Philatelic Bureau
P.O. Box 1

Boroko

National Capital District

Papua New Guinea

Phone: (675) 300 3745

Fax: (675) 323 3045

Email:philatelic@postpng.com.pg

Postal History of PNG

As sure as the stars, the sun and moon that we have been seeing above us even before Jorge claimed discovery of our beautiful land, we have always been here and will be here for a long time.

Maybe to a historian, Papua New Guinea was ‘Discovered’ but this land of superlative geographical attributes and its colourful people and cultures has always been here. Oh yes, the country has certainly gained a new name (after many changes by colonisers) but our land and people will remain.

Permanent contact with foreigners and outside world dated back to 16th Century and up to 19th Century when Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, France seamen made numerous journeys to the islands. Germans also made their presence felt and managed to engrave strong influence on the northern half of the country (New Guinea) while the British colonised the southern half (Papua) and of course the Dutch took the present Irian Jaya (Dutch New Guinea) which is now part of Indonesia.

Sine the arrival of Traders and Missionaries much social, economic and political developments have taken place. Post and Telecommunication Services contributed quite a proportion of this development.

Before World War II the separate Territories of Papua New Guinea were known to the rest of the world for their gold and their postage stamps. They were also known as the home of the romantic Birds of Paradise; of head-hunters, cannibals and other strange people.

Postal and Telecommunications history began in 1885 when Sir Peter Scratchley appointed Frank Lawes as POSTMASTER, HARBOUR MASTER, COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS and CHIEF CLERK. The earliest letter known to pass through the newly established Port Moresby Post Office has on the envelope the postmark.

Before this same letters from Port Moresby had been endorsed with a Postmark "NG" enclosed in an oval of eight bars supplied by the Queensland Department of Posts and Telegraphs. This earlier letters probably had their stamps cancelled with a Cooktown postmarker. The stamps used in the early days and through to 1901 were those of the Colony of Queensland.

The Post Office in German New Guinea began in 1887.

Telecommunications came later. In Papua (British New Guinea) telegrams were sent by ship to Thursday Island in Australia until 1913. The Thursday Island — Port Moresby telegraph link was opened to public business on 26 February 1913. This link was owned and operated by the Australian Postmaster — General’s Department. The Germans established New Guinea’s first radio telegraph station at Bitapaka near Rabaul in 1914.

The first local telephone systems were established by the Germans at the towns of Rabaul and Herbershore (Kokopo) in 1907 with small exchanges of 10 and 12 lines respectively. These two exchanges were interconnected. Port Moresby got its first local telephone service in 1910.

When Posts and Telegraphs Branch of Treasury Department ceased to exist and a new Posts and Telegraphs Department was created in 1955, the Papua New Guinea Philatelic Bureau was also started four years later in 1959.

From 1959 up to now, Oh Yes! its 41 years now for PNG Philatelic Bureau since its inception - 2000. Read here what Fred Bartu, one of the early pioneers who established the foundation of the Bureau, could recall from the many ‘chapters’ of his yester years.

In his apocalyptic novel of the same name George Orwell forecast a communications revolution with big brother monitoring our every move. Completely by accident this also happens to be the year when Papua New Guinea celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of its foundation. Foundation! Sounds impressive! It was more like squeaking into life. I was not there to witness this moment but my late boss, mentor and friend Bob Miller regaled me with some anecdotes which included his appointment as Postal Inspector (Philatelic) where he served behind the counter selling stamps to collectors in the morning and the afternoons he spent chasing stamp designs in the local bush armed with a Box Brownie Camera. At any rate by sheer faith and perseverance he and his assistant Tom Duncan got their act together. By 1963 they had managed to scrape together some stamp designs which then saw light of day across the Post Office counters.

In May 1963 Tom decided he had had enough of the vagabond existence what with the Philatelic Bureau — or one stamp drawer in the Post Office being shifted from pillar to post — and sometimes behind the pillar too and that is where I came in. I had been a stamp collector all my life pioneering a new way of mounting postage stamps at the age of six. This I accomplished by spearing as many stamps as I could manage on my mothers crocket needle, thus displaying early promise in the field of Philately. From this it can be seen that I had very little to learn about stamp collecting I therefore agreed with everybody that I was the ideal choice for the assistant to the master who by now sported the title Assistant Controller Philately and Training. For some reason the powers that he felt that stamps could not occupy two grown up men full time and there was the job of training to be done as well — another one of the glamour jobs that nobody was keen to take on.

As it happened what I did know about stamps you could proverbially write on the back of one. With patience verging on being saintly Bob Miller, Stuart Jay, the mercurial and brilliant organiser and administrator and finally Bill Peckover the most perfect of all big bosses helped, cajoled and pushed through the establishment which enabled the Bureau to move into a permanent home with a huge Philatelic counter all to ourselves by 1966.

But how could I forget our early customers. We started with a permanent list of seven and by the time it grew to 800 I was getting typists cramp getting that wretched mailing list out. But the results were worth it. I remember Gertrude Baker who came to Papua New Guinea all the way from California because she liked our stamps and wanted to have a look at the country from where they came. We had a complete media turnout for the event. The ABC ignored it but the South Pacific Post had a picture of Gertrude on page one (1). The most smoked page in the Pacific.

I remember the first big order over £1,000.00 in one cheque from Harry Allan in the United Kingdom. I was racing through the corridors waving the cheque like a banner screaming "Boss, Boss look what came in the mail!" We hastily made up the order packed it in several thicknesses of cardboard triple wrapped in brown paper, taped it with packing tape, addressed it, registered it and even personally supervised its despatch into the mailbag from Port Moresby to Sydney from where it would wing its way to the United Kingdom to another satisfied customer. About a month later a telegram — does anybody send them these days? - arrived. It read: "Where is my order? Signed Harry Allan." Consternation all round. Is he genuine? Can he be trusted. Heroic decision on the part of big boss. "Send him a replacement order!" I mean, you could buy a new car or two Morris Minis with that sort of money in those days. Anyway replacement order went out all holding our breaths. Receipt duly acknowledged but no sign of original order. That £1,000.00 on the books for which we have had no payment starts to weigh rather heavily on the conscience of one and all. Being in receipt of £1,420 per annum I am starting to calculate how long it will take me to repay the loss.

Three months to the day a letter with another £1,000.00 cheque from Harry — we all felt we could use first names by then — saying the original consignment had now arrived by sea mail, but as sales were going well he would keep it. In our haste to get the original order out we forgot to put an Airmail sticker on the parcel and the posties in Sydney not being clairvoyants sent it on by sea instead of airmail. Even so the story did not have a happy ending for me. Using logic I approached the boss for a raise on the grounds that I had managed to double our sales within a very short space of time. I will not tell you what his reply was but I did not get the raise.

Names of top guys and veterans like Frank Cleary, Phil Casanovas, Patrick Tomausi, the late Gavera Lohia readily spring to mind. They all left their impressions and trademark behind.

The Bureau has agents helping it sell stamps in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, German and the USA. It has survived a fire and has risen from the ashes like the legendary Phoenix and it still produces the best stamps in the world.

Yes, Harry Allan too is still in the stamp business and he now buys his Papua New Guinea Stamps from our United Kingdom Agent.