General administration 1933-1937

 
Component identifier:
Series 2
Content Summary:

John Black arrived in Rabaul, New Guinea in June 1933 to commence his appointment as Cadet Patrol Officer with the Administration of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. He was one of the ten cadets selected from 1659 applicants. His ten diaries are a comprehensive record of his life in New Guinea from his arrival until September 1937, when he went on leave to Australia prior to the Hagen-Sepik Patrol (see Series 3). Black was then administering 'uncontrolled' territory. During this period Black was involved in significant activities in the uncontrolled regions, on patrol, in charge of Finintegu Police Post after McGrath's death, and in pacification work in the Chimbu area.

This series also includes personal papers and notebooks, patrol reports by Black, A.F. Kyle and J.L. Taylor; official printed material; Lutheran and Roman Catholic material probably acquired from mission stations during the war; and various lecture notes from his study leave in Sydney in 1935.

Black illustrated his daily journals with photos, and news clippings. He annotated and clarified points at a later date.

Immediate source of acquisition:
MS 8346 was bequeathed to the Library by John Black in 1988. At the request of the family, to enable Robin Radford to complete her research, it remained in Adelaide until 1992. In 1999 Dr Bill Gammage added a substantial collection of photographs taken on the Hagen-Sepik Patrol of 1938-39. They have been placed in Series 3. Further papers were received in 2011.

Contents

Access and use

Parent Restrictions:
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1179566).
Parent Terms of Access:
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact: