April 2023
PATRON: Major General B. W. (Hori) Howard AO MC ESM (Ret’d.)
ANZAC DAY EDITION
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SYDNEY MARCH INFORMATION
from Peter Porteous
The March
Form up behind the banner at the corner of Phillip and Hunter Streets at 9 am. The march will take the usual route down Elizabeth Street and ending in the Hyde Park War Memorial. Jock Wilkinson (aged 102 years) will again be leading us in the march.
The Lunch Reunion
The Reunion this year will take place at 12 noon at the Castlereagh Club, 199 Castlereagh Street in the City. The booking is for 12 people.
BRISBANE MARCH INFORMATION
Our Association Brisbane Rep., Phil Adam, has provided us with the march information for Anzac Day. Thanks to Phil for this.
We are part of the Army Association groups and are part of Group 4 for the purposes of the march. The assembly point will be between Charlotte Street and Mary Street in George Street. We will be allocated a number, and this will be on a paddle which will be carried by the person on the front right-hand side of the group. This is to allow the ABC to identify quickly who we are. There are some issues with construction taking place along the route and information on these will be sent out closer to the day.
President Don will be hurtling along in front of our group in a Golf Buggy this year. Buggy rendezvous with our marchers will be at the corner of Elizabeth and George Street.
All members are invited to attend the March.
Much more information is on our Website: www.soldierspng.com
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ARMI NIUS IS DELIGHTED TO BRING TO YOU AN HISTORICAL ARTICLE BY GARRY YOUNG.
PNG Leaders of the 1970s
From the Corridors of Power to the Golf Course
by
Garry J. Young, CSM
Introduction
In January 2023, Prime Minister Albanese visited PNG and, unlike many visiting Australian politicians, ventured from Port Moresby to Wewak where he paid tribute to the late Grand Chief, Sir Michael Somare.
I thought, while watching the event on TV and seeing the Commander PNGDF, Major General Mark Goina, that he was the only Commander since Independence in 1975 that I did not know personally. It also reminded me of how fortunate I was to have met so many wonderful leaders in PNG especially when I was a young officer in 2PIR, then later when coordinating the evacuation of Bougainville in 1990 and later again as DHADS in Port Moresby. The events below happened as described although, with the passing of time, my actual dates may not be quite so accurate.
Readers might have expected to find Major-General Mike Jeffery in this article about fine leaders in the 1970s. Given his achievements, and my close relationship with him from 1974 until his death in 2021, I intend to provide a separate article on him later.
(Editor’s note: readers are invited to send us their personal memories of the leaders below.)
Sir Michael Somare (the “Chief”)
I first met the “Chief” in 1973 when I was OC 12 Pl D Coy 2PIR. He was a keen golfer and we had built a good little golf course within the Barracks at Moem in Wewak. He was a regular attendee of a Sunday and was a popular member of the club. Not long after I first met him, he became the Chief Minister during Self Government in the lead up to Independence in 1975.
The Chief was not a great golfer and was not helped by the clubs he used which were probably better suited for hunting than golfing. I was, after consulting with the CO LtCol Laurie Lewis, able through contacts in Australia to obtain a set of the latest clubs that the Chief was delighted to receive.
Some 17 years later in 1990, I was back in PNG and involved in the evacuation of Bougainville. (I am writing a separate paper on that experience). I met the Chief at Port Moresby Golf Club. He still had the clubs we had presented to him in 1973 and proudly showed them off to those at the club, including (Prime Minister) Rabbie Namaliu, (Brigadier) Ted Diro and (Prime Minister) Paias Wingti – all keen golfers.
Brigadier Jim W. Norrie, OBE
All who served in PNG, I have no doubt, regarded it as an honour, to be called a “Black Hander”. Today it may seem politically incorrect terminology, but let me assure everyone, especially those who did not serve in PNG, that it was not discriminatory and those that were called Black Handers were a very proud group and remain so!
As a 2LT in 2PIR, I met many superb officers and soldiers and other luminaries that I would not have met if I had graduated into an Australian-based Battalion.
The Commander of PNGDF in 1973 was Brigadier Jim Norrie OBE. Almost everyone in the Battalion knew of Brig. Norrie and some, especially the PNG senior NCO’s, spoke of him in glowing terms from past experiences. One well known story was of Norrie as CO 1PIR in the early 1960s playing Rugby for the Battalion. The local soldiers apparently loved seeing their CO handing out and receiving many hard hits on the field. However, his star performance was when his batman used to run onto the field when summonsed by the CO and the batman then proceeded to pour a bucket of iced water over him. Norrie would then roar like a bull and run back into the game soaking wet, but revived, to the cheers and wild laughter of all players and spectators.
When the Commander came to Wewak in 1973, we of course held a Battalion parade in his honour. This was the first time I had seen Brigadier Norrie; he was very impressive, with two rows of medals including WWII and Korea. It was his stature and dress that grabbed my attention. He was stocky, built like a Rugby forward, had an extremely fearsome/craggy face, but as a clothes horse for Juniper Greens he badly failed the sartorial elegance test RSMs seemed to expect from their officers. He engaged on parade with several soldiers, and I could tell by their loud responses how much they respected this “Bikpela man”.
I was asked by our CO, Laurie Lewis, to play golf with the Commander, Michael Somare and Laurie at our Moem course. Not bad for a 2LT mixing with these three fine men!! The Commander played golf probably the way he had played Rugby – little technique but being as strong as a bull he hit the ball a mile, not always however on the correct fairway.
Some months later I received a call from the “Commander”. I was in the Company office when a voice said, “This is the Commander, I want you in Lae next Thursday to play golf, Young”. I seriously thought it was one of my mates in the Battalion setting me up. After querying the caller several times, the voice on the other end became a lot louder and I realised just in time that any further challenging the identity of the caller was not career enhancing. I then walked/marched over to HQ and spoke to the Adjutant, John Dean, who told me to see the CO. Apparently Laurie Lewis already knew about the Commander’s call and thought it funny and released me to Lae for a couple of days.
Lae had a beautiful and challenging golf course with relatively short but difficult rough which was called “mumble grass” because hitting out of it caused numerous oaths. I have forgotten the 4th player – it may have been the District Commissioner for Morobe Province. However, the Commander arrived with Major Harry Lovelock, one of the most laid-back officers I ever knew; Harry was never without his pipe. What I recall from the first game was that the Commander always seemed to find a good open spot even off the fairway and regularly made light work of the mumble grass. I mentioned this to Harry who just smiled and puffed on his pipe and said, “Watch tomorrow and see how he does it.”
Next day everyone was playing quite well for about 6-7 holes until the Commander sliced his ball into the rough. I decided to walk over and see what his technique was to escape the difficult rough. On arrival the area around his ball was completely trodden down, the ball was sitting on a tee, the caddie had a big smile on his face and said, “Lukim Sir mi painim pinis.” The Commander just nodded and proceeded to take an iron and put the ball on or near the green; not a word spoken. Harry asked after we had putted, “How did you go Brigadier?” He responded with, “Had a par, Harry.” He then turned to me with a huge smile and a wink and walked to the next tee. I learned that day that it is not always necessary or smart to open one’s mouth!!
Brigadier Ted Diro
Ted was an immaculately dressed officer who really impressed me by his presentation, his attitude to soldiering and his general persona. As a young expatriate officer, I felt very privileged in 1974 to meet Ted and, along with the then CO 2PIR Mike Jeffery and the “Chief”, we played golf at Moem and then had dinner in the Mess.
In 1990, Ted was as I recall the Deputy Prime Minister and contacted me when I was on a week’s R&R from Bougainville and invited me to meet him at Parliament House for lunch followed by a round of golf. Like most PNG and Australian politicians, Ted struggled to understand the situation on Bougainville and peppered me with questions on rebel goals and tactics and PNGDF strategies and performance. Unfortunately, I could not give him much positive insight into PNGDF performance, as, along with the RPNGC, their performance seemed to be extremely poor at the tactical level and the upper echelons of both organisations appeared to be riven with internal fighting and character assassination. We, however, established an excellent personal relationship and in my later posting as DHADS (1993-1995) I regularly socialised with Ted as we shared stories of his early days as an officer and my formative years in 2PIR.
In about March 1990, the Police Commissioner, Paul Tohian threatened to oust the PNG Government while at a BBQ at Taurama Barracks in Port Moresby. Tohian returned from Bougainville frustrated by the lack of progress and rallied members of the RPNGC Mobile Squad police officers (police response officers often involved in riot control) to be ready to secure certain key infrastructure. It was later reported that Ted with his son Siali had defended Parliament House that night with an M60 machine gun although thankfully no contact or fire was exchanged. I have no doubt Ted would have responded if action was required! The following day it was reported in local papers that “Bar B Coup fails”. (I think Sean Dorney may have been responsible for that tongue-in-cheek headline). Tohian apparently went home and slept, and no further orders were given!!
Just after the above incident, I was assaulted on a Friday night on entering my property just north of Waigani. (I was the only High Commission member not living on the other side of town). As a result, I received a stab wound from a sharpened screwdriver to my right shoulder and my car was stolen. I rang Ted and told him I would not be playing golf with him the following day as I could not move my shoulder and I had no transport. Within the hour, Ted (or his “helpers”) had located my car and returned it to me, worse for wear but driveable – just! Ted insisted I come to the course with my clubs. As the competition was an “Ambrose” (only the best shot in each group is used) I just needed to walk around and use my putter which required minimal shoulder movement. We didn’t win the competition, but we did beat the team lead by Paias Wingti, so Ted was happy. Ted was not one to take ‘no’ for an answer and I did enjoy the day, though my now ex-wife was seriously unimpressed with both of us.
Editor’s note: As mentioned earlier, we welcome responses or anecdotes from readers about the Leaders above. Other Servicemen will have different perspectives on the Leaders and the Events mentioned above. We are dealing in our Newsletter with memories and recollections from long ago.
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PHOTOS:
Association members photographed out and about over the last few months.
Association Vice President, Greg Ivey, and WA Rep., Graeme Johnson, catch up at the Vietnam Memorial in Kings Park, Perth, December 2022.
Association media personality, President Don, again makes the centre pages of the Queensland RSL News (after Remembrance Day 2022) – see Don at bottom left.
Editors: Ian Ogston (ozoggies2@gmail.com)
Norm Hunter (nrhunter@bigpond.net.au)