ABC Honours the Kiaps

The following is a transcript of a radio story by Liam Fox

Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) / Radio Australia

Program: Pacific Beat

Wed 17 Sep 2025 at 8:00pm

Former Aussie Kiap officers reflect on time in PNG

By Liam Fox

Introduction (voiceover):

PNG's independence is not only a Papua New Guinean story, it's an Australian one too. Thousands of Australians worked in the country before 1975, and some stayed on after. The most visible were the patrol officers, or Kiaps, as they were known. For many, they were the face of the Australian administration, particularly in rural and remote areas.

Liam Fox spoke to three former kiaps who were in PNG at the time of independence. Elderly men now they still cherish the memories of their time in Papua New Guinea.

Liam Fox:

Looking at the three elderly gentlemen sitting around a picnic table in a Brisbane park, there's no indication of their colourful pasts. Get them talking, though, and stories of incredible adventures flow freely.

Bob Hoad (former Kiap):  

PNG was an unknown country. It was exciting. They were contacting people there for the first time. They appeared to be quite volatile and warfare-like. The reports were all about unrest in Papua New Guinea. I thought that was very interesting. I was keen for excitement and adventure.

That's why I went.

Peter Salmon (former Kiap):  

I was at an agricultural boarding school and an old boy came back and he showed pictures to us boarders of building an airstrip up in Hagen. And I thought, well, that was great.

John Dagg (former Kiap):  

As a kid, I had an uncle who'd been on Bougainville in the Second World War and had always had this... well, I think that's where the initial sort of fascination came from. I grew up in the Mallee in Victoria. There wasn't a whole lot going on there. I guess I was looking for a bit of adventure.

Liam Fox:

Bob Hoad, Peter Salmon and John Dagg were among the hundreds of young Australian men who worked as patrol officers in pre-independence PNG. Bob's first posting was to the Southern Highlands, one of the most remote areas at the time.

Bob Hoad (former Kiap):  

I was there for five years in all. The first thing we did was to contact the people, talk to them, explain what we were trying to do - to bring peace to the people. Because they were in constant warfare with their neighbours.

Liam Fox:

Patrol officers were the arms of the Australian administration in what were then the territories of Papua and New Guinea between 1949 and 1975. Some went into areas no outsiders had been before, as this ABC news story from 1964 explains:

(Voice-over and music from ABC news story, 1964)

Because of the difficult terrain, patrols in this area are short ones. Mark Lynch will be away for about two weeks, climbing at times to well over 8,000ft. It is called a routine patrol. However, in Kukukuku country, almost anything could happen.

Liam Fox:

Kiaps performed several roles: policeman, magistrate, administrator, census taker, surveyor and more.

Peter says it was exciting work.

Peter Salmon (former Kiap):  

It's always interesting. I think other Kiaps have said the same thing. You posed the question of Bob, was it dangerous?

Well, it wasn't really. You'd go out to sort out a tribal fight and if you ever got sort of roughed up, it was by accident. I mean the locals or the people who were warring, they had nothing against the Kiap, you know.

Liam Fox:  

Though there were times of unease at the actions of the administration and Australian companies, like when John was in Bougainville, when the Panguna mine was being developed.

John Dagg (former Kiap):  

Here we were amidst helicopters, drill rigs being dropped in what appeared to be endless supplies of brass and steel and the whole thing unfolding before us, then trying to deal with the antipathy of the local people who saw it as total destruction.

Liam Fox:  

The Kiaps were seen as instrumental in nation building after World War II, as independence drew near, they also became teachers, educating people about self-government and democratic elections. Independence itself in 1975 came with mixed emotions for the men.

Bob Hoad (former Kiap):  

It was the end of my career.

Peter Salmon (former Kiap):  

I thought this was the way things are going. I knew I wasn't a Papua New Guinea citizen or I knew I was a temporary feature in the overall scheme of things.

John Dagg (former Kiap):  

It was then that the real understanding that things were drawing to a sort of natural conclusion following Independence.

Liam Fox:

Such was PNG's impact that all three came back to work (in PNG) in different roles at various times. And after all this time, they still cherish those years and are proud of their contribution to what is now an independent Papua New Guinea. Here's Peter.

Peter Salmon (former Kiap):  

Papua New Guinea. That was the best experience we ever had in our lives. I mean, yeah, no regrets whatsoever.

It was just a fantastic life.

Transcribed using Whisper Transcribe, created by OpenAI (ChatGPT):

https://www.whispertranscribe.com/

Original source:

https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/programs/pacificbeat/former-aussie-kiap-officers-reflect-on-time-in-png/105787144

Additional editing: Glenn Armstrong

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