Papua New Guinea Patrol Reports, 1927-1939

Component identifier:

Series 5

Content Summary:

This series contains copies of patrol reports made by pre-World War The typescript patrol reports of J. K. McCarthy cover various districts of Two Papua New Guinea district officers, J. K. McCarthy, J.L. Taylor and John Black.

The typescript patrol reports of J. K. McCarthy cover various districts of Papua New Guinea and provide a survey of plantations and investigation of land disputes. There are also diary entries with descriptions of the country and people.

The 1938-1939 Hagen-Sepik patrol report by J. L. Taylor and John Black is more comprehensive and includes anthropological observations and a number of vocabularies made at an early point of contact. Bill Gammage wrote about the Hagen-Sepik patrol in his book, The Sky Travellers: Journeys in New Guinea, 1938-1939, which was published in 1998.

These copies were given to Ryan by the patrol officers themselves.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The original consignment was purchased by the Library from Peter Ryan in December 2003. Further papers were received in 2012, 2022 and 2023.

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