The Boy from Boort The Boy from Boort Remembering Hank Nelson Edited by Bill Gammage, Brij V. Lal, Gavan Daws Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at http://press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Gammage, Bill, 1942- author. Title: The boy from Boort : remembering Hank Nelson / Bill Gammage, Brij V. Lal, Gavan Daws. ISBN: 9781925021646 (paperback) 9781925021653 (ebook) Subjects: Nelson, Hank, 1937-2012. Historians--Australia--Biography. Military historians--Australia--Biography. College teachers--Australia--Biography. Papua New Guinea--Historiography. Other Authors/Contributors: Lal, Brij V., author. Daws, Gavan, author. Dewey Number: 994.007202 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by Nic Welbourn and layout by ANU Press Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2014 ANU Press Contents Preface . vii Hyland Neil (‘Hank’) Nelson . ix Part I: Appreciation 1 . Farm Boys . 3 John Nelson 2 . The Boy from Boort . 5 Bill Gammage 3 . Talk and Chalk . 15 Ken Inglis 4 . Boort and Beyond . 19 Gavan Daws 5 . ‘I Don’t Think I Deserve a Pension – We Didn’t Do Much Fighting’: Interviewing Australian Prisoners of War of the Japanese, 1942–1945 . 33 Tim Bowden 6 . Doktorvater . 47 Klaus Neumann 7 . Hank, My Mentor . 55 Keiko Tamura 8 . Papua New Guinea Wantok . 63 Margaret Reeson 9 . Coach Nelson . 69 Daniel Oakman 10 . Hank of Coombs . 75 Brij V. Lal 11 . Hank, My Dad . 89 Michael Nelson Part II: Selected Writing by Hank Nelson 12 . Pedalling History . 95 13 . A Picture: From the Past and without a Past . 105 14 . A Village School . 113 15 . Pictures at Tabara . 119 16 . Minimay: One of 6,000 Weatherboard Schools . 135 17 . From Wagga to Waddington: Australians in Bomber Command . 149 18 . Observing the Present: Writing the Past . 165 19 . The Joke in History . 177 20 . Have You Got a Title? Seminar Daze . 189 21 . Em Inap Nau . 197 Part III Bibliography . 209 Preface This book celebrates the life and work of Hank Nelson – scholar, teacher, communicator, mentor, writer and iconic figure of the Australian academy in the late 20th century. Besides being the premier historian of Papua New Guinea, Hank wrote memorably about the Australian experience of the Second World War and about Australian one-teacher schools. He communicated his research through books, scholarly articles, newspapers and magazines, radio and film. He was a gifted teacher of undergraduate and graduate students, whose work he supervised with care and patient understanding. While he was a distinguished member of the Australian academy, he always stood at a remove from its internal preoccupations and debates. First and foremost, Hank was a scholar who was keen to communicate with the broadest possible audience in the ordinary language of intelligent discourse. Born in 1937 in Boort at the edge of the Mallee country of north-western Victoria, he was named Hyland Neil. In the family, he was known as Neil. He became Hank at high school. There was a boy who called everyone ‘Hank’, as in the American ‘Hey, Joe’. Somehow the name stuck to Neil Nelson. When he started to write and publish, he decided to be Hank in print as well as in everyday life, and that was who he was for the rest of his days. Hank attended the University of Melbourne and taught high school before joining the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1964. Two years later, he went to Port Moresby to teach at the Administrative College. In 1968, he transferred to the recently established University of Papua New Guinea, where he pioneered research and teaching in PNG’s history, virtually establishing it as a discipline. In 1973, he joined the Research School of Social Sciences of The Australian National University, later moving to the Department of Pacific and Southeast Asian History in the Research School of Pacific Studies. He remained at ANU for the next 40 years, becoming a kindly and enduring presence in the lives of all he came into contact with. Hank died in Canberra in February 2012. The book is divided into three parts. The first contains reflections on aspects of Hank’s life and work by his colleagues and students, and by his older brother, John, and his son, Michael. Some of the pieces are slightly reworked versions of eulogies given at Hank’s memorial service at the University House at ANU; the rest were written especially for this volume. Each contributor has written about Hank in their own voice – the way they saw him and the way he interacted with them. The tributes could be multiplied and were, at the memorial, in newspapers and online on the ‘Outrigger’ blog. It is interesting that the picture in the round is so consistent – with Hank there was no ‘Rashomon effect’. Hank was always one and the same person: what you saw was what you got. The second part vii The Boy from Boort contains essays by Hank, selected to reflect the range of his work as a teacher, observer and writer of memoirs. Some pieces are slightly edited for length and clarity. More of Hank’s work is widely available online and in print. A full list of his publications is in the third part, the bibliography at the end of the book. We are grateful to many people who have helped us put this volume together. Our first thanks go to Jan Nelson, Hank’s wife, who gave us advice and papers whenever asked and otherwise tolerated and encouraged us. Brett Baker prepared the manuscript and images for publication. Vicki Luker, Jan Gammage, Nic Halter and Tamai Heaton assisted us in various ways, from looking for photographs and references to typing portions of the manuscript. Nicole Haley, convenor of the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, of which Hank was the chair until shortly before his death, provided generous financial assistance to defray the cost of publication. We thank the Pacific Editorial Board and especially its chair, Stewart Firth, for their encouragement, and Beth Battrick of ANU Press for shepherding the manuscript through publication. Most of all, we thank our contributors for their enthusiastic support and timely contributions. Their love for Hank showed through. They have done him proud. Bill Gammage Brij V. Lal Gavan Daws NOTE An appreciation of Hank is in Ian Howie-Willis, ‘Hyland Neil (“Hank”) Nelson (21 October 1937 – 17 February 2012)’, Journal of Pacific History 47:2 (2012), pp. 227–32. See also Gavan Daws, ‘Hank’, Outrigger: Blog of the [ANU] Pacific Institute, 6 March 2012. Front and back cover photos courtesy of Jan Gammage. viii Hyland Neil (‘Hank’) Nelson Date and Place of Birth: 21 October 1937, Boort, Victoria, Australia Marital Status: Married to Jan, three children: Tanya, Lauren, Michael Honours: Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, 1994 Professor Emeritus, The Australian National University, 2002 AM, 2008 Education: 1958, BA, University of Melbourne 1959, DipEd, University of Melbourne 1962, BEd, University of Melbourne 1966, MEd, University of Melbourne 1976, PhD, University of Papua New Guinea Positions Held: 1960–63, Teacher, Numurkah and Rosanna High Schools 1964–65, Lecturer, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 1966–67, Tutor, Administrative College of Papua and New Guinea 1968–72, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, History, University of Papua New Guinea 1973–74, Research Fellow in History, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University (ANU) 1975–76, Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Pacific and Southeast Asian History, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU 1976–93, Fellow, Senior Fellow, Department of Pacific and Southeast Asian History, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU 1993–2002, Professor, Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU 1994–97, Professor on Secondment, History Program, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU 2002, Visiting Fellow, Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU; Chair, State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, ANU ix Part I 1. Farm Boys John Nelson John Nelson, Hank’s older brother, still resides on the family farm in Boort. We lived halfway between Boort and Quambatook in the northern Victoria Mallee area, where Dad share-farmed on a grain-growing farm. There was no electricity in those days; kerosene lanterns were used for lighting and wood fires for warmth and cooking. There was always a shortage of water, and the temperature often hit 100°F in the summer. When we look at these conditions from the comfort of our air conditioner now, it seems that it was a very tough lifestyle, but everyone was in the same boat, so it was just a matter of getting on with life. Those were the days when horses were used to cultivate the land and pull the harvester to gather the grain. When it was time for me to start school, we moved to another farm, now known as the Nelson home farm, which was only three kilometres from Boort. This was an irrigation farm that had been purchased by our grandparents some years earlier. There was no such thing as school buses in those days, so it was either walk or ride a pony to school. When Neil started school, we had a Shetland pony and a jinker, which we left at an auntie’s place in Boort where there was a big backyard. One of our neighbours used to ride a bike to school, and we used to throw a rope to him and tow him along.