THE KIAPS REUNION AT KAWANA
WATERS - Queensland Sunshine Coast, 11 November 2007 by
Chips Mackellar
It was a magnificent reunion, hosted by Bob and Heather Fayle
and Denys and Helen Faithful, and they did it perfectly. They
moved around the gathering greeting everyone individually, and
they could not have picked a better venue. The Kawana Waters
Hotel had inside and outside dining facilities, and beside the
sun deck, the yachts in the adjoining marina bobbed up and down
in the tide, evoking memories of the Royal Papua Yacht Club.
The event had been well publicised beforehand, by Peter Salmon
via the exkiap.net address list, by notice in Una Voce, and also
by John Hucknull via talk back radio call to Macca’s ‘Australia
All Over’ Sunday program. Will Muskens had done a similar
successful trick with Macca some years ago.
Although the date was fixed, there was no set starting time and
no set finishing time, so for those of us who arrived the day
before, and stayed in the hotel’s accommodation, our reunion
began then and there. The following morning more people arrived,
and from midday on 11th November, 262 kiaps, wives, and others
were in attendance for most of that day. By the time I retired
at 9.30pm, there were more than fifty kiaps and families still
continuing their reunion.
Next morning, the reunion continued again at breakfast at
Bellisimo’s on the waterfront at Mooloolaba. So in reality,
although not everyone was present all the time, the reunion
extended over three consecutive days. It must have been the
biggest gathering of kiaps anywhere. And they came from
everywhere. Apart from the local Queensland kiaps there was a
large contingent from Victoria and also from New South Wales,
including our industrious PNGAA Treasurer, Ross Johnson. From
Western Australia came Ray Bray, and Mike Collins, and from
South Australia, Iain Millar, Chris Overland and Ken Wallace.
From the Far North came Ron Hiat from Cairns and Rod Donovan
from Port Douglas, and Des Fanning, Peter Laming, Greg Smith and
John Hicks from Darwin. Didiman Peter Jones, currently working
in Laos, came home especially for the day, and Peter Salmon and
Bill McGrath both normally resident in Queensland, came to the
reunion after recently having returned from working in PNG. Ah
yes, there are still kiaps in PNG, albeit in a different guise
these days. From the nation’s Capital came Tony Beard, Bill
Sanders and Norm Wilson, and from New Zealand, Ian Beckhaus. Two
kiaps who are no longer with us, were nevertheless not forgotten
and we were honoured by Margaret Clancy from Western Australia,
and Margaret Tierney from Victoria, both of whom came so far to
meet their husbands’ old colleagues. Des and John would have
been proud of them. There were also some chalkies present; Henry
Bodman, Don and Nora Christie, and Ian and Barbara Robertson,
together with Policemaster Jim Dutton and Joan. Space does not
permit us to name everyone in attendance, but Peter Salmon said
he would publish the full attendance list on his website
exkiap.net.
Some kiaps were there in the second and third generation, for
example, Geoff and Trish Littler were delivered to the venue and
later retrieved from it by their granddaughter Amy. Paul Greaney,
Bob’s son, came with his son and mother, Pat, and Robin Calcutt
was accompanied by his daughter Belinda. I was also happy to see
Peter Skinner again. I had not seen Peter since he was a young
boy at Mount Hagen, where his father, Ian Skinner, was DC and I
was a young PO there. Peter and I sat for hours at the reunion,
reminiscing and remembering his father by swapping Ian Skinner
stories, including the mysterious rooster story. This story
originated after a rollicking all-night party at the Hagen
Country Club, when, by the time everyone had got to sleep, the
morning calm was suddenly broken by the persistent crowing of a
village rooster. It had strayed into the gaggle of grass-roofed
hovels where all the single officers at Mount Hagen then lived,
and despite the chorus of muffled abuse reverberating from
near-by dwellings, the rooster kept crowing. So, in an act of
extraordinary altruism for and on behalf of the other suffering
denizens, I seized my revolver and fired one shot out of my
window. The rooster stopped crowing and we all went back to
sleep. But the cook-boys later told me that the shot had killed
the rooster, and that the aggrieved owner had taken the dead
rooster to the Residency, and complained to the DC. So, for days
afterwards I waited in fear and trepidation for the severe
reprimand which I was sure would come, but in fact it never did
come and ever since then the reason for the missing reprimand
had remained a mystery to me. However, with vivid childhood
memories of this incident, Peter told me that his father had
personally paid compensation for the death of the rooster and
although annoyed at me for causing such trouble, Ian Skinner
secretly confided to his family that there would be no
repercussions because he was so proud that one of his officers
was such a good shot. The year was 1957. So, the mystery of the
missing reprimand was solved fifty years later at this kiap
reunion. And you can imagine that other stories like this came
thick and fast, as other old friends met up together again after
so many years, and when so many old memories were rekindled.
This reunion was remarkable for its informality. There were no
speeches; and thank goodness there was no seating plan. In how
many reunions in the old Mandarin Club in Sydney did we find a
long lost friend only to lose him again in the formality of the
set piece dining arrangements. But the Queensland kiaps do it
differently. At the Kawana Waters reunion, people sat wherever
they wanted to, and moved around as much as they liked, and
nobody told them to sit down and be quiet. In the attached photo
(courtesy of Paul Oates) you can see a very distinguished Graham
Hardy standing, and an equally distinguished Vin Smith seated,
and in the background, other kiaps moving around at will, and
that is exactly how it was. There was no set menu but the food
was superb, as each chose and paid for his own meal from an
excellent open plan kitchen. The hotel staff were welcoming and
attentive, the catering was good, and the reunion was well
managed by the Hotel’s Danni Ray who had a residual interest in
us as she had done her primary schooling in PNG. Thirty-five
apologies were received from kiaps who wanted to come but could
not make it, and there were three casualties. John Hayes was
ill, Jack Baker also could not come after a bad fall a week
before, and Maurie Brown while on his way to the reunion, was
struck down with pneumonia, and spent reunion day in Tenterfield
Hospital. Amongst the non-attendees, was Andy Connelly, from the
State University of California, at Sacramento. He never was a
kiap, but he knows a lot about us, because he has recently
completed a Masters Degree on the Australian administration of
the Trobriand Islands, based on a study of patrol reports. So if
you thought your patrol reports have faded into obscurity, never
to be read again, you may be surprised to know they are
preserved and well and are still being read, not in PNG, but in
California. Andy has sent copies of some of my reports to me. He
could not get to the reunion because he was on the other side of
the world, studying, amongst other things, Malinowski’s original
notes on the Trobriand Islands. Paul Oates sent Andy some photos
of this year’s reunion and Andy intends to come to future
reunions to meet us.
It is amazing that although most of us left PNG more than thirty
years ago, the bond between us which led us all to attend this
reunion, is just as strong now as it ever was, more than thirty
years ago. And although most of us have had other jobs since we
all left PNG and gone our different ways, and found different
friends in different places, no other affiliation is as strong
for us today as the bonding which continues to exist between
kiaps, and the strength of this bond is evidenced by the number
of kiaps and their wives and families and friends who came so
far to be together again at this reunion. Of course, this
bonding has had some help from the Papua New Guinea Association
of Australia and especially from its Treasurer Ross Johnson who
keeps our world wide membership together, and our Una Voce
editor Andrea Williams who publishes our stories. If you had
come to this reunion, Andrea, you would have loved it. Our
thanks also go to Peter Salmon for the superb exkiap website he
designed and continues to maintain. It enables old kiaps to find
old friends, to re-establish contact, and to stay in touch, and
it is an excellent medium of communication for us. To these
people who have given their time selflessly and freely in order
that we might keep our long established friendships together, we
owe our deepest gratitude.
And finally, to the Faithfuls and the Fayles, thank you. It was
the best kiap reunion ever.
