How it all started
BY TED GLOVER
First editor,
South Pacific Post
Port Moresby in the late 1940s was probably the least likely place that a prudent publisher could consider to establish a newspaper.
But, amazingly, the brainchild of Leslie Francis Brodie, a Sydney newspaperman not long back from the war, was established to become just about the most fascinating venture in post-war Australian journalism. Brodie had the urge to start a newspaper when he visited the territory as one of a group of pressmen travelling as guest of Sir Edward Hallstrom, who then was convinced he could introduce sheep to the Highlands.
The sheep failed to prosper but, indirectly, the territory gained a newspaper instead. Brodie touted his idea around Moresby and Sydney, seeking financial support.
Initially, he formed two companies – the South Pacific Printing Company Ltd with capital raised in Port Moresby and South Pacific Post Ltd, backed by the Yaffa Company of Sydney whose managing director was Stanley Eskell. The plan was for the Port Moresby group to establish printing facilities while Eskell group will publish the newspaper.
Brodie became managing director of both companies and was responsible for establishing the plant in Lawes Road. First directors of the printing company were Brodie, J.I. Cromie, and E.V. Crisp. Brodie was joined on the board of the Post by Eskell and Mr J.W. Warnecke, who also represented Yaffa.
Brodie, understandably, took the best part of two years to reach the first day of publication – September 1950. He faced the almost impossible task of establishing the plant at a time when building material and services were virtually non-existent, printing equipment was at a premium even on the Australian second-hand market and paper was severely restricted.
To underscore his problems, communications were primitive, power was unreliable (and rationed), ships called about once every six weeks and a lone DC3 service linked TPNG with the mainland. Against this backdrop, my wife and I fell for Brodie’s infectious enthusiasm during a chance meeting in Sydney. At the ripe old age of 24, I decided to abandon the security of the Sydney Morning Herald for newspapering in Papua-New Guinea.
I put the first issue of the Post to bed, saw it through an exciting and turbulent decade, and have since been a member of the board. And the only individual with a continuing link back to issue No.1. I find myself more than delighted that at last we have become a daily.
The Post’s inauguration was a night to remember. We had planned our first issue to roll off the press at the stroke of midnight, cheered along by the Administrator, Colonel JK Murray, and a formally dressed gathering of VIPs. But for most of that day the power had been off and the Linotype pots froze.
“A Sydney engineer was still struggling to complete installation of the 30-year-old press and was close to a nervous breakdown. By midnight (the guests by then well fortified) we had managed to lockup the first page. We still had 15 to go. By 3am, the less hardy were sneaking off and at 4am, the Administrator excused himself to take his wife home.
By 8am, only “J.K” and a weary staff of seven remained. We bedded down the last forme, the Administrator wished the Post every success, and pressed the button.
Perfectly spotless sheets of newsprint began to roll. There was not a word of type in sight. For another hour we struggled, christened the machine “the bloody bomb”, and then mercifully called it a day.
It took three more weeks to fix the machine and produced issue No.1. Since then the Post has never missed an issue. But for the next 12 years that rattling old press was called, with increasing affection, the “bloody bomb”.
Both the Post and the printing company had a troublesome first two years. Losses were incurred and bankruptcy seemed imminent. Brodie had resigned within a couple of months of the first issue and by circumstance rather than qualification I inherited the role of manager-cum-editor.
With no direction but to go forward, backed by a remarkable show of encouragement from all sections of the community, we managed to keep rolling.
The combined staff of the two companies was about 12 – myself, Betty Best (reporter), John Greenshields (accountant), two linotype operators, one compositer, a machinist, and half a dozen local assistants. Within 12 years we had grown to 35 Europeans and 45 Papuans and New Guineans. After 19 years, staff numbers were 60 Europeans and 110 Papuans and New Guineans.
During the first two years the Post and the printing company both lost money and insolvency was upon us. In desperation the two companies were merged. During the first year of the merged company we turned in our maiden profit – pounds 822.6.10. We never looked back.
In every sense the Post in the first two decades has reflected the Territory’s progress. Port Moresby in 1950 was a tin-pot town recovering from the ravages of war. So too were Rabaul, Lae and other centres. The Highlands contained little more than just patrol and mission posts.
The Administration had been re-established under Colonel J.K. Murray. Its officers worked from a shanty town of paper huts at Konedobu. The Hubert Murray reserve where the South Pacific Games are to held was the rubbish tip. Lawes Road was a dirt track, Boroko non-existent. Apart from Steamships and Burns Philp there were few traders.
‘Tich’ Corlett ran two cabs and became our first cash advertiser. I remember him giving me a cheque for pound 150 and saying “Let me know when it cuts out”.
That was our first revenue.
Ernie Kriewaldt became our first major supporters, using full page advertisements for his new store on Douglas Street. About the same time Cliff Jackson was starting Patair and used our printing service. The first letter to the Editor was from Basil Kirke, manager of 9PA, and father of well known lawyer Craig Kirke.
The first letter from a Papuan was written by John Guise, former Speaker of the House.
The Post’s first big story broke in 1951 when Mount Lamington erupted, killing more than 4000 people. Betty Best and I covered the story not only for the Post but for the whole world.
TO CONTINUE TOMORROW
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