Introduction: Early years, PNG

England, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea and how  I became involved in the outdoors, caves and karst

England

My love of the outdoors and adventures began in the 1950’s in Birmingham, England, a city on the fringe of the Black Country, a place of heavy industry and consequent smog from intensive widespread coal burning. However, on some fine weather weekends my parents would take me away on a double-decker electric tram, to the nearby Lickey Hills. I would fish for sticklebacks, run amongst the pine trees, have pinecone fights, walk Smuts the dog, and pick bilberries in season. The wind blew, the air was fresh, and I felt truly free!

My earliest opportunity of real wild outdoor adventures came in the way of a school trip to the Lake District in 1961 when I was 15 and a Sergeant in the Army Cadet Force. My mum and dad bought me a pair of ex-army hob nail boots and additionally kitted out with an ex-World War II army balaclava, woolen jersey, rain cape, canvas small-pack and water bottle I set off on a bus with my schoolmates. I clearly remember gazing through the windscreen towards the Cumbrians, as we drew closer to what seemed to me to be a massive snow-covered mountain range, surreally suspended between the sky and the horizon. I felt absolutely spellbound and extraordinarily excited!

Over the following few days, we climbed Striding Edge-Helvellyn (950m) and Scafell Pike (978m) during the worst snowfalls they had experienced in 10 years! These were the first real wild places I had experienced, and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and freedom. However, further opportunities were unavailable to me as when I left school at 16, I had no choice but to work 6 days a week in a factory in the depths of the Black Country. In 1965, at 19 years old, I applied for and was accepted into the Birmingham City Police Force, which at times was exciting, but completely city bound.

Tasmania

I joined the Tasmanian Police in late 1966 and set off on my first overseas adventure, including firefighting in the devastating February 1967 bush fires. After which. I served mainly in Launceston where I also joined the Citizen’s Military Forces Royal Australian Infantry.

Tasmania was a great place for bush walking, and I soon developed a love for the Australian outdoors. However, whilst beautiful and in parts very wild, policing was generally quiet. Then one day I purchased Colin Simpson’s book ‘Plumes and Arrows’ and was fascinated by his description of Papua New Guinea (PNG) as “the land that time forgot”, a land of proud and volatile  tribesmen, unexplored and untamed terrain and epic exploration.

Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary

Then serendipity! In late 1968 an advertisement appeared in the Examiner Newspaper for Commissioned Officers in the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC). I immediately applied and was accepted as a Sub Inspector. I served in many places in general policing, Officer in Charge of several Sub Districts and as a paramilitary Mobile Squad Commander from 1968 until 1973. The move to PNG and joining the RPNGC were massive life-changing experiences upon which I thrived. Almost every day was an adventure!

Tasmania First Caving Trips

Whilst on leave in ‘Tassie’ in late 1970, my brother, who had also moved from the UK, had taken up caving, which he introduced me to by way of trips to the stunning Creoses Cave and the equally stunning and sporting Kubla Kahn Cave, both in Mole Creek Karst National Park. I discovered caving excited and challenged me more than anything else and was another major turning point in my life! I was hooked!

PNG Caving

In 1971 I was transferred to the Simbu District and, as I soon discovered, a karst and cave area of significance. At first, I took up solo exploration of a few easy caves. I taught myself from books, brought a helmet, caving lights, ropes, karabiners, pitons and electron caving ladders from an Aussie gear shop, and teamed up with some equally inexperienced local friends and we set off to explore the unknown.

The same year I was driving through the Simbu Gorge on a caving trip, when I passed a trail bike struggling up the steep rocky road heavily laden with two guys and a stack of gear. Behind the handlebars was a New Zealander, Van Watson, and it turned out they were heading up Mount Wilhelm (4,508m). It transpired Van was one of New Zealand’s premier cavers and we inevitably started to talk caving and decided to team up at every available opportunity.  This chance meeting was to be another great turning point in my life and was ultimately to be of significance in putting PNG on the 'world-caving map'. Serendipity at play again!

I acquired a pair of Jumars (ascenders), and an abseiling rack (descender) and Van taught me single rope techniques (SRT) and, after organising lots of rope, we set about exploring, surveying and documenting many caves in the Eastern Highlands focusing mainly on vertical shafts. We paid particular attention to the Simbu Porol Range where a vertical cave entrance known as Bibima had been previously noted by a Government caving Patrol Officer as having possible depth potential.

On the 5th of August 1972, Van and I and two caving friends climbed high up on the Porol Range to the entrance and descended the first pitch. After 20 hours underground, we reached an impassable sump and surveyed our way up to the surface. Back at home base we plotted up the survey data and discovered we had reached a depth of -494m, at the time a new Southern Hemisphere depth record, formerly held by Harwoods Hole 357m on Takaka Hill, Abel Tasman National Park. Talk quickly moved to expeditions and finding deeper caves. Perhaps even the deepest cave in the world! We knew the Bibima depth record was, despite PNG’s isolation, wild terrain and logistical difficulties, sufficient to attract international cavers in pursuit of world-class cave systems.

In early 1973 Van carried out an aerial reconnaissance of the Muller Range in the Southern Highlands, where the limestone is of considerable thickness and relief with huge deep dolines (circular depressions formed by collapse and/or dissolution), and many sinking and rising rivers and streams. Soon after, Van and a geologist friend, and I carried out an on the ground reconnaissance locating many shafts and explored the entrance area of a huge river cave Atea Kananda establishing the areas world class depth potential.

Planning and preparation for a major New Zealand-Australian expedition quickly followed and later in 1973 the 1st Muller Range Expedition, the first major caving expedition undertaken in PNG was launched. Van and I went in first as a 2-week advance party recruiting porters, cutting tracks, and establishing a base camp and airdrop site, after which we were joined by the main expedition. Many vertical cave systems were located, explored and mapped. However, the volume of water in Atea Kananda was thought to be too extreme to tackle.

After the expedition I was offered a job as a Geological Field Assistant, and then as Field Operations and Base Manager for a mining company at the remote Frieda River Copper-Gold Prospect in the Upper Sepik. For the following 4 years I worked 4 weeks on and 9 days off which gave me time for lots more cave exploration. I was also given work time to record rock art and archaeological sites in our prospecting license areas. The perfect job!

The 1st Muller Range Expedition was the first of many expeditions for me between 1973 to 1978, including 7 months behind the Hindenburg Wall near the Star Mountains and West Papua border. My last major expedition Atea’78, was back to Atea Kananda with a kilometre of float rope and we successfully navigated explored the huge river passage and associated dry passages  and whilst world class depth eluded us, we established a new Southern Hemisphere length record of 34.5 km.

Having proven PNG had considerable caving potential numerous other international expeditions followed, adding more caves of world-class length (53km) and depth (-1200m) in some of the world’s toughest conditions. I was fortunate to be one of the earliest pioneers, and to take part in many of the first major expeditions sometimes in previously unexplored areas recorded by fellow expedition caver Howard Beck in his outstanding classic PNG caving book ‘Beneath the Cloud Forest”.

Between 1972 and 1978 I also recorded and wrote numerous papers on cave art, rock art and archaeological sites, along with cave associated folklore and legends throughout the Highlands, Telefomin and the Upper Sepik. The papers were published in our journal Niugini Caver and Queensland University’s Occasional Papers in Anthropology. The original records, surveys and accompanying images are housed in the University of Papua New Guinea.