Back to Past Adventures
August 2006
Matt’s Bit
Jim and Jean were planning to return to Australia in May to have a baby, giving Shell and I the perfect excuse to spend 3 months in PNG. We both took leave without pay from our jobs and jumped on a plane bound for PNG in an attempt to keep the TCA ship sailing smoothly. Fortunately Australian Volunteers International, to whom we are both very grateful, was able to help us with our flight costs.
We arrived in PNG and met Jim at Wewak for a drink and project briefing. Shortly after Jim flew back to Australia to be with Jean who was getting ready to have their baby. This was my second trip to PNG, so I had a fair idea what I was in for and a very basic understanding of Pidgin English, however this was the first time for Shell. Shell did not speak any Pidgin and now we were on our own. Wewak is good place to start off as there are a few ex-pats and a handful of nationals that speak English. We both tried to learn as much Pidgin as possible before flying to Lumi.
Shell’s Bit
It was nice to fly to a warm country and leave the Melbourne winter behind. Matt and I planned to fly from Wewak to Lumi the day after Jim left for Melbourne. We went to the airport and were told that the MAF pilot was sick (suspected Dengue Fever) and was not going to fly for another week. There were no spare pilots. The only other way into Lumi was driving but 2 collapsed bridges put an end to that idea so we waited for the pilot to improve. In Wewak we stayed with Jim and Jean’s good friend Phillip who happily put us up for another week on the condition Matt cooked Spaghetti Bolognese which we thought was a pretty good deal!
Matt’s Bit
We eventually flew to Lumi and were in fact lucky to get there at all as the pilot was seriously ill and after our flight he returned home to England to rest and recover. Flying over the mountainous landscape of PNG in a tiny 4 seater Cessna was still amazing the second time. So much intact, untouched habitat with the occasional village in a small cleared area or a river cutting its way through the mountains and bush on the way to the Sepik plane or coast. As we flew over the Torricelli Mountains towards Lumi it was a reminder of just how isolated we were about to become. The adventure had just begun.
Shell’s Bit
What an amazing country!! When we landed in Lumi around a hundred or more people converged on the airstrip pointing and staring at the two new white people in town. It was very strange to have so many people staring and smiling but definitely something I got used to whilst in PNG. As promised, the TCA workmen came and met us when the plane landed.
Arriving at the TCA house was a pleasant surprise. I had no idea what I was in store for but found the TCA house to be very comfortable. The main thing I noticed on my first night in Lumi was how quiet and peaceful it was. One of the advantages of being so remote! We spent the first week in Lumi settling in, meeting people and familiarizing ourselves with the many animals to look after. This was easy for Matt being a zookeeper at home but a little difficult for me initially as in Melbourne I work as an embryologist. Quite a contrast!!
Matt’s bit
TCA survived the 2 weeks in between Jim leaving and us arriving in Lumi. Unfortunately a ground cuscus and an ostralapse rooster had died and a white stripped dorcopsis had escaped. A small welcoming committee was at TCA and when we arrived. After settling in we began to plan the distance sampling trips and patrols that we were going to undertake. During our 3 months looking after TCA, Shell and I were to supervise 4 distance sampling trips, visit as many of the 18 villages as possible to assess their rabbit programs, complete the construction of a guest house at TCA and build a new security fence protecting the south end of the property. Last time I was in PNG I developed an interest in the amazing diversity of frogs in the Torricelli’s, so I also planned several frog surveys.
Just before we were about to embark on our first patrol our cargo (mostly food) arrived, which was fortunate as we were starting to wonder how we would feed everyone who were going to work with us. We packed and headed off towards our first moratorium village, Waieli. I was looking forward to this patrol as last time I was in PNG this village (Waieli) named a cave after me “Matt West Cave”, and they sent a petition to Melbourne Zoo asking for me to return to PNG to study the bats that lived in the cave.
Shell’s bit
Our first walk was from Lumi to Waieli, a small village of 100 people about a 4.5h walk from Lumi. Now I would say I am a fit, active, healthy person but that was a very grueling exhausting walk!! Most of the walk was uphill (enough to hurt) and in full sun. The scenery was absolutely beautiful but I must admit at the 3h mark I had had almost enough although after a drinking the milk of a green coconut I recovered enough to keep going. When we arrived at Waeili the whole village was there to greet us and were very welcoming - all wanting to shake hands (even the children - I was to find out later that some children were terrified of us, thinking that we were ghosts or spirits hiding behind their mothers and crying!!). In Waeili I had my first taste of Sandaun province local food ‘sak sak’ (sago) and some local vegetables (such as taro, sweet potato and cooking banana) in a coconut milk soup. It was actually very tasty.
Matt’s Bit
While Shell had a rest I took off with ¾ of the village to “Matt West’s” Cave on top of Asili Mountain (about a 3hr walk up and 2 hrs on the way back down) to have a look at the bats. The cave is amazing, resembling the inside of a very large barrel that you can peer into through two small cracks in the side. I paid some of the men to catch an adult male, crossing my fingers that that it might be un-described, although it turned out to be a Greater Bare-backed Flying Fox. There seemed to be less bats occupying the cave than last time I visited – hopefully they were just occupying another roost site.
Shell’s bit
After a days rest, playing with the children in the village, who were too small to go with Matt, and talking to the women, we left Waieli and continued on to Maiwetem another village on the way to the Waumorou distance sampling site. The walk from Waieli to Maiwetem was probably my favourite walk that we did in PNG, walking upstream and across a river. About 30mins before reaching Maiwetem, we climbed up and behind a beautiful medium sized waterfall and then it started pouring rain. This was my introduction to the weather patterns in the mountains. Every afternoon it would absolutely pour at about 2pm then clear up around 6pm so if you were out then you would get absolutely drenched!
Several hundred people live in Maiwetem. We were asked to come to a big community meeting. Matt introduced us and talked to them about Tenkile and other conservation issues around the world, and discussed the reasons why this project, their project, is so important and something that they all should be very proud of. I was invited to talk to the women about female health issues. I was surprised that some of these women living in a remote community were actually using relatively modern contraceptive methods although unfortunately they did not have health workers who were able to answer questions about the complication that may arise.
Matt’s Bit
14 of us, including Shell and I, left Maiwetem and walked to Waumorou to undertake a distance sampling survey for Tenkile. When we arrived at the top (1500m) the guys welcomed us to their newly constructed research hut, an evolutionary leap forward in Torricelli Mountain accommodation (which was previously a tarpaulin stretched over some sticks). The research hut was constructed almost entirely from bush materials (excluding the nails) and could sleep about 12-14 people. It was much more comfortable to sleep in this research hut than last time I stayed up here under a blue tarpaulin with Jim on a previous survey. The next day one of the distance sampling teams actually observed a Tenkile and collected a fresh faecal sample. Unfortunately Shell and I were with another team about 25mins walk away along the ridge line and we missed out on this rare event. The distance sampling team chased the Tenkile down the side of the mountain and it easily disappeared into the dense forest habitat.
Although a little disappointed that we missed out on seeing a Tenkile this time, I did manage to catch and record the calls of a number of frog species (mostly microhylids). It was the first time a white female (Shell) had climbed up to the Waumorou Mnt in the Torricellis, and all the local people were very impressed. So was I. We all walked back to Maiwetem and later returned to Lumi visiting Soulete (another moratorium village) to look at rabbits on the way back.
Among the people who came to visit TCA over the next couple of weeks were two people who reported sightings of Tenkile and Yungi (Grizzled T/K). One man from Wilbeite saw 2 adults and 1 juvenile Tenkile in his garden. Another man from Waieli reported a sighting of 2 adults and 1 juvenile Yungi close to their village.
Shell’s Bit
Back in Lumi at TCA we had a short rest and then began to plan the next two distance sampling surveys. Matt and I organised for two distance sampling teams (Swipine and Wingle-Anembe) to undertake their surveys independently. Both teams encountered bad weather whilst in the mountains and did a great job to find several faecal samples, although neither team found a Tenkile.
The PNG Army flew to Lumi to help the locals transport cocoa beans to be sold at Aitape. On one of their last flights the pilot agreed to fly Matt and I to Aitape so that we could purchase some fuel to run the generator. Once in Aitape we had 40minutes to drive into town buy some petrol and get back before the last flight to Lumi. As it turned out we even had enough time to grab a cold drink for ourselves and the TCA workmen. We flew back to Lumi with 12 or so barrels of fuel and as we landed the smell of diesel was rife.
As we did not get enough time in Aitape, we flew out to Wewak to collect some more supplies for the next distance sampling surveys and upcoming projects, chicken food, dog food and a few requested items from the TCA workmen. This trip was also rushed as the Vanimo pilots were only able to do one trip to Wewak on their way to do some flight training and would then pick us up and drop us off at Lumi on their way back Vanimo. It gave us a couple of days, although it’s surprising how long it takes to organise simple things in PNG. We were lucky as two planes were to fly back to Lumi meaning that we could transport enough food for the next couple of months work.
Matt’s Bit
Once back in Lumi we began to organise our last Distance sampling trip to Edainiou and patrol to visit moratorium villages to assess their rabbit programs. After a 10 hour walk we made it to Wigote and were both completely exhausted. After a days rest and talking to the community (about conservation, rabbits and women’s health) we left with 6 distance sampling officers and 6 workmen from Wigote, Hapsiem and Yamoun villages to climb up to Edainiou. It was a tough walk but once again absolutely beautiful, and as we reached the top it began to pour with rain and we eventually put up a tarpaulin for shelter. That night no one slept, the guys kept fires burning to keep warm, but the wet wood produced so much smoke that our eyes wouldn’t stop burning and noses ran all night, breathing was difficult as well. It made sleeping in a research hut, as we did on top Waumorou, seem like luxury.
The next day we had perfect weather and the guys got stuck into the distance sampling. One of the teams even managed to see another Tenkile, although Shell and I missed out again. We finished the research early and after a night looking for frogs we decided to go back to Wigote early which meant we had some extra food that had not yet been eaten. Shell and I had told the guys that we would divide the food up so that they could take it back and share it with their families. The guys had other ideas and wanted to eat all the food before they went back (half at dinner and half for breakfast). We were a little frustrated as there was plenty of food and we thought that their families would have been very excited to share the tinned fish, rice and noodles, but we were not able to convince the guys. One man summed it up when he said “hard to carry on your back, easy to carry in your stomach” (translated from pidgin) which we thought is very typical of the attitude of many people in PNG, thinking of now rather than the future. I guess this attitude makes the work that Jim and Jean have been able to achieve all the more impressive, as there are many people in the moratorium villages who are now considering the future, often as a result of Jim and Jean’s influence.
Shell’s Bit
After the distance sampling at Edainiou, Matt and I visited all the moratorium villages on the way back to Lumi to check out their rabbit program and to allow the people to talk about and work through any problems. Most of the 17 moratorium villages we were able to visit are well on the way to having a very successful rabbit program, with rabbits now being distributed to individual families to eat or to look after. A few villages are still having a difficulty working out the requirements of rabbits, like providing them with enough food, water or a nesting box for the mothers to raise their kittens. After Matt and I visited and discussed these problems, some of these villages reported improvements and some came to TCA to bring their females to Francis (TCA’s animal keeper) so that they could be mated with TCA males.
Matt’s Bit
When we returned to TCA the workmen and I started to build a new fence to protect the back to the TCA property and provide a bigger area for Cling and Clang to run around. The dogs are now massive (weighing about 20kg and although not fully-grown the local people are very wary, even though the dogs would rather lick someone than attack them. There are lots of dogs around Lumi and the other moratorium villages, however none are as big as these two rottweiler pups.
Several people from various villages close to Lumi came to sell us wildlife or wildlife products. One family brought the feathers of a bird of paradise bound to the end of a stick (looking like a feather duster), we did not purchase this product but were told it was for decoration only. Another woman brought a pure white juvenile female common spotted cuscus. TCA won’t buy wildlife, so as not to encourage people to collect animals for profit, but we will sometimes swap food for wildlife, as most of these animals would otherwise end up as a meal. On this occasion the woman wanted money and she sold it to another man in Lumi.
On four occasions, people agreed to do a swap for food such as a tin of fish, bag of sugar or rice. Jim and Jean’s wildlife collection grew slightly when we agreed to take on a juvenile female feather-tailed possum, a juvenile male white stripped dorcopsis, a sub-adult western black capped lori, that had had its wings clipped and a juvenile male black spotted cuscus, which according to Tim Flannery is likely to be endangered. We trained some of the TCA staff to hand rear the feather-tailed possum and the black spotted cuscus. The white stripped dorcopsis was old enough to feed itself, and after a couple of intensive days the black capped lori started feeding itself as well.
Unfortunately the feather-tailed possum died after just one week. It was an amazing tiny possum with a striking black and white face, a body the length of your thumb, a tail with a lateral fringe of hair (resembling a feather) and a sweet citrus smell. Very little is known of this possum’s biology or habits.
Shell’s Bit
Matt and I (through a small party for all) thanked the TCA workmen and their families for their help during our time in PNG. They came to TCA and had some food that we had made and watched a movie on the satellite TV. The workmen had bought a chicken and cooked it in hot stones wrapped in banana leaves, and they presented it to Matt and I as a thank you gift. One of the workmen, John, gave Matt two spears as a parting gift. Over the next couple of days many people from the moratorium villages came to TCA to say goodbye and thank us for coming to PNG and TCA to help them. Actually Papua New Guineans rarely say ‘thank you’ they more often say ‘sorry that you are leaving us’.
We managed to complete the security fence just before Matt and I were supposed to fly out. It began to pour with rain early in the morning on the day we were supposed to fly out back to Wewak and then onto Australia. We had 67cm of rain in 6hrs, the most that we had had on any particular day that we were in PNG. Needless to say the plane did not arrive that day and we spent another day in Lumi.
Matt’s Bit
The day we were supposed to leave the juvenile black spotted cuscus, that we had been looking after, died. This cuscus had been brought to us from a village close to the Sepik plain. It occupies undisturbed forests below 1200m. Just as Tenkile is threatened, the black spotted cuscus is also threatened by increasing human population, and use of dogs and guns for hunting. Tim Flannery (1994) pointed out that as it is very large and brightly colored it is easily spotted on the exposed branches that it sleeps on during the day. Unfortunately this rare species of cuscus now faces another threat of habitat clearance as logging companies are currently operating in many parts of its natural range (throughout the northern area of PNG and West Papua) and are now planning to enter the area close to where our animal was found (fortunately at this stage outside of the Torricelli’s, home of the Tenkile).
We trained two men from Tolgeti and two men from Wanulu to look after TCA during the one month gap in between Shell and I returning to Australia and Jim, Jean and Tadji returning to Lumi. We left enough food for them for a total of 6 weeks just in case there were any delays for Jim and Jean.
The next day we walked up to the Lumi airstrip and said goodbye to all of the TCA workmen, many people in Lumi who we had made friends with and several people for the moratorium villages. The plane arrived and on route to Wewak, in a clearing amongst the clouds we managed to get a last glimpse of the Torricelli Mountains.
What a fantastic experience, I cannot stress enough what a terrific job Jim and Jean are doing. This is the very model of modern conservation, a holistic approach balancing the needs of the human population with the requirements of wildlife and empowering local communities to understand and protect their own environment. Shell and I are both grateful for the opportunity to visit this remarkable area, to spend time with the local people and to catch a glimpse at the amazing diversity of wildlife. All financial backers for this project can be assured that their money is being well spent and making a significant difference to conservation, and that the people in the moratorium villages are truly appreciative.
Best of luck to you Jim, Jean and Tadji, hope everything is how you left it when you return.
Matt West and Michelle Cleary
