Hagen-Sepik Patrol photographs, 1938-39

Component identifier:

Series 1

Content Summary:

Led by J.L. Taylor, the patrol left Mt Hagen on 9 March 1938 and walked to Hoiyevia in the southern Highlands, arriving on 8 May. There Taylor split the patrol, sending Black on and returning with Walsh to set up a base at Wabag. Taylor left on 26 August; Walsh remained at Wabag. He made several short patrols, notably exploring the country north with Ian Downs in October-December 1938. On 1 May 1939 he shifted the base east, to Ailamanda. Taylor and Black joined him on 13 June, and the patrol returned to Hagen.

At Wabag Taylor told Walsh to develop and caption photographs patrol members took and make them into sets for official purposes and personal records. Many of Black's, Downs' and Taylor's photographs were not available to Walsh. The sets he made thus comprised largely his own photographs, and those of Black to May 1938, most but not all captioned. Of these sets only Black's survived. Taylor's and the official sets were lost during World War II; Walsh's in the 1974 Brisbane flood.

Black's set of Walsh's photographs, listed here, is based on 54 rolls shot between May 1938, in the Benaria valley south of present day Tari, and January 1939, at Wabag, after his northern patrol with Downs. Walsh's camera took 12 photographs per roll. He kept all but a few prints, numbering each in pencil on the back with a roll then a print number. Thus his first print is 1-1, his last 54-13. This numbering fits the patrol's chronology between May 1938 and January 1939.

In Black's papers were two pages headed "NEGATIVES - J.R. BLACK", listing 101 negatives from a 4 1/4" x 2 1/4" camera, which can be matched with Walsh's "X" series, described below. Thus Walsh may have used two cameras for at least part of the patrol, or this camera exclusively in March-April 1938. The caption list matches but does not add to Walsh's captions on reverse of the "X" series prints.

There were also four pages headed "NEGATIVES - HAGEN/SEPIK PATROL", which list short captions for Walsh's numbered rolls 1-23. A further page, listing short captions for rolls 31-35, was in Taylor's papers. On rolls 10, 13-15, 17, 31, 33 and 35 these add slightly to captions on Walsh's prints: the additional information is appended within {}. The list notes, "With panoramas each negative subtends 36 degrees and joins to the right."

The seven pages are in these papers, series 2/6.

The "X" labelled series follows the number series. Originally it comprised at least 102 prints, but now has 89 (+ 3 prints appended here for convenience). The series has only a rough chronology, but includes prints not found elsewhere, including 1938 prints taken between Mount Hagen in February and Hoiyevia in June - that is, it overlaps the start of Walsh's number sequence. The prints are of better quality and may well be from the 4 1/4" x 2 1/4" camera mentioned above.

The list retains Walsh's numbering: thus photo 1-1 is MS 9219/1/1[folder]: 1-1[roll-photo number]. Walsh's captions are in double quotation marks. In 1998 Bill Gammage added captions; more information is in The Sky Travellers, MUP 1998.

Other Hagen-Sepik Patrol photos are in MS 8254 (Ian Downs), MS 8346 (John Black), MS 9218 (Jim Taylor) and MS 9220 (Bill Gammage). ScreenSound Australia holds movie film taken on the patrol.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Pat Walsh's collection of papers and photographs was destroyed in a Brisbane basement during the 1974 flood, but the Walsh papers and photographs in this collection were fortuitously preserved among other records. The papers were given to Jim Taylor in 1940, who took them to Sydney while writing his report on the Hagen-Sepik Patrol, then gave them to his nephew, Russell Robinson. At Taylor's request, in 1986 Robinson lent them to Bill Gammage for his book about the patrol, The sky travellers: journeys in New Guinea 1938-39 (MUP 1998), then donated them to the Library. Walsh made several sets of these photographs but only John Black's copies have survived. Taylor's copies and the official sets were lost during World War II; Walsh's copies were lost in the Brisbane flood. John Black's set of the photographs was lent to Gammage in 1987, on condition that ultimately they should be given to the Library.

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