A message from the webmaster Peter Goerman, formerly senior auditor with Bechtel during the construction phase of the Bougainville Copper Project, now living in glorious retirement near Batemans Bay on the South Coast of New South Wales: I love this word WEBMASTER! Sounds great, doesn't it? Makes you feel like you're Master of the Universe or something like that! I started this website in 2003 when I had nothing better to do and I have been surprised by the responses it has drawn from so many people. To this day it has had close on 40,000 visitors. If you have something to contribute - photos, anecdotes, ANYTHING! - do it now! Justin Marshall in Cairns emailed me some very good pictures he took during a recent visit to Buka and Bougainville which I would like to share with you. Don't miss these pictures! Click here! Justin also gave me the following information about his trip: The flight from Cairns to Buka via Port Moresby was about AUS$1,200 return. For the moment the only access to Bougainville is via Buka and 4WD to Arawa etc. The cost of the trip from Buka to Arawa is around K50 per person ($20) or you can hire your own 4WD and driver for K600 per day ($240). In my view the hire is a much easier option, as there is a distinct lack of public transport etc. Most of the Island is open and free to people, with the exception of Panguna. I was invited to go up to Panguna while I was up there, but found out how quickly things become twisted when I was on our way up..nothing violent, the people are really back to normal, just a lot of politics and crap I was really not in the mood to listen to. I left and was later asked to go again the following day but refused. Next time I go back, in a few months I will have some photos of the pit etc for your site. The Aravai guesthouse in Arawa is a really nice stay at K120 ($48) per night for the deluxe (Double Bed and Aircon while the generator is on) or K90 standard. This cost did include breakfast (I think). Dinner was K18. Booking can be made by E-mail or Telephone. The fishing from anywhere is an absolute blast --- 8kg-coral trout from the beach at Pok Pok Point!!!!! There are now regular Japanese guests travelling to the island, so they are quickly becoming accustomed to entertaining again. Food is simple but nice to eat and plentiful. The cook at the guest house is actually a white lady from Brisbane!!!!! Sandra is her name and she is married there and been there for a few yeas now. She runs the guesthouse for the owners. The guesthouse doesn't have a website but somebody built a communications centre smack-bang with all mod cons, including a broadband internet café, in the middle of Arawa so that using the internet is the new crazy with a lot of people, including Sandra from the guesthouse who takes bookings by email. I'll email you their phone number and email address later. If you need help setting up a trip around the island, your best bet is to contact the guesthouse (Sandra or Nancy) and get them to do it all. Click here for more pictures! Since I last wrote to you, I've acquired a lovely little SAVAGE Nautilus motor-sailer. I'm now spending many hours skippering up the river and down to the coast and having lots of fun doing it! When not in use, it is securely moored outside the house (which, incidentally, is FOR SALE! - so if you have the necessary loose change, contact me and I'll throw in the boat and a few SP stubbie holders as well!) Former would-be Prime Minister John Hewson recently set a new real estate record in our area when he bought an oceanfront villa at Guerilla Bay for $2 million - click here for more info. In 2004, actress Nicole Kidman's brother-in-law, Angus Hawley, flew in a private chopper to nearby Rosedale to bid $1.47 million for three rustic log cabins on the beach. Two months later he bought a modest three-bedroom house next door and an adjoining vacant lot for $2.53 million on the instructions of the Hollywood star. Rosedale is a town with no pub or restaurants and none of the exclusive boutiques from which Kidman would buy her red carpet frocks. Yet despite the lack of any real glamour in the tiny seaside community, she is now the owner of more than 3000 square metres of prime beachfront land. Well, when are they going to discover peaceful and picturesque Nelligen? We even have a pub and a General Store where Benny, the owner, dazzles us with his tasteful advertising displays - click here. The old island magic still has its hold on me and I occasionally travel to Pacific Island nations which are a little more accessible and cheaper to get to than PNG. My last two island trips were to Tonga and Samoa with Virgin Blue. The fares are incredibly low but they make up for it by charging extra for everything else save visits to the toilet, and in their jets legroom and seat-width have been cut back to levels where Amnesty International might want to get involved. I spent a week in the northern Vava'u Islands and another week amongst the atolls of the Ha'apai Group. If you want to go to Tonga, forget about Nuku'alofa - just transit it as fast as you can and head out to the smaller islands. Ask me for more information, if you like! In Samoa I retraced my own past back to the days when I used to live and work there in 1978 while assisting in the formation of the PACIFIC FORUM LINE. I knew I had to bring back something for my wife who was looking after "Riverbend" in my absence so I got hold of a beautiful Chinese backscratcher, but then my wife wouldn't let me bring her home. However, I did sent her one of those beautiful South Sea picture postcards depicting an alluring South Sea siren under a swaying palmtree. On the back I inadvertently wrote, " Wish you were HER". Trouble again! Remember the old mail-call days on Bougainville and how much we waited for mail from the outside world? Well, I was reminded of this when I spent a few days on the tiny atoll of Lifuka in the Ha'apai Group of islands and watched a middle-aged expatriate call at the tiny post office every day even though there had been no plane and no reason to expect any mail. Eventually, I plugged up enough courage to intrude on his privacy and we began to talk and finished up the best of friends. He's an Austrian who retired to that tiny island on an even tinier pension. That was some twelve or thirteen years ago and he has been living there, quietly and frugally, ever since. I've started to send him bits of mail so his visits to that tiny post office won't be completely wasted :-) Why not surprise him? Write down his address right-away and next time you're at the post office, send him a nice colourful postcard. Here's his address: Horst Berger Pangai, Ha'apai Kingdom of Tonga South Pacific (While you're at it, send me a postcard as well -:) Even though mail-call isn't as important to me as it was on Bougainville, I still enjoy reaching into the mailbox and finding something in it (other than junk mail!) The best postcard(s) will be published on this website!) P.S. I have since received a postcard from Werner Seifert in Gunzenhausen in Germany and another from Graham at Niagara Falls. Come on, there must be more of you out there!!! Until my next ramblings - Cheers! Peter Goerman "Riverbend" Nelligen N.S.W. 2536 Australia riverbend@batemansbay.com...... and I'm waiting for your postcard!!! oh, and I forgot to mention that you can see pictures of Horst and his little island paradise right here! By the way, a South American scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain and sexual activity read their websites with their hand on the mouse. DON'T BOTHER TAKING IT OFF NOW, IT'S TOO LATE!!!

All you old ex-Bougainvilleans are getting on in years so I'm sure you'll be very interested in this HEALTH QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true? A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap. Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables? A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables! So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products. Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake? A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up! Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio? A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc. Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program? A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No pain.., Good! Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you? A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! ... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you? Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle? A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach. Q: Is chocolate bad for me? A: Are you crazy? HELLO . Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around! Q: Is swimming good for your figure? A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me. Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle? A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape! Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets. And remember: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways -glass of wine in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "Whoo what a ride". THIS IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, MAKE THE BEST OF IT, AND ENJOY IT.

BEWARE OF NEW SCAM!!!! You MUST click the link at the end of this IMPORTANT message....... Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs - AND THOSE WHO HAVE SPENT TOO MANY YEARS ON BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND - to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman. Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer." The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large "kegs". Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no strings attached sex. Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several beers, men will often succumb to the desires to sleep with horrific-looking women whom they would never normally be attracted to. After drinking beer, men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that "something bad" occurred. At other times, these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life's savings, in a familiar scam known as "a relationship." In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer-term form of servitude and punishment referred to as "marriage." Men are much more susceptible to this scam after beer is administered and sex is offered by the predatory females. If you fall victim to this "Beer" scam and the women administering it, there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter with similarly victimised men. For the support group nearest you, just look up "Golf Courses" in the phone book. For a video to see how beer works click here: http://www.brackenspub.com/beer.swf PLEASE! Forward this warning to every male you know. P.S. Here's a list of those unfortunate for whom this warning comes too late: CLICK HERE!

A Message from Rene Pogel, BCL's Employee Relations Manager: AFTER years of reporting "there has been no production since 15th May 1989", things may appear to be improving for Bougainville Copper following the election of a new autonomous government last year and recent meetings with the PNG Government discussing the possible resurrection of the massive Panguna copper-gold mine. If you are interested in re-applying for your former position with BCL, please email me now. There is STIFF competition for the available jobs!!! [ We received some emails in response to this notice from investors in Germany who are keen to make a profit on their shares. Sergeant Schultz seems to be alive and well! ]

If you are looking for a particular person or place name, search here first!

World Wide Web http://www.riverbendnelligen.com

From the air Bougainville is a romantic island. Lush and rugged, surrounded by reefs and an emerald sea. Cloud sits on the rain forest that mats the mountains. The tall volcanic cones of Bagana and Balbi smoke sullenly and glow at night. But along the Crown Prince Range and down on the flat country, life was not always as romantic as it seems from a passenger's window. Rain, mud, dust, heat, boredom. These are deep in the memories of the men who built the mine. But deeper in their consciousness is another feeling, almost of pride, that they were part of a tremendous and exciting adventure. That they were pioneers. The Bougainville Copper Project in the then Territory of Papua New Guinea ran from 1966 to 1973 and cost some US$350 million. At its peak in mid-1971, it employed a labour force of some 10,700. The Bougainville Copper Project was not only the largest grass roots copper project undertaking in the world to that date - it was truly a monument to every man who turned his hand toward its successful completion.

	Did you spend some time on the Bougainville Copper Project in the sixties and seventies? If you did, we want to hear from you! They aren't many of us left and it would be good to hear from those who lived with us in the camps or in Arawa or Kieta and shared with us the experience.
	Wouldn't it be great to revisit Bougainville, drive up to Panguna or swim at Loloho Beach? The Bougainville Copper Project shaped our lives as many of us continued in overseas projects. Others returned to suburbia and ordinary jobs but they, too were forever changed by the experience.
	Where are they all today? Many are settled back in Australia while others stayed on in New Guinea and some are still on the move. When were you on Bougainville? Who did you work for and what did you do? Have you photographs or memories to share which we could publish on this website?
	My email address is riverbend@batemansbay.com (By the way, do you remember the rumours about the stuff they put in our tea in the camp, to keep our minds off it...? Well, 35 years later, I think mine's beginning to work.)

As one contributor put it so aptly, "You only have to scratch the surface and you bleed PNG..." So next time you bleed a little and feel a bout of "Bougainvilleitis" coming on, share your thoughts and memories with us. I very much look forward to hearing from you and any of your mates who may have spent time on the Bougainville Copper Project. Email me!

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