By MALUM NALU
This article first appeared in The National newspaper on Friday, Feb 17, 2017
My recent trip to beautiful and historical
Salamaua, Morobe, the capital of New Guinea ahead of Lae and Rabaul before
being destroyed by WWII, brings back so
many bittersweet memories.
Back in July 2003, I walked the trail from
Salamaua to Wau with Morobe tourism officer Heni Dembis and two local boys
Lionel Aigilo and Solomon Jawing, an event which put this icon of the Morobe
gold rush days and WWII back on the tourism map.
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| The word-famous Salamaua Point, scene of some of the heaviest fighting of WWII, with the narrow isthmus in between.-All pictures by MILEN STILIYANOV |
Our dream was to make the Black Cat popular
again, to help put back Salamaua and Wau back on the map, and to help the local
people make money.
The Black Cat makes the Kokoda Trail seem
like a Sunday arvo stroll in the park.
This is because it is not an established
trail like Kokoda, on which hundreds of trekkers regularly tread, but a
forgotten course that passes through some of the toughest and most-hazardous
terrain in the world.
Leech and snake -infested jungle,
moss-covered rocks and fallen tree stumps, precarious cliff crossings, and
potentially-dangerous river crossings make the Black Cat arguably one of the
toughest tracks in PNG and the world.
After walking from Salamaua from Wau over
five days, from July 22 to 26 in 2003, I
can only say know that I do not know how I survived.
To cut a long story short, thanks to our
groundbreaking trek, the Black Cat was opened and the trekking industry thrived
until the sad incident of Sept 2013 in which a trekking party was attacked near
Wau in Sept 2013 and several porters either maimed or killed.
One of those who succumbed to injuries was
my good friend, Lionel Aigilo, who walked with me on the track back in 2003.
Trekkers from Australia and New Zealand
managed to get out unharmed and walked back to Wau.
The track has since been closed and a major
revenue-earner for the people has gone.
That aside, Salamaua has played a pivotal
role in the history of Papua New Guinea, and my research into this place from
Australian military archives and other sources, reveals so much.
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| Expatriate-owned houses at Salamaua. |
What many do not know is that the Japanese
launched their attack on Port Moresby over the Kokoda Trail from Salamaua, and
when the attack failed, turned the port into a major supply base.
It was eventually attacked by Australian
troops flown into Wau.
Japanese reinforcements failed to arrive
and the town was taken in September 1943 in what has become known as the Battle
of Salamaua.
Salamaua – the “town of gold”- has never
regained its shine.
The Australians recaptured Salamaua in
September 1943 but by then, it was too late, as places like Lae and Port
Moresby had taken its glory.
It was the main port and airstrip for the
goldfields of Wau and Bulolo during the gold rush days of the 1920s and 1930s.
Salamaua was headquarters for the
all-powerful New Guinea Goldfields Ltd, had its own shops liked the famed Burns
Philp, New South Wales and Commonwealth banks, named streets, hospital, bakery,
theatre, bars where characters like the legendary Errol Flynn once strutted his
stuff before becoming a Hollywood legend, and was a famed port of call for
swashbuckling gold miners from all over the world.
It was here that expeditions into the
undiscovered hinterland – including the famous exploration into the Highlands
of New Guinea by the Leahy brothers and Jim Taylor – were launched.
Rivalry between Salamaua and Lae for the
capital of New Guinea following the demise of Rabaul in the 1937 volcanic
eruption was legendary.
But for all that Salamaua has contributed
to the development of PNG and the world – through the millions in gold that was
taken out - it is one of the greatest ironies that it is now a forgotten
backwater, left to the mercy of the vast Huon Gulf which threatens to swamp its
narrow isthmus any moment, despite repeated calls for a seawall to be built.
Never mind that these days its beautiful
bathing beach and coral reefs are havens for people from Lae – mainly the
expatriate community - who have built weekend houses on the peninsula to get
away from the traffic, phones, and bustle of the city.
The discovery of gold at Edie Creek above
Wau in 1926 sparked off a gold rush of massive proportions, which led to the
development of Salamaua as capital of the Morobe District.
The rigorous walk between Salamaua and Wau
took up to a week, the flamboyant Errol Flynn writing of how the gold fields
had to be approached from Salamaua by 10 days’ march through leech-infested
jungle, in constant fear of ambush, and at night wondering “whether that crawly
sound you heard a few feet away might be a snake, a cassowary or maybe only a
wild board razorback…I have seen Central Africa, but it was never anything like
the jungle of New Guinea”.
Lae was but a “company” town and was very
much a satellite of Salamaua.
Salamaua sprang up before Lae and because
it was the administrative and commercial centre of the District and also the
port for the goldfields, it continued to dominate its sister across the Huon
Gulf right up till WW11.
Shipping interests refused Lae as a port,
probably because they had already established themselves at Salamaua before Lae
developed.
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| Salamaua as it is today |
The powerful New Guinea Goldfields Ltd –
following a dispute with Guinea Airways – purchased its own plane and
established its own aerodrome on Salamaua in 1929.
The government also resisted pressure to
have Lae built up as the chief town of Morobe District, and at times, even
affirmed its preference for Salamaua by stubbornly refusing to use either the
aviation or shopping facilities at Lae.
Following the disastrous volcanic eruption
in Rabaul in May 1937, a protracted and bitter debate over the merits of
Salamaua and Lae ensued, when Australian minister for territories W.M. Hughes –
who in his days as prime minister had been responsible for New Guinea coming
under Australia’s mandate - chose Salamaua as both port and capital.
Hughes was accused of being bribed by Burns
Philp and New Guinea Goldfields, the Australian government was accused of
apathy and irresponsibility in its attitude towards New Guinea affairs, and the
Pacific Islands Monthly and Rabaul Times led the anti-Hughes and
anti-government debate.
It became a matter of great controversy
that that Canberra press corps, which had been faithfully reporting new
developments for six months, in December 1938 produced a satirical newspaper Hangover
containing a parody of the controversy under the title “Lae off Salamaua: Capital
crisis causes crater cabinet confusion”.
The article reads: “A new crisis has arisen
overshadowing the budget, the coal strike, and Hitler. Alarming tensions were
created when the Prime Minister received the following urgent message from Mr
Hairbrain, M.H.R: ‘Lae off Salamaua, Joe! Natives hostile!’Mr Hairbrain’s
message has created the profoundest sensations in Federal political circles. It
is feared that the natives may try to make capital out of it. The situation is
fraught with grave possibilities and impossibilities. Mr Lyons summoned cabinet
immediately. ‘Wow!’ said the Prime Minister as he staggered from the cabinet
room after the tenth day with the problem apparently nearer no solution.
‘That’s it!’ yelled a chorus of weary ministers. ‘Why the hell didn’t we think
of Wau before?’ Mr Hughes collapsed. The crisis had passed.”
Rabaul, however, continued to remain as
capital of New Guinea until 1941 when renewed volcanic forced the transfer to
Lae in October 1941 right up to the Japanese invasion in January 1942.
War, however, had begun in the Pacific with
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941.
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| Sea shell on the sea shore at Salamaua |
Rabaul was bombed on January 4, 1942
followed by Lae, Salamaua, and Bulolo on January 21.
This was the beginning of the end of
Salamaua’s ephemeral reign as the “town of gold”.
It is my dream that one day Salamaua, like the
phoenix, will rise again and take its place in the sun.
***
The entire pavement was painted red with betel nut (buai) spit.
