1 December 1973

Menada Hotel

Honiara, Guadalcanal

British Solomon Islands Protectorate

1 December 1973

Dear Mum & Dad,

Well surprise, surprise. Here I sit on a small patio from my hotel room, a stone’s throw from the water lapping a coral beach. The hotel is situated overlooking a small bay, the sky is blue & on the horizon I can see the Florida Group rising from the sea. The islands seem to be quite mountainous. A couple of hundred yards away there is a small settlement of Solomon Islanders & they are working on their canoe. It is 7.30 am Saturday morning & the sun has been up for about an hour & a half.

What am I doing in this paradise you are probably asking?

I arrived yesterday afternoon on Air Nauru. It is an all expenses paid trip courtesy of the Kalena Timber Co. I am having a look at a job as Accountant which on paper sounds very attractive. The company is administered from Honiara by another company called Solomon Motors which acts as buying agent. Its logging site is on a large island to the north-west called New Georgia at Viru Harbour. It employs 250 Filipino workers & exports logs direct to Japan. It is a little hard to be unbiased because this place is really beautiful & a few trips to New Georgia, which would be necessary wouldn't be hard to take. I am off to have talks with the manager at 9 o'clock so I will finish the letter off tonight.

Its lunchtime now & as a result of talks this morning, salary $8,000 with a review in 3 months. Airfares for me would be Nauru – Honiara & Andy & the boys from Melbourne – Honiara. That way Andy can go down to Melbourne on the Republic, stay a week or a fortnight & come back to Honiara on the company. I also saw the house. It is new, 3 bedrooms & on a ridge, very high with a beautiful view over the harbour with the Florida group of islands in the background. House, electricity, gas, water, telephone, medical, dental, and hospital, all provided. They are to write to me on Tuesday (Tuesday’s Air Nauru) & if they’re happy will offer me the job on the terms discussed today.

That’s the story from here. This place has a very British influence & I get the impression there is class distinction within the public service as well as to the Melanesians. The manager, a Queenslander called Ron McGuire is picking me up at 1.30 pm for a tour up the coast.

I’ll let you know as soon as anything happens,

Love Greg