First letter from Nauru 4 February 1973

MQ 44
Government Settlement
Republic Of Nauru
Central Pacific
4 Feb 1973

Dear Mum & Dad,

Well we have finally arrived & partially settled in. Our trip here was reasonably un-eventful. The flight was about ½ hr late but with a tail wind we made up most of the time.

The heat in Noumea plus the humidity was unbelievable & particularly after spending 2 hours in the air-conditioned plane. There are some very high mountains around the airport going up into misty clouds. It had a distinct French atmosphere with the cars, signs & language.

                               
                                                   Andy & Darren Noumea Airport

Our next stop at Honiara on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons was as uncomfortable as Noumea. The camera was impossible to use until it was nearly time to re-board the aircraft due to the lens just fogging up in the steamy air. There were a couple of very black patrol officers at the airport in kaki with packs on their backs & dangerous looking jungle knives in their hands. It was a much more attractive place than Noumea with sandy beaches, palm trees & mile after mile of tropical rainforest over rolling hills. At this stage though, with the oppressive weather we were ready to turn back.

 
                                                               Henderson Field, Honiara

The final stop was Nauru & everyone in the plane was getting a little excited & nervous at the same time. The plane was only about half full & the majority of passengers were like us, first trip overseas, married with a young family. Actually most were school teachers for the secondary school. As we touched down we noticed a number of motorcycle police dragging up the strip with the plane, which we later learned was to keep wild pigs off the strip.

We had a rather disorganised welcome at the airport. The Senior Administration Officer, my immediate superior, was there to meet us but we had just arrived in time for the official opening of their new terminal building styled “Nauru International Airport”. In addition, the following day (31/1/73) was the fifth anniversary of their Independence. The SAO, Peter Kelly was personally involved in the organisation of the opening so we were left a bit like shags on a rock. Our luggage came off the plane & was sort of stacked around while we waited for the opening ceremony to get underway. Quite a crowd gathered & the native police lined themselves up around the place & eventually the President arrived, made his speech (which was pretty good) & finally declared the terminal open. After our 8 ½ hr flight & standing around the airport in the heat with Darren for over an hour, it was like music to our ears when Kelly found us & said he would drive us to our house. Of course, our fellow passengers, that is the teachers, had departed long ago for their various houses.

Just before I go any further, the plane trip was very pleasant & not nearly as tiring as I would have thought. Only having half the plane half full meant we could use a row of spare seats to put Darren to bed when he felt like a sleep. He did sleep from midway between Noumea, through the stop over at Honiara until we were nearly ready to touch down at Nauru. The hostess kept up a steady flow of food & grog including a chicken dinner followed by liqueurs.

Anyway, we finally arrived at the house to find it very pleasant, the beds were made & the pantry full, including meat, ice-cream etc. in the fridge (all charged to our account at the NPC store). I’ll give you a run down on the accommodation later. We were immediately invited next door for tea & have only been home to tea once since we arrived.

                               
                                                            MQ 44 Teachers’ Gully

It has been a hectic round of barbeques & trips around the island for the last week. There are about four different settlements including NPC (Nauru Phosphate Corporation) & the Government Settlement. We have found ourselves in what is locally known as “Teachers’ Gully” in the Government Settlement. About half of the couples in teachers gully are new & came up on the same plane & the other half have been busting themselves to make the new ones feel at home. We now know about 10 couples with an average of two children each. The ages of the couples would range from Andy & I (we’d be the youngest) to about 35 at the oldest.

 
                                           Decorations for Independence Day 1973

Darren has had some trouble settling in which has come as a bit of a surprise because he seemed to have so little in the flat & here he has got room to move & other kids to play with. It is hard to know what goes on in their little minds. He isn’t eating very well but we have a tonic to hopefully build up his appetite & vitamin drops for him.

We arrived in time for two public holidays on Wednesday & Thursday for their Impendence celebrations & I have only worked one day, Friday. I got a cheque for four days to take me up to the end of the month (they paid me from the Sunday when we were supposed to come up) Work is another story& I’ll follow that one up too. Over the two days holiday we went to see the Nauruan wrestling which was rather exciting. We had a downpour in the middle of it but the rain was warm & the show continued right through. That evening we went to a barbeque & afterwards to the annual open air concert. Not having TV up here meant that the acts where all of a local flavour with Nauruan songs & dances with others from the Gilbert & Ellice Islands & one from Tonga. There must have been hundreds in the audience. It is really surprising to find such a concentrated population in such a small area.

 
                                                           Nauruan Wrestling 1973

The weather is reasonably comfortable during the day provided it is not too physically strenuous. At night, with the overhead fans on in the bedrooms it is a very pleasant sleeping temperature & you need a sheet over you, otherwise it is a bit cool.

Shopping is good & bad. Prices for everything are good. The variety of food lines is very limited & some things that we use are just not available eg. baby cereals, vitamin C syrup & at the moment it is impossible to buy tissues, tomato sauce & sugar. The prices of stuff that you can get are pretty comparable with Melbourne prices. Andy & I & another couple took a trip to the liquor store yesterday & found that we already had an account opened for us. They do look after newcomers in that way. We haven’t spent any money (cash that is) since we arrived with the exception of some things we bought at China Town. How is this for a list of grog prices, (all large bottles)?

Johnny Walker Red Label          $1.80
London Gin                                $1.75
Tia Maria                                   $3.20
Drambue                                    $3.20
Cherry brandy French                $2.50
Bacardi                                      $2.15
26 oz Vic Bitter                               25 cents

There is a good range of French wines for just over a dollar a bottle. Cameras, stereos, radios etc are at seemingly crazy prices at China Town.

Andy’s attitude to creepy crawlies is slowly changing by necessity. Our nightly visitors are huntsman spiders up to six or more inches across, a variety of centipedes, again up to six inches long, cockroaches & the best of all, geckos. Now geckos if you didn’t know (and we didn’t) are very common to the tropics. They are colourless lizards up to four inches long that stand a nightly vidual on the ceiling around the lights& catch the insects. Each light can have up to 3 geckos which means that in the lounge you can have 7 or 8 geckos. They do keep the insects down but they bark like a dog which is very disconcerting. Other sounds of the night are coconuts dropping on the roof, they sound like a canon going off & rather domesticated wild pigs that wander around the house, they sound like a tribe of waring Nauruans getting set to attack. Oh, plus squawking birds.

That’s a run down up to date, excluding work. I’ll save that up till next time. We are really enjoying it till now & things look pretty rosy. I hope you are well & sorting out your problems OK.

Love from Andy, Greg & Darren