Gold Coast Papua New Guinea Club Inc

Introduction

Early in the 1930s there were two men flying aircraft over the rugged terrain of New Guinea.  One was Doug Elphinstone, based in Wau, the other was Bob Wilson, based at Lae.  Both were flying for Guinea Airways.  Terry Powell must have often heard their aircraft in the Bulolo Valley as he went about his job of collecting the gold from the BGD dredges one by one and supervising its manufacture into gold bars.  These three men were to organize the formation of our Club in 1973.  They each went to war – Bob flying in the RAAF in the Middle East, Doug. in the RAAF in New Guinea and Terry with the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles.

The inaugural meeting of the Gold Coast Papua New Guinea Club was held in the Southport Trotting Club on the 12th May, 1973.  It was an evening function.  $4 per head covered the cost of drinks followed by a dinner and the meeting! 187 people attended.  140 became foundation members. The high percentage of expatriates who retired to the Gold Coast soon resulted in a membership of over 1000.

Wal Fishwick as our first secretary then issued a newsletter to all that attended called Garamut.  By the fourth issue of the Garamut the Club had 600 members.  In 1976 Alec Edwards started a five-year stint as Editor.  With the help of artist Bill Weise and others the Magazine took on a more modern form, with Robbie Weise adding the section Tok Tok Bilong Yumi.

Geoff Hutton became Editor in 1994 and continues in the role of magazine compiler today with Editor, Edith Richardson.  All issues of the Garamut are now bound and will continue to exist as a memorial to the efforts of our members.  This newsletter posted quarterly serves to keep its members, here and overseas, informed of news of people and events. While some of its content continues to provide material of some historical interest of pre-independence PNG, the main aim is to allow members to keep in touch with each other whilst providing some lighthearted reminiscing and other entertaining material of interest to members.

About one third of the present membership live on the Gold Coast with a similar number in Brisbane and elsewhere in Queensland.  The remainder live in other States or overseas. 
Our main regular function is the Bi-Monthly Luncheon in the months of February, April, June, August and October with December a Christmas function. Some evening events are now also being reintroduced which may better suit working members.