Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This promotional clip shows scenes depicting the contribution made by the Australian civil administration in training Papua New Guineans and supporting the economic development of Papua New Guinea. In colour and accompanied by background music and a voice-over, the clip shows teachers and students at a posts-and-telegraph training college, at a trade school and in a hospital where Australians and Papua New Guineans are working together. Scenes at a livestock and rubber station show special breeds of cattle as well as techniques for grafting rubber plants. Techniques for growing coffee are also shown. Research into malaria and developments in communications are described and shown.

Educational value points

• The clip sheds light on Australia’s administration of what is now Papua New Guinea (PNG), which until 1946 was two separate territories. The Papua Act 1905, proclaimed in 1906, gave Australia administrative control of Papua, formerly British New Guinea. German New Guinea was captured by Australia in the first year of the First World War and Australia administered the Territory of New Guinea under a League of Nations mandate from 1921. Civil administration was suspended during the Second World War and then restored through the Papua and New Guinea Act 1949 after the two territories were united in 1946 under a United Nations trusteeship.

• Made in about 1963, Jungle Road was sponsored by the Australian Army and is clearly designed to provide a positive view of the Australian administration’s efforts to assist PNG to independent nationhood. It may have been made in response to a 1961 United Nations Trusteeship Commission’s report that criticised Australia’s 'procrastination’ with regard to self-government, education and constitutional development. In particular the report stated that the 'existing system does not produce individuals capable of replacing Australians in other than unskilled or semi-skilled positions’.

• The Territory’s 'success story’ in moving from subsistence agriculture to export crops is referred to in the clip. This has turned out to be a premature assessment, although as far back as 1903 regulations were introduced by the British colonial government in Papua concerning Indigenous cash cropping. Papua New Guinea is the world’s seventh-largest producer of palm oil but is still a net food importer, and village-based agriculture supports 70–80 per cent of the population. Factors hindering cash cropping for export include poorly developed infrastructure, population pressure and exposure to global markets, as well as new pest and disease threats.

• As indicated in the clip, medical research and training were carried out in PNG during the period of Australian administration. In the 1960s and 70s significant measures were taken to improve the health of the population, at a time when 20 per cent of those born in PNG died before they were 5 years old. A health outreach program was established, with aid posts in remote areas and maternal and child health patrols that brought education, immunisation and antenatal care to remote communities. By 1982 child mortality had been almost halved. Progress in health care has stalled in recent years.

• Malaria research is shown taking place at a malaria centre established and funded by Australia in Maprik, East Sepik Province. This centre, now called the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR), focuses on the health problems of the people of PNG, including the problem of malaria. This is the primary cause of death among the population, along with pneumonia, and is the leading cause of attendances at health facilities. The PNGIMR is performing a significant role in the global search for an effective malaria vaccine.

• The clip does not mention the significant impediments to development created by the geography and isolation of PNG’s diverse population. More than 650 distinct languages are spoken in PNG and many are shared by only a few hundred people. Neighbouring peoples, separated by mountainous terrain, do not share common languages, customs or traditions. Remote communities still lack basic infrastructure and 85 per cent of the population exist through subsistence agriculture.

• Australia still has a strong interest in PNG’s sustainability and political stability, and direct links to PNG are ensured with approximately one-fifth of Australia’s total aid budget going to the nation. Approximately 8,000 Australians live in PNG and the bilateral relationship is encompassed in a number of formal agreements concerning trade, investment and security. Economic aid assists in infrastructure building, strengthening governance and improving social indicators, such as primary health and education.