Patrick Matbob
Madang
15 7 2009
Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse celebrates 50 years
One of PNG’s most famous war monuments will be 50 years old this Saturday.
Madang’s Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse was opened on August 15, 1959 to commemorate 28 Coastwatchers who lost their lives and to the Papua New Guineans who assisted them during WWII.
The idea to build the memorial somewhere in PNG began in 1953 and a committee was formed in Melbourne to raise funds for its erection. Madang residents at the time who had fought in the war embraced the cause which was dear to their hearts. By 1954 the site of the monument had been selected at the southern entrance to the Madang harbor.
The bomb shaped reinforced concrete column 80 feet high was designed also to be a practical navigational aid for vessels out at sea. The lighthouse which cost 21, 500 pounds was opened by Minister for the Navy Senator John Gorton in 1959. The public which included US President Richard Nixon and Chinese residents of Madang, subscribed half the cost of the memorial while the Australian government provided the rest. The opening was such a grand event that a former Madang resident Roma Bates, wrote in Una Voce (the journal of the Reitired Officers Association of PNG): “Madang will never again have a weekend as wonderful as the one just past…”
At the opening, both the Royal Australian Navy and Air Force had co-operated to bring in surviving Coastwatchers, their widows and relatives from every part of Australia and PNG. Among those attending were “Snowy” Rhodes and his wife, Edna; Eric Feldt; Walter Brooksbank (who had conceived the original idea of the Memorial); “Kassa” Townsend; Alan Roberts; Paramount Luluai Golpak; Sergeant Yauwiga, NGPF; the Director of Lighouses, Gordon Laycock; representatives from the United States Navy and the Australian armed forces, and Minister for the Navy, Senator John Gorton, who performed the opening ceremony.
Post-Courier’s predecessor South Pacific Post covered the event and reported on August 18, 1959:
“Australia’s cloak-and-dagger men who operated behind Japanese lines during the war, were honoured here on Saturday – the 14th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific.
At sunset – 6.27pm – the 90 feet beacon sent its one million candle power beam into the Bismarck Sea for the first time honoring the Coastwatchers, living and dead, European and native, who took part in the war’s most hazardous spy operation.”
ends
Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse celebrates 50 years
One of PNG’s most famous war monuments will be 50 years old this Saturday.
Madang’s Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse was opened on August 15, 1959 to commemorate 28 Coastwatchers who lost their lives and to the Papua New Guineans who assisted them during WWII.
The idea to build the memorial somewhere in PNG began in 1953 and a committee was formed in Melbourne to raise funds for its erection. Madang residents at the time who had fought in the war embraced the cause which was dear to their hearts. By 1954 the site of the monument had been selected at the southern entrance to the Madang harbor.
The bomb shaped reinforced concrete column 80 feet high was designed also to be a practical navigational aid for vessels out at sea. The lighthouse which cost 21, 500 pounds was opened by Minister for the Navy Senator John Gorton in 1959. The public which included US President Richard Nixon and Chinese residents of Madang, subscribed half the cost of the memorial while the Australian government provided the rest. The opening was such a grand event that a former Madang resident Roma Bates, wrote in Una Voce (the journal of the Reitired Officers Association of PNG): “Madang will never again have a weekend as wonderful as the one just past…”
At the opening, both the Royal Australian Navy and Air Force had co-operated to bring in surviving Coastwatchers, their widows and relatives from every part of Australia and PNG. Among those attending were “Snowy” Rhodes and his wife, Edna; Eric Feldt; Walter Brooksbank (who had conceived the original idea of the Memorial); “Kassa” Townsend; Alan Roberts; Paramount Luluai Golpak; Sergeant Yauwiga, NGPF; the Director of Lighouses, Gordon Laycock; representatives from the United States Navy and the Australian armed forces, and Minister for the Navy, Senator John Gorton, who performed the opening ceremony.
Post-Courier’s predecessor South Pacific Post covered the event and reported on August 18, 1959:
“Australia’s cloak-and-dagger men who operated behind Japanese lines during the war, were honoured here on Saturday – the 14th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific.
At sunset – 6.27pm – the 90 feet beacon sent its one million candle power beam into the Bismarck Sea for the first time honoring the Coastwatchers, living and dead, European and native, who took part in the war’s most hazardous spy operation.”
ends
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