Australian states warned on plague locusts

Something for Papua New Guinea to consider, given that we are right next door to Australia...

Article from: AAP
October 30, 2009 03:28pm

QUEENSLAND is facing a threat of biblical proportions as Australian plague locusts mass on the border with NSW.
Biosecurity Queensland has warned that the locust swarms, which can travel up to 600km in a night, could cause damage worth millions of dollars.
In 2004/05, locusts were responsible for national agricultural losses estimated to be worth more than $11 million.
Biosecurity officer Kevin Strong said the locust population in central western NSW was expected to soon form a number of highly mobile swarms.
"We need everyone to be on high alert for any sightings of locusts and report them immediately to Biosecurity Queensland by calling 13 25 23," Mr Strong said.
The ability of locusts to migrate over large distances in short periods of time meant virtually all of Queensland's agricultural areas were at some level of risk.
"Locusts can travel between 500 and 600 kilometres in a single night if the temperature, wind speed and wind direction are right," he said.
"Even in small numbers they are highly destructive.
"A single Australian plague locust can eat approximately one-third to half of its body weight per day throughout its lifespan.
"This means a locust swarm covering an area of one square kilometre will eat up to 10 tonnes of vegetation every 24 hours."
Mr Strong says if left untreated and with favourable weather conditions, locusts are capable of a seven to tenfold population increase with each generation.
Biosecurity officials are on stand-by with chemical spray.

Pacific Cup rugby league finals

The SP Brewery Pacific Cup rugby league finals are on this weekend at the Lloyd Robson Oval in Port Moresby.

In the play-off for third place today, Fiji takes on Tonga.

In the grand final tomorrow, giant-killers Cook Islands play hosts Papua New Guinea in a game which will decide who plays in the Four Nations Cup next year.

Watch this blog for results and pictures.

The Tragedy of the Montevideo Maru world premiere

Australia’s worst maritime tragedy, which intimately involves Papua New Guinea, will be remembered in the stirring world premiere of The Tragedy of the Montevideo Maru on Wednesday, November 11.

It tells the shocking story of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru off the Philippines coast on July 1, 1942.

Japanese hospital ship Montevideo Maru was carrying 845 troops from Australia’s Lark force and 208 civilians – 1,053 men – taken prisoner of war after Japan invaded Rabaul, East New Britain province, in Jan 1942.

The youngest was a boy of 15.

There were fathers and sons, civilians and troops, missionaries and traders, businessmen and administrators.

They had all been captured and interned by the Japanese in Rabaul.

They all died.

The youngest, the 15-year old, was Ivan Gascoigne, recorded as a clerk, the son of Cyril Gascoigne, who also died.

The sinking of the Montevideo Maru at 2.40 am on Wednesday July 1, 942 was Australia’s greatest disaster at sea, then and now.

The unmarked Japanese ship left occupied Rabaul on June 22, 1942, but nine days later on July 1, American submarine USS Sturgeon torpedoed it off Luzon in the Philippines.

The saddest thing is that the wreck has never been found to this day, and both Australia and PNG do not know the names of those killed, as the official nominal (katakana) roll – which might give a clue to the identities of those on board – has not been located

This Remembrance Day, The History Channel will commemorate Australia’s greatest-ever maritime disaster in The Tragedy of the Montevideo Maru, premiering on Wednesday Nov 11 at 7.30pm AEDT.

Introduced by Sky News anchor Jim Waley – who lost a relative in the tragedy – and narrated by actor John Jarratt, this explosive two-hour documentary film tells the forgotten story of the death of over 1,000 Australians who were locked in the hold of the Japanese POW ship Montevideo Maru when the vessel was torpedoed.

In the early hours of July 1, 1942, the POW “hell ship” Montevideo Maru was torpedoed off the coast of the Philippines by an American submarine, the USS Sturgeon.

What the Americans did not realise at the time was that the boat was in fact a floating prison, holding over 1,000 Australian POW’s and civilians.

Tragically, 1,053 Australians perished on that fateful day.

The Tragedy of the Montevideo Maru recounts the harrowing story of the sacrifice and suffering endured by these forgotten Australians during World War II.

It features detailed re-enactments of the shocking event as well as in-depth interviews with soldiers and crew members speaking publicly for the very first time – including the only Japanese crew member to survive the Montevideo Maru and a USS Sturgeon crew member who witnessed the sinking ship through the periscope.

This unique documentary also explores the broader story of the torturous Australian POW experience during this tumultuous period of WWII and features interviews with both Australian and British survivors of other hell ship sinkings.

Group channel manager of FOXTEL’s Owned and Operated Factual Channels, Jim Buchan, said: “In the tradition of event television such as Beyond Kokoda, and He’s Coming South, The History Channel remains committed to remembering the legacy left behind by Australia’s brave men and women.

“I am delighted that we are able to share this truly incredible, although sadly forgotten, story.”

Producer John Schindler said he was drawn to the Montevideo Maru story because his own mother lost four loved ones in the tragedy: “It is one of Australia’s greatest maritime tragedies with the loss of 1,053 lives and yet remarkably, most Australians have never heard of it.

“This documentary will once and for all put faces to numbers.”

The tragedy of the Montevideo Maru honours the brave Australian soldiers who served on the islands of New Britain, New Ireland and the surrounding islands of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea.

The documentary is an exclusive FOXTEL production, co-produced by John Schindler and Bob Blasdall.

 

 

Amelia Earhart's plane in Papua New Guinea...something big is stirring

I believe that something big is stirring in the pot regarding the Amelia Earhart case.

This week, I received an email from David Billings, the former Air Niugini engineer who has been religiously searching the jungles of East New Britain for more than 15 years for what he presumes is the wreckage of Earhart’s plane.

I have also received emails from overseas, from total strangers, asking about how to get in touch with Billings.

I understand that over the last week or so, there has been renewed speculation, particularly in the US, that the Earhart plane is somewhere in PNG.

I have had a record number of visitors to this blog this week, mainly on one story, “Amelia Earhart’s plane is still there” (http://malumnalu.blogspot.com/2009/01/amelia-earharts-plane-is-still-there_09.html).

Another interesting story is “Did Amelia Earhart return to Rabaul” (http://malumnalu.blogspot.com/2009/01/did-amelia-earhart-attempt-to-return-to.html).

There have also been speculations this week that a plane wreck believed to be Earhart’s has been located somewhere between Lae, which was Earhart’s last port of call in July 1937, and the island of New Britain.

Interesting…

 

 

The search for Amelia Earhart flies again

by Katie O'Brien

Oct 29, 2009

 

Imagine being thrilled to learn that the hardened material in your hands is dried...well, poop.  You might feel differently if the dropping potentially belonged to a famous aviator. 

Richard Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, said he believes his team has unearthed several artifacts belonging to airplane pilot Amelia Earhart, whose plane crashed on July 2, 1937.

The site of Gillespie’s search is Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro in the Republic of Kiribati.  The atoll in the middle of the South Pacific is 400 miles southeast of Howland Island, Earhart’s intended target for the day on her epic flight around the world.

Gillespie’s Earhart Project, what Gillespie calls the “Holy Grail” of aviation mysteries, is the latest investigation testing the hypothesis that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan landed, and eventually died, on Gardner Island.  The mystery surrounding Earhart and Noonan’s disappearance propagated a gamut of theories, books and now, a newly released blockbuster motion picture, “Amelia.”

“The crash at sea [theory] is nice and clean. A lot of people prefer that to someone desperately trying to survive on a desert island and getting eaten by crabs. But it does appear to us that there is a chapter of Earhart’s story, of her trying to survive that’s, very heroic. If it happened, it really does need to be told…this castaway of Gardner Island’s story,” said Gillespie, a retired crash investigator who lives in Delaware.

When he founded the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery in 1985, he and other members supported the "crash-and-sank" theory. Since November of 1988, the Earhart Project has explored an older U.S. Navy hypothesis that the flight ended on one of the islands of the Phoenix Group. 

The only known piece of Earhart’s Lockheed L-10 Electra, the Lady Lindy, was found in 1937 by Dan W. Stringer, stationed with the Army Air Corp.’s 50th Observation Squadron at Luke Field in Hawaii.

On March 30, 1937, four months prior to Earhart’s planned trip around-the-world, the Electra crashed during take-off, stripping a piece of its landing gear from the plane. The accident delayed her around-the-world trip.

Stringer found the scrap and kept it for years as a private souvenir. Last year, his grandson, Jon Ott of San Jose, Calif. inherited the piece and took it to PBS’s “History Detectives” to test its authenticity. PBS in turn, took the piece to Trevor Harding at the California Polytechnic State University.

Harding used a scanning electron microscope to test the sample’s composition for traces of aluminum alloy 2024, the alloy batch unique to the skin of the Electra model. The sample proved to be authentic. 

Gillespie also has found trace aluminum his team collected over nine expeditions to the Phoenix Group and Gardner islands but his pieces haven't been tested as yet due to a lack of funding, he said. To help raise funds for his next spring 2010 expedition, he is reserving six seats on his boat at a ticket price of $50,000 each.

He said a news team and representatives of the Smithsonian Institution also have asked to join him.

But Gillespie does have a number two option. Chunks of a brown dirt-like substance found on the Gardner atoll during the last expedition are human fecal matter, according to Gillespie.  He said he hopes to test the waste—as well as 20th century makeup and pieces from a compact mirror found at the site against—a DNA sample from a woman related to Earhart.

  Michael Foote, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, said that the conditions on the island raise some questions about the theory of finding human fecal matter from the 1930s.

“Sure, there is such a thing as fossilized dung or fossilized feces. If the environment were dry enough, it could just mummify. It’s conceivable. But the heat, the humidity,” Foote said, “The [Gardner] island is very humid,” Foote said.

Earhart’s crash may have involved a case of unfortunate miscalculation. Her Electra was modified to allow for additional fuel tanks to allow her to navigate the globe. As a result, pieces of navigation devices were removed for weight consideration, according to the American Aviation Historical Society.

Robert Brockmeir, retired United Airlines pilot and president of the society, said that, despite all the conspiracy theories, Occam’s razor applies.

“You take off from Honolulu, 0-6-0, flying northeast. If they’re speaking Spanish, you turn north, if it’s French Canadian, you head south. It’s different when you’re heading for a tiny island in the middle of nowhere,” Brockmeir said.

 

Papua New Guinea premiere of BBC hit documentary series

Caption: BGS events manager Jessica Johnston welcomes Dominic Seddon to the premiere of the BBC wildlife documentary at the Port Moresby residence of the British High Commissioner to PNG

 

Members of the British Graduates Society were given a special treat recently when they watched the Papua New Guinea premiere of hit TV documentary series "Land of the Lost Volcano".

British High Commissioner to PNG, David Dunn, who hosted the screening at his Port Moresby residence, said the wildlife TV programme was a big hit in the UK.

"A total of 15 million people in the UK were captivated by the breathtaking scenery and the discovery of new species in Papua New Guinea. The documentary is aimed at wooing a younger generation of conservationists in the UK and the world to follow in the footsteps of their seniors who grew up being inspired by David Attenborough wildlife documentaries,'' he added as he introduced the first episode of the three-part series. 

 The documentary was filmed early this year on East New Britain Island and Southern Highlands' Mt Bosavi and followed an international team of scientists, cavers and wildlife filmmakers in the dense and treacherous PNG jungle.

In the BBC series, scientists assisted by tribal elders comb the jungle recording wildlife for a database which would be passed on to the PNG government at the completion of the identification process. They discover 40 species new to science that included amongst others a giant woolly rat and fanged frogs.

BGS vice president Hennie Ikupu said the documentary showcased PNG and confirmed its position as one of the world's top biodiversity hot spots.

"The documentary explicitly highlights the richness of PNG's biodiversity and its significance as the host of one of the world's largest and last remaining tropical rainforest areas," he added.   

The screening of "Land of the Lost Volcano" is part of a lively event and activity calendar hosted by the BGS. The society has been active since 2006 and has recently increased its membership by over 60%. This has created a renewed and strengthened network of Papua New Guinean and expatriate members in business, education, development, Government and diplomatic services.

Screenings of the second two episodes of the documentary will continue next Tuesday November 3 and the following Tuesday November 10.

Anyone interested in joining the British Graduates Society of Papua New Guinea should email ukgradutes.png@gmail .com for further information.

For more information contact:

Jessica Johnston

British Graduates Society

Digicel: (675) 7196 9998

Fax: (675) 321 5007

Email: jessicajennyjohnston@yahoo.com

 

British Graduate Society of Papua New Guinea

The British Graduates Society of Papua New Guinea has been active since 2006. In July 2008 the Society was fully incorporated and registered with the IPA. The Patron of the Society is currently His Excellency David Dunn, British High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea.

The society is currently actively seeking new members. To be eligible as a member a person must have studied at a UK institution and pay a membership fee of K100 per annum. A person may also become an associate member if they are a spouse, partner or nominated person of a full member. Associate members must pay a K50 fee per annum.

Some of the objectives of the society are currently;

         To establish and maintain means of communication between members of the BGSPNG and their institutions through the British High Commission and Alumni Societies;

         To foster relations between the United Kingdom and Papua New Guinea;

         To support and promote the principles of membership for all former students who have studied in the United Kingdom;

         To sponsor and promote educational, social, cultural, sporting and recreational activities among members of the BGSPNG and their families;

         To promote and maintain for members of the BGSPNG a common meeting place and a social centre over the long term and to network with similar entities or organisations;

         To provide a forum for the dissemination, discussion and debate of information and knowledge about matters of former colleges, universities, or matters of public interest.

Papua New Guinea banana industry under threat

Workshop participants making a field inspection to a banana patch in Morobe

Fusarium oxysporum Foc, the fungus that causes Fusarium Wilt disease on bananas

By JOSEPHINE YAGA of NARI

Fusarium wilt, also known as Panama disease, is a destructive fungal disease of banana plants.
It is caused by a fungus referred to as Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.cubense (Foc).
According to Dr Agustin Molina, an international specialist on banana diseases and the regional coordinator for Asia and the Pacific Bioversity International, the disease has already been identified along the PNG - Indonesia border in the Indonesian provinces of Western Papua and Papua.
He cautioned that there was a great risk of the disease spreading across to bananas in PNG.
Once Foc is in the soil, it cannot be eliminated.
Dr Molina said this during a two-day workshop at Bubia in Lae recently.
The workshop was conducted for quarantine and extensions officers in PNG for increasing PNG’s capacity for early detection, interception and incursion management of Fusarium wilt and other important banana diseases.
Participants were from National Agriculture Research Institute, National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority and Department of Agriculture and Livestock.
Banana is grown throughout PNG and it is the fourth most-consumed food with 34.3% after greens (75%), sweet potato (60.2%) and rice (35.1%).
It is considered the most-important staple crop with greatest production in Morobe, East New Britain, Central and Madang provinces.
Fusarium wilt of banana is a vascular wilt disease and can be very destructive.
It invades the vascular tissues called xylem through the roots causing discoloration and wilting.
The wilt pathogen is soil-borne and it survives in the soil for years.
It also survives on infected plant parts and infects roots, spreads and destroys vascular tissues.
The disease can be transmitted through suckers, roots, soil water and contaminated equipment.
The focus of the training was to improve capacity of extension officers to manage incursions of banana diseases into PNG with emphasis on measures to prevent the spread of Fusarium wilt across PNG-Indonesia Boarder.
Experiments in Indonesia were set up in an attempt to control the wilt.
The use of clean planting materials and resistant varieties are among the most promising measures identified so far.
Suggestions made at the workshop for the prevention or limitation of the wilt include:
• The need to evaluate important PNG banana varieties for resistance to Foc;
• Provide briefing papers on threat and potential impact of Foc and other diseases to policy makers;
• Better coordination of emergency response to relevant agencies and development at all levels;
• Formation of committees for further awareness-raising in the provinces along the border through local level government and ward presidents, church leaders and teachers; and
• Production of handbook of important banana diseases.