On half of the island of New Guinea is Papua New Guinea the other half is part of Indonesia called Irian Jaya, now called West Papua. Back in the day of sail boats and Shoguns the area was called the Dutch East Indies; some parts were called the Spice Islands. It was originally “settled” by the Dutch and some German. Mt. Wilhelm will attest to that but I’m sure the locals have a different name for it. After World War II Australia took receivership and managed it until 1975 when they became independent.
The Dutch started plantations to farm Palm Oil, Coconuts and sugar cane and whatever else they could grow and sell. Then they found gold and other minerals and now oil and natural gas. As if things weren’t bad enough. The Dutch enslaved the locals as western countries at the time often did, the Australians weren’t much better. They had strong men that came around and kept order beating the hell out of the locals if they got out of line. One thing that can be said about that is that it did keep order. With over 800 different indigenous languages and tribes, many not far from the Stone Age, I can see their thinking. With the majority of the population earning $1.25/day theft is a way of life. As with many tribal societies… attack, butcher and steal is just another method of hunting and gathering.
World War II was fought on many of the islands here; the battle of the Coral Sea was fought nearby. A bloody fight for the Australians made Kokoda Trail and the fuzzy wuzzys famous. They still find crashed aircraft in the jungle, not long ago one was found near the capital with the crew’s remains still in it. Amelia Earhart was last seen leaving Lae, a WWII refuel depot. I met a local the first time I was here, 15yrs ago now; he said he’d rather eat the Japanese because white guys were too salty. Good to know.
Much of the coastal areas have had contact with the outside world for ages and have become more civilized. In the more remote areas, not so much. It is still reasonably common to hear of tribal skirmishes. Ten years ago it was bush knives and bows and arro
ws now axes and knives are still common but more and more it is becoming fire arms of one kind o
r another. Our biggest problem with theft is fuel, gaskets out of fuel hoses that they use for arm band or in their hair, and other small items. Of course, electronics are also nice too. I saw a guy walking down the road the other day with headphones on that were decorated with feathers and bits of grass. There was no cord on it nor did he have an MP3 player or anything to hook it to but apparently he thought he was the height of fashion.
The geography can be split into the highlands and the lowlands… clever enough. Ages ago in the Mezeowachingus era the Pacific plate jammed itself under its neighbor and created a huge ridge line… the crack opened up the area for volcanoes and viola… big honking mountains. I was at a rig sight a few years ago where this was obvious to the most casual observer. A nice gentle slope, broke to a steep cliff and the whole range looked like someone had pushed up ice in a driveway so that the steps and ridges were all visible. At the rig site there were shells and fossil all over the ground and this was around 2000ft. It was pretty interesting to wander around to see what you could find.
Apparently the sea floor is limestone because that is most of what the highlands are made of. Limestone isn’t especially durable, you can watch erosion here, buried water lines become uncovered in a few years, roads don’t hold up, gravel jobs wear out quickly and pot hole are epic. The plundering of the country doesn’t allow much outlay for infrastructure so there are few roads, fewer that are paved none that are reasonably maintained; airstrips are generally dirt or gravel and the most common mode of travel save foot or boat.
The population is Melanesian, a black Pacific race that populates the region from N
ew Guinea in the west to Fiji to the south east. If I had to guess I would suspect that Polynesians came from Melanesian and Asia ancestors. The geography has isolated many tribes so that to this day there are some that haven’t seen white people and there are still rumors of cannibalism. I should note that cannibalism isn’t generally a food source but generally a superstitious belief of either keeping ancestors close or consuming an enemy’s power. Last tour a man was arrested for eating his toddler age step-child in a rumored witchcraft ceremony. He was obviously deranged but it goes to say something about superstitions here. Another village we stayed at we were warned to stay away from a certain tree because demons lived there.
Many airstrips were built by missions and missionaries. The Seventh Day Adventists seem to be the most common currently but there are also Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness and other mainstream religions. The country is predominantly Christian to one degree or another.
Flora is jungle. If you’ve ever seen jungle there isn’t much way of describing it to those that haven’t seen it. Starting from the top… trees, in the trees vines, on the ground more vines and shrubs, on everything mold or moss and everything is wet and every square inch is cover or will be soon. The mountains do get high enough for frost and snow; there is the only glacier in the South Pacific in Irian Jaya. I don’t know what grows up there.
Fauna includes
some unique to Papua New Guinea, the Cassowary… a prehistoric bird about the size of an emu but having a bony ridge running down the top of its head. I believe the Bird of Paradise is also unique to PNG too and rare these days. We also have wild cockatoo’s, parrots, a bird they call a pigeon that is about the size of a chicken or duck. There is a tree kangaroo, or possum or cuscus depending on who you ask. Snakes… certainly have snakes. There is the Papuan Black, Brown and probably a few other colors. There is the Death Adder, Boa’s, tree snakes of different varieties. If you ask a local they are all deadly poisonous and commonly called the two steps… two steps and you’re dead. It’s not as bad as all that. The Death Adder certainly will do a number on you as will the Papuan Black and Tai Pan… not sure about the others, certainly not the boa. The death adder is interesting because it is sausage shaped and has a tiny thin tail that has spines on it that was rumored to be poisonous as well but isn’t the case.
Papua New Guinea is an interesting place really. The limestone erodes quickly like I sai
d before and all the rain makes for land bridges and sink holes; rives will take crazy paths and sometimes disappear into the ground to come out miles out to sea. The ground is riddled with caves and underground streams. Rivers create great chasms between incr
edibly steep mountains. The wet season is signaled by rain firstly and the Forest Flame that burst into bloom.
The people, while primitive and often combative, laugh easily and quickly, are generally friendly after their suspicions are won over and ingenious in their use of the jungles around them. They are mostly the reason it is called “The Land of the unexpected?” Our cooks have mastered garnish; parsley or green onions as garnish to pineapple is pretty unexpected; women nursing pigs is pretty unexpected; stealing our gaskets and wearing them in their hair and arms is pretty unexpected; body odor, the norm… shocking with even the women.
If anyone wants to go… book a tour. It is still rather dangerous for single person travel most especially women. There is some amazing fishing too, for the adventurous. It is certainly off the beat
It’s a silly job but someone has to do it.
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