Once upon a time, several decades ago, a young woman was living with her husband in the small town of Alotau in Papua New Guinea. She was six months pregnant and for some reason thought it would be a good idea to celebrate their first New Year’s Eve together with friends. At the time, the … More A surprising New Year ‘s Eve
Imagine if you will a country with spectacular, awe-inspiring scenery from fierce mountain ranges clothed in almost impenetrable jungle to deep aquamarine seas with an abundance of tropical fish. Imagine a country with hundreds of tribal groups, languages and specific cultures. Imagine the potential for clashes between those tribal groups, the payback[i] and potential for … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 20 Papua New Guinea
I just had to rejig my sequence of photos so I could accommodate Valentine’s Day! In the 60s and 70s, Valentine’s Day was a non-event in Australia but as a devoted reader of Seventeen magazine from the USA I’d caught the “love bug”! Of course having titled this post “Young Love” I also had Cliff Richard … More Fab Feb Photo Collage Festival: Day 14 Young Love
The highlight of this week’s Sepia Saturday image are the telegram boys on bicycles. This is a very apt theme for my family: my father rode his push bike to work every day, in hail rain or shine because we didn’t own a car. Mum and I also had bikes and we would sometimes go … More Sepia Saturday 162: “Marlon” on a bike
One of our priority activities in Alotau was to hire a taxi driver to take us around the town to see our old familiar places. Eddie was educated as a health worker with a degree from the Divine Word University and his English was excellent (as well as probably being his third language) so we … More Milne Bay: Our Heritage Places Tour
Yesterday I spoke about our return to Milne Bay after 41 years. Today I wanted to share some of our personal highlights, and the ensuing memories, with you. Like two excited two-year olds we waited for the plane to take us back to Milne Bay. Despite a flight delay, the excitement and memories didn’t abate … More Milne Bay: The People and Old and New Friends
Seven days in Papua New Guinea (PNG), seven days home in Australia. A short enough time you would think, but somehow our world has shifted ever so slightly on its axis. It seems that we have been reinfected with the PNG virus. Our normal life seems vaguely strange as we try to reacclimatise to all … More Return to Milne Bay
As you know we’ve just returned from Papua New Guinea, and in particular Milne Bay where we spent most of our time. We had lived there for a couple of years after our marriage but Mr Cassmob had also spent his teenage years in the district, when home from boarding school, and he regards it … More Lest We Forget: the Battle of Milne Bay
In case you’ve been wondering why my responses to comments have been a bit slow lately it’s because we’ve been having a great adventure: our first return to Papua New Guinea since we left in August 1978. We had an absolutely fantastic time and met lots of people including some who knew Mr Cassmob’s parents … More Home again
Let me explain my plan for the A-Z blogging theme for April. Given that family history is my focus generally, there are a number of paths I could have taken. I’ve opted to use each letter to highlight a place/places of some ancestral significance. Hopefully they’ll also be interesting from a travel point of view. I’ll try … More A is for Ardkinglas in Argyll, and Alotau (Papua New Guinea).
Family history across the seas 