RIP Ron Kay

Peter Tilyard has gathered from his AusIMM monthly magazine re the passing of Ron Kay. We extend our condolences to Lexie and the family. Ron spent several years as a key part of the mine management team. My personal knowledge and connections with Ron were limited to our association with the Panguna squash fraternity. Ron was an A1 Grade squashie when the Panguna competition was at its strongest. I cannot remember any player putting in more effort than Ron. A mop and bucket were often called for prior to the subsequent contest.  This morning this has been confirmed by Harvey who said that “Ron always occupied centre court and there was a manic fight for every single point whether or not scores were tied or Ron had his opponent 26 to love.” Jim added: Ron worked in the mining project team doing the feasibility studies in Melbourne for the Bougainville Project and transferred to  Panguna in 1970 when mining operations commenced. He held  a series of positions in the Mining Department commencing as Superintendent of drilling and blasting, Manager Pit Operations and eventually Executive Manager Mining. Ron was a popular and  effective manager as was shown by the improvement in Mining Division performances during the late seventies under his guidance. Ron and Lexie were popular members of the Panguna community. Ron transferred to CRA Melbourne in 1980 where he was involved in  evaluation of new mineral projects. John added: The service to celebrate Ron`s life was held at the Bethel Chapel, 2d Cochrane St, Mitcham. Victoria. Supporting Lexie were the immediate Kay family including Cheryl, Michelle (Vienna), Bronwyn (London), Brendan (Sacramento and straight off the plane), Philip (Yarck), their partners and other near family. The BCL attendees were Ann Blackwell, Pat Pascoe, Bill and Judith Davis and the Baldwins. There was a wide range of locals, mainly representatives from the Warrandyte area, from Rotary, golfers, and neighbours  from where the Kays lived after leaving Bougainville. Respects were expressed by members of the family including one of Ron’s brothers in from New Zealand.  I spoke of my time with Ron at BCL including the incident where the Geology Department nearly killed Lang Hancock in the pit when a grader backed over Ron’s new car. I didn’t find or meet anyone at the service from his CRA days, but I do remember one report from the CRA Exploration grapevine at that time.  Exploration was looking at the possibility of reopening Mt Bischoff, the former tin mine in north-west Tasmania.  Ron, newly returned to Melbourne, was taken there to review mining options – he was reported to have said when looking over the abandoned mine – what will I do on the second day!?  As Holtie will tell you, many outside of BCL didn’t really understand the size of the Panguna operation. Thanks Peter, Jim, John and Harvey Davo John@johndavidson.com.au http://johndavidsonbougainville.blogspot.com.au 0418 784 186

Wayne Bradley Funeral Details

Good morning all, Lindsay Swanson has provided the funeral details via facebook and they are as follows: Tomorrow, Wednesday 2nd November 1pm-2:15 Church Service at Lifehouse Christian Church,  44 Brisbane Road, Labrador 2:30-2:45 Gravesite committal at Southport Lawn Cemetery 3pm - Return to join guests at Lifehouse Christian Church Reception hall for refreshments Kind regards Danni on behalf of Davo info@johndavidson.com.au

RIP Wayne Bradley

From Lindsay on Facebook "Wayne Bradley passed away suddenly on Monday night. Wayne was customs officer in the early days' clearing ships into Loloho Wharf. He resided in the famous corner donga at Camp 6 and was one of the true legends of the mid 70's on Bougs. His father Clary was Safety Manager with BCL very early 70's. Wayne, you will be sorely missed old mate. Too young to be leaving us so early" All, Our condolences go to the Bradley family. What a terrible shock this is to Wayne`s endless circle of his many friends and acquaintances. I first came across Wayne and his father, Clarrie, in the early 70`s. They were both quite high profile in our busy construction community but for different reasons.  Clarrie was Rio`s authority on all matters OH&S.  He would cover more K`s in a day than the rest of us would do in a week.  Wayne was popular in the extreme. I can still see his image from those days, tall, lean of build, red “gras” and forever with a smile on his dial.  In those days Panguna and Kieta were lively places for the young, outgoing single. I know of this . . . . . . first hand! After his time at Loloho, Wayne was Burns Philp`s International Shipping Manager for Bougainville. On departing PNG he was employed as the Assistant Manager Environmental Services at the Mt Eliza Centre. He continued to pursue further studies in environmental management and OH&S.  For several years from 1990 he was the Environmental Services Manager at the Dandenong Hospital Southern Healthcare Network. He then returned to the tropics and for 10 years and was with Education Queensland Kind regards Davo  John@johndavidson.com.au http://johndavidsonbougainville.blogspot.com.au 0418 784 186

Phoebe Koles – a role model for women in business

Hailing from Haku (Lemanmanu) in North Bougainville and Siwai in the South Bougainville, Phoebe Koles grew up spending most of her childhood days in the northern region. This was her father’s place. Being the first born in a family of four (4), Phoebe had to perform up to expectations her parents had for her.

Phoebe finished her grade 10 at Hutzena High School (upgraded to a secondary school in 1997) and then, being amongst the top students, she was selected to attend Kerevat National High School in the East New Britain Province from 1998 to 1999.

Finishing from high school, she continued onto Commercial Training College where she completed in December 2006 and was recommended by CTC to continue on to a degree at the University of Technology. She wasn’t able to finish her studies because she was expecting her firstborn child. She had to quit studies and get back home until the delivery of her baby, however she didn’t lose the belief in herself to pursue her dreams.

Phoebe gave birth to her first child on the 12 June 2007 at Buka General Hospital. The arrival of the gorgeous baby girl was great delight and joy for the young mother, but quickly had to move back to Lae to be with her husband. Managing a family of her own was somewhat challenging for the young lady but still she strove to build on what she had started with her studies.

In 2009 she started working as a merchandiser with SVS (Super Value Stores) and was promoted to Marketing Secretary from 2010, but unfortunately, a move back to Buka during 2011 made her quit the fine job she had. She didn’t have much choice but to wait in hope of finding a new job as soon as possible as she needed to provide necessities for her family. Buka, at that time, was not a place where there were jobs for her, so she stayed home for a year looking for a new job.

While she waited though she set up a market stall for herself on the road side next to their house where she would sell ice-blocks, spears and betel nut. Whilst marketing, she had her eyes and ears open for job vacancies in regards to her specified field of work.

Luckily, in November 2013, she started working with National Development Bank (NDB) as an Admin Officer. Apparently her efforts put into the field of work she was in charge of had her promoted to Women in Business Officer at Buka Branch in April 2015.

Today, Phoebe Wamo Koles is a remarkable woman with outstanding work in her job and is well known and liked in the region knows her. There are lots of people from all around the region who have come for loans from NDB and with her help have set up businesses.

Being in charge of Women In Business in the National Development Bank she aims to help motivate Bougainvillian women do business rather than putting men as top shots all the time.

She plans on finishing her studies and getting a degree once she feels the time is right for her. She hasn’t ever given up on herself in pursuing her dreams.

For me, she is a great role model for us young Bougainvillian women.

(Source:  http://www.bougainville24.com/bougainville-aid/phoebe-koles-a-role-model-for-women-in-business/  )

Arawa Health Centre receives donation from Australia

All,

Every day someone from our network is doing good around the needs of our very special Bougainville - based friends. With the war`s 10,000 + casualties there is no need to dwell on the measurement and volume of this need. Having spent 361 days serving on the front line in a theatre of war I have some inkling as to their suffering.  I am astounded that, as individuals and given the dearth of their personal possessions, the Bougainville people are, so quickly, coming to terms with their dreadful losses. There is tremendous optimism across the region.  While we should always push back to encourage the people to do more for themselves, we also must be there to offer assistance when life becomes completely impossible.  At some of the remote medical and education centres in Central and Southern Bougainville the term, “impossible” hardly seems adequate to describe their difficulties and their shortages.

A couple of those “someones” are Keith and Carole Sherwood. They have gathered surplus medical stores from the Maleny Soldiers Memorial Hospital and other Sunshine Coast medical facilities, see attached. Their second batch of goodies has just been dropped at the Rotary, Donations in Kind store, in Durack. We are hopeful that, within a few weeks, they will be packed out by Veronica and her BBCG (Brisbane Bougainville Community Group) and then the Rotary Clubs of Bribie Island and Pine Rivers will complete the documentation. George (former DG) and Mary Grant, from Bribie have made a huge contribution to these works.

We are marvelling at our good fortune in finding that the son of Keith and Carol, Scott Sherwood is employed at the St Andrews hospital in Brisbane. Scott has also commenced the gathering of medical materials for this wonderful cause.

The material sitting on the table, see below, is some of the first batch of materials delivered by Keith. Prior to shipment they were closely examined by our Brisbane in-house medical authority, Joan Daniels. Joan liaises closely with Ann Green and others from the Bougainville medical fraternity.  With some of our clients Veronica has become the main point of contact.  It is of critical importance that no material reaches our containers that cannot be readily utilized at our hospitals and clinics.

We thank the Editor of Bougainville 24, Ben Jackson for his article (see below) .  This sort of publicity is of invaluable assistance to us as we spread the word.

Regards

Davo

john@johndavidson.com.au
0418 784 186 

Arawa Health Centre receives donation from Australia 

As Bougainville continues to rebuild, the Arawa District Health Centre has been fortunate to receive a donation from a Rotary group from Brisbane, Australia.

The delivery included children’s toys and dolls, hospital beds, bed sheets, pillow cases and first aid kits.

The donation from Brisbane was arranged by an Australian friend, Mr John Davidson, and reached the shores of Bougainville. During his follow-up visit to Arawa at the start of May he was warmly welcomed by the Health Centre staff.

While Speaking to a group of staff Mr Davidson stated that all the new additions Centre’s itinerary came with the support of the Sunshine Coast Hospital and the Bougainville community in Brisbane.

He said that getting all the items together and bringing them to Bougainville a challenging task but was made easier with the help of Rotary.

Senior Medical Officer, Dr Joe Vilosi, gratefully thanked Mr John Davidson for his effective arrangement skills.

Dr Vilosi further stated that there is a need to identify what the hospital really needs.

He also thanked the Sunshine Coast Hospital in Australia for the donation.

Source : http://www.bougainville24.com/bougainville-aid/arawa-health-centre-receives-donation-from-australia/

Sir Mick Curtain

From: John Feltham

Sent: Tuesday, 20 September 2016 4:28 PMTo: John DavidsonSubject: Sir Mick Curtain., KBE.,

G'day Folks,

Yesterday my wife and I together with one of our daughters [who works for CB], went to his funeral here in Townsville.

The Memorial Service was held at St Joseph’s Church on Ross River Road. The building was overflowing with people.

The PNG PM, Peter O’Neil was there with several of his Ministers. I saw the Federal MP, Bob Katter and a few other folk that I know.

http://news.pngfacts.com/2016/09/png-pm-peter-oneill-pay-homage-to-sir.html

I don’t recall if I ever met Sir Mick, but I did walk through ‘his’ tunnel at Ok Tedi!  :-)

It was he who hired my daughter.

John Feltham

ooroo

Raymond Leddick RIP

All,  It is with much sorrow that we advise of the passing of our dear friend, Ray Leddick.  Our condolences go to Fran and to Ben and Kate and their families. You have had to endure the most traumatic times but Ray is now without pain. We will now concentrate our prayers on Ben`s brave little girl, Isabel who continues her recovery from her 1st Sept, liver transplant.  Rather than me relay details of Ray`s last days to you I have here a lovely note from Fran that she said that I could share with you all; "Hello Davo & Chrissie, Just a quick one to say that Ray slipped away on Sunday at 12.30pm at the Palliative Care unit at Chermside.  I had been staying with him and it was heartbreaking to see him wither away.  Despite his body deteriorating he had no pain ever, just the sh……y conditions that they found hard to control. He was admitted to the RBH 3 weeks ago at our kids insistence (he kept hoping that the Lutate nuclear treatment would have worked wonders but it didn’t unfortunately and his conditions never changed much).  He was dehydrated and malnourished, spent 2 weeks there and then transferred to the PC Chermside last Monday where he would not be prodded and poked etc by noisy hospital conditions.  He was made very comfortable and he was coherent, right up till he slipped away. I gave him a shave at 9am (I told him a couple of days earlier that I would not be opening a Barbers shop) and he was concerned that I would be late taking one of my brothers to the airport for his flight back to Perth!  Always so selfless.  I feel rather numb and have been for about a week as I knew he probably wouldn’t last long.  He said the other day I wish I could have a needle and slip away.  He was in the care of two lovely nurses when he quietly slipped away.  Just  how he wanted to go but wondered how I’d fare!   His main concerns were little Isabel who seems to be doing OK so far after the liver transplant.  Heartbreaking for Ben as Ray worked for/with him in between mining jobs so there were some frustrating moments when Ray/Dad didn’t do things the way the trade Ben had them done….all just part of life,  never a bad feeling once 4.30pm came.    The grandchildren just loved their grandpa and his famous V8 black 6 speed ute that he took them to the tip or other interesting places.  He loved all 6 of them, 5 girls and 1 boy. Thanks for all your support John & Chrissie.  Hope your health is on turbo recovery.  Ray would have been 70 on the 1st October and we had great plans but as they say,  you make plans and God smiles….. There will be a church service at 1pm this Friday 23rd September at St Anne’s Catholic Church in Nelson St Wooloowin (now renamed the suburb its old name).  Fr John Begg ex Bougainville will help with the service,  he came and gave him a blessing yesterday with the kids and myself bedside.  Thanks, Fran." So long ago, in early 1990, i journeyed to the Gold Coast to seek advice from my long time mentor and former Executive Manager, Maurie Pears. I put to him my plans to commence JDA.   While Maurie was most positive about my plans he said that we would not be able to do it on our own. He counselled that I would need quality people networking in and around JDA and that we must reward these people. Our association around Ray and Fran Leddick epitomize the typical and ideal JDA networkers.  It was the Ray Leddicks who made JDA look good. They were the nucleus of our network.  Over many years we appointed and contracted Ray into several widely diverse roles in several countries. Just a few weeks ago Chris and I were in town and we came across Fran and Ray in a New Farm coffee shop. Although he was clearly frailing he was anxious to engage in discussions towards sourcing one last offshore assignment. Ray was born on the 1st October, 1946.  He completed his Motor Mechanic apprenticeship at Eclipse Motors in Sebastapol, Victoria, prior to being drafted into National Service. My call up came some 12 months prior to Ray`s.  On discharge he joined Hamersley Iron for a term of 4 years. It was subsequent to this appointment that Ray commenced his career as an expatriate Aussie.  Ray supported Morgan`s Euclid 105`s from their Itakara workshops (BCL`s fleet). Subsequent to 6 years with Morgans he joined BCL. It was around this time that he transferred from trucks to mineral processing plant. This was followed by yet another major change in career direction. He spent most of the next 15 years in Supply and Stores appointments including associated with spare parts, technical inspection, cataloguing, inventory control, contract administration and procurement.  The countries he served in include Australia, PNG, Indonesia, Egypt, Eritrea, Khazakstan and Tanzania. There are others. We are so pleased that we stopped by that day at the coffee shop. The funeral is set for 1 pm, on Friday 23rd September at St Annes`s Catholic Church in Nelson St, Wooloowin. Thank you so much, Ray, another assignment done well. Thanks to Joan and to Tim. Davo