Christine Pakakota
Assistant News Editor
The National
Pacific Star Limited
Phones: (675) 324 6731
Facsimile: (675) 324 6868
Post: PO Box 6817 Boroko, NCD
Papua New Guinea
Email: cbpakakota@thenational.com.pg
I’ve found one of the most-beautiful websites on
It belongs to former Bulolo resident, Ronald Delvalle, who was born in Lae in 1981.
“Bulolo is a small town found in the mountains of
“Most people who will find this page, have actually lived in Bulolo and have been searching for pictures from the place which at one time or another they called home, as I have.
“Lucky for you I went back to Bulolo recently in April-May of 2007, where I managed to take hundreds of pictures of Bulolo, including the surroundings, as well as Zenag, Wau, and Lae.
“I had included a short photo album of pictures which scanned from my family album of pictures taken at
“S0 it was impossible to get my hands on pictures of the school.
“So if you happen to have any pictures of the school, please feel free to email them to me at brada_81@yahoo.com.au.
“Hope you enjoy strolling down memory lane, as I did, when I took these pictures.
“Feel free to leave a message, for anybody you maybe looking to get in touch with and please don't forget to sign the guestbook!”
Morobe Governor Luther Wenge says the current mining and prospecting going on in Bulolo district will bring about massive changes to the historical mining towns of Wau and Bulolo.
He said they have been nominated by the Morobe provincial government as among the growth centres of the province,
“All I can say is Hidden Valley and Wafi mines will no doubt bring substantial change to the face of Bulolo and Wau towns,” Mr Wenge said today (Monday, October 20, 2008).
“In fact, we have a 15-year plan starting from 1997-2012, and in the plan, among other things, there will be growth centres in Morobe province.
“We’ve nominated Wau, Bulolo, Finschhafen and Mutzing.
“These centres will provide services like banks, hospitals, education, factories and others.
“At the moment, everyone is coming to Lae for these services.
“It costs the people money to come to Lae.
“When we develop the growth centres, people will stay back and develop these areas
“Wau and Bulolo will also serve parts of the Huon Golf; Finschhafen will serve Tewai/Siassi and Kabwum; while Mutzing will serve the
“These growth centres will help in the implementation of this Morobe provincial government policy.”
Morobe Governor Luther Wenge says Bulolo district will receive 50% of royalties from the
He revealed this in an interview today (Monday, October 20, 2008) after weeks of the Morobe provincial government being locked in a row with the Bulolo district over royalties from
Bulolo MP Sam Basil wants 50% of those royalties to be set aside for his district, particularly to develop street lighting and water supply in Wau and Bulolo, and his argument with Mr Wenge over this has made international headlines.
The Morobe government is set to get 36% of royalties, amounting to about K12 million a year, when
Mr Wenge said that the Morobe provincial joint budget & priorities committee, made up of all 10 Morobe MPs, met last Friday and resolved that half of Hidden Valley royalties coming to the Morobe government should be given to Bulolo district.
“What we’ve decided is to split the royalties 50/50,” he said.
“Fifty per cent will go for towards the development of Wau and Bulolo towns.
“We don’t want to see Wau and Bulolo having a repeat of what happened in the colonial days when they were left with nothing after the miners left.
“We want good hospitals and good services in Wau and Bulolo.
“They will be growth centres.
“The remaining 50% coming to the Morobe provincial government will be used to invest in education for our future generations and also in agriculture.
“There are exciting times ahead but we have to be wise in our decision-making.
“I challenge the people to invest their money in sustainable developments like agriculture.”
MrWenge also admitted that provincial capital Lae was undergoing massive development as a direct result of ongoing mining and prospecting in the province.
“
“There is a lot of property development going on, especially in residential and commercial.”
Captions: 1. Giant trucks and other equipment, operated solely by landowner villagers including women, at Hidden Valley. Picture by SIMON ANAKAPU of NOROBE MINING JOINT VENTURES. 2. Visitors being shown around the Hidden Valley gold mine project.3. An aerial view of the Hidden Valley Mine Project area stretching down to Hamata. Picture by SIMON ANAKAPU of MOROBE MINING JOINT VENTURES.
In the early part of last century it was almost as if bowmen were guarding the gold that lay on the edge of their country more richly than anywhere else in the whole Pacific.
Fierce fighters lived along the
The
The story is that Watut gold was discovered by a German prospector, Wilhelm Dammkohler, and that he was killed by the Kukukukus.
American prospector Arthur Darling, in 1910, apparently did go up the Watut and into its tributary, the Bulolo.
There he found gold, rich gold
However, Darling and his team of Orokaiva boys were attacked by the local tribemen and had to exit.
When he recovered he went across to the new Lakekamu goldfield to try to win enough gold to outfit himself again.
On the Lakekamu field Darling spent a lot of time talking and mapping and planning with William Park, who was called “Sharkeye”.
Darling was at Samarai preparing to go up the Waria, when he collapsed, and soon afterwards died.
He had left
Somewhere right up the Watut was the source of gold that coloured the sands of the lower
However, it was a foreign country, and although the Governor, Hahl, the best of the German administrators, did (about 1910) actually encourage Australian prospectors to come in and apply for permits to prospect, a man still needed more gold than Sharkeye had, to outfit himself for a months-long trip.
Before he had enough gold the war with
It was a war that ended German rule in north-east New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago in six weeks, with little shooting.
When the military administration ended and the Australian Mandate started, in May 1921,
Now he headed up the
He came back sick, broke, and not knowing what to do next time…
William Park was called “Sharkeye” because he had a twist or a squint in one eye.
Park was, apparently, an Australian who had been a miner most of his life, was hard-faced and in his fifties, could “work like a tiger”, was jungle-wise and native-wise, hated to owe a penny, had more bouts of fever that he could count, suffered from piles, had his last tooth removed by Jack Nettleton, drank anything, and although it is untrue to say that he never wore boots, he often worked without them. (He died, a very rich man, in Vancouver in 1940)
In 1922 he needed a partner for two good reasons: he was broke and he had lost his permit to employ native labour when he flung a whiskey bottle out of his tent and it struck a native on the head and killed him.
He was staying with Jack Nettleton, who had a trade store on the coast and was good to Park, and who had some money and a permit to work natives.
Park told Nettleton what he knew.
Nettleton, an English-born rover who had been everything from a salmon-fisher in
In August 1922 Park and Nettleton struck inland and crossed the heavily jungled rivers of the Kuper Range beyond which lay the Bulolo River, forking off the Watut, and more gold, fantastically more gold, than anywhere else in Papua-New Guinea,
They found it where Koranga Creek and Edie Creek come into Bulolo – gold that was to give them each a fortune; and when they had taken all they wanted, there was enough left for the six-million-dollar company, Bulolo Gold Dredging Ltd, to win, in the 30 years following, 56 tonnes of gold, then worth 28 million pounds.
This was October 1922 and according to new issue Australian mining ordinances no claims could be worked until 1st April 1923.
April came and soon the richest parts of the
April 1923 came, and soon the richest parts of the
Late arrivals had to look elsewhere.
This is what Bill (W.G.) Royal and Dick (R.M.) Glasson were doing in 1926, trying to find the source of the Bulolo’s gold, when they came into Edie Creek and decided to go to the head of it.
What showed in the dishes they panned in these streams was gold in unbelievable concentration – if it was gold.
At first glance – according to Bill Money, who was in partnership with Royal, Glasson, F. Chisholm and Joe Sloane – it looked too dark.
The Edie gold, alloyed with silver, was heavily stained with manganese but rubbed shiny and was the real stuff of Eldorado.
Joe Sloane said to his mate who was running his sluice box at 11.30am: “Y’d better clean up Bill. The bloody gold’s running outa the box.”
That day they got 272 ounces.
Where the Bulolo was rich big-scale dredging, this was incredibly smaller-scale sluicing.
About six million pounds worth of gold was won from the top of Edie Creek.
The Edie “Big Six” – Bill Money, Bill Royal, Dick Glasson, F. Chisholm, Joe Sloane and Albert Royal – all became rich men.
More and more white miners came and, again, the late-comers had to look elsewhere.
There was gold in the Watut as well as in the Bulolo.
Where was the source of the Watut’s gold?
Men who dreamed of finding another Edie Creek began to look for it.
They began to look for it on the other side of the Watut.
Caption: 1. View from the 4th green to the 5th tee. 2. Bulolo Golf Club, the first golf club to be built in
Bulolo Golf Club, the eldest in the country, held its 60th anniversary and reunion from June 8-10 in 2007.
Currently, it has members from Bulolo-Watut and even Lae and Wau, and usually has a competition on Saturday afternoons.
The course is a nine-hole course, which goes up and down hills, challenging players and at the same time allowing them to enjoy the surroundings and course layout.
Given Bulolo's rich and colourful history and characters, it is a great opportunity to meet old friends, and the usual Bulolo hospitality will be on offer.
"Bulolo Golf Club is the oldest Golf club in the Country still on the same location as it started,” said president Brian Boustridge.
"Port Moresby Golf Club is older but their golf course was moved to a different site from the original at some stage."
