In the years before Papua New Guinea became independent, Michael O'Connor was for nine years a district administrator - a kiap - in remote parts of one of the planet's most forbidding environments. His is a story not only of the extension of law and order and the development of representative government but also of the experience of his young family in a fascinating world. It is a story of life that lacked any kind of modern facilities in isolated areas where travel was mostly on foot through mosquito-ridden swamps to freezing mountain ridges. Above all, it is a story of a people whose material poverty was overlaid with their friendship and good humor.
Author Biography
Born Thursday Island, Queensland; 1st January, 1938 Married former Colleen Walters 1960; five children (3M, 2F) aged 53 - 39, eight grandchildren. Graduate, Australian School of Pacific Administration (1960) RAAF Staff College (OETC) 1972-73. Executive Director, Australia Defence Association, 1981-2003; Director 2003-4 (founder and Secretary, Victorian Branch 1977-81) National Service 1955-57: 15 NS Battalion and Melbourne University Regiment Patrol Officer and Assistant District Officer, Papua New Guinea Administration 1957-66. Royal Australian Naval Reserve 1965-99; full-time duty as Assistant Director, Counter-Intelligence, Naval Intelligence Division 1966-74. Author of To Live in Peace: Australia's Defence Policy, Melbourne University Press, 1985; An Act of War, Random House, 1990. Author and editor (with Malcolm Kennedy) of Safely by Sea, University Press of America, 1990, New Guinea Days, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2009. Other publications include: Protecting the Ships (Working Paper 12, Australian Defence Studies Centre); Defending Papua New Guinea: A Study in National Maturity (Working Paper 27, Australian Defence Studies Centre); The Implications of a Regional Security Strategy (Working Paper 45, Australian Defence Studies Centre) and New Challenges for Australian Defence Policy: The Australian Defence Force to 2035 (Study for the Directorate of Army Research and Analysis), Defending Australia - a public discussion paper for the Australia Defence Association. Visiting Fellow (1993), Australian Defence Studies Centre, Australian Defence Force Academy. Guest lecturer at Australian Defence College. Study travel grant (1998), United Nations University, Tokyo. Elected Member, International Institute of Strategic Studies. Awards: Chief of Army Commendation 2002 Member, Order of Australia 2003 Centenary Medal 2003 Police Overseas Service Medal Australian Defence Medal National Service Medal Menzies Community Australia Day Award 2008
