dinner party where the non-drinking guests became inebriated by the heavily laced crepe suzettes. And then the long walk along the Esplanade at Manly to sober them up.

The Second Year Finals all-night study session in the unit where people studied till they fell asleep in a cosy place and then woke up and continued studying. How we stayed awake in the exams is unknown

August 2013

Dawn McArthur (Taylor)