Consular duties, corporate duties and a record broken.

Munum Elementary School (12 km up the Markham Valley from us)

We were invited by The Australian Consul-General - Brenton Kanowski to accompany him on a visit to a Markham Valley school. There is a joint Australia-PNG project to provide water to regional schools and it was the turn of Munum Elementary School to officially launch their new water supply. They received an open building with a roof catching water into four tanks plus a number of desks. 

Brenton cutting the ribbon for the new tanks ...

... and for the new building

The school environment was beautiful with lush vegetation and grass - a stark contrast to the schools we are used to in Tanzania. The classrooms however were similar to those in Tanzania with no glass windows and earth floors the norm. It was a very pleasant couple of hours out of our normal routine.

Last weekend we welcomed a new volunteer - Duncan Gibson. He’s a nice young bloke with an Australian/New Zealand pedigree and is a town planner. He’ll be working with the Lae city council and any issues anyone has with town can now be blamed on him (apparently). He seems confident and I’m sure he’ll do well. He is living in town with the other two volunteers - Ringisai and Sam. Ringisai will be leaving later in November and we have others coming then and in February.

At work this last week we had three days where senior managers and scientists came together from the regional centres to meet and discuss how they were meeting current objectives and to plan for 2026 and beyond. It felt so similar to meetings I sat through with Agriculture Victoria. We had the usual problems with the projector not being aimed correctly but I’ve never heard the excuse that it was the earthquake’s fault before. I enjoyed meeting some of the scientists I’ve been communicating with and will definitely plan to visit as many of the other centres as I can in 2026.

I broke a record last weekend. In 2024, with birding in Australia, Argentina and Ecuador, I achieved a personal best of 873 species. This year I have been birding in Australia, Indonesia, Namibia, Botswana and PNG. Despite very limited opportunities in PNG I have added a few species and am now on 876 species with the addition of Scrub Honeyeater, Glossy Swiftlet and Orange-fronted Fruit Dove. The latter is widespread in PNG and I’ve seen it before but it is reported to be absent from this area. No photos sadly but I’ll keep my eye out for it at work. Can I get to 1000?

I’m still confused about the Torresian Imperial Pigeons (TIP) here as they don’t have yellow bills as they should. My current theory is that they are an intermediate between TIP as occurs in southern NG and northern Australia and Yellowish IP as occurs on New Britain to our east. I’m examining every photo I can find but there aren’t many from up this way.

A TIP at work last week.

We are following the situation In Tanzania following their Presidential election last week. There has been a lot more civil strife, protests and retaliation from the police and military than usual. The major opposition parties were essentially barred from competing in the election and that usually doesn't end well in other countries.

Otherwise we are happy and well although Jenny is missing her afternoon swims as the pool is still out of action following the earthquake. She has had a couple of goes on the gym exercise bike and I just had my first. I’ll see if it can become a habit. 

Three weeks to our holiday on New Britain!