18 April 1973

MQ 44
Government Settlement
Republic Of Nauru
Central Pacific
18 April 1973

Dear Mum & Dad,

I am rather excited at the moment & the reason may seem a bit strange. You see, I've just received a rather late invitation to a graduation dinner by the Australian Society of Accountants. The invitation began “Dear Member -------“ & the envelope was addressed to Mr. G. Tuer AASA. Unfortunately they are still using my old address although I have advised them twice since we have been up here of the new address. The dinner was 6 days ago on 12th April & I was to reply by the 4th April. Still I don’t think they will take me off the register for that. As you know I have been working towards this for 8 years.

Another reason for today being a bit special is that I’ve got 3 Nauruans in the office busily installing a 1 ½ horsepower air conditioner. It has been a battle to get it & yesterday I completed the deal by going down to the store & picking it up myself. It had just arrived from Japan on the maiden voyage of the Republic’s newest vessel the Kolle D. There has been quite a lot of excitement on the island with the arrival of the ship & the Nauruans are very proud of her. It is a very nice 20,000 ton vessel, the largest of the 5 ship fleet & named after the President’s wife. It was open to the public on the 13th & I managed to get on board. It was quite an experience as there is no wharf & it is necessary to ride the barge out through the breakers to an ocean mooring & with the barge filled to overflowing with Nauruans, kids etc. it seemed like touch & go. Once out alongside the ship you have to jump from the heaving barge to a ladder lowered down the side of the ship. It was moored about ½ mile out & from there I could see both ends of the island.

To go back a bit, I am really looking forward to having the office air conditioned as they lower the humidity tremendously. The office block is very narrow which means although the sun never actually shines in the office, it is always on the roof & outside walls & particularly in the afternoon it becomes very unpleasant & it is a job to stay awake. We don’t have the same problem at home because our place has been up about 3 years & is completely shaded by trees all day. We are a bit luckier than the ones in the new houses without any shade. I don’t know how they survive.

 Andy & Darren are well though we think Darren may be getting the measles. Andy has had them before. Andy has had a lot of trouble with morning sickness but hopefully that period has nearly passed. She is quite a good driver now & has her Nauruan drivers licence. She has the car as I am using the bike to get me to & from work. It is very handy & also good fun & I even take it for a burn around the island sometimes at the weekends. We have found a fantastic beach where we spend a lot of time at the weekends & sometimes Andy goes down with Darren in the afternoon & I meet them after work. It is only about 3 miles from home & to get to it we have to go down a narrow track, then leave the car & walk through a coconut grove on to the beach. Very people seem to know about so we are keeping it to ourselves.

Andy has a Gilbertese girl come in 2 mornings a week. It is only costing $2 per morning & she is really good. This morning she did the washing, the dishes & washed half the louvers. Andy really only wanted her 1 morning a week but with the baby coming we thought as these girls are pretty hard to get that we would start her on 2 mornings straight away.

The house is looking very nice now as we finally got the curtains up & we requisitioned some new sea grass matting for the entry & some new gold coloured covers for the lounge chairs & settee.

Air Nauru arrived on Sunday night & had to refuel, take on a new crew & fly directly back to Australia to take an emergency hospital case to Sydney. A Nauruan diver had the bends & they were rather concerned for him but he is apparently OK now. There were quite a lot of upset people who were scheduled to fly out on the Monday morning flight which of course was cancelled. The next flight to Australia is Friday (Good Friday) & it is booked out by a group of expatriates going down to the Solomon Islands for the Easter break, so someone is going to be disappointed. I was invited on the trip but couldn’t really afford it. They have challenged the Europeans in the Administration down there to cricket & tennis matches, plus I think they will show the people from Nauru some of the Solomons during their stay.

That’s about all the news for now. The car is running well (fingers crossed). I have had it Denitrolled which is a tropical rust proofing spray applied underneath the car. I have had 2 punctures in the back tyre of my bike (have you ever had to take the back wheel off one of those things). You become a little bit independent with these sorts of things up here. We purchased a beautiful hand carved picture of a Chinese fishing scene about 2’ x 4’ for only $35. The detail in it is colossal & I would hate to think what it would be worth in Australia.

I hope you are well & the house is progressing OK.

Love from us here,

Greg