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SECTION ONE

Introduction to Papua

1.1. Introduction to Papua

BRUCE M. BEEHLER

PAPUA, THE WESTERN HALF of the great subcontinental island of New Guinea, encompasses 416,129 km² and supports the largest tract of old growth tropical forest wilderness remaining in the Asia-Pacific region. Dominated by the huge Central Cordillera that generates abundant rainfall, the rivers of Papua drain northward into a vast interior basin (the Mamberamo/Meervlakte) and south into a triangular alluvial platform that broadens as it reaches eastward to the border with Papua New Guinea. At its westernmost, Papua is dominated by a welter of small mountain ranges (accreted terranes), peninsulas (Vogelkop [Bird’s Head], Wandammen, Fakfak, Kumawa), and island groups (Raja Ampats, Cenderawasih Bay Islands). In many respects, Papua resembles its eastern counterpart, mainland Papua New Guinea, but its mountains are higher (reaching to the snow line), its swamps are larger (e.g., Mamberamo, the Asmat), its population is smaller (ca 2.2 million vs. ca 5 million), and the exploitation of its vast forests less extensive at the time of this writing. As with Papua New Guinea, Papua is home to many traditional cultures (250 by one estimate; Petocz 1989). Many of these are forest-dwelling societies, who have provided remarkably prudent stewardship of their forest resources. Thus Papua’s forest wilderness and diverse marine ecosystems are human-managed natural systems that give the impression of being pristine. For environmentalists, conservationists, and research biologists, Papua is a rich mother lode of natural and cultural history to be documented studied, shared, and preserved.

Wonders of Papua

By any standards Papua is special and shrouded in mystery. For nearly a half-century (1962–2000) it was essentially inaccessible to all but a few international field researchers (see Hope et al. 1976) and thus a terra incognita. As each year went by, other blank spots on the globe were filled in by intrepid adventurers and naturalists, making Papua more and more enticing to outside naturalists. Those smitten with Papua could only read early accounts and examine the pre-1962 holdings of museums and research institutions to get an idea of what lay behind the Papuan (then West Irian or Irian Jayan) veil of the unknown. We did know that Papua was home to the tropical Pacific’s only glaciers. We did know that Papua was the home to hundreds, no, thousands of undescribed species of plants and animals, not to mention the lesser life forms. Jared Diamond rediscovered the Golden-fronted Bowerbird in the Foja Mountains in 1980. Tim Flannery described a new mountain-dwelling tree kangaroo in 1994. Gerald Allen collected his first rainbow fish in Papua in 1980 and described his most recent new Papuan species in 1998. Clearly there is so much for us to learn about this little-studied land. Adventurers were claiming "first contacts" with forest-dwelling peoples as recently as 1990—this added to the several hundred named ethnic groups inhabiting Papua, each with its own language, culture, art, and cosmology.

Geographic and Political Nomenclature

Let us begin our overview of Papua with some discussion of geographic and political nomenclature (see map on end sheets to this book). New Guinea is the term we use to describe the whole island, this largest tropical island, some 2,700 kilometers long by 900 kilometers wide. The eastern half of the island is today the mainland section of Papua New Guinea, which achieved independence from Australia in 1975. The western half of the island is today known informally as Papua ("West Papua" in some circles). Papua became the official name of western (Indonesian) New Guinea, Indonesia’s easternmost province in 2000. In 2004, Papua Province was "illegally" but formally bisected; the easternmost and central sections retain the name Papua, and the westernmost section is Irian Jaya Barat (a planned Central Irian Jaya has been put on hold because of a court ruling).

Western New Guinea has held various names over the last hundred years. During the days of Dutch colonial administration this area was named Dutch New Guinea, part of the Dutch East Indies. Upon Indonesian accession of this last fragment of Dutch colonialism, the region was named West Irian (Irian Barat). Shortly thereafter it was given the name Irian Jaya ("glorious Irian"), and more recently Papua. This last is confusing mainly because the southeastern portion of mainland Papua New Guinea was once officially named Papua, when overseen by colonial Australia. Finally, political activists call western New Guinea "West Papua"—the name that the local assembly had chosen for the planned independent nation that was to arise in 1962 through a United Nations mandate.

Physiography, Geography, and Geology

Papua is a complex piece of the planet, partly because of its convoluted tectonic history, discussed in some detail in Chapter 2.1. In brief, the Papuan component of the Australian tectonic plate has been rafting northward, building a prodigious central cordillera as well as sweeping up island arcs in the north and northwest. This plate continues to drift northward and northern coastal ranges are presumably still rising.

Mountains define Papuan geography, no doubt. Two east-west ranges dominate—the Central Cordillera (Merauke Range, "Maoke" is a misnomer; this includes a western component, Sudirman Range, and an eastern component, Jayawijaya Range) and the north coastal ranges that extend westward into Cenderawasih Bay as rugged Yapen Island. The Central Cordillera has been created by the compression of the Australian plate with the Pacific plate, with massive uplift over the last several million years. The highest points of the Sudirman and Jayawijaya ranges are oceanic sediments. This cordillera rises to more than 3,000 meters for its entire length in Papua, creating a challenge for Indonesian road builders wishing to link up the northern and southern catchments. The cordilleran watershed dips rather gradually on its northern face and abruptly on the south side. Heavy rainfall striking the southern scarp has deeply dissected this southern face, creating scores of sediment-laden and unstable rivers that dump out onto a rocky alluvial plain in the south that is almost 200 km wide in the east and only 40 km wide in the far west (west of Timika).

The highest peaks of Papua are scattered about the main cordillera. Highest of all is Mt Jayakusuma or Mt Jaya (4,884 m) once known as Mount Carstensz or Carstensz Toppen, dominating the western terminus of the Merauke Range. Nearby Ngga Pilimsit or Mount Idenburg stands at 4,717 m. In central and eastern segments of the cordillera stand Mount Trikora (formerly Mount Wilhelmina) at 4,730 m and Mount Mandala at 4,640 m. Small, rapidly melting glaciers cap Jaya and Pilimsit.

The accreted island arcs in the north can be seen today as isolated coastal ranges: the Cyclops, Foja, and Van Rees Mountains (north of the Tariku and Taritatu [formerly Idenburg] rivers), mountainous Yapen Island, the Wandammen, Arfak (2,940 m), and Tamrau mountains (2,824 m) of the Vogelkop Peninsula, as well as the Raja Ampat Islands west of the Vogelkop. Strange tectonic contacts apparently have also produced the Kumawa and Fakfak mountains south of the Vogelkop on the Bomberai and Onin peninsulas. The Bird’s Neck region, which connects the Vogelkop with the main body of Papua, is karstic, with fjordlands, white sand barrens, and lakes.

Papua is scored by a range of major rivers both north and south, east and west. In the north, the Mamberamo system drains the interior Mamberamo Basin and virtually the entire northern watershed of Papua’s central range. The main channel of the north-flowing Mamberamo cuts between the Foja Mountains (on the east) and Van Rees Mountains (on the west) on its way to the sea. This ramrod straight, swiftly-flowing stream is one of the most remarkable on this great island, even though it is only 150 km in length. At the head of the Mamberamo, the river drains the great interior basin swamplands that are infested by meander belts and oxbow lakes. The Taritatu (formerly Idenburg) River drains the eastern half of the basin and the central mountains to the south, its tributaries reaching to the Papua New Guinea border and nearly to Jayapura. Its western branch, the Tariku (or Rouffaer) River, drains the smaller western side of the basin, and quickly divides into the main flow of the Rouffaer (on the north) and the Van Daalen (to the south). The Van Daalen drains the north slope of the Central Cordillera, and thus is a much more substantial flow.

Papua’s other great rivers drain the ragged southern scarp of the central range in the eastern half of Papua. Among these, the Digul is the greatest, followed by the Catalina, which in the mountains becomes the famous Baliem that drains the Grand Valley of the Baliem, discovered in the late 1930s by explorer-pilot Richard Archbold. Scores of lesser rivers sweep heavy gravels southward toward the muddy Arafura Sea. These turbid and unstable rivers tumble out of the mountains, with torrential flows in the mountain gorges, and heavily braided channels in the flats that spread out from the bottom of the ranges. As one moves westward, one finds river after river, each shorter than the preceding, until the central mountains pinch off the alluvial plain at the bottom of the Bird’s Neck.

LAKES

Papua has a few prominent lakes. Lake Sentani, near the Papuan capital Jayapura, was apparently created by tectonic movement related to the uplift of the coastal Cyclops Mountains just to the north. The lower Mamberamo features Lake Rombebai, the largest lake in Papua, as well as smaller Lake Bira. These are swampy backwater lakes. At the western end of the central cordillera we find the Paniai Lakes in an interior highland basin. Lake Yamur, on the Bird’s Neck, is home to a freshwater shark. Finally, highlands lakes (Anggi Gigi and Anggi Gita) are found in the Arfak Mountains of the Vogelkop.

SWAMPS,MANGROVES, AND SAVANNAS

The vast lakes plain of the Mamberamo Basin is dominated by seasonally inundated swamplands of various types. There are great coastal swamplands along much of the southern coast, from the Casuarina coast in the southeast to the swamplands south of Timika, far to the west. Indonesia’s largest mangrove ecosystem is nestled in the head of Bintuni Bay, which separates the Vogelkop (Bird’s Head) Peninsula from the more southerly Bomberai Peninsula. Elsewhere in Papua, swamps can be found in many alluvial localities where drainage is impeded, around lowland rivers, and in and around Dolok (Yos Sudarso) Island in the far south. In the far southeast, by the Papua New Guinea border, is a swath of savanna that ranges westward to Dolok Island—part of the great Trans-Fly savannas that have the look of Australia rather than New Guinea. This is a highly seasonal low-rainfall zone that toggles from an inundation season to a burning season.

COASTS

Papua’s abundant coastline is not uniform. In the northeast, one finds hilly country reaching the coast, which features a mix of white sand beaches and rocky shorelines. Long stretches of beach dominate in the north, backed by coastal hills. The eastern shore of Cenderawasih (formerly Geelvink) Bay features swamps and mangroves, whereas the western shore is more rugged and hilly. The north side of the Vogelkop is rugged, whereas the south side is low and swampy. Much of the southern and southeastern coastline are low and silty, with dark sand beaches backed by casuarinas, with swamplands further inland. The most spectacular coastlines are found on the south side of the Bird’s Neck, between Arguni Bay and Etna Bay. Here one finds tropical karstic fjordlands that feature coastal mountains rising to more than 1,000 meters, steep cliffs, deep embayments, and scenery galore.

ISLANDS

Papua has more than a thousand fringing islands, from tiny to quite large. The Raja Ampat Islands range off the western coast of the Vogelkop Peninsula, and include Waigeo (3,155 km²), Salawati (1,632 km²), Misool (2,041 km²), Batanta (453 km²), and Kofiau (150 km²), among others. This remarkable archipelago supports the world’s richest coral reefs and considerable endemic forest biodiversity (e.g., Wilson’s Bird of Paradise, Red Bird of Paradise, Waigeo Brush-turkey). The islands of Cenderawasih Bay include two isolated oceanic islands with distinct island faunas (Biak/Supiori, 2,497 km², and Numfoor, 311 km²), as well as the mountainous land-bridge island of Yapen (2,227 km²). In addition, there are the Padaido Islands southeast of Biak, and Num Island west of Yapen, and a number of small coastal islands in the south and west portions of the Bay. Small islands also dot the north coast and fringe the Fakfak and Triton Bay region. Papua’s largest island is Dolok (11,192 km²), which is a vast mudbank outwash from the silt-laden rivers of the southeast coast. It is often forgotten because of its unpre-possessing nature and isolation, and its minimal distance from the mainland.

Ecological Setting

New Guinea is the northern quadrant of the Australian tectonic plate; thus this island is geologically one with the Australian continent. And yet in spite of geological linkages, there are considerable environmental differences. In particular, Australia today is dry and temperate, whereas New Guinea is tropical and perhumid. These two fundamental distinctions can explain much of the differences between these sister biotas, north and south.

Climatologically, Papua is remarkable mainly for its cloudiness. It is perhaps one of the cloudiest places on earth. Spanning latitudes from the equator to 12 degrees south latitude, Papua’s equatorial climate is seasonally dominated by the Northwest Monsoon and the Southeast Trade Winds. In most parts of Papua, the effects of the Northwest Monsoon dominate in the period from November to March, bringing rain and unsettled weather. The Southeast Trade Winds tend to bring cool and dry weather, and predominate from April until September. That said, Papua has many microclimates. Rainfall regimes range from low in the southeast (less than 2,000 mm/year) to extremely high on the southern scarp of the Central Cordillera (more than 5,000 mm/year). The highest rainfall on record for Papua is from Tembagapura town, which receives 7,500 mm/year on average. In the wetter areas, the typical seasons are reversed, and the most rain falls in the April–October period. In fact, the wettest sites receive rain from both the monsoon and the trades, and they tend to be found in the mountains along the southern front of the Central Cordillera. Moreover, annual accumulation in the very wettest areas tends to show great variability. This variability can exceed the mean annual accumulations recorded for typical medium-rainfall sites.

Seasonally, temperature varies little. Elevation is the key to temperature in equatorial zones. This "lapse rate" is equivalent to 5 C per 1,000 m elevation. Thus, at sea level, in the forests near Timika, one will encounter an unpleasant combination of high humidity and warm temperature day and night on all but the coolest days of the austral winter. By contrast, at 4,000 m in the Sudirman Range one must expect regular night frosts during the dry season, when the skies are clear. Above 4,500 m periodic snowfalls are common. And glaciers cap the highest peaks of the Jaya Mountains (formerly the Carstensz Range). These glaciers expanded outward and downward during the Pleistocene cooling, melted altogether by 6,000 years BP, and returned during the recent cooling, only to begin retreating again in the last century.

The elevation-temperature equation is a defining environmental phenomenon in mountainous Papua. This allows essentially distinct biotas to inhabit adjacent patches of land, separated only by elevation. It certainly explains much of the species-richness of Papua (beta diversity).

Rain shadows exist in some interior valleys (such as the Baliem), on the Bomb-erai Peninsula, and in the Trans-Fly of the far southeast. Rainfall is also slightly attenuated along the northern coast, from the mouth of the Mamberamo east to Jayapura. Much of the interior receives well in excess of 3,000 mm/year.

Papua is a land in flux. Significant chronic disturbance is produced by ongoing mountain-building in contest with rainfall-driven erosional processes, as well as by periodic vulcanism, human-caused and naturally occurring fire regimes, plus El Niño droughts. Over the long history of human occupation, swidden agriculture has disturbed large swaths of habitat, most of which is now regenerated forest. Thus historical disturbance is a dominant factor dictating the distribution and pattern of today’s vegetation. Much of what appears to be "virgin rainforest" is, in fact, the product of recent and not-so-recent patch disturbance. This is abundantly evident when conducting plot-based plant surveys in the forest. Thus any attempt to characterize forest types is a rough generalization, and at best a qualitative assessment with minimal predictive power at the taxonomic scale.

FOREST TYPES

Closed forest is the default vegetation type over virtually the entirety of Papua except perhaps in the southeast (although the fire regime that produces savannas there may be anthropogenic). Papua’s forests are highly species rich, with minimal stand dominance by particular tree species, and with remarkable history-driven variation from site to site, even within single catchments. One-hectare stands of forest typically support between 70 and 200 species of trees larger than 10 cm diameter breast height (dbh). It is thus difficult to characterize the forest types of Papua taxonomically. Instead, forest types are delineated by elevation, rainfall, and structure. In general, New Guinea’s forests can be termed "tropical humid forests." Tree species of the following families are important components of this tree flora: Podocarpaceae, Fagaceae, Moraceae, Lauraceae, Meliaceae, Myristicaceae, Sapindaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Combretaceae, Sapotaceae, Annonaceae, Clusiaceae, and Rubiaceae, among others (Oatham and Beehler 1997).

In the lowlands, one finds tall alluvial forests in well-drained catchment basins, as well as various types of periodically inundated swamp forests in the more poorly drained areas. The finest alluvial forests are grand, indeed, with emergent species reaching 60 meters (e.g., Octomeles sumatrana), and canopy height topping 45 meters. The canopy of this alluvial lowland forest is often irregular and broken, except where there has been uniform regeneration after some disturbance. Typical canopy tree genera of the wooded swamps include Barringtonia, Terminalia, Alstonia, Diospyros, Carallia, Syzygium, and Campnosperma. Palm swamps, dominated by sago, pandanus, or nipa are commonplace in the vast deltaic areas of the major rivers (e.g., Digul). These grade into herbaceous swamplands where inundation is the prevalent condition. Coastally one finds small strips of mangrove or large and extensive mangroves forests, depending upon conditions. These comprise species of Sonneratia, Xylocarpus, Brugiera, Rhizophora, and Avicennia. Mangrove formations are dominant in the south and southeast, between the southern Vogelkop and Bomberai Peninsula, and along the Waropen coast (northeastern Cenderawasih Bay). In the far southeast one encounters closed monsoon forest that grades southward into Melaleuca woodland and Eucalyptus savanna.

Much of Papua is hilly, and here forests are on well-drained soils and tend to be less grand, with smaller-boled trees of lesser height. In the low hills on the southern side of the Central Cordillera above Timika one finds a very poor "white sand" and heath forest that is both structurally bizarre and taxonomically distinct. Above 1,000 meters one encounters submontane forests that in places have a strong representation of oaks (Castanopsis acuminatissima, Lithocarpus spp.) and several genera of Lauraceae. A cloud line settles on the mountains at varying elevations, depending on local conditions. This produces cloud forest conditions, which are typified by the abundance of moss on tree trunks as well as an effusion of epiphytes. This cloud line most typically can be found between 1,500 and 2,500 meters elevation. Midmontane forests are more species-poor and can be dominated by the Antarctic beech Nothofagus as well as several genera of gymnosperms from the family Podocarpaceae (Podocarpus, Dacrycarpus, Dacrydium, Phyllocladus). Above 3,000 meters, one encounters an elfin woodland that is low in stature (15 m), and small-boled (10–30 cm) and dense, with heavy mossing and with tangled moss-laden root mats on the ground in the place of soil. Climbing higher into the mountains, this leads to areas where patches of dense thicket-like dwarf forest is interdigitated with open boggy grasslands in the more poorly-drained and frost-prone areas. In these areas one can find prominent stands of large Dacrycarpus compactus as well as the more conifer-like Papuacedrus papuanus. On the summit areas above 4,000 meters one encounters a mix of tussock grasslands, rocky areas, low ericaceous thickets, and a variety of tropical alpine herbaceous vegetation.

Botanically, Papua is remarkable, estimated to house more than 15,000 species of vascular plants, notably some 2000 species of orchids, more than 100 rhododendrons, one species of the great and ancient Araucaria conifers—Papua’s tallest tree, as well as the magnificent and valuable kauri pine (Agathis labillardierei). Dipterocarp trees are relatively uncommon, but appear in abundance in certain patches, the result of some natural disturbance regime. Other important timber trees include Intsia bijuga ("merbau"), Pometia pinnata ("matoa"), Pterocarpus indicus ("rosewood"), and Dracontomelon ("black walnut"), among others.

Fauna

VERTEBRATES

Birds dominate the Papuan vertebrate fauna, with more than 600 species recorded. This includes more than 25 species of birds of paradise, three species of cassowaries, and some two dozen each of parrots, pigeons, raptors, and kingfishers. The mammals are less in evidence, mainly because of chronic hunting and their nocturnal habits. Fruit bats, insectivorous bats, tree kangaroos, possums, and rats are the best represented among the 180 or so species. Amphibians include more than 150 species of frogs, many still unknown to science. Reptiles include two crocodiles, 61 snakes, and 141 lizards. The fishes comprise ca 150 freshwater species and more than 2,250 marine taxa (about 1,500 of which inhabit coral reef ecosystems). Of special note are the 36 species of rainbow fish that inhabit Papua. This is an incomplete list, undoubtedly, and new taxa were described as recently as 1998.

TERRESTRIAL INVERTEBRATES

The forest invertebrate fauna is diverse beyond imagination, defying our ability to enumerate it. There are probably in excess of 100,000 species of insects alone, only a fraction of these having been cataloged. Most prominent are the huge and beautiful birdwing butterflies, the giant phasmid stick insects, several lineages of giant beetle (longicorn, dynastine, etc.), and the world’s largest moth. One can also find freshwater crabs, a range of edible freshwater shrimp and crayfish, and an abundance of blood-sucking leeches.

MARINE LIFE AND CORAL REEFS

The marine reef environments found in Cenderawasih Bay and the Raja Ampat Islands are among the very richest on earth in terms of species diversity. One finds extraordinary numbers of hard corals, mollusks, and reef fishes. These environments are also very productive, and form an important sustainable resource for local communities. The region also supports a significant pelagic fishery, with key migratory species (such as various tuna).

Human Cultures

CULTURAL SETTING

Although the island of New Guinea is rather young in geological terms, its peoples are of apparently ancient stocks, and there is evidence that humans has been present on the island at least 40,000 years, perhaps longer. Not surprisingly, the details of the earlier habitation on the island are scanty, and it is possible that humans have occupied New Guinea for as long as 60,000 years. The whole island of New Guinea supports more than 1,200 language groups. No other comparable land mass supports more languages. This could be taken as an indication of the longevity of human occupation of New Guinea. The Papuan half of the island supports about 250 languages (dwarfed by PNG’s 800 languages). We can offer no explanation as to why the west supports so many fewer languages, but physiographic and biogeographic diversity may offer a partial explanation (or it may be nothing more than sampling error—a nonconformity in classification methodology by scientists working in Asia vs. the Pacific).

Many of Papua’s language groups are small and insular, with fewer than 1,000 speakers. A few other languages (e.g., Dani, Asmat) are spoken by many. These dominant languages seem to indicate cultural dominance as well. As with Papua New Guinea, the language diversity parallels diversity in local culture and thus Papua is culturally very diverse and heterogeneous. This is one reason there has been only limited local development in Papua. Small, diverse, egalitarian societies do not have the human capacity and structure needed for complex social and economic structures to develop, as has been explained eloquently by Jared Diamond in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel (1999). The absence of stratified societies and the lack of key domesticated livestock and grain crops has certainly contributed to the generally minor development of local economies in Papua. In one point of contrast, important sweet potato cultures in the fertile valleys of the central highlands have developed since the arrival of the sweet potato on the island—perhaps as little as 500 years ago. The major traditional population centers are found in the interior uplands (Baliem and Ilaga valleys, Paniai Lakes, and Arfak Mountains). Most societies are forest-or coastal-dwelling, with primary dependence upon sweet potatoes and pigs (interior) or fish and yams (coastal). It seems all New Guineans are accomplished gardeners as well as accomplished warriors. In most instances, the warlike traditions have been suppressed over the last century, mainly through the teachings of Christian missionaries.

HISTORY OF WESTERN ENGAGEMENT AND POLITICAL HISTORY

Papua was undoubtedly first contacted by Islamic traders from the west in search of spices and other exotic trade goods. The undocumented first contacts between the traders and the coastal Papuans perhaps first took place more than a thousand years ago. But initial trade was probably local—between Papuan people and those of Maluku just to the west and south. Major trade probably did not begin until after 1000 bce. The first Europeans to sail the coastline of Papua were Portuguese, in the 1500s, and they were followed by the whole cast of exploring nations (Spanish, Dutch, then English). These explorers were seeking trade routes as well as products to trade. This exploring era lasted from the 1500s to the early 1800s. It was followed by a period of regular trade (bêche-de-mer or trepang, bird of paradise skins, turtle shell, massoi bark, etc.), which, in turn was followed by initial settlements (trade driven), then missionary activity. Early naturalist/explorers included Alfred Russel Wallace, who visited the Vogelkop (Bird’s Head) and Raja Ampat Islands in the 1840s, and Odoardi Beccari and Luigi d’Albertis, who visited the Arfak Mountains in the 1870s. The Dutch made a preliminary claim to New Guinea west of the current border of 141 east longitude in 1826, but this infamous border was not formalized with the colonial powers of Britain until 1895 (in the south) and with Germany in 1910 (in the north). What followed was a rather weak attempt to establish government outstations, some rather stronger efforts to explore the interior (1900–1930), and to surmount Papua’s forbidding high peaks. Remarkably, the highest peak of Papua, Mt Jaya, was not successfully ascended until 1962 by Austrian Heinrich Harrer. Dutch, British, and American biological expeditions were conducted into the remote interior in the 1930s. Most famous was the Snow Mountains Expedition led by Richard Archbold, who discovered the populous Baliem Valley in 1938 during his aerial reconnaissance flights that allowed the expedition to ascend successfully high into the interior mountains. World War II brought this era of exploration to a close. After the War, independence issues dominated Indonesia and this led to the eventual annexation of Papua into the young Indonesian state in 1962. Indonesia has aggressively developed Papua through a bout of transmigration of landless poor from western Indonesia, through significant government and military oversight (which have included considerable conflict, tension, and bloodshed between Papuan ethnics and western Indonesians), and through natural resource exploitation (mining, fishing, logging). One expects this exploitation to expand considerably in the next several decades, and there is a question whether this exploitation will be predatory or, we hope, environmentally and culturally sustainable. Certainly that issue is a theme that runs through this book.

This Book and Its Goals

This book, following the model of the preceding eight volumes of the Ecology of Indonesia series, seeks to provide a clear, comprehensive, yet concise account of the environment of this easternmost region of the vast archipelagic nation of Indonesia. The text is written with a university student in mind, but there is authoritative material that will be of interest to the serious academic researcher as well. We have departed from the plan of the original series in that we have sought out the world’s experts to contribute chapters on their specialties. In doing so, we have collected the very latest thinking on each subject. Through judicious editing, we have made certain that this cutting-edge material is accessible to the reader. We have attempted to avoid use of specialized and jargon terminology, or at least carefully defined these terms for the reader. Our goal is to have compiled a broad and comprehensive accounting of the natural history of Papua.

Literature Cited

Diamond, J. (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton and Company, New York.

Hope, G.S., J.A. Peterson, U. Radok, and I. Allison (eds.). 1976. The Equatorial Glaciers of New Guinea. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam.

Petocz, R. 1989. Conservation and Development in Irian Jaya. Brill, Leiden.

Oatham, M., and B. Beehler. 1997. Richness, taxonomic composition, and species patchiness in three lowland forest plots in Papua New Guinea. Pp. 649–668 in Dallmeier, F., and J. Comisky (eds.) Forest Biodiversity Research, Monitoring and Modeling: A Conceptual Background and Old World Case Studies. Parthenon Publishing, Casterton, UK.

Marshall, A. J., and Beehler, B. M. (eds.). 2006. The Ecology of Papua. Singapore: Periplus Editions.

1.2. Biological Exploration of New Guinea

DAVID G. FRODIN

BIOLOGICAL EXPLORATION in New Guinea and its surrounding islands has a relatively long post-Columbian history, but until the 1760s it was casual, with "curiosa" and narrative descriptions the most tangible results. Even the "great voyages" of the subsequent decades paid but fleeting visits, with some—notably the Endeavour—actually rebuffed; the few contemporary attempts at settlement from outside were failures. Only in the last third of the nineteenth century did serious exploration begin, with the last large "white spaces" in the interior highlands "filled in" just as World War II approached.

The marvelous birds of paradise, whose center of diversity is in mainland New Guinea, were among the first objects of natural history to attract attention from Europeans, but for long they were known only from their legless skins, obtained in direct or market trade. But the land soon came to be seen as hostile to settlement, even for the Portuguese and Spanish and, after them, the Dutch East India Company, so no extended surveys were made. Indeed, until the latter part of the eighteenth century (thus through most of Linnaeus’s lifetime) New Guinea was effectively "beyond the frontier," with only its western fringes anywhere near a commercial realm (and so—fortunately for posterity—within the reach of Rumphius at Ambon). Otherwise, acquisition of geographical and natural history knowledge was casual, with Dampier among the few prominent contributors.

The "great voyages" of the seven decades preceding 1840 did touch upon several parts of mainland New Guinea and its neighboring islands, with the naturalists of one voyage demonstrating that birds of paradise indeed had legs. Yet, although they established the main geographical outlines of the region, their visits were brief and their collections, though primary, were generally small and from but few localities. Apart from these contributions—not all of them fully reported upon—the only substantial collections until 1870 were those made in the late 1820s on the southwestern coast by Zipelius and Macklot and later—mainly in the Vogelkop (Bird’s Head) peninsula—by Wallace in 1858 and von Rosenberg from then through the 1860s. Not even the formal annexation of western New Guinea by the Dutch Indian government in 1848 provoked significant activity.

The opening of the Suez Canal, the development of settlements in Australia, increasing commercial interest in the Pacific Islands, the growth of the plume trade, and scientific curiosity (particularly in the wake of Wallace’s Malay Archipelago) finally led to sustained outside interest in Papuasia and an opening up of its interiors. A veritable "rush" by explorers then ensued, particularly in the wake of the territorial acquisitions by Germany in the northeast and its large island neighbors, and Britain in the southeast—all under the gaze (and even sponsorship) of the now well-developed popular press.

By 1914 very considerable progress had been made, with after 1900 greater official interest—but largely in the Dutch and German spheres, surpassing the very effective work by Macgregor, administrator in British New Guinea over the decade leading up to 1898. Sadly, that was succeeded by relative indifference—particularly after 1901 with transfer of control to Australia. After World War I (though slightly later in western New Guinea), the rest of New Guinea also became something of a "backwater"—with few official undertakings in natural history. Exploration did, however, continue—though largely under outside sponsorship—leading to further major discoveries, particularly in the 1930s. By the end of that decade, the major outlines of the biota had become known—particularly after the prodigious efforts of the Third Archbold Expedition—and the age of "primary" exploration was over.

In contrast to the "Great War," during World War II New Guinea and its islands were a major theater of conflict, greatly increasing the region’s profile. The stage was now set for three decades of "secondary" exploration, much of it under the auspices of the administering countries (including their "metropolitan" organizations), and the establishment of local collections and research facilities. Through the 1960s, substantial resources were allocated to land, agricultural, forest, and marine surveys in both east and west; in 1959 the Dutch mounted a final, "major" exploring expedition to "the last white spot on the map," Juliana Top (now Mt Mandala) and the western Star Mountains. There was also much extra-official exploration and other activity, including the establishment of biological stations, beginning with what is now the Wau Ecology Institute, set up in 1961 by the late J. Linsley Gressitt.

After transfer of control of western New Guinea to Indonesia (1963/1969) and, in 1975, the independence of Papua New Guinea (PNG), official efforts fell away—particularly after 1980 in PNG. Biogeography and Ecology of New Guinea (1982; see section on "Collections" below) could thus be said to mark the end of an era. Individual and group exploration and research (under sponsorship or otherwise) has, however, continued over the subsequent quarter-century, now with ecology, conservation, and "sustainability" as guiding themes. In this, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—including universities in both west and east New Guinea as well as research stations—have played an increasing role. Though progress—perhaps inevitably—has been fragmented, there have been significant achievements, some of them recorded in the Post-World War II section, below. Future exploratory efforts should focus particularly on poorly known areas (documented in recent conservation assessments; see References section, below). But at the same time work must continue on consolidating, enhancing, preserving, and making more available our knowledge of what we already have to hand—not easy in the face of competition for research resources, changing interests, insecurity, and indeed a fall in new entrants to the sciences.

Before the Rush: Early History (1500–1875)

WHEN BIRDS OF PARADISE HAD NO LEGS (1500-1815)

1500–1760

Settled by humans in the late Quaternary, with two further waves of immigrants respectively in the early and post-historical Recent, New Guinea and its islands—particularly after the Lapita migrations—were initially visited by Malay (and perhaps also Chinese) traders from Dobo (in the Aru Islands) and elsewhere. The earliest recorded explorers were, however, post-Columbian Europeans, sailing from both west and east partly in search of the "great southern land" then thought to be necessary to balance the large masses in the north, particularly Eurasia. Not until the 17th century—and passing into general knowledge only much later—were the northern fringes of the supposed southern landmass shown to be a great island.

Although Magellan’s expedition—to which we owe the first European use of the word "Papua" and knowledge of its birds of paradise—sailed near New Ireland in 1521, the first to arrive in the waters off the mainland was the Portuguese Jorge de Meneses in 1527. But, reaching only as far as Biak and the north coast of the Vogelkop Peninsula, he would have had no idea of its extent. He was followed in 1528 by Alvaro de Saavedra and in 1537 by Hernando de Grijalva, neither in turn venturing beyond Yapen and Biak. In 1545 Ynigo Ortiz de Retes, also—like Saavedra—in an attempt to sail to Mexico, reached as far as Manam and the Schouten Islands (off the mouths of the Ramu and Sepik) as well as the western Admiralty Islands, Aua and Wuvulu, before having to turn back to Tidore. On the voyage back he called in near present-day Sarmi and named the land "Nueva Guinea" because the people looked like Africans. Entry from the Americas only came later: in 1567—two years before Mercator’s world map first appeared—the Spaniard Alvaro de Mendaña discovered the later-lost Solomon Islands. He attempted a return in 1595 but died at sea, with Pedro Fernández de Quirós eventually taking command of that expedition. In 1606 Quirós, with papal and other support, once more sailed to the South Pacific, discovering what is now Vanuatu; but there his expedition fell apart. His associate Luis Vaéz de Torres—aided by the southeasterly trade winds—continued west towards New Guinea, reaching the present Milne Bay Islands near Samarai (where, on Sideia, the company dined on what is now the first record of a Papuasian marsupial) and afterwards sailing along the south coast and traversing the strait now named after him.

The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies set sail in 1597 and soon afterwards contacts by Dutchmen with New Guinea began in earnest. Willem Jansz on the Duyfken in 1606 may have been the first; but more important was the voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire in 1616, who viewed much of the north coast along with Manus Island and present-day New Ireland. Both voyages suffered massacres. In 1623 Jan Carstensz sailed along the southwestern coast and was the first to see—in disbelief—the snow-and ice-capped highest peaks of the mainland which for long bore his name (but now collectively are Mt Jaya). Two decades later, in 1643, Abel Tasman touched upon New Ireland and, for the first time, sailed by the north coast of what is now New Britain, but yet thought them continuous with New Guinea (and New Holland, as Australia was then known). But this would be the last such effort on their part: Jan Compagnie was a commercial enterprise, and of potential profit little was to be seen. Contacts with New Guinea became largely restricted to its western fringes, with which an active trade would be carried on and whence G. E. Rumphius, from 1653 at Ambon in the Jan Compagnie’s service for half a century, received much valuable information, in time incorporated into his famous Thesaurus amboinensis (1705) and Herbarium amboinense (1741–1750, 1755).

In 1700 came the epoch-making visit by the Englishman William Dampier—the region’s first "enlightened" explorer. In his ancient ship Roebuck he visited the north coast and discovered Mussau and Emira north of New Ireland, sailed along the north coast of New Ireland and then past his "St George’s Bay" along the south coast of what was still thought to be a large peninsula. After discovering the deep strait between it and New Guinea, he bestowed on what was now an island the name "Nova Britannia" (New Britain) by which it has been known ever since (save as "Neu-Pommern" during German rule). But the ex-buccaneer and explorer was also a natural historian and collector, so he brought back "curiosa" for appreciation and study: the earliest scientific specimens from the region (apart from those from Rumphius surviving in Florence).

Publication of Dampier’s A Voyage to New-Holland (1703) stimulated further coastal exploration over the subsequent three decades, particularly in the west (with Dampier himself returning in 1705), and in 1714 the Sultan of Tidore ceded his territories in New Guinea (with the southern Moluccas) to the Dutch. But it was the now-ascendant French and English who were to set an entirely new trend. Taking a cue from Dampier, most voyages from the 1750s onwards involved serious scientific work as well as exploration and contact, and carried naturalists or physician-naturalists.

1760–1815

The first of the "new" expeditions was British. In 1767 Philip Carteret in the Swallow visited parts of the southwestern Pacific, the northwestern Solomons and "greater" New Britain—and found that "St George’s Bay" was a channel. He thus gave the northern island its name of "Nova Hibernia" (New Ireland), so-called ever since (save as "Neu-Mecklenberg" during German rule). Significantly, Cart-eret discovered some safe anchorages at its southwestern end (including Gower Harbor—soon afterwards named "Port Praslin" by Bougainville and visited by many later expeditions, and in the late nineteenth century the scene of the tragic "Nouvelle France" settlement scheme). Carteret was followed in 1768 by the Frenchman Louis Antoine de Bougainville who, in two ships (La Boudeuse and L’Étoile) and with Philibert Commerson as naturalist, visited among other places parts of the southeastern coast, the Louisiade Archipelago, the northern Solomon Islands (notably those now known as Choiseul, Bougainville, and Buka), and southwestern New Ireland before hastening westwards to Java to relieve his crews. In 1770 James Cook, with J. Banks and D. Solander, definitively verified New Guinea’s distinctness from New Holland (now known as Australia) by sailing through Torres Strait. Beyond that treacherous passage, the Endeavour only landed on the southwest coast for one day, where Banks made some thirty plant collections—of which a list survives—under protection of the ship’s guns and marines.

The French now used the new knowledge of the region, particularly that gained by Bougainville and Commerson, for economic gain—their governor in Mauritius, Pierre Poivre, was determined to break the Dutch spice monopoly. With advice from Commerson (who had joined Poivre’s service), Simon Provost in 1769–1770 (as part of an expedition on two ships, L’Étoile du Matin and Vigilant) and then Pierre Sonnerat in 1771–1772 (under Provost), as part of extensive missions in the Moluccas and Philippines, reached Gebé (near Gag) in the extreme west of Papuasia; but they touched neither on other New Guinean islands nor the mainland (in spite of the title of Sonnerat’s popular 1776 book, Voyage à la Nouvelle-Guinée). Economically, however, the French voyagers were successful; the principal spices came to be established in the Mascarenes and elsewhere, in time contributing to the demise of the Dutch East India Company. Sonnerat’s natural history collections (Paris) are primarily zoological; he also lives on in the epithet for one of that museum’s collections databases.

In 1781 a Spaniard, Francisco Antonio Maurelle, discovered more isles of the Bismarcks including the Los Negros near Manus; but still the north coast of New Britain remained poorly known. This would be partially remedied in the next decade. In 1792 and 1793 another French world voyage—charged by Louis XVI with searching for the lost expedition of La Pérouse and under the command of A. R. J. de Bruny d’Entrecasteaux—was in New Guinea waters with La Recherche and L’Espérance. The two ships called at several points, including for the first time Huon Gulf (named after the Espérance’s commander, Huon de Kermadec); other important work was done in the Milne Bay region, southwestern New Ireland, around the Bismarck Sea, and on tiny Rawak off Waigeo. Many well-known and still-current geographical names were at this time introduced. D’Entrecasteaux’s naturalists were J. J. Houtou de La Billiardière, Louis Ventenat, L. A. Deschamps, and Claude Riche, with Félix de Lahaie accompanying them as a "gardener-botanist." Sadly, the commander died at sea west of Manus on 20 July 1793 and later, in Java, the expedition broke up in confusion over the consequences of the French Revolution (A. Hesmivy d’Auribeau, second in command, was a staunch royalist—but died in 1794 just before capture, while La Billiardière led the republican faction). La Billiardière’s collections (and those of others) were confiscated by the Dutch and sent to England, but through Banks’s good offices restored to him a few years later (his plants are now in Florence). Unfortunately for Papuasia, he published only on his Australian and New Caledonian plants (the former in 1804– 1807 as Novae Hollandiae plantarum specimen, the latter in 1824–1825 as Sertum austro-caledonicum). Lahaie’s own collections are in Paris (and Geneva).

REALITY, DISAPPOINTMENT, AND RENEWAL (1815-1875)

1815–1850

The wars and disruptions of the French Republican and Napoleonic eras were to restrict exploration for the next 20 years or so, but after 1815 a new flowering took place, associated with the growth of mercantile trade and the related development of detailed marine charts—the latter first undertaken on a large scale by Flinders in the Investigator.

In New Guinea and its islands the quarter-century from 1815 was dominated by several great French voyages—all with naturalists—which collectively added substantially to natural history knowledge and amassed considerable collections (now in the Natural History Museum in Paris, though many perhaps remain little-known or even undocumented). The voyages were part of a diplomatic and mercantile initiative, intended to show that after all its humiliations France still mattered—but, save for French Polynesia (and, somewhat later, New Caledonia), they did not lead much to new overseas territories (although the French claim to "Adélie Land" in Antarctica dates from the visit there by the last of these expeditions). Inspired by the example of von Humboldt, the collections, elaborated by professional naturalists, formed a basis for many sumptuous publications—these in turn inspiring the undertakings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

First into New Guinea waters were the Uranie and Physicienne under Louis de Freycinet in 1818–1819. His naturalists were Jean R. C. Quoy and Joseph Gaimard with Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré. They called, however, only at Rawak (off Waigeo—earlier visited by d’Entrecasteaux’s expedition; see above)—en route to Guam. While returning to France, the Uranie was lost in the Falklands (also known as Malvinas) Islands, though many collections survived (and others were added).

Freycinet was followed in 1822–1824 by the Coquille under Louis Duperrey; accompanying him were Jules Sébastien Dumont d’Urville, Prosper Garnot, and René Lesson. That team collected insects, birds, other animals, and plants in the Solomons, Port Praslin (southern New Ireland), Rawak (see above) and Doré Bay (Manokwari, in the Vogelkop Peninsula), this last spot a new frontier for science—though first surveyed in 1775 by Thomas Forrest. Lesson in particular there collected and studied birds of paradise, and was the first to learn—three centuries on from when, in 1522, skins of Paradisaea minor had reached Seville with the Vittoria—that they had legs; but his collections (and, particularly, living individuals) then helped to create the more than half-century-long fashion in Europe (and elsewhere) for their feathers—and, in turn, contribute to popular conservation awareness.

Later Dumont d’Urville led two more expeditions through the region: the first during 1826–1829 in L’Astrolabe (ex-Coquille), with Quoy, Lesson, and Gaimard as naturalists, calling at New Ireland, the present Astrolabe Bay off Madang, Doré Bay, and Waigeo as well as—for the first time after Dampier—sailing along the south coast of New Britain (naming, among other places, Cape Merkus and Jacquinot Bay, the latter after his second-in-command Charles Hector Jacquinot); and the second in 1838–1839 and 1840 as part of his voyages to the South Pole in L’Astrolabe and (under C. H. Jacquinot) La Zélée with naturalists Jacques Hombron, Honoré Jacquinot, and Elie J. F. Le Guillou—respectively specializing in zoology, botany, and entomology. Around New Guinea they called at various points: Triton Bay (where the Dutch settlement had then been recently abandoned), the Louisiades (to complete d’Entrecasteaux’s surveys), and also sailed along the southeastern coast (naming the Varirata ridge near present-day Port Moresby as the Astrolabe Range).

Other nations, however, were not inactive. In 1820 the Dutch, with the Indies restored to them (and accorded international recognition from 1824), set up under Willem I a "Natural Sciences Commission" (Natuurkundige Commissie). Over the next thirty years they were to make extensive expeditions, inland as well as coastal, in the still poorly-known archipelago—but mortality was high. Among these was, in 1828, a visit to New Guinea. In connection with a projected settlement, A. J. van Delden with the Triton and Iris led a surveying expedition along much of the southwest coast. Accompanying van Delden were Commission members Heinrich C. Macklot, Alexander Zipelius, and Salomon Müller, the last the first to document the marked zoological differences between the western and eastern parts of the Indies. They were accompanied by two artists, P. van Oort and G. van Raalten. The settlement—known as "Merkusoord" after then then-Governor of the Moluccas and one of the promoters, Pieter Merkus—was established in the lands of the Lobo at Triton Bay (not far east of present-day Kaimana) and protected by a fort, "du Bus" (after the then-Commissar-General of the Indies, Leonard du Bus de Gissignies). All these names have been used in collections and literature and here are set out for convenience. But the settlement did not last long; and of the naturalists and artists only Müller was to survive early death or (in Macklot’s case) murder. Their collections—the first significant lot from this part of New Guinea and for decades one of the few available—made their way to Leiden in the Netherlands and were variously written up by Temminck, Blume, Müller, and others.

From 1840 the British returned, but—like the Dutch—were now concerned as much with detailed coastal and hydrographic survey as with primary exploration. This continued a tradition begun with the Investigator under Flinders and skillfully developed over the middle decades of the nineteenth century (and since, with modifications). Such surveys—tedious but essential in a new and increasingly global age of commerce and settlement—did, however, continue to provide opportunities for natural history research. Indeed, it was on such a voyage that the young Charles Darwin sailed with Robert Fitzroy in 1831–1836. After 1850, however, surveys of Australasia and the western Pacific were largely conducted from Sydney rather than London.

The first of the Royal Navy vessels to sail through New Guinea waters were the Sulphur (with the Starling) under Edward Belcher (who had succeeded F. W. Beechey on what had become an "interminable voyage"). Himself strongly interested in natural history and assisted by R. B. Hinds and A. G. Barclay, respectively as naturalist-surgeon and gardener-botanist, Belcher called in to the Solomons, Port Praslin (southwestern New Ireland), Kairiru off the north coast, and Yapen, collecting some animals and plants (now at London: BMNH, Kew)—though with rather less profit than in the eastern Pacific and the Americas, the voyage’s main objectives. The Sulphur was soon followed by two more focused voyages to the south, reflecting the increasing importance of the future Australia and the passage between it and New Guinea, the treacherous Torres Strait—now becoming a key route between India, Southeast Asia, and New South Wales. The 1842–1846 voyage of the Fly and Bramble under F. P. Blackwood with, as geologist, J. Beete Jukes and a naturalist-artist, John MacGillivray, focused in particular on the Torres Strait and the northern Australian coast, but also (in 1845) examined the western Gulf of Papua and discovered the Fly and Turama rivers, sailing some ways up the Fly. Blackwood’s work was continued by the Rattlesnake under Owen Stanley in 1846–1850, with particular attention to the Louisiades, the future China Strait, and the southeastern coasts (including Yule Island); he was accompanied by Mac-Gillivray and the future evolutionist T. H. Huxley (who in particular collected cnidarians and mollusks). The emphasis on natural history in both voyages was on geology, zoology, and marine biology, with but few land plants collected (all at BMNH). Jukes and MacGillivray, respectively, wrote the narratives of these last two voyages, Owen Stanley sadly having died at Sydney before the return (under C. B. Yule) of the Rattlesnake to Britain via Cape Horn. But, in contrast to the work of the Sulphur, publication of the scientific results would be somewhat piecemeal—times were harder, and the Admiralty was more interested in those of the Southern Ocean voyage of the Erebus and Terror.

All this exploration was, however, not followed by much settlement. An attempt had been made by an English party in 1795 at Doré Bay, but until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that at Triton Bay mentioned above would be the most serious effort. But it, too, would soon be defeated by disease and a hostile environment. Missions also remained few and far between; that of the Congregatio Mariae at Woodlark Island—being the first in the east, following proclamation of the apostolic vicariate of Melanesia by Pope Pius IX. Though after some years also suffering the fate of Merkusoord, the station was during 1847–1852 a collecting locality for one of the Marist priests, Père J. Xavier H. Montrouzier—the earliest French missionary-naturalist to be active in the New Guinea region. At and around the settlement he collected insects, mollusks, and fish (Paris, partly lost), but no plants. From Woodlark he moved to New Caledonia, settling on the north-westerly Ile Art. In 1855 he published (at Lyon, France) his pioneer Essai sur la faune de l’île de Woodlark ou Moiou.

1850–1875

With the departure of the Rattlesnake, the age of the major exploring and survey expeditions for the New Guinea region was over. The way, however, had been paved for safe passage of commercial shipping, including the new mixed steam and sail ships. But official interest remained relatively low in this third quarter of the nineteenth century save for its last five years or so when potential annexations loomed. Instead, it was independent, often privately sponsored naturalists—particularly in the west, closer to the developing East Indian shipping network and its connections to Australia, Asia, and Europe—who came to dominate natural history exploration for these years. Some, such as Miklucho-Maclay as well as Beccari and d’Albertis, had official assistance in the form of passage on naval vessels. Extension of mission networks provided other opportunities, notably at Doré Bay, the Torres Strait Islands (from 1871; see below), Port Moresby (1874), and the Duke of York Islands (1875); some of the missionaries themselves made collections and sent them "home."

The first was none other than the most famous: Alfred Russel Wallace, who during his sojourn in Malesia made two visits to the New Guinea region. In 1857 he visited the Aru Islands, while in 1858 he spent a few weeks collecting at Doré Bay (primarily insects but also birds). Himself largely ill and coast-bound, from there his collectors went into the Arfak Mountains, achieving many new finds. In 1860, he collected (and observed) on Gam Island and Waigeo, while his assistant Charles Allen reached Salawati, Misool, and the Sorong area of the northwestern Vogelkop Peninsula. Their collections are mainly in London (BMNH). Wallace was followed by other naturalists—some of them colorful—who also sought out the northwestern peninsular region and the Raja Ampat Islands to the west. The sword-carrying German Baron C. B. H. von Rosenberg collected birds in several visits over 1858–1870 (Leiden, BMNH), meeting Wallace at Doré Bay and overlapping with Allen in Misool; while in 1864 Heinrich Bernstein collected animals at Sorong, Waigeo, and Salawati.

But going into the last third of the nineteenth century—particularly with the opening of the Suez Canal and the publication of The Malay Archipelago by Wallace, both in 1869, as well as the spread of the world steamship network—outside contacts increased rapidly. In 1871 there came the first European resident in the east (after Montrouzier and the other Marists at Woodlark), the now almost legendary Russian ethnologist-naturalist N. N. de Miklucho-Maclay. He was landed near Bongu on Astrolabe Bay by his country’s Vitiaz—a name now given to the deep strait between New Guinea and New Britain, first traversed by Dampier—and remained there for over a year. He returned to what is now the Rai Coast in 1876–1877, 1878, and 1883, and at other times visited Triton Bay (the former Merkusoord), Gebé, and (in 1880) the Torres Strait Islands as well as Samarai (near China Strait—the latter by then becoming a trading post taking advantage of the growth of local commerce as well as a key new shipping route established following Moresby’s surveys; see below). The Russian collected some animals, a few plants, and much ethnographic data; in addition he introduced some fruits and other plants—among them papaw (papaya), Carica papaya ("banana bilong Maclay"). Many of his specimens and data were lost, though some insects were described by Sir William J. Macleay in Sydney. His New Guinea Diaries (1975, translated and edited by C. L. Sentinella) and Travels to New Guinea: diaries, letters, documents (1982, compiled by D. Tumarkin) along with two biographies (Who travels alone (1944) by F. S. Greenop and The Moon Man (1984) by E. M. Webster) cover his travels and in particular give an interesting picture of the untouched north coast more than a century and a quarter ago. Also in 1871, the London Missionary Society made its first landings in the region, Samuel Macfarlane (later senior missionary) and A. W. Murray reaching the Torres Strait Islands and other points along the south coast. Later, from bases at Cape York and (after 1877) at Maer (Murray) Island in the Strait, the mission under Macfarlane—with the aid of a small ship, the Ellengowan—would establish a number of stations over a wide area. These included, as already indicated, a station at Port Moresby, and, in 1877, one at South Cape (Suau). This gave him many opportunities for exploration, yielding some collections (plants, Melbourne); he also sailed with d’Albertis and Macleay (see below).

In the west, the appearance of outside powers in the waters of the Archipelago now spurred the Dutch Indian authorities into some action with respect to their lands, including New Guinea; the "tempo dulu" of the past was about to recede. In August 1871 the steamer Dassoon (under Capt. A. Smits) with the smaller Wilhelmina Frederika and with two Tidorean chiefs (brothers of the Sultan, who retained some residual rights), P. van der Crab on behalf of the Indies government, and, as botanist, J. E. Teysmann (from Bogor, now acting as an agent for the new director of the Botanic Garden, R. H. C. C. Scheffer), sailed from Ternate. Over some three months they called at several points in Papua, reaching east to Humboldt Bay (and also for a distance east of 141, the then-nominal border). Considerable plant collections were made (Bogor, Melbourne, Leiden). They were written up in 1876 by Scheffer—part of the Garden’s first steps towards an independent scientific existence. Of other biota there was obtained but little—a disappointment, if less deathly than for the Triton and Iris in 1828.

The fame of Wallace and his book—and even more the fabled birds of paradise, whose feathers were now becoming seriously fashionable—now brought a stream of other visitors, including many naturalists. A. A. Bruijn (from Ternate) collected in 1871–1879, partly for the plume trade (birds, Tring/AMNH and BMNH). In 1872–1873 the Italians Odoardo Beccari (an all-round botanist and later a famous palm specialist) and Luigi M. d’Albertis came to Doré Bay, from there climbing into the Arfak Mountains as far as the Hatam district—Beccari there obtaining the first botanical collections from anywhere in the mountains of New Guinea, as well as insects and other zoological materials (Florence, Genoa; d’Albertis had trained at Genoa’s Museo Civico di Storia Naturale under its head curator, Giacomo Doria). Ramoi (south of Sorong), Mt Epa, Andai, and some of the Raja Ampat Islands were also visited (as well as, in 1873, the Aru group). Almost at the same time, there came to the northwest A. B. Meyer from Dresden, specializing in zoology and ethnography; but his extensive itinerary and localities were at least partially falsified or fictitious. In 1874 the great Challenger oceanographic expedition (of 1872–1876) sailed for the first time into New Guinea waters, voyaging westwards via the Torres Strait Islands and visiting, in September, the Aru (and Kai) Islands with H. N. Moseley there making plant and animal collections (Kew, BMNH); the next year the ship would sail along the north coast and visit the Admiralty Islands (see below).

In 1875–1876 Beccari returned to the Vogelkop Peninsula, but this time on his own; during a long stay—which included another ascent into the Arfaks—he also visited Yapen and Biak as well as most of the main Raja Ampat Islands (Misool, Batanta, Salawati, Kofiau, and Waigeo, some for the second time). But even to this day his substantial plant collections have never fully been worked up, though he is commemorated in many binomials. His former companion d’Albertis now turned to the east. A Garibaldi veteran and in recent years viewed as one of the most notorious of adventurer-naturalists ever to visit New Guinea, he made in 1875–1877 three trips to present-day Papua New Guinea: the first with Macfarlane (see above) for some distance up the Fly River as well as staying on his own for some time on Yule Island (there meeting with the Chevert under Macleay; see also below); and his more famous second and third trips far up the Fly in the steam launch Neva, in 1876 as far as the foothills of the central ranges—the furthest stab into the dark interior hitherto made by an outsider. Substantial collections of ethnographic material as well as plants and many animals were taken back (Genoa, Florence, Melbourne); his travel book, Alla Nuova Guinea, appeared (1880, in the same year also released in English as New Guinea: what I did and what I saw). A string of species was named after him including a ring-tailed possum, Pseudochirops albertisi and the Buff-tailed Sicklebill, Epimachus albertisi.

The increasing level of activities in and around New Guinea (as well as the labor trade of Queensland) not unnaturally attracted renewed British naval attention. As a result, two final major surveying voyages were undertaken from Sydney by the steam/sail ship Basilisk under the command of Capt. John Moresby. His first voyage of six months in 1872–1873 made further detailed coastal surveys along the south and southeast coasts and the nearer Milne Bay Islands, including China Strait, which then received its name. With surer propulsion and maneuverability, he also was able to penetrate the long fringing southern reef in several places and so become the first outsider to see Fairfax Harbor (Port Moresby) on 21 February; the reef passage was (and is) named after his ship. A Congregational mission station was set up beside the bay the next year, paving the way for serious interior exploration and (from 1886) outside settlement. In early 1874 Moresby returned and continued his detailed surveying, now traversing the northeast coast and by mid-May reaching Huon Gulf (before sailing around to the north coast and on to Ambon and, finally, Britain).

On both voyages Moresby was accompanied by Peter Comrie as naturalist; he collected insects, mammals, and birds but very few plants, and published but little. As with the Sulphur in the Pacific and, to a lesser extent, the Rattlesnake, a good opportunity for significant scientific contributions in monographic form was not taken up or lost due to official opposition, parsimony, or narrowly-drawn instructions—or passed over in favor of the Challenger results. But, in any case, by 1875—the year the Challenger sailed through the northern parts of the New Guinea region—a single shipboard naturalist could not handle all the requirements demanded of the different departments of natural history, now quickly deepening and further diversifying.

"Guinea Gold": The Scramble for Specimens and Species (1875–1914)

SOUTHEASTERN NEW GUINEA

(BRITISH NEW GUINEA, LATER PAPUA)

Pre-proclamation Years (to 1884)

The discoveries and surveys of John Moresby appeared in popular form in London in 1876 and quickly were reviewed in the Australian press. Not long before, the Challenger—which had visited the continent during the first half of its voyage—focused a good deal of attention on natural history. This coincided with the first wave of nationalism in Australia, by then relatively prosperous from wool and mining; indeed, for some time the colonies were per capita collectively among the wealthiest polities in the world. Settlement was already looking beyond Queensland, and there also was a fear of covetous outside powers with their own interests in trading and labor recruiting. The great business houses of Towns (commemorated in Townsville), Burns Philp (founded 1875, also at Townsville), and others were coming into existence, with Burns Philp early becoming interested in Pacific trade. Miklucho-Maclay’s presence in Sydney in the 1870s (and his marriage there to a socially prominent young woman) as well as his writings also attracted metropolitan attention to New Guinea.

All this was embodied in Sir William Macleay’s private natural history and marine-biological voyage in 1875 in the old sailing ship Chevert; its departure from Sydney on 18 May was a festive occasion. Natural history was at the height of its social popularity and Macleay was not only a notable scientist but also a wealthy parliamentarian and socialite—his grandfather Alexander having come out from Britain as Colonial Secretary fifty years before. A number of "scientific men" accompanied him on the voyage. Following an interest expressed by Ferdinand von Mueller in Melbourne, J. Reedy, a gardener from the Macarthur estate outside Camden, was also taken on to handle plant introductions and collecting (Melbourne; we owe to him the first collections of eucalypts from southern New Guinea). Regrettably, however, due to conflicts aboard ship as well as adverse weather (the course of the expedition largely coinciding with the southeastern monsoon) and other factors, geographical discoveries were few although the marine zoological collections would be considerable (Macleay Museum/AM). At Somerset near Cape York came a meeting with Macfarlane, who accompanied them in the Strait and along the nearby mainland coasts and mouth of the Fly. At Yule Island, d’Albertis’ simultaneous presence also had an effect. The expedition returned to Cape York by early September and the Chevert then sailed back south to Sydney; but over time only few publications resulted. Succeeding expeditions from Australia would generally be more modest undertakings.

Steamship services advanced rapidly through the 1870s to and from Australia and along the Queensland coast; by 1877 traffic through the treacherous but now relatively well-surveyed Torres Strait was such that the Queensland Government established Thursday Island as a northern station (with pilotage) in place of Cape York. This enhanced access to the Torres Strait Islands and the adjacent New Guinea mainland. Two years later the surface border was proclaimed, annexing all the Straits islands—including some very close to the mainland—to Queensland, a protocol which remains (although the seabed border is now slightly to the south). Boom-town Cooktown became a favored transfer point, especially for Samarai and the northern areas. Thus the southeastern parts of New Guinea became relatively accessible and as frequented as the Vogelkop Peninsula, albeit more by British and Australian collectors (although Italians too were notable in the early years, as we shall see).

As already noted, the establishment of a London Missionary Society (Congregational) station at Port Moresby—initially under the leadership of W. G. Lawes—was crucial for the beginnings of inland exploration and potential settlement. First into the field were Kendall Broadbent (1873–1879; collections, Pittsburgh) and Andrew Goldie (mainly from 1876–1882, before becoming largely a storekeeper and so remaining until 1890 when he sold out to Burns Philp). The Sogeri Plateau was reached first by O. C. Stone in 1875 and then by Goldie in 1877. Goldie was in 1875–1877 joined by Morton from the Australian Museum (with in late 1877 a visit to the Louisiades, not long before the first discoveries there of gold) and in 1878 by the German collector Carl Hunstein. Over the next half-decade Hunstein, as Goldie’s assistant, traveled extensively in the difficult ranges beyond the Sogeri Plateau (east and northeast of Port Moresby) and therein discovered several new birds of paradise, so establishing his reputation. Goldie himself obtained many animals (Sydney) and plants (Melbourne). Although outside interest soon fell (as settlement prospects proved disappointing), in the years leading up to 1884 collecting by the residents continued, for plants (Melbourne) with much encouragement from von Mueller (who from their collections published many new species and records). In addition to Goldie and Hunstein, major contributors were Lawes, another missionary, James Chalmers (from 1877), and their assistants (particularly Jakoba). Over the years 1879–1885 all made sometimes lengthy tours, Chalmers for a time from a base at Suau (South Cape, Milne Bay) but later from Port Moresby. In 1882 Goldie went once more to the east, visiting the D’Entrecasteaux Islands; in 1884 Chalmers accompanied the annexation squadron (and with Cyprian Bridge ascended the Cloudy Mountains); and in 1885 he sailed with Scratch-ley (see below) on an extensive familiarization cruise, also making some further inland explorations—in part as a "mediator," he being held in high regard—before proceeding on furlough in 1886.

The attempted annexation in 1883 of all eastern New Guinea by Queensland (under then-Premier McIlwraith) proved a sensation—and in short order was disowned by Britain. W. E. Armit, a tough former policeman (and naturalist) then on assignment for a Melbourne newspaper, came in mid-year with three Dentons, all from Massachusetts, U.S.: father William (who died in the field) and sons S. W. and S. F. They traveled across the Astrolabe Range through Sogeri to the Moroka (Meroka) district (northeast of Iawarere, in the upper Musgrave River basin, an area earlier visited by Hunstein and to this day still remote, without road access); Armit collected some plants (Melbourne). The next season, Armit continued collecting in the Kabadi district (inland from Yule Island), penetrating into the foothills (and discovering, among other plants, Buddleja asiatica), and also in the Milne Bay region; and likewise in 1884 E. G. Edelfelt visited the Astrolabe Range and environs (plants, Melbourne) while J. Strachan, C. Stewart, and George Bel-ford (the last still early in a long New Guinea career, although he had already accompanied Armit and the Dentons)—again sponsored by leading newspapers in Australia—made a "gentlemen’s" trip to the Trans-Fly mainland north of Torres Strait (as well as offshore islands including Saibai), returning therein in 1885 and 1886 (plants, Melbourne).

British New Guinea (1884–1898)

While Britain in 1883 may have rebuffed annexation, in the following year it could no longer be avoided. At the famous "intergovernmental conference" of 1884–1885 in Berlin, western Melanesia was included along with Africa as part of a world program to delimit metropolitan "spheres of influence." Developing commercial and, finally, official interest thus propelled Germany into raising their flag in November 1884 over northeastern New Guinea (renamed Kaiser-Wilhelms-land), the newly named Bismarck Archipelago (and Sea), and the western Solomons (with much of Micronesia added in 1885). Partly to placate the Australian colonies, Britain almost simultaneously followed suit, Commodore Erskine on 6 November reading out the proclamation of British New Guinea—initially as a protectorate.

The first administrator of the new territory was Sir Peter Scratchley, who arrived in August 1885 but—after an energetic start—served but a few months, passing away near the end of the year. He did, however, lend considerable support (including provision of passage with him to New Guinea) to the first major exploring expedition, that of H. O. Forbes. Forbes and his team were active northeast of Port Moresby from their arrival until May the following year, with an attempt on Mt Victoria in the main Owen Stanley Range their primary goal. Though this was not successful, he spent (with one short break) a full wet season in the foothills between the Sogeri Plateau and the upper Iawarere River, collecting many animals and plants (BMNH, Melbourne, etc.). Twice he was joined by Chalmers and once by Scratchley. Unfortunately due to arguments—particularly at BMNH—many of Forbes’ plants remained unstudied until the early 1920s although the monocotyledons were worked up by H. N. Ridley within a few months of their receipt in London, the results appearing in print in 1886.

The 1880s also saw the continued formation of geographical societies—many, if not most, of them also advocates for colonial expansion and development. Some of the branches of the Geographical Society of Australasia were co-supporters (along with the Royal Geographical Society in London) of Forbes, but also in 1885 the Sydney branch organized its own expedition to the Fly and Strickland rivers. Its steam launch Bonito carried 12 scientists led by the zoologist Haacke; W. W. Froggatt collected insects (AM) while W. Bäuerlen collected several hundred plants (Melbourne). They were joined for a time by Carl Hartmann, a Queensland horticulturalist. In 1887 the Melbourne branch sponsored W. R. Cuthbertson and W. A. Sayer in their successful ascent of Mt Obree in the Owen Stanley Range—northeast of the Kemp Welch Basin in the present Rigo District—in the Owen Stanley Range (plants, Melbourne). There, Cuthbertson and Sayer overlapped with Hartmann, then on his second expedition—on the invitation of John Douglas, Scratchley’s successor as administrator—which unfortunately led to his death from fever (plants, Melbourne). Hartmann at this time also attempted to establish the first botanical garden in eastern New Guinea (at Konedobu, Port Moresby, later the site of a police barracks and, in time, other government offices).

In 1888 British New Guinea became a Crown Colony, and the energetic William Macgregor—previously in service in Fiji—was appointed as administrator (later Lt-Governor). Macgregor vigorously fostered natural history work but with a history of incidents during contacts with villagers made geographical exploration more a government monopoly. Under his direction—and sometimes his own efforts—most of the major mountains in the southeastern peninsula were climbed and as well deep interior penetration made there, up the Fly River, and along the hitherto poorly-known Gulf of Papua and present Oro Province coasts. Apart from Macgregor himself (Mt Victoria, 1889), party leaders included Belford, now in official service (Mt Yule, 1890), R. E. Guise (grandfather of Sir John Guise, first Governor-General of Papua New Guinea; Goropu Mountains including Mt Suckling, 1891), Armit (Mt Dayman, 1894) and A. C. English and Amadeo Giulianetti (Mt Albert Edward and Mt Scratchley, 1896–1897). Animals went along with ethnographic and other official collections to Brisbane (Queensland Museum, where C. W. de Vis studied the birds), while plants went initially to Melbourne (until von Mueller’s death in 1896) and then to Kew (for study by W. B. Hemsley), with some mosses going to V. F. Brotherus in Helsinki as well as (later) to H. N. Dixon (BMNH) and the liverworts to F. Stephani in Geneva.

Through these considerable efforts the mountain flora and fauna became much better known. On Mt Victoria it was first demonstrated that a true "alpine" flora existed. Previous efforts in the Vogelkop and the dry parts of the southeast led to hypotheses over Malesian affinities (Beccari) and Australian affinities (von Mueller) in the flora. In his 1889 study of the Mt Victoria flora, Mueller argued for a connection with temperate Australasia for montane plants and both therein and the Northern Hemisphere for high-montane and "alpine" plants, with links to the south better represented. Two years later—partly on the basis of his own extensive investigations in Malesia and New Guinea—the Berlin botanist and orientalist Otto Warburg, then an associate of Adolf Engler, presented a synthesis (further discussed below) for New Guinea phytogeography. But the majority of pronouncements on Papuan biogeography—from the time of Salomon Müller onwards—have been based on analyses of higher vertebrates (especially marsupials). Only in the latter part of the twentieth century did the picture with respect to plants become clearer.

Of independent naturalists in British New Guinea in the Macgregor years, Italians as well as British (and Australians) were the most conspicuous. The Italians, encouraged as before by Giacomo Doria (at Genoa), continued the tradition begun by d’Albertis and Beccari. In 1889 Lamberto Loria began the first of two expeditions to the Port Moresby region and other parts of Papua. After d’Albertis, he was the main early entomological collector in the region. Assisted by Giulianetti (see above), he spent long periods in the Sogeri and Meroka regions (to 1,300 m in the latter), the Rigo and Mekeo districts further distant from Port Moresby, as well as the coast of the gulf of Papua and Milne Bay islands (insects, crustaceans, vertebrates, etc., to Genoa; some plants to Florence). During this time, S. Giuseppe separately collected birds in the Gulf of Papua (Genoa). After Loria’s final departure, Giulianetti—as also Armit (in 1894) and, earlier, Belford—became a public servant, working for MacGregor as Government Agent for collection of natural history specimens, including birds (Brisbane) and plants (Kew) and, as already indicated, partly leading a major mountain expedition (during which he found the magnificent (and edible) highland screw-palm, Pandanus jiulianettii). Another officer (and fairly prolific writer), C. A. W. Monckton, collected at Kokoda and elsewhere, and made a remarkable crossing of the Owen Stanley Range into the Lakekamu Basin (BMNH; see also below).

From Australia, three further botanists came in the latter years of the Macgregor administration. Two were under official auspices: W. V. Fitzgerald (later active in Western Australia) in 1895, collecting particularly in Oro and Milne Bay Provinces (plants, Melbourne); and in 1898—at the close of Macgregor’s second term—F. M. Bailey, Queensland Government Botanist, undertook a tour with Lord Lamington (the then-Governor of the colony, whose surname today graces a notorious volcano in Oro Province as well as a popular small, chocolate-filled square cake topped with coconut flakes), also collecting and later reporting on his plants (Brisbane). Until 1915 Bailey would act as "consultant botanist" to British New Guinea (and Papua), laying the foundations of one of the key holdings in Australia of New Guinean plants (now fully databased and accessible online). The founder of the Anglican Church in New Guinea, the Rev. Copland King, collected from the time of his arrival, principally ferns (Manila, Sydney); these were described by E. B. Copeland.

British non-official plant collectors were during this time represented by the "plant hunters" David Burke (1887–1888, for the Veitch nursery firm in Chelsea, greater London) and Wilhelm Micholitz (1894 and again in 1898, for the Sander firm at St Albans). In the latter year he was at South Cape and in the Milne Bay Islands (finding, among other orchids, Dendrobium atroviolaceum, and also gathering insects while in the Louisiades). However, with greater private support zoological collectors now became more numerous, with Walter Rothschild of Tring—who had begun building up his museum—now emerging as a major sponsor. In 1888 Basil Thompson collected birds and mammals in the Milne Bay Islands (partly York Museum); in 1890 he was followed by James Cockerell with the Rev. George Brown (from then-German New Guinea; see also below), both engaged in bringing Methodism in the southeastern islands. Another missionary, the Rev. R. J. Andrew, collected insects on Misima, by then a mining site (BMNH).

From Germany there came a sponsored collector, Emil Weiske; he obtained Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and other fauna (including birds and mammals) in 1897–1898 (Dresden and other museums). Localities visited were largely in the present Central Province—much as those of Loria a few years before: the Astrolabe Range, Sogeri, Meroka, Elema, Kabadi, Vaitala, Kerema, Brown River, Kemp Welch River, Paimomo River, Aroa River, Vanapa River, Rigo/Hula, and elsewhere. But by this time German attention was otherwise largely becoming directed towards their possessions (see below).

British New Guinea (1898–1906); Papua (1906–1914)

With the departure of Macgregor for a governorship in Lagos, Nigeria, government interest in natural history greatly receded—although his successors, Lt. Gov. G. R. Le Hunte and Administrator F. R. Barton made miscellaneous collections of animals and plants (Brisbane, but also in BMNH). The latter, during his extensive travels, obtained amongst other biota a red-flowered rata vine, Metrosideros ovata (now M. regelii) in the Owen Stanleys and, in 1904–1905 on Woodlark Island, found fossils of dugong, turtle, and gavial. Some collecting was also undertaken by Armit and Giulianetti, the latter accompanying Le Hunte and Barton in the Mekeo region in 1901; but late that year Giulianetti was murdered, Armit having died of blackwater fever some ten months earlier. Of Macgregor’s staff only Monckton continued on (with an ascent in 1906 to the top of Mt Albert Edward); in 1907, however, he resigned—uncomfortable with a "new era." And Belford’s last assignment was in 1906 with the Royal Commission under Col. J. A. K. Mackay—which included a march right across the Owen Stanleys through Kokoda; but little was (or perhaps could be) collected, apart from a few orchids. Under the new Lieutenant Governor, Hubert Murray, only scant official attention would be paid to the biota.

It was bird (and butterfly) collecting that until World War I now took first place in the territory, with Rothschild the dominant sponsor. For a long period, his principal collector was Albert S. Meek. From 1894 to 1916 Meek collected, spending 1895–1901 in the Milne Bay Islands and the eastern part of the mainland. Many assistants worked for him, among them his younger brother (W. G.), Albert and George Eichhorn, brothers-in-law W. B. Barnard and Harry Barnard, and Mr. Gullivers. After Meek’s retirement, the Eichhorns continued work in this region until 1923 in this region (including Owgarra, Bragi, and Mambare River); in 1925, they would collect in New Britain, also obtaining miscellaneous insects. (Most of the bird collections of the Tring Museum were sold in 1932 to AMNH to pay debts, with the museum itself passing into the care of the BMNH in 1937 under Rothschild’s will.) For the British Museum (Natural History), A. S. Anthony was also active in the region; and very early in the twentieth century (1902–1903) the Pratts—father A. E. and one son, Henry—worked extensively at lower elevations northwest and southeast of Port Moresby and in addition visited parts of the Goilala region, following the gradually developing Sacred Heart Mission interior road (through Mafulu) to the upper Vanapa Valley (at Ononge) before finally returning. They concentrated on birds and Lepidoptera (Tring/BMNH and AMNH); and in 1906 the senior Pratt published a popular book, Two Years Among Cannibals.

Botanical collections in this period were rare, partly due to losses in transit, and, with one exception, unofficial. The Pratts in 1902–1903 (see above) had also obtained plants but a goodly part, if not all, were lost. Mary (Mrs. H. P.) Schlencker from Queensland collected extensively from 1905 into the 1920s (but mainly before World War I) in the Rigo district (Boku) and elsewhere while associated with the London Missionary Society (LMS); the majority were described or recorded by Bailey. In 1910–1911 Miles Staniforth C. Smith, director of Mines and Agriculture and long-time Administrator, with a party collected ferns and mosses on his ill-fated trip up the Kikori River to Mt Murray; unfortunately all the specimens were lost on the river descent. Afterwards Smith—perhaps soured by this experience—never again took an interest in biotic exploration, though he did support geological work (on account of mineral and petroleum exploration) and established a small museum in Port Moresby (the forerunner of the present National Museum). He also had come into prolonged conflict with Murray; only in 1918—with Smith away on war service—did the Lieutenant-Governor feel himself able to support a new botanical expedition (see below).

By this time the Victorian popular interest in natural history had subsided, as curiosity became satisfied and new leisure pursuits were taken up—although a byproduct was the rise of conservation movements. There were also changes in horticultural fashions, notably the marked decline in the cultivation under glass of tropical plants; while in the sciences, description was giving way to "higher" laboratory-based analysis, along with increasing specialization—a "linearist" development which led to considerable neglect of the Australian biota, let alone that of Papua, for several decades. The first half of the 1890s was moreover for Australia a period of severe and prolonged economic depression; recession also struck in other parts of the world. Official support for such work was thus liable to a lack of funds as well as changing interests and priorities. Only wealthy individuals (or well-founded museums or herbaria) could afford to continue extensive sponsorship and collection formation; and what was obtained tended to be the more spectacular or saleable items. The plume trade, which continued until the end of World War I, also remained an important source of new material. Thus, by 1914 birds and larger insects in southeastern Papua were comparatively well known; but, with far fewer useful points of access, this was simply not true for the interior parts of the Gulf, Delta, and Western Divisions, while botanical knowledge was very patchy and disorganized, and now well behind German New Guinea. Even today, biotic coverage of much of the southern fall of the main ranges remains thin, with more intensive sampling relatively localized.

NORTHEASTERN NEW GUINEA

AND THE BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO

Before the Germans (to 1885)

Large-scale exploration in mainland northeastern New Guinea (from 1884–1914 styled Kaiser-Wilhelmsland) developed later than in British New Guinea or in the Vogelkop Peninsula, but during the decade from 1875 to 1885 the islands to the northeast saw rather more activity. Apart from Miklucho-Maclay (see above), prior to 1885 the sole mainland "pioneer" was F. H. Otto Finsch. This German naturalist, anthropologist, and covert agent undertook two major tours, investigating all the coasts of eastern New Guinea (and the northeastern islands)—and very likely influencing the choice of lands for future German enterprise. In 1880–1882, as part of a world cruise funded by the German Humboldt Foundation, he carried out his coastal surveys, while in 1884–1885—on behalf of the just-formed Neu-Guinea Compagnie—with the Samoa he explored in more detail the northeastern and island regions. Finsch made many natural history collections—particularly in 1881 around Astrolabe Bay, already well known from the work of Maclay—and also worked in the Milne Bay region. In 1885 he sailed fifty kilometers up the Sepik, naming the river for Empress Augusta (Kaiserin-Augusta Fluss). Later his interests turned more towards ethnography, already discernable in his book Samoafahrten (1888). His collections (Bremen, Brunswick, Leiden) were partly destroyed in World War II. The tree genus Finschia, a macadamia relative also with edible nuts, is named after him.

The northeastern island region was at the opening of the period visited by two great marine expeditions, both in 1875. The first was the Challenger (see above), returning to New Guinea waters after calls elsewhere in Malesia (and "rest and relaxation" in Hong Kong). Under G. Nares as commander, C. W. Thomson as scientific leader, and with Moseley continuing as naturalist, they worked during March in the Admiralty Islands (Nares Harbor in northwestern Manus remains so-named as a token of their presence) before sailing into other waters. The second was the German Gazelle (after which the large northeastern peninsula of New Britain was, and is still, named). With the future Bismarck Archipelago as one of the Gazelle’s main objectives, the vessel and its crew and scientists (with Freiherr G. E. G. von Schleinitz—later the first administrator of the German territories—as commander and F. C. Naumann as surgeon-naturalist), after calling in western New Guinea (see above) anchored during the third quarter of the year at several points: New Hanover, New Ireland (west coast and Carteret Harbor), New Britain (Blanche Bay—then not long known—with an ascent of the volcanic Mt Kombiu or "The Mother"), and, in the Solomons, Bougainville (collections, Berlin). In the French "grand" tradition, both expeditions gathered their results into substantial sets of volumes, those of the Gazelle appearing in five volumes in 1889–1890 although preliminary papers had appeared elsewhere, while the Challenger series was about the most extensive ever published. Both works contain significant materials of primary record for the biota of the region.

About the same time as the Gazelle came the first missionaries, traders, and explorers. In mid-August of 1875 George Brown (see also above) arrived at Port Hunter in the Duke of York Islands, there opening the first Methodist mission; he remained for almost a decade. He himself collected some plants, chiefly ferns (Melbourne), but—significantly—was accompanied from Samoa and Fiji (on the mission ship John Wesley) by a German-Australian photographer and naturalist, Carl Walter (who also was collecting for Anatole von Hügel, a wealthy Austrian traveler and naturalist). He worked for about three weeks in the islands and around Blanche Bay (plants, Melbourne and Cambridge, England, albeit with a number of losses in the field); afterwards he returned to and remained in Australia where he continued to collect for von Mueller.

In 1877–1878 G. Turner, a collector and gardener from Sydney, traveled to the northeastern archipelago—partly on behalf of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. From Port Hunter (sometimes with Brown) he visited New Ireland, Spacious (now Wide) Bay (New Britain), and elsewhere. At Spacious Bay he discovered the majestic tree, kamarere (Eucalyptus deglupta)—always a beautiful sight in New Britain’s forests, but a seeming oddity. But this was a time of punitive expeditions, and not a lot apart from more common herbaceous plants could be obtained (Melbourne). In 1881 E. Betche—initially trained as a horticulturalist—traveled from the central Pacific through the northeastern archipelago to Australia. There his base was on Mioko, another island in the Duke of Yorks, where a German trading company had become established in the 1870s. For a week or so in July he collected there and, like his predecessors, around Blanche Bay (plants, Melbourne). Later in the year he joined the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, remaining there for the rest of his career as a collector (and co-author of two standard works on the flora of New South Wales). In 1882 R. Parkinson arrived as a settler, there joining his sister-in-law Emma Forsayth, and at the end of the year establishing the first plantation on Blanche Bay at Ralum (Malapau, near present-day Kokopo, the latter under German rule known as Herbertshöhe). Over the next quarter-century he traveled extensively and made considerable collections (plants, Melbourne, Sydney and elsewhere); unfortunately, their data are scanty. Parkinson is best known for his book, Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (1907; English translation, 1999)—a mostly geographical and ethnographic work, but with some remarks on animals, plants, and vegetation (with those generally used by humans in Chapter 11) and a useful survey of exploration in the archipelago (Chapter 12).

As already noted, Finsch also visited the archipelago (and also much of Micronesia on his first voyage), but as on the mainland obtained only few natural history collections. (His Micronesian plants were, however, much more extensive; they are now in Córdoba, Argentina.)

German Rule: The Neu-Guinea-Compagnie (to 1899)

The increasing activities by traders, settlers, and recruiters in the northeastern mainland and the archipelago occasioned a fair number of "incidents" which often led to punitive actions. The islands in particular became a center of German activities and in time the German government felt it necessary, in spite of British objections, to proclaim their sphere of interest—whose limits were perhaps at least partly suggested by Finsch—as a territory. This was proclaimed in November 1884 by Capt. Schering, and in the following year von Schleinitz (see above) became administrator (Landeshauptmann), with headquarters at Finschhafen (transferred in 1891 for health reasons to Stephansort (now Bogajim, Astrolabe Bay, PNG), and in 1892 to Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen (now Madang) on the present Schering Peninsula, where there was—and is—a good port). The islands were first administered from Kerawara, then Herbertshöhe (from 1890, but after 1899 also the capital for all German New Guinea), and—after 1905—Rabaul (which until 1941 remained the German, and afterwards Australian, seat of administration).

Under Bismarck’s philosophy of devolved government—a form of rule by "public-private partnership" (PPP)—for the Second Reich’s new territories, German New Guinea (expanded in 1885 to include the Marshall Islands and in 1899 also taking in the Carolines, Palau, and the Marianas) was entrusted to a chartered company, the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie—who also were authorized to undertake commercial operations. Formed in 1884, its founding chairman was Adolph von Hansemann, a Berlin banker who never visited the territory. While until after 1899 not a financial success—the company managing in a relatively short time to use up all their initial capital, and then some—Hansemann at least was interested in exploration and the sciences, and indeed over the fifteen years of their administration much of lasting value was accomplished.

One of the first men into the field under the new regime was Carl Hunstein. In 1884 he left British New Guinea with Finsch and until 1888 worked in various parts of northeastern New Guinea, partly with R. Mentzel (and others) on geographical and forest reconnaissance work and partly on the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie exploring and scientific expedition of 1886–1887 (see below). Early in 1888, while with an official and writer, Stephan von Kotze, in the outliers of the Rawlinson Range behind Finschhafen, he discovered the beautiful (and endemic) southern pine, Araucaria hunsteinii; but not long afterwards—on 13 March—he was drowned by a tidal wave while in the Kilenge district at the western end of New Britain. As before, he specialized in birds, many now bought by Finsch.

With Mentzel, Hunstein in April 1886 visited the mouth of the Kaiserin-Augusta (now Sepik) River. They thus blazed the way for the major Neu-Guinea-Compagnie expedition of 1886–1887, the first of two significant, relatively successful forays into the interior under their auspices—although most collections were of lowland animals, insects, and plants. These apart, with a predisposition to caution—perhaps from experiences with local populations in the Bismarck Archipelago—interior penetration by individuals was limited. Until the mid-1890s the only inland mountain areas reached were Sattelberg in the Huon (Kai) Peninsula and the western Finisterres south of Astrolabe Bay, both by Neu-Guinea-Compagnie official F. C. Hellwig (see below).

The 1886–1887 expedition—lasting for nearly a year and half from 19 April 1886—was led by von Schleinitz, partly on the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie steamer Ottilie, and accompanied by C. Schrader (geography and bryophytes, as well as scientific coordinator), U. M. Hollrung (vascular plants), and Hunstein with F. Grabowsky (birds and insects). Over the course of the expedition they worked around and inland of Finschhafen and visited Samoahafen (Salamaua, in the Huon Gulf), Astrolabe Bay around Constantinhafen (Melamu), the coast north and northwest of Friederich-Wilhelmshafen (now Madang), including Hatzfeldthafen, and made two forays up the Sepik: a shorter one in 1886 followed the next year by a deep plunge—the first great voyage thereupon, with camps at I. Augusta-Station (Zenap near the mouth of the May (Iwa) River far in the interior) and II. Augusta-Station (Malu near present-day Ambunti). The large haul of collections went to Berlin (plants partly destroyed, but duplicates at Melbourne, Kew, and elsewhere); the botanical results appeared in 1889 in a special supplement to the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie Nachrichten, or series of official reports.

Hansemann’s interest in natural history ensured that a fair number of individuals—some employees of the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie—took up collecting. Among the first was the Pole J. S. Kubary, who in 1887–1891 from a Neu-Guinea-Compagnie base at Constantinhafen—the first official post in that area—collected for the Godefroy Museum in Hamburg (partly now in the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt; some plants went to Berlin). Kubary also made land acquisitions around Astrolabe Bay which later led to much local strife, with no "settlement" until 1932, and a bone of contention even long afterwards. In 1892–1895 Kubary returned to New Guinea for a second contract with the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie. In 1888 R. Rohde, another Neu-Guinea-Compagnie employee, collected animals and insects at Finschhafen and Stephansort (the latter a plantation first established in August 1888 on a portion of the Kubary lands particularly for raising fine "Deli" (Sumatran) tobacco; planting began in 1889). A change in Neu-Guinea-Compagnie external shipping routes from Cooktown to Surabaya (in Java)—then followed, as well as the transfer of government headquarters from Finschhafen; henceforth Astrolabe Bay became a center for Neu-Guinea-Compagnie activities on the mainland.

From 1886 the pioneer Lutheran missionary Johannes Flierl collected animals on the Huon Peninsula, beginning at Simbang near Finschhafen; in this he was followed by his son and grandson. In botany Flierl was complemented by another Lutheran priest, G. Bamler who collected in the Peninsula and particularly on the Tami Islands (collections to Berlin). In 1891 they were followed by H. Fruhstorfer, who collected Lepidoptera at Finschhafen and elsewhere.

Non-missionary botanists were also soon active. Apart from Hollrung (see above), important collections were made by Hellwig (1888–1889) and C. Wein-land (1889–1891), the latter also a Finschhafen-based Neu-Guinea-Compagnie official (and Hellwig’s professional successor), and, over six weeks in 1889, by Warburg (see above) (Berlin; now largely destroyed, but duplicates in Wroclaw (Breslau), Kew and elsewhere). Hellwig—with whom Warburg made some trips—was the first to reach mountain localities. The first foray was to Sattelberg west of Finschhafen (ca 900 m, where "oaks" (Lithocarpus) were found for the first time and soon afterwards a mission "hill station" would be established). The second foray—accompanied by another metropolitan visitor (a well-known writer and newspaperman from Cologne, Hugo Zöller)—was to the western Finisterres, from where the Bismarck range and its high peaks, Mts Otto, Wilhelm, Herbert, and Marien were all seen (and named) and the first rhododendrons collected (all in sect. Vireya). One of the more stunning (and relatively widespread) of these—which may reach as low as 100 m—remains known as R. zoelleri.

As we have seen, the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie was strongly active in agricultural development, initially in the hope of attracting German smallholders, later turning to plantations. Over 1887–1891 and 1893–1894 (and at other times on his own account) its horticulturalist, L. Kärnbach, a pupil of the Berlin Botanical Garden, traveled widely in the territory. In addition to much information on useful plants, gathered together particularly in a paper of 1893 and (after his loss at sea in 1897) in M. Krieger’s 1899 book Neu-Guinea,Kärnbach also obtained many marine algae—beginning the investigation of these plants since ably carried on from time to time (a first consolidation of knowledge was made in 1900 in Lauterbach’s Flora; see below).

In 1890–1891 C. A. Lauterbach, a botanist-geographer of private means with an estate now within the western part of the present Polish city of Wroclaw, made the first of three trips to New Guinea. In addition to the Gazelle Peninsula, he collected along the Huon Gulf from Finschhafen toward the Bukaua district and "Burgberg" (Lo Wamung at Lae), on the Sattelberg, and around Astrolabe Bay and was the first to penetrate the Gogol River south of Friederich-Wilhelmshafen (now Madang). He was to return to New Guinea for some time in 1896 and again in 1899–1900 (see below). Until the end of his life in 1937 he remained strongly interested in New Guinea, both in a business role (he was an early director of the Neu-Guinea Compagnie as a purely commercial concern after mid-1899) and a personal role (supporting the publication of the later botanical results of New Guinea explorations and himself preparing accounts of many plant families).

Lauterbach’s collections ranged across the whole plant kingdom (private her-barium now in Wroclaw, a fortunate survivor of major upheavals there in 1944– 1945; duplicates in Berlin, Kew, and elsewhere). This is reflected in his important 1900 work (with the Berlin botanist K. Schumann), Die Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Südsee; a supplement (Nachträge) followed in 1905. Long standard, for non-primary forest plants in the lowlands in particular, it provides fairly considerable coverage. In later years, in addition to his accounts of plant families Lauterbach was to add considerably to knowledge of the phytogeography and vegetation of New Guinea, including in 1928–1930 "cross-sections" of different formations in which he drew upon his personal knowledge as well as the results of others. He also contributed to general works on New Guinea as well as German territories as a whole.

Warburg also summed up his experiences (and plant records), notably in his already-mentioned paper of 1891. Here, he argued that while there were several distinct elements in the flora of New Guinea, its predominant relationship was with western Malesia. Yet, for him no "line" in the island region west of New Guinea could be recognized as a major discontinuity comparable with the several for faunal (mainly higher vertebrate) discontinuity proposed, among others, by Wallace, Weber, and Lydekker. The Berlin botanist L. Diels was, however, later to propose a major floral line at Torres Strait—subsequently adopted by van Steenis as a demarcation for Flora Malesiana. Evidence aired at a symposium in Australia in 1972 and since has now somewhat weakened this argument. Warburg also proposed the term "Papuasia" to refer to the whole region from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, an area known to zoogeographers as the "Papuan Subregion" (though Mayr’s "Papuan Region" of 1941 only includes New Guinea and its more or less fringing islands, excluding the Bismarcks and Solomons).

The aforementioned changes to shipping and transfer of activities to Astrolabe Bay—where under a subsidiary, the Astrolabe-Compagnie, tobacco cultivation was during the 1890s vigorously expanded (though at some human cost)—brought in many collectors who were also active elsewhere in Malesia, among them a number of non-Germans. Scheduled shipping services, along with hotels and guesthouses, were now making it easier for visitors to travel (and tour) around the ports.

Among the first was Bernard Hagen, engaged from Sumatra by the Astrolabe-Compagnie as an expert in "Deli" tobacco. From 1894–1895, in addition to his duties, he undertook ethnographic studies and collected mainly insects and birds (Berlin). In addition to Astrolabe Bay localities such as Stephansort and Erima, he also collected at Berlinhafen (now Aitape)—then a "new" locality (but where, on the offshore island of Seleo, Kärnbach (see above) had established for himself a coconut plantation). Departing for health reasons, Hagen later worked up his observations into a popular book, Unter den Papuas (1899). Hagen was followed in 1895 by one of the early dilettante-travelers, O. Ehlers, who came with an idea to cross the mainland cordillera from north to south—something not previously attempted. A police-master, W. Piering, was grudgingly seconded by the administration; but, starting from near Samoahafen, some weeks into their trip (and out of food) both were lost with collections and notes in a river. Only their two local assistants got through to the Lakekamu River (in British New Guinea). From then on, the authorities—faced with much strife elsewhere (ultimately one of the factors leading to the withdrawal of the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie from government)—were, as already indicated, more cautious with regard to the mainland interior, with the result that its penetration was relatively slow and only for experienced persons with strong support.

British-supported collectors also began to make their appearance, reflecting wealthy backing. In 1890 Carl Wahnes began his long association with New Guinea (until 1909) as a collector for the British Museum, Tring, and other institutions (e.g., Odonata at the University of Michigan). During several sojourns he collected insects, birds, and other animals on the Huon Peninsula (Finschhafen, Simbang, Sattelberg, Rawlinson Range), at Bongu on Astrolabe Bay (Miklucho-Maclay’s old base), and on some offshore islands (Tarawai, Isle Deslacs) and in New Britain. Wahnes’s collections led to numerous publications, including some by Rothschild and the other Tring zoologists, C. Jordan and E. Hartert. In 1893– 1894 the "eccentric" English sea captains Cotton and H. Cayley Webster (the latter returning in 1897)—with recommendations from Hansemann as well as Rothschild—collected birds and butterflies (Tring/BMNH). Some specialist papers resulted and Cayley Webster soon wrote a popular work, Through New Guinea and the Cannibal Countries (1898)—among the earliest in English in an extended tradition of such books.

Austria-Hungary was once more represented, mainly in the long sojourns of the Hungarians Samuel Fenichel (1893–1895) and Lajos Biró (1895–1901). The two worked extensively around Astrolabe Bay, at Berlinhafen and its offshore islands, and in the eastern Huon Peninsula (Simbang, Bingala, Sattelberg) as well as on the Gazelle Peninsula (see also below)—though mostly at lower elevations. Their primary emphasis was on insects but many other animals were collected (Budapest, but birds, reptiles, amphibians, mollusks and Diptera—excluding Pupipara—were destroyed during the 1956 uprisings; parts of Fenichel’s collections are now at the College of Nagyenyed in Transylvania, in modern Romania). Plants were also collected (Berlin and elsewhere). Biró also obtained many lichens (or lichenized fungi), which were included by Schumann and Lauterbach in their 1900 Flora and much later (1956) by O. Szatala in a first checklist of all those in New Guinea.

Biró was the first real scientist-zoologist to spend much time in New Guinea. Later he became something of a "hero" in Hungary, writing two books of travels popular with young people (Szent-Ivany, personal communication to J. L. Gressitt). Sadly, Fenichel died at age twenty-five in Stephansort of cerebral malaria, for which Stephansort had acquired a bad reputation (and would later be visited by Koch; see below). There is a memorial to both Biró and Fenichel at the University of Papua New Guinea.

The early 1890s were, as we have seen, a difficult time for the Neu-Guinea-Compagnie. Circumstances improved after 1895, however, and official thoughts once more turned to interior exploration—now with the prospect that minerals (particularly gold) might be found. The next big foray was the 1896 Gogol-Ramu Expedition, organized by the Neu-Guinea Compagnie with some support from the Reich government and frugally led by Lauterbach with O. Kersting as police-master and E. Tappenbeck as quartermaster. After a trip to Mt Oertzen (between the Gogol and Stephansort), their party passed up through the Naru Valley running southwest from the lower Gogol River, traversed (via the Ssigauu uplands) the dividing range (west of the modern road), and entered the then-unknown Ramu (now Jagei) Valley (northwest of present-day Usino). From there they traveled by canoe to near what is now Annaberg (downstream from Aiome), returning by the same route. Side trips were taken, including the relatively dry Bismarck Range foothills. The expedition overall was a success, with good returns in geographical knowledge as well as collections of plants, birds, and animals (Berlin, Wroclaw, and elsewhere). The plants would soon be incorporated into his Flora (see above).

The Ramu expeditions were continued for the Neu-Guinea Compagnie by Tappenbeck with two associates, H. Rodatz and H. Klink. In 1898 the inland Ramu River was linked to its mouth (Ottilie-Fluss), while for two months during "winter" low water Rodatz and Klink lived in a temporary camp on the lower Ramu River. In 1899—after the change of administration—traces of gold on the upper Ramu River (near Usino) attracted the Neu-Guinea Compagnie’s interest. A stern-wheel riverboat was obtained and further trips made. During the dry season, Rodatz and Klink worked from a base at Arumene (near Aiome), reaching the foothills of present-day Mt Aiome in the western Bismarcks, and in November 1899 Lauterbach returned for a month’s trip along the river, leaving early in 1900 (plants, Berlin and Wroclaw). Rodatz and Klink remained in the area at a base camp near Usino, later visited by Schlechter (late 1901), and subsequently they gave many years of service as district officers, Klink eventually at Morobe, from which he explored the mid-Waria Valley (around present-day Garaina). There he found the stands of Araucaria for which he is remembered (at first described as a distinct species, A. klinkii, but later—not entirely critically—united with A. huns-teinii).

The presence of Parkinson in the Bismarck Archipelago helped to attract additional scientists to that region. One who remained for almost a year (1896–1897) on Blanche Bay was F. O. Dahl, who with the assistance of Parkinson and the now-wealthy Emma Forsayth (now Kolbe) set up a small "station" at Ralum and collected extensively around the area (including the Duke of York Islands and the Baining Mountains, the latter from a new mission station, Vunamarita) both on land and sea (Berlin). Dahl’s stay would be very productive, with many published results. These included a regional florula (1898) by K. Schumann and a stream of zoological papers. Dahl’s marine collections, along with those of his contemporary, A. Willey from Cambridge, England, marked the beginning of serious study of the rich undersea biota in the Bismarck Archipelago (apart from the relatively short visit of the Challenger). Dahl was later a curator at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. Willey enjoyed two long sojourns in eastern New Guinea, the first in 1895 in the Archipelago before proceeding to British New Guinea (and elsewhere), returning there in 1897 before sailing back to Europe. Willey also published extensively (sometimes with others)—notably a six-part collection entitled Zoological results... collected during the years 1895, 1896, 1897 (1898–1902).

The last noteworthy visitor under the Neu-Guinea Compagnie—arriving just before the transfer of administration—was the Swede E. O. A. Nyman. From field studies in Java he came in 1899 to New Guinea for nearly nine months (March– November). Often ill, he collected birds, plants, and lichens around Astrolabe Bay (including the low Hansemann massif near Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen), Finschhafen, the Sattelberg area (partly for health reasons), and northeastern New Britain (plants and lichens in Uppsala). Sadly, Nyman was never able to work up his collections, dying in Munich in 1900 before reaching Sweden. Some of Nyman’s collections were accounted for in Schumann and Lauterbach’s Flora, while at Uppsala in the 1940s R. Santesson described his epiphyllic lichens; but many others have never been documented, including some higher plants seen by the writer in 2003.

German Imperial Rule: The Era of Benningsen and Hahl (1899–1914)

The developments in the Ramu Valley (now Jagei Valley)—relating in part to mineral exploration—were strongly promoted by R. von Benningsen, first Imperial Governor of German New Guinea. While scientific results under Neu-Guinea Compagnie rule had been impressive, economic results were not so, and most of its capital had been expended. After long negotiations, the Neu-Guinea Compagnie was relieved of its administrative responsibilities as of 1 April 1899 and von Benningsen assumed control.

The new Governor himself was an amateur entomologist of note, specializing in Coleoptera (beetles). Von Benningsen collected as opportunities permitted in New Britain, the Duke of York Islands (called Neu-Lauenberg at this time), and elsewhere in the Bismarck Archipelago as well as in the mountains behind Stephansort especially the Kani Range and upper Minjim River (collections mostly in Dresden). As Kotze (see above) wrote in his popular (and amusing) book about his time in New Guinea, Aus Papuas Kulturmorgen (1905), Coleoptera were popular with Germans as Lepidoptera were for the British. In this respect Benningsen set a good example; many other amateurs also collected beetles which likewise found their way to the Royal Dresden Museum and its noted coleopterist, K. M. Helle.

Public health (and, in some places, depopulation) were not unnaturally serious concerns of the new government, and with the 1898 discovery of the mechanism of malaria transmission new possibilities for its control opened up. In 1899–1900 the famous microbiologist Robert Koch came from Java to the territory for seven months (from December 1899). Traveling partly with Benningsen and Biró,he visited Berlinhafen, Astrolabe Bay and its villages and settlements (including the plantations at Stephansort, now Bogajim), Finschhafen, Huon Gulf (including the Tami Islands), the Siassi Islands, parts of northwestern New Britain and the Witu Islands, the mouth of the Ramu, and finally the Gazelle Peninsula and elsewhere in the Bismarck Archipelago including the islands northeast of New Ireland. Along with his malariological and parasitological work he managed to collect some animals and plants.

Koch’s studies were followed up by Dr O. Dempwolff (with a trader, F. E. Hellwig); during 1902–1904 (Hellwig on his own in 1903) they spent considerable time in Wuvulu, Aua, and other western Admiralty Islands—places not visited by the microbiologist. One result was the only monograph on the first two of these islands (notable for their Micronesian people), Wuvulu und Aua (1908) by P. Hambruch in Hamburg (home to the former Godeffroy Museum, in the nineteenth century an active patron of Pacific biological and cultural exploration). In it is a clear demonstration of the contemporary rise of professional and popular interest in the region’s ethnography, already the subject of a major 1898 expedition from Cambridge University to the Torres Strait and also prominent in Richard Parkinson’s Dreissig Jahre of the previous year. At this time a considerable, sometimes detrimental trade in artifacts developed along with the rising traffic in bird plumes, while at the same time fewer large private collections of natural history objects were being formed. Among the last private collectors to visit German New Guinea was B. Mencke, who with the yacht Eberhard—purchased in Monaco—and two zoologists, G. Duncker and O. Heinroth, collected in 1900– 1901 in various coastal localities including the Arawe Islands (southern New Britain). Mencke’s expedition, however, came to grief in the Mussau group; Mencke was seriously wounded in a fight (dying 2 April 1901) and Heinroth, after some further work in New Ireland, departed in June. Tangible results were but few.

Benningsen—who had departed the territory in mid-1901 for leave—was in 1902 succeeded as Governor by Albert Hahl. Familiar with the Bismarck Archipelago from prior service, he concentrated more on developments (and pacification, following some notorious incidents) there. However, as circumstances permitted (particularly after the mid-1900s) he also vigorously promoted mainland exploration and scientific work, much as had Macgregor in British New Guinea (although less so in person). Like his predecessor, Hahl could also rely on goodly numbers of officers and others interested in natural history to make contributions, though the important expeditions, both on the mainland and in the Bismarcks, usually involved visiting, usually professional scientists.

Shortly before Hahl’s appointment (but while he was Vice-Governor), the territory was visited by its next major metropolitan visitor, F. R. R. (Rudolf) Schlechter. He was sent out by the Kolonial-Wirtschaftliche Komitee in Berlin to find latex-producing trees and vines useful for gutta-percha and rubber—Germany wishing to develop its "own" sources of these substances. The first of his two expeditions (1901–1902) was exploratory, the second (1906–1910) developmental. On his first tour (in the territory lasting ten months from mid-October 1901) he visited the Bismarck Archipelago (including southern New Ireland) and, on the mainland, Berlinhafen (and behind it, the Torricelli Range) as well as its offshore islands, and also crossed the Gogol-Ramu dividing range (along Benningsen’s new "road") to the Ramu gold camp, from there proceeding into the Bismarck Range as far as the present Bundi district.

Schlechter’s recommendation to the administration for a botanical garden was followed up by Hahl in 1906 upon the establishment of Rabaul; in time this became a "beauty spot" (though not really a center for botanical exploration), lasting until 1942. In 1907–1909 the now-noted scientist (who had at other times also collected in southern and central Africa) returned to New Guinea. For this more extended stay he set up a base camp on Astrolabe Bay at Bulu (near Bongu). From here Schlechter did intensive fieldwork on the inland coastal/Ramu divide (especially in the steep Kani and Ibo ranges) and in the western Finisterres, and also made long trips to the Bismarck Range (with Hahl for an attempt on Mt Saugueti (also known as Mt Otto) in 1908)—but just missing discovery of the central highlands. Schlechter also visited the lower Waria in 1908 and 1909 (in conjunction with a border survey), and (with O. Schlaginhaufen and Hahl) the Torricellis in August and September 1909, where Schlaginhaufen collected insects and other animals at Paup (east of Aitape) and elsewhere (Dresden).

In addition to his gutta-percha and rubber plant discoveries (thought moderately successful at the time but in the end without lasting economic impact, there being no market after 1914), on his two expeditions Schlechter made large collections of plants including very many orchids (Berlin; partly destroyed, with some duplicates elsewhere) and some gatherings of animals. In this he was aided by two men from New Ireland, Sikin and Takadu. Unfortunately some of Schlechter’s main work areas have never again been re-studied, particularly with the destruction in 1943 of so many of his primary collections (see below). A useful general account of his second expedition, including maps, is Die Guttapercha-und Kautschuk-Expedition nach Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, 1907–09 (1911).

Soon after Schlechter’s first visit another leading botanist, the bryologist (and expert photographer) M. Fleischer, came to the territory. In March 1903, after some three years in Java, Fleischer visited the mainland (including Astrolabe Bay and Finschhafen) and the Bismarck Archipelago (including Mioko Island). His collections included orchids, fungi, and pteridophytes, in addition to mosses and liverworts (Berlin and elsewhere, some by sale; his private herbarium is now in the Farlow Herbarium of Harvard University Herbaria). A first synthesis of his and other New Guinea mosses, by W. Schultze-Motel, appeared in 1963.

With gradually improving economic conditions during the latter period of Hahl’s rule—part of the "long boom" of the decade or so before World War I—and more opportunities (including further transport developments as well as more government posts) came other collectors. In 1906 H. Schoede collected animals at Berlinhafen and Simpsonhafen. Eugen Werner in 1907 collected insects and plants south of Astrolabe Bay, partly with Schlechter (plants, Wroclaw). Werner also wrote a popular illustrated book, Kaiser-Wilhelmsland (1911). In 1909 E. F. Dahl, Preuss, O. Heinroth (now on his second visit), and C. Ribbe collected in northeastern New Britain (Ribbe also reaching the Duke of York Islands); and P. Nagel visited the Finisterres.

In 1908–1910 Prof. R. Neuhauss carried out many months of field research for his three-volume Deutsch Neu-Guinea (1911), much of it in the Huon (Kai) Peninsula but also at many other places, both coastal and inland (not, however, in the Bismarck Archipelago—then under active survey by other expeditions). Dallmannhafen (Wewak) was visited with J. Walis. Insects, animals, and a few plants were collected (Berlin) along with much ethnographic material; many photographs were also made, and his book is thus richly illustrated. While in the Huon Peninsula, Neuhauss traveled with the great Lutheran missionary and traveler C. Keys-ser. In 1909 Keysser established a station at the head of Huon Gulf close to "Burgberg" and not far from where Lae would develop in the 1920s. Later (1911– 1912) Keysser reached the top of the Saruwaged (Salawaket) Range, Mt Bangeta ("Bolan") at nearly 4,000 m, and also traveled through the Bulolo and Wau valleys. In 1916 Keysser was to repeat his Saruwaged trip with H. Detzner during Detzner’s fantastic four-year journey (1914–1918) "on the run" from the Australians. The plants found (Berlin) were ultimately summarized by Diels (1929). After his return to Germany Detzner would, however, become notorious for his semi-fictitious Vier Jahre unter Kannibalen (1921).

Other collectors of this period—some of them with the Lutheran Church—included F. Kunzmann (fish, reptiles, and butterflies), and Lothar von Wiedenfeld in 1909–1910 (birds and insects at Berlinhafen, Sattelberg, and adjacent coast at Simbang and Heldsbach). In 1909 W. Müller collected insects (Dresden) and L. Maschmeyer animals; around 1913 K. Mäilander collected plants near Morobe (Berlin). In 1913 Mäilander also traveled through the upper Waria and the Wau and upper Watut valleys. P. Nagel collected insects at Komba in the Finisterre Mountains. Other missionaries making collections included Hoffmann, Bergmann (who was active into the inter-war years, and host for a time to M. Clemens; see below), Kunze, and Vetter. Also in the latter part of 1913, K. Gehrmann, botanist-in-charge at the Rabaul garden (see above) and veterinary officer M. Braun undertook an extensive study tour in the Gogol-Ramu area. From this, two substantial general reports emerged but few collections (Berlin) are known.

The years from 1907 to 1914 were also marked by a further wave of large expeditions, both on land and sea. These included major undertakings such as those of the Planet, Peiho, and Stollé/Behrmann (see below) as well as two mainland border surveys. The first was the British-German border survey of 1909, for which Förster led the German team; it was accompanied by Schlechter (see above) on the lower Waria as far as the dividing Maboro ridge (where he found a new slipper orchid species, Paphiopedilum violascens). The second was the German-Dutch border survey of 1909–1910, for which the German team was led by the geographer L. Schultze-Jena. The latter party explored near the border (141 E) as far as the Bewani Range and, afterwards, right up the Sepik River as far as the Peripatus Range (possibly what incorporates Sepik Mt, 1,570 m) in the foothills of the present Star Mountains. They secured extensive geographical results but only scattered animal and plant collections (Berlin; plants largely destroyed). Peripatus has not been biologically surveyed since then.

Of the other expeditions, bodh the first and second focused on the Bismarck Archipelago. The expedition of the Planet, of 1906–1909, was organized by the Reichs-Marineamt, and participating scientists included E. Stephan (as leader, who died during the latter part of the expedition), E. Graeffe, Schlaginhaufen (see above), K. T. Sapper, and A. Krämer. The first stage (1906–1907) took them mainly to the Admiralty Islands (including its western chain), while in the second stage (1907–1909) they focused particularly on New Ireland (and its northeastern islands), Krämer in April 1909 making a first ascent of the Lelet Plateau (visited in 1973 by the writer). Many publications resulted, beginning with Forschungsreise SMS "Planet" 1906/07 (5 vols., 1909) but also encompassing a major survey of New Ireland by Sapper (1910)—a forerunner of the many similar studies sponsored from Australia in the 1950s and 1960s (see below). Considerable collections were made, largely zoological but also algae (by Graeffe, now in Hamburg; they would go towards a regional revision (1928, by O. C. Schmidt) of marine species) as well as some other plants (Krämer; to Berlin), a number of them from the Hermit Islands. After the close of operations in June 1909 Schlaginhaufen proceeded to Berlinhafen and the Torricelli Range. A popular account by H. Vogel appeared in 1911 as Eine Forschungsreise im Bismarck-Archipel.

The Planet was followed into New Guinea waters by the Hamburg Academy of Sciences-sponsored "Südsee-Expedition" (1908–1910) with the Peiho (commanded by Capt. Vahsel). On the vessel were a number of scientists led by Dr Fülleborn (commemorated in a harbor on the south coast of New Britain) and including Duncker (see above under Mencke) as zoologist (specializing in fishes) as well as F. E. Hellwig (see above) as "liaison officer." The expedition visited several localities in the Bismarck Archipelago, particularly along the south coast of New Britain (1908–1909); they then sailed for the mainland and after a call at Langemak Bay (Simbang, a mission station near the old site of Finschhafen) they proceeded in mid-1909 for a voyage up the Sepik. After departure from Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen (now Madang) they sailed to Micronesia, where the scientists were led by G. Thilenius. Duncker’s zoological collections, as well as a few plants, are in Hamburg. Thilenius edited the series of expedition results, but their overwhelming emphasis is on ethnography; only one "general" study was published including the expedition itinerary (Allgemeines, 1927). Any biological results (e.g., on birds, by G. H. Martens) appeared elsewhere.

These not insubstantial undertakings were, however, soon outdone by the great "Kaiserin-Augustafluss Expedition" of 1912–1913—the largest and longest of all those mounted under German rule and, in retrospect, a fitting climax to its thirty-year run. The expedition was sponsored by the Geographical Society in Berlin and other German organizations and led by Bergassessor Capt. A. Stollé, who already had some field experience in New Guinea. The six-man scientific team was headed by the geographer Dr W. Behrmann. From March 1912 to September 1913, by ship and launch and on foot, they surveyed most of the Sepik basin including the tributary rivers (May or Iwa, Freida, Leonhard-Schultze, Dörfer, Töpfer or Keram, etc.) as well as a number of outliers and foothills of the central ranges (but not reaching above 2,200 m). Their "Hauptlager Malu"—a base camp just upriver from the village of Malu (as already noted, the site in 1887 of a Neu-Guinea Compagnie expedition camp)—is today close by (and effectively part of) the East Sepik town of Ambunti (the name being a local rendering of the site of "Hauptlager Malu" as heard by G. W. L. Townsend, an Australian official who in the 1920s established the station (District Officer, 1968)). Other localities were Seerosensee (Chambri Lakes), Peilungsberg, Zuckerhut, Pionierlager, Mäanderberg, Hügellager am Sepik, Sepikberg (1,570 m, see above)—all on or near the Sepik; Hunsteinberg (or Sumset; 1,350 m), Etappenberg (850 m), Lordberg (or Durchblick, 1,000 m) and into the Zentralkette (up to 1,800 m) as well as Lager 18, all in the April River drainage; Pfingstberg on the May (Iwa) River; Felsspitze in the Westkette (1,400–1,500 m) west of the May; and, to the southeast (via the Töpfer) to the Lehm and up to Regensberg (550 m) and Schraderberg (2,070 m). One of the ethnologists, R. Thurnwald, would in 1913 reach the headwaters of the Sepik, only turning back near the present site of Telefomin. Animals were largely collected by W. Behrmann and J. Bürgers, while C. Ledermann secured all the plants (6,600 numbers). Collections went to Berlin and Dresden (animals) and Berlin-Dahlem (plants). Most animals survived World War II but the plants suffered severe losses; only some duplicates have survived (mainly Leiden, Edinburgh, Singapore, and Wroclaw) and little "topotype" collecting has been done (save on Mt Hunstein, now considered a site of exceptional biological interest).

As well as geomorphologic work, Behrmann made excellent maps which served for half a century. But it came to be realized that further effective progress—particularly in the central ranges, still thought to be unpopulated—would have to be aided by some form of aerial support. Airships (Zeppelins) were first proposed (and advocated notably by Neuhauss, who was not confident about using airplanes given the difficult terrain and near absence of suitable landing places at that time); in 1913 "stamps" were even printed. But the use of aircraft belongs to the next era (between World War I and World War II), starting in 1926. Until then, movement continued by water and foot, sometimes (particularly in western New Guinea) with scores if not hundreds of men—all requiring life’s necessities.

Publication of the results of the Behrmann expedition was deemed to merit special consideration, although much would appear in existing journals rather than in a special series (some contributions did, however, go into the Dutch series, Nova Guinea). Support came mainly from the Hermann und Eliza Heckmann-Wentzel-Stiftung. Botanical results—edited by C. Lauterbach (later by L. Diels)—appeared in Botanische Jahrbücher, a leading systematics journal, mostly in a specially titled series Beiträge zur Flora Papuasiens (1912–1942). This remains among the best sets of consolidated work on the plant taxonomy of New Guinea. Zoological results appeared in the bulletin of the Berlin Zoology Museum (Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin), the birds in 1923 by Erwin Stresemann, a curator in that museum (and professor in ornithology). In 1922 Behrmann brought out a readable popular account, Im Stromgebiet des Sepik.

In summary, while its beginnings were slow, natural history investigation in northeastern New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago under German rule rapidly gathered speed and by 1914 had produced a great mass of material and information, even partial digestion of which would take years. The "data base" had now pulled well ahead of Papua, where after 1898 collecting—except in some taxonomic groups—had slackened considerably and would fall further for a time after the advent of Australian rule (see above). Even today—thanks to its "Mittel-european" experience—with respect to mainland New Guinea as a whole former Kaiser-Wilhelmsland retains its lead in collections. But while World War I caused some disruption, a rather more severe and lasting blow would be delivered by World War II through significant collection losses in central Europe and elsewhere. Though widely recognized, the scale of these losses and the obstacles they posed for future research and reference, were in the decades after World War II never sufficiently perceived by some in Papua and New Guinea and followed up with appropriate action.

NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA

In contrast with the eastern territories, serious official interest in western New Guinea—particularly the interior—remained relatively limited until outside pressure forced the authorities into greater action. The late nineteenth century was thus dominated by private (including commercial) activity, with a strong emphasis on the saleable. After 1898, activities were largely dominated by the official and semi-official sector, the authorities also concerned to avoid "incidents"; but government sponsorship at least partly ensured the collection of a better representation of the biota, though by 1915 still below what had been by then obtained in the east.

The Nineteenth Century (to 1898)

Beccari’s successful explorations in the Vogelkop Peninsula, including his penetration of the Arfak Mountains, and the growth of the commercial bird plume trade led to a considerable increase of collectors in Netherlands New Guinea from the mid-1870s. But most collectors were there on their own account or had outside sponsorship. Several were under contract to Rothschild (Tring) or sold their hauls to the Ternate firms of A. A. Bruijn and C. W. R. van Renesse van Duivenbode. In the tradition of Wallace, the main attractions would be the more "attractive" birds, butterflies, beetles, and perhaps also shells and orchids; soon, as in eastern New Guinea, these would be joined (and partly supplanted) by ethnographic items. Most other plants and animals were of secondary importance. Many discoveries are due to these intrepid men, including mammals (notably Zaglossus bruijnii, the Long-beaked Echidna), various birds of paradise, bowerbirds, and orchids, along with a few other horticulturally useful plants. The richness of the orchid flora in western New Guinea, as in the east, also began to be revealed, especially after 1898. Often, however, the field data gathered by collectors was sketchy or absent; and over the years the paucity of field data has inspired additional searches—but for some taxa speculation remains (see, for example, The Lost Birds of Paradise (1995) by E. Fuller). The Vogelkop and Bomberai Peninsulas, Cenderawasih (Geelvink) Bay and its islands, the Raja Ampat archipelago (Misool, Kofiau, Salawati, Batanta, Waigeo and its satellites, and Gag), and Gebé (administratively now in Maluku) were popular destinations, but calls were also made at Humboldt Bay (the present site of Jayapura) and here and there elsewhere; some hunters reached the northern mainland Van Rees (Rouffaer) and Gauttier (Foja) Mountains. But until after 1898 the central ranges were but rarely, if at all, penetrated.

Among the zoological (notably bird) collectors of this time were L. Laglaize (primarily birds of paradise but also other birds and butterflies, largely for Bruijn) in 1876–1884 in westernmost New Guinea and nearby islands (birds, Paris; insects, Brussels); C. Platen in 1883 on Waigeo (birds, Berlin) and, also in 1883, R. Powell on Waigeo and Salawati and in the Vogelkop Peninsula (birds; Tring, AMNH); F. H. H. Guillemard in 1883–1884 (on a cruise in Malesia with the Marchesa) at Waigeo, Batanta, Misool, Yapen, and the Vogelkop Peninsula (mainly birds but also some beetles, butterflies and shells; BMNH and Cambridge University, England); H. Kuhn in 1884 on the Onin Peninsula including Sekar (near Kokas) on the McCluer Gulf (now Bintuni Bay) (birds and other groups); H. Fruhstorfer in 1891 in the Vogelkop Peninsula (Takar, etc.) and elsewhere (including Lepidoptera; Berlin); and W. Doherty in 1892–1893 in many areas of the Vogelkop Peninsula, around Cenderawasih Bay (including Yapen Island) and on Humboldt Bay (birds and insects, the former at AMNH and the latter at BMNH). A collection of various animals from the Charles-Louis Range at the western end of the Central Cordillera—apparently one of the earliest such visits—was made through Renesse van Duivenbode and reached BMNH in 1898. In 1899 a Eurasian professional collector, J. M. Dumas, collected birds at Mt Moari on the Vogelkop Peninsula (Tring/AMNH), beginning an association with New Guinea which would last until 1911. In the latter part of the year the Raja Ampat Islands and a few points on the mainland (one of them near Fakfak) were visited by the Siboga oceanographic expedition (further mentioned below). In the new century J. Waterstradt in 1902–1903 visited Waigeo (birds, Copenhagen and Tring/AMNH), while the Pratts (see above) were at Merauke for a short time in 1902 collecting Lepidoptera but due to local hostilities (see below) sailed on to the Torres Strait and Port Moresby.

Terrestrial plant collectors were relatively few, both on the mainland and in the major offshore islands; the latter were largely neglected until the new century (and some for decades beyond). After the visits of Moseley and Beccari (with in 1876 a return by Teysmann to the Raja Ampat group), in 1888 Warburg (see above) called at Sekar (near Kokas) in the McCluer Gulf (now Bintuni Bay) during his tour through Papuasia and eastern Australia (phanerogams and cryptogams, Berlin (largely destroyed) with some also elsewhere). In 1893 the director of the Bogor Botanic Garden, M. Treub (with an assistant, Jaheri), briefly called at the Onin Peninsula (and the Aru Islands); and in 1900 these localities were also visited by the American plant explorer D. Fairchild (with an emphasis on living plants). Of plant-hunters for the trade, W. Micholitz (for Sander and Sons in St Albans, England) around 1890 collected orchids in Batanta and elsewhere (Kew), while D. Burke (for Veitch) in 1891 obtained orchids and other plants in the northern Arfak Mountains (Kew).

The principal oceanographic expeditions visiting during and after 1875 were, in that year, the Challenger and Gazelle (for both, see above), and, a quarter-century later, the Siboga. The Challenger sailed along the north coast (including Humboldt Bay) before heading to the Admiralty Islands, Moseley in particular collecting drift objects off the mouth of the Mamberamo. The Gazelle called during June in Mc-Cluer Gulf (now Bintuni Bay), Naumann collecting at Sekar (not far north of the future Fakfak). The year-long Malesian cruise of the Siboga, commanded by G. F. Tydeman and with a scientific corps led by the zoologist M. Weber, called in the latter part of 1899 in several of the Raja Ampat islands as well as at a few mainland points, one of them being Ati-ati Onin (near Fakfak, just established as a government post). A wide range of marine (and some terrestrial) organisms was obtained, the plants (including numerous marine algae) collected by Weber’s wife A. Weber-van Bosse (Leiden, all collections). The expedition’s results appeared—like those of the Challenger—in the grand manner over several decades, Weber-van Bosse’s main work, Liste des Algues du Siboga, appearing in four parts (1913–1928).

The Last Frontier I: Major Expeditions and Surveys (1898–1914)

The arrival of the Siboga in the western waters of New Guinea followed hard upon a change in official Dutch policy towards their easternmost possessions, still largely unexplored. This was provoked by increasing foreign interest and, not unnaturally, by the development of the neighboring British and German territories. On 1 March 1898 what had been a single administrative unit was divided in two, and for the first time official posts were established: Manokwari for the north, Fakfak for the west and south. In early 1902 a third post, at Merauke in the southeast, was set up for the control of armed Marind-Anim (Tugeri) raiders and headhunters—who were also creating disturbances in British New Guinea, then in some turmoil following the cannibalistic murder in 1901 of the now-aging Chalmers (see above). In later years other posts, among them Serui (on Yapen Island) and Hollandia (now Jayapura; on Humboldt Bay), would follow. In the sciences, too, the Dutch realized that serious attention was required, particularly to the extensive interior east of the Bird’s Neck.

The scene was thus set for the series of large-scale wholly or partly government-sponsored expeditions that largely dominated exploration until 1939 (with a "finale" in 1959, filling the "last white spot on the map"). Results of these expeditions were over several decades largely presented in the special serial Nova Guinea (Leiden, 1909–1966), sponsored by the Indies Committee for Scientific Research and other bodies.

The first of these major undertakings was the 1903 North New Guinea Expedition, led by C. F. A. Wichmann, then a geology professor at Utrecht University. Much of its zoological material (Amsterdam) was collected by H. A. Lorentz and L. F. de Beaufort as well as by Dumas (see above). No qualified botanist was in the party, but plants—both living and preserved (Bogor), mainly from the first part of the trip—were collected by the Indonesian officials (mantris) Atasrip and Jaheri from Bogor (Jaheri previously having visited New Guinea with Treub and, in 1901 with the Java, Fakfak, the site of Merauke, and Thursday Island in Torres Strait—there collecting Deplanchea tetraphylla) and, where possible, by Dumas after the Bogor officials’ (mantris) departure. A wide range of mainly coastal localities was visited by Wichmann, ranging (on his own, in January) first from Triton Bay along the Bomberai coast (including the offshore Adi, Karas, and Semai islands) to Fakfak (and McCluer Gulf, now Bintuni Bay), and from there (on the expedition proper, 7 February to August) around Geelvink (now Cenderawasih) Bay and its islands, afterwards rapidly sailing along the north coast to Humboldt Bay and there taking in the Hollandia (now Jayapura)-Sentani area (after which the Indonesian officials (mantris) returned to Java), finally exploring around Tanah Merah Bay and elsewhere before returning west and concluding with an excursion to the Bird’s Neck at the southern end of Geelvink Bay. An extensive general report appeared in 1917 in Nova Guinea; natural history reports were scattered.

Specific localities on the north coast and in Geelvink Bay included Waigeo, Manokwari (on Doré Bay), Mansinam, Karoon, Kwawi, Andai, Wendesi, Tawarin, Bawe, Sageisara, Moso, Napan, Angadi, Jende (on Ron I.), Timena, Orum, Mios Korwar, Supiori Island (just west of Biak), Ansus on Yapen Island, Moso, Metu Debi, Tjintjan Bay, Matterer Bay, Pokembo, Wakobi, Siari, Kwatisore, and Wa Udu and (along the north coast) Moaif and Maffin Bay. Points of interest in the Hollandia (now Jayapura)-Sentani area included (among others) Jotefa Bay, the Cyclops Mountains (ascending into the range in the first two-thirds of April and visiting Mts Pisero, Sinagai, and Pancana among others), and (west of Sentani) the Timena River, Ibaiso, and Jaga. Slightly more distant were Tanah Merah Bay (at the western end of the Cyclops), the Korimé River inland from Moeris, and—just past the German border—Oinaké (near Wutung in present-day Papua New Guinea). South of Hollandia (now Jayapura) they visited the Tami and Sekanto Rivers. In mid-July they returned to Manokwari and the team then explored (via Kwatisore) across the Bird’s Neck, reaching Goreda (on Lake Yamur, not far from Jabi at the very western end of the Central Cordillera). Thence they attempted to push further south before in mid-August but, plagued by mosquitoes, had to abandon their transit and so turn back to the north coast, Manokwari, and "home."

Wichmann’s undertaking was followed in 1904–1905 by the Southwestern New Guinea Expedition, organized under the auspices of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society and led by R. Posthumus Meijes and E. J. de Rochemont. Animals and plants (Bogor, Leiden) were collected by Dr J. W. R. Koch with the aid of Indonesian officials (mantris) from Bogor; Koch, a physician by profession, focused in particular on ethnography. In the second quarter of 1904 (prior to the expedition proper), he made a preliminary reconnaissance from Merauke with the Lombok, taking in the rarely-visited Frederik Hendrik Island (later known as Kolepom Island, now known as Yos Sudarso Island) as well as parts of the southwest coast and its inlets. He then returned to Merauke for some months before arrival of the expedition proper (from September to the following April). The full party (in the Valk) carried out further work along the southwestern coasts, with one side trip to Dobo, Aru Islands, as well as at Merauke and sailed up the lower course of the Digul (partly in sloops). During this time, Koch was left at Etna Bay (west of Uta) for over two months. The main expedition report appeared in 1908, Koch contributing the sections on ethnography and natural history (with assistance from T. Valeton on the plants). During this cruise Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora) was first sighted and named from the expedition ship.

Valeton incorporated available identifications into his Plantae Papuanae (1907), a work which for the south—most of Koch’s collections having come from Merauke—represented a useful addition to the earlier writings of von Mueller. But Koch’s harvest at Etna Bay was relatively small, as was that in the north; the botanical results of both expeditions thus are, with the exception of records from south of the Digul, relatively slight.

By the middle of the decade, Dutch detachments had, with the Lombok and other vessels, explored most of the coasts and penetrated the lower courses of some of the rivers. The stage was now set for more serious inland exploration. From 1907 to 1915 there took place one of the greatest organized exploring efforts of a territory ever—the Military Expeditions (Militaire-Exploratie). Over eight years they obtained an extensive albeit sketchy knowledge of the interior lowlands and associated hills. On certain sorties plants and animals were collected, notably in 1909–1912 by the Dane Dr. K. Gjellerup (see below), but also by Dr. R. F. Janowsky, W. K. H. Feuilletau de Bruijn, Lt. L. A. C. M. Doorman, P. M. van Kampen, Dr. J. K. van Gelder, and Dr. A. C. de Kock. Members of the military teams also accompanied the major Dutch and British expeditions to the central ranges (see below), and Gjellerup and van Kampen joined the 1910–1911 German-Dutch border survey (the Dutch contingent being led by J. J. F. C. ten Klooster).

While with the Military Expeditions (Militaire-Exploratie), Gjellerup collected plants and animals (Bogor; plants also in Leiden, Kew, and Utrecht) as other duties permitted. In this work he was assisted by two Indonesian officials (mantris) from Bogor, Ajoeb and Sadeli. On travels in the border areas in 1910 and 1911 he three times visited the Tami River basin (reaching among other places Arso and Sawia) and also undertook a trip to the Bougainville Range (near Oinaké). In between were assignments in 1910 with the German border survey team (under Schultze-Jena) to the Bewani Mountains, from there returning down the Tami River and then the upper Sepik River. Due to the capsizing of a vessel, many collections from these latter trips unfortunately were lost. After the Tami River basin Gjellerup then worked along Lake Sentani and in the Cyclops Mountains, in mid-1911 as high as 2,000 m, obtaining the first significant harvest of plants (including, for example, the endemic Schefflera leiophylla) from this geologically interesting but difficult range. This was followed by a reconnaissance of the Maffin (now Tor) River (southeast of Sarmi), reaching into the Gauttier (now Foja) Mountains. After further activity in early 1912 around Hollandia (now Jayapura), he was transferred to Manokwari. From there, with a geologist and mining surveyor, P. F. Hubrecht, via Siari (on the coast) he climbed up to and collected at the Anggi Lakes (April–May 1912)—a year and a half before Gibbs (see below). Here, also, he suffered losses to his collections.

Of other Military Expedition (Militaire-Exploratie) officers, Janowsky—during two trips in 1912 and 1913—penetrated far up the Weyland Mountains at the western end of the central ranges (in 1913 reaching the top at 3,720 m) but also patrolled along the eastern side of Geelvink Bay (Moesoiro, Legare River, Sawa River). Both animals and plants were obtained (Bogor) though a large number of those from 1913 had to be abandoned in the field. Feuilletau de Bruijn in 1914 collected in the Mamberamo basin and the Lake Plain and in 1915 in the Schouten Islands (plants, Bogor). In 1914, on the third Mamberamo expedition of the Military Expeditions (Militaire-Exploratie) under Capt. J. V. L. Opperman, Lt Doorman went up the Mamberamo (calling at the Pionierbivak base camp) and across the Lake Plain. Finally, via the Taritatu (formerly Idenburg) River, they reached the summit (3,550 m) of Mt Kembu (later named Doorman Top), this being some ways east of Moszkowski’s route (see below). Doorman’s collections were but few (orchids, Bogor). Gelder, in addition to his mineral surveying, collected animals in 1910 on the Mamberamo under Capt. A. Franssen Herderschee. Kampen in 1910–1911 collected animals at Hollandia (now Jayapura), Lake Sentani, Zoutbron, and Bronbeck (1910) and on the Arwo River (1911). Finally, in 1910–1911 de Kock made a dramatic stab towards the eastern part of the central ranges, voyaging up along the Eilanden River and ascending Mt Goliath (3,500 m) where for some time de Kock remained (preserved and living plants, Bogor). That remote mountain region has since hardly seen a collector. Also with some parties was J. M. Dumas (see above), collecting mainly birds and insects (Bogor); he would also join Lorentz’s first expedition (see below). The results from these several undertakings appeared in Nova Guinea and elsewhere.

In spite of these cumulatively not inconsiderable contributions, detailed biological investigation was, however, not a primary aim for the military teams. Indeed, no professional botanist and only one professional zoologist were under direct command; the majority of the collections that emerged were the work of team physicians. More significant for science were the major metropolitan expeditions that army men accompanied and, in one instance, also led. Most of these had as their main objective the "snow mountains"—a Dutch "dream" since their sighting centuries before by Carstensz. In this quest the generally state-supported Dutch were to be "challenged" by largely privately-funded British interests. By agreement, however, the British directed their attention towards Mt Carstensz (now Mt Jaya)—perhaps the greater prize, being the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the Americas. (Only in 1962 would it be successfully climbed, and then by a less difficult route.) The Germans, as we shall see (and perhaps not to be outdone), also made one abortive attempt in their support of Moszkowski—but from the north, at that time a rather more difficult route although the opening up of the central ranges by the Military Expedition (Militaire Exploratie) teams was underway. The other expeditions sensibly approached the central ranges from the south.

Of the three Dutch "South New Guinea Expeditions," only the third finally reached the top of Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora), although the second got to over 4,000 m, turning back just 170 m below the summit. The first two expeditions were led by H. A. Lorentz and the third by Capt. Franssen Herderschee (earlier leader of a military team on the Mamberamo, as we have seen). All traveled from the so-called Asmat (or Casuarina) Coast in the first instance up the Noord (now Lorentz) River, with a base camp at "Alkmaar" (ca 100 m) at the start of the foothills. Attached to each of these expeditions was an army lieutenant; for the second, it was D. Habbema.

The first South New Guinea Expedition (1907–1908) worked extensively around Merauke and in the Digul and Noord (now Lorentz) river basins; the furthest point reached was the Hellwig Mountains (2,320 m) with an intermediate point (the Resi Mountains) at 900 m. The "Alkmaar" base camp was established at this time. Much collecting was at lower elevations, such as at Sabang and the van Weels camp on the Noord (now Lorentz) River. Animals were obtained by Lorentz and de Beaufort (see also above), while plants were collected by Dr. B. Branderhorst (also of the Militaire Exploratie), Dr. G. M. Versteeg (directly seconded from the forces) and the Bogor officials (mantris) Djibdja and Atmodjo (animals, Leiden; plants, Bogor and Utrecht). The second (1909–1910) and the third (1912–1913) South New Guinea Expeditions both worked all the way from the mouth of the Noord (now Lorentz) River to the summit area of Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora), going via the Alkmaar camp and the nearby (and slightly higher) Kloofbivak camp north along the ridges between the Noord (now Lorentz) and Noordwest Rivers. They passed through Heuvelbivak base camp, the Went Mts, Dromedarisbivak camp, the Hellwig Mts (2,000 m), the Treub Mts, the Wichmann Mts, the Hubrecht Mts, Bellevue, Peripatusbivak camp, Jenjabivak camp, the Kajan Mts, Waterfalbivak camp, Lake Quarles (ca 3,600 m), Dolomieten, Oranjebivak camp, Rotsbivak camp (4,300 m) and, in November 1909, first onto the then-extant ice-cap on Mt Wilhelmina (now Trikora; 4,750 m). Lake Habbema was seen for the first time—a site very important a quarter-century later, for the Third Archbold Expedition (see the section Between World War I and World War II, below). The same route was followed in 1912–1913. Some collecting was also done at Fakfak and Kaimana on the southwestern coastal approaches. Most of the animals were collected by Lorentz (second South New Guinea Expedition) with some by G. M. Versteeg (third South New Guinea Expedition). A considerable number of plants were obtained under Lorentz by E. S. A. M. Römer, J. W. van Nouhuys, and Habbema, and under Herderschee by A. Pulle, but at the high elevations by Versteeg (Bogor, Leiden). The richness of the flora of the central ranges now began to be revealed, including a first (but for some time unrecognized) collection for New Guinea of southern beech, Nothofagus—a dominant genus in many areas. A rich array of results appeared in Nova Guinea, including large numbers of new orchids.

British explorers mounted two expeditions: the British Ornithologists’ Union Expedition of 1909–1910 and the Wollaston Expedition of 1912–1913. Like their Dutch counterparts, each expedition was accompanied by a Dutch army officer. The first British Ornithologists’ Union Expedition was led by W. Goodfellow; animals (but few plants) were collected by A. F. R. Wollaston, G. C. Shortridge, and W. Stalker. Working mostly along the Mimika, Utakwa (also known as Waitakwa) and Setakwa rivers, the expedition met with great difficulties and some loss of life (Stalker being drowned) and in addition failed to get high in the central range. Wollaston, however, soon organized his own expedition to continue the quest. Assisted by C. Boden Kloss of the Federated Malay States Museums (Kuala Lumpur), he collected animals and quite a few plants (BMNH; plants also at Kew and elsewhere), also making many geographical and topographical observations (regrettably, most of his notes were lost during the descent). The team reached the Mt Carstensz (now Mt Jaya) glacier fields but was finally stopped at the end of January 1913 by stupendous cliffs and a wall of ice; due to bad weather they did not realize they were still some 550 m below the summit. The animals (by several zoologists) and plants (by H. N. Ridley) were published mainly in Transactions of the Linnean Society, and as well collectively reissued as a fine two-volume set. Wollaston’s expedition was recently revisited in a memoir by his son, Nicholas, My Father, Sandy (2003).

The challenge of the "snow mountains" would, as already mentioned, attract one German explorer—another physician-naturalist and ethnographer, Max Moszkowski of Breslau (Wroclaw) University. In 1910–1911 he attempted to reach the "snow mountains" via the Mamberamo River. After explorations in its lower regions (including Teba, Sauwi, Samberi, Assewari, and Tama, and in the lagoon areas and estuaries to the east of the Mamberamo), he began his ascent south from a base camp on the Naumoni River, just before the foothills. But soon, at Edi Falls, just before Pionierbivak camp (ca 2°25'S) Moszkowski lost all his equipment and had to return to Manokwari. After his return to Naumoni Moszkowski passed the falls and through the Van Rees Mountains, and entered the Lake Plain. However, by now—not surprisingly—he was becoming overextended. Towards the end of 1910, while some ways up the Van Daalen (or Zuid River), a tributary of the Tariku River (ca 138°5'E, in the Nassau Ranges) he had to turn back on account of lack of food. In January 1911, again at Edi Falls, while returning he lost many of his collections. A number of plants were, however, brought back (Berlin, Leiden); zoological and entomological (Berlin) as well as ethnographic collections were also made. Moszkowski’s own contributions, apart from his expedition reports, are all in ethnography and anthropology, a not insignificant accomplishment.

The Last Frontier II: Independent Exploration (1898–1914)

In addition to the great expeditions, there were a number of individual undertakings in the final years of the post-Napoleonic century. Some related to official activities; but, as before, other explorers worked independently or under outside sponsorship. Many—official as well as non-official—also were keen photographers; advances in equipment and technique resulted in great additions to the photographic record. But offsetting this was a contemporary decline in fine color-plate art, one of the last of the "grand" hand-painted works having been R. B. Sharpe’s Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-Birds (1891–1898), a book with much on Papuasian exploration.

Not surprisingly, with better links the western regions and islands continued to attract the most attention. Of particular interest after 1900 would be the newly discovered twin Anggi Lakes in the southern part of the Arfaks. In April 1904, A. van Oosterzee, from its establishment in 1898 administrator at Manokwari and a zealous explorer of his district, sent living plants (Bogor) from these lakes—as L. S. Gibbs has written, the first European to collect there. Yet, on van Oosterzee’s visit, potatoes were already available from local gardens—the result of indirect missionary introductions. In 1906–1907 the American zoologist Thomas Barbour collected amphibians and reptiles around the Anggi Lakes and on Waigeo Island (MCZ). Barbour was followed up to the Anggi Lakes in 1907 and again—for a stay of close to a year—in 1908–1909 by Pratt with his sons F. and C. In between (1907–1908) the Pratts spent much time around Humboldt Bay, including visits to the Cyclops Mts and Lake Sentani (insects, Tring/BMNH; plants, Bogor, Kew). After the Pratts came Gjellerup with Hubrecht in 1912 (see above) and, in 1913, the senior Pratt. The senior Pratt would lend photographs to Gibbs (see below) for her book, her own not having been satisfactory.

But perhaps the most important independent figure of the period is L. S. Gibbs—the first independent lady explorer in New Guinea and moreover the first visiting scientist with an explicit interest in tropical mountain ecology and vegetation. In six days in December 1913 she obtained over 330 numbers (BMNH, with some duplicates elsewhere) at the Anggi Lakes (via the coastal village of Wariap), with some 150 more over the rest of her trip (Doré Bay, Roon Island, Biak Island, Wakdé Island, and Humboldt Bay—in all from November 1913 to February 1914). Her results, which also included checklists of her collections with descriptions of novelties, appeared as Dutch N.W. New Guinea (1917)—a botanical landmark, later to be drawn upon by P. W. Richards for his classic Tropical Rain Forest (1952). Gibbs had earlier visited Borneo (Mt Kinabalu) and Fiji as part of a quest towards working out the structure and origins of the Malayo-Pacific mountain flora—much of it featuring an "extra-Malayan facies," as Beccari (see above), von Mueller, and some others had earlier indicated.

In the northern mainland, Walter Goodfellow visited along the coast, collecting birds in 1904–1906 (BMNH). In 1915 C. L. J. Palmer van den Broek—who was very helpful to Gibbs while Resident (in Ternate)—collected in the Cyclops Mountains and Humboldt Bay (Bogor). In the south, Merauke and its biotically distinctive region had now become relatively accessible. Hassan collected various animals on the Utumbui River and on the Gelib River and at Okaba (west of Merauke) in 1909–1910 (Leiden; plants Bogor)—perhaps with Versteeg as part of the second of Lorentz’s expeditions (see above). In 1910 Rothschild’s agent A. S. Meek collected birds and insects at Merauke, along the Digul and Eilanden rivers, ascending Mt Goliath (in the wake of the Dutch expedition), there reaching 2,800 m (birds, Tring/AMNH; insects BMNH). H. Elgner collected insects in 1912 at Fakfak (Senckenberg).

A few further collectors visited the western islands, some of them as members of two expeditions from Freiburg, Germany. In 1907–1908 Roux, a Swiss, and H. Merton, a German, collected various animals on the Aru and Kai Islands. Misool was visited in 1911 with O. D. Tauern collecting animals (Leiden). Botanically, however, after 1898 these islands would largely be neglected, remaining so until at least the 1930s.

With the outbreak of World War I in mid-1914, field activity largely came to an end. Travel became restricted and war conditions soon disrupted world shipping. Though the Netherlands and the Indies remained neutral, after 1915 further exploratory work became unfeasible. The final report of the Dutch Military Expeditions (Militaire Exploratie) appeared in 1920—a very useful summary of what had been accomplished, though not rich in biological data. Among its many maps is one in four sheets for the whole territory—the best then available; another (after p. 74) depicts the Military Expedition teams’ routes, as well as the routes of earlier explorers. It would be five years before serious activities resumed in western New Guinea, and then not for long in the old tradition. Costs of everything were higher, and—significantly—much of the primary interest in exploration had been satisfied. A zenith had passed, although with three more major undertakings to come in the 1920s there would be for a time somewhat more continuity in biological exploration in the west of New Guinea as opposed to the Australian-administered eastern territories. In publication, few new "grand series" would emerge. Some earlier runs, such as Nova Guinea (with many illustrated contributions on orchids by J. J. Smith) and the Siboga volumes, continued, but—as already for the eastern part of New Guinea—the presentation of results generally became more diversified as well as modest, usually appearing in specialist professional journals.

Between World War I and World War II (1918–1942)

Although German New Guinea had come under Australian military rule very early in World War I, Papuasia otherwise was not a theater of war and most local administration continued uninterrupted, aided by enhanced revenues for commodities. Some collecting could thus be accomplished in the later 1910s: W. Bradtke in the Duke of York Islands, 1917 (plants, Brisbane); John Todd Zimmer in Woodlark Island, Papua, collecting animals and coconut pests (the latter as part of his extension work), 1917–1918 (BMNH); and, in mid-1918, C. T. White in central Papua (see Plants section below). Keysser also was active in the Saruwaged Mts, as has been mentioned. But it was not a time for large expeditions.

After November 1918, however, normal biological work could resume. Initially it developed relatively slowly (except for the major expeditions of 1920–1922 across northern and central Dutch New Guinea, mentioned below) but it gained pace in the later 1920s and again, in a more favorable economic climate, in the 1930s. Yet not for some time in the former German territories (under civil administration only from 1921) did exploration approach its earlier level, a development that attracted some adverse comment. In addition, everywhere infrastructure and resources would largely remain too rudimentary for natural history institutions (as Macgregor already had foreseen). Similarly, official interest in animal and plant life was low save with respect to forestry, agriculture, marine, and wildlife resources (in particular with the end of the bird plume trade resulting in losses in local income and revenue). Official publications of the time likewise reflect the era. Hardly a mention of Dutch New Guinea appears, for example, in Handbook of the Netherlands East Indies (1924, Buitenzorg). By the late 1930s two substantial works had appeared, both with some natural history and resources content, the latter also covering exploration. These were the Australian Official Handbook of the Territory of New Guinea (1937, Canberra; reissued 1943) and the more ambitious Dutch (but New Guinea–wide) compendium, W. C. Klein’s three-volume Nieuw-Guinée (1934–1938; see References section below).

During the quarter-century between the wars, developments lessened the need for large expeditions, while at the same time more individuals were working for greater or lesser periods in the field—a number of whom have left accounts of their adventures. Innovations such as radio and the airplane, as well as aerial photography (well covered, for example, by Klein, 1934–1938), were of particular importance. The number of administrative, mission, and other posts also increased. Although the majority of these posts continued to be on or near water, some church groups (notably the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic mission at Yule Island and the Lutherans at Simbang and Sattelberg) had by then developed extensive graded track systems to their interior mountain stations. There were also some—generally less elaborate—systems of government tracks, including the track across the Kokoda Gap. Motor roads, however, remained few, but from the late 1920s this lack was partly offset by airstrips and the rise of commercial aviation, notably in the Mandated Territory. By the 1930s air links with nearby parts of the Indies and with Australia had also been developed.

Collectors and specialists were still predominantly European, but now they came to be joined by others from elsewhere, particularly Japan, Australia, and, increasingly, the United States. There was moreover a greater amount of collaboration than in previous decades, although a partial vogue for expedition reports remained (Nova Guinea, Results of the Archbold Expeditions, etc.).

GENERAL UNDERTAKINGS

The first major expeditions of the era between the two World Wars were the two over 1920–1922 in Netherlands New Guinea aimed at reaching Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora)—the furthest point reached by the Herderschee expedition of 1912–1913—but across the central range from the north, as earlier attempted by Moszkowski. The last great exploring expeditions in the pre–World War I style, these "New Guinea Expeditions" were led in turn by Dutch Army captains A. J. A. van Overeem (1920–1921) and J. H. G. Kremer (1921–1922). The approach for both was up the winding Mamberamo River through the Van Rees Mts into the Lake Plain, with van Overeem going up the Idenburg, Rouffaer, and Doorman rivers, finally reaching the Swart Valley and the summit of Mt Doorman (the highest peak along the northern fall of the Nassau Range). Camps were set up at Prauwenbivak, Bivak Batu, Pionierbivak, Doormanpadbivak, Mamonbivak, and Kikkerbivak. After reorganization and resupplying, Kremer (with 800 men!) returned to the field and retraced much of the previous route to the Swart Valley; from there some of the party crossed into the western Baliem basin (missing, however, the Grand Valley) and finally reached Lake Habbema (first seen in 1909) and nearby Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora)—at the end of the longest largely pedestrian supply line ever organized in New Guinea.

But, as Souter wrote in 1963 (see Reference section, below), the van Overeem and Kremer expeditions were the last of their kind. Never again would such battalion-sized parties take to the field; future large expeditions would rely on radio (first tested by van Overeem), fixed-wing aircraft, and (after World War II) helicopters and motor vehicles. Indeed, the size of these expeditions—particularly in 1921–1922—were not commensurate with the scientific results. The onset of a severe economic recession in the Netherlands East Indies also frustrated any new official plans.

Collections in the first phase of these two major 1920–1922 expeditions were made by W. C. van Heurn (animals) and H. J. Lam (plants, Bogor, Leiden, Utrecht), the plants written up in Nova Guinea and elsewhere. In Fragmenta Papuana (English version, 1945) Lam also presented a narrative and set of observations from his work which remains an accessible account of the van Overeem undertaking. Circumstances in the second phase of these expeditions were less favorable to biological collecting; the only substantial contribution was the work of the ethnographer-anthropologist Paul Wirz, who in 1922 remained in the Swart Valley while the rest of the party pushed southwards. He also collected animals (Leiden, Amsterdam), obtained both from there and on Mt Doorman. A few plants (Leiden) were, however, obtained by Hubrecht who was with the main party and moreover a veteran of Herderschee’s successful ascent.

The van Overeem and Kremer expeditions were followed in western New Guinea by the "Netherlands-America Expedition" of 1926 under M. Stirling, with the former Dutch army officer C. C. F. M. le Roux as topographer-ethnographer and W. M. Docters van Leeuwen from Buitenzorg as botanist (collections, Bogor, Leiden). While more of an explorer (as well as an anthropologist), Stirling (with his pilot R. K. Peck) pioneered the use of aircraft in New Guinea as a transport aid. Their route to the Lake Plain was similar to that of van Overeem and Kremer, and some of their campsites—in fact dating back to the time of the Dutch Military Expeditions (Militaire-Exploratie) of 1907–1915—were reused (Le Roux making some side trips). It was along this stretch that their amphibious plane saw most use. The upper route followed the Rouffaer River along and then into the Nassau Range up to an altitude of 2,600 m (with Explorationbivak the most distant camp). Deterioration of the plane, however, forced its withdrawal and so brought a premature end to the expedition. Few direct results ever appeared; in particular, both in 1932 and again during World War II, key notes and lists relating to the botanical collections were lost. Only gradually have the collections themselves (often with little data) been worked up as particular families have been revised. The major contribution was thus le Roux’s three-volume monograph on Papuan mountain dwellers, De Bergpapoea’s van Nieuw Guinea en hun Woongebied (1938).

The last years of the Jazz Age boom saw three biological "cruises" arrive in New Guinea waters: two American, one Belgian. The first was the Whitney South Seas Expedition of 1928–1929, which collected birds in eastern Papua and in the Milne Bay Islands (AMNH); it also was active elsewhere in the Pacific. The second was the visit in 1929 of Crown Prince Leopold of Belgium (later Leopold III) and his wife Princess Astrid, together with their chief scientist Victor E. van Straelen. During a voyage that ranged widely through the Netherlands Indies, they visited several spots in western New Guinea, including the Raja Ampat Islands, Sorong, Manokwari, the Arfak Mountains and Anggi Lakes, Yapen Island, and, in the south, Triton Bay (the site of long-abandoned Merkusoord). Van Straelen’s collections of insects, other animals, plants, and fungi are in Belgium (in Brussels and Meise (BR), respectively), but among the plants and fungi are only algae, mosses, and lichens. A special series from the Natural History Museum in Brussels (of which van Straelen was, in time, director) along the lines of Nova Guinea, Résultats scientifiques du Voyage aux Indes Orientales Néerlandaises..., encompassed algae (1932) as well as the extensive zoological results. Van Straelen also wrote a more popular book, De Reis door den Indischen Archipel van Prins Leopold van België.

The last "cruise," also in the first half of 1929, was the Crane expedition on its yacht Illyria. Sponsored by the Field Museum in Chicago but also with some input from Bostonians, it was headed by Cornelius Crane and S. N. Shurcliff with as chief biologist a former Philippine National Museum ichthyologist, A. W. C. T. Herre. During this world cruise calls were made in the Solomon Islands, the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain, Huon Gulf, the Sepik River, Manokwari, and Waigeo. The team collected marine specimens as well as many freshwater fish, other animals, and some 400 or so plants (FMNH; plants also at NY). As with the Belgian expedition, the results included a popular book, Jungle Islands (1930), as well as scientific reports by Herre and others (mainly in the Field Museum’s zoological series).

The 1930s would be marked by five large expeditions, three from the United States and two from the Netherlands (and East Indies). Those from the United States—the so-called Archbold Expeditions—were organized through the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and personally financed and led by a Standard Oil heir, Richard Archbold. An associate in mammalogy at the Museum and an amateur pilot, Archbold was accompanied by a small cadre of experienced scientist-collectors, particularly the zoologist Austin L. Rand and the botanist Leonard J. Brass. These expeditions—each of them over a year long and progressively more ambitious—were organized so as to encompass substantial altitudinal tran-sects in different areas, each thought to be imperfectly known as well as potentially accessible. Amphibious planes were used for the second and third expeditions—though (alas!) there was a serious accident during the second, when in Fairfax Harbor (Port Moresby) a sudden wind flipped over the expedition’s craft while it was at anchor and it sank, forcing a change of plans. The many places visited are well described (and mapped) in general reports by the team in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (with Brass playing a considerable role in drawing them up). The second expedition was also the subject of a popular book, New Guinea Expedition (1940). Their aerial exploits and achievements have been well described in Souter (1963; see section on References, below) and elsewhere. At the American Museum of Natural History, the undertaking was granted unitary status as "Archbold Expeditions"; through it were coordinated the expeditions’ scientific results. A separate series of reports comparable to Nova Guinea was, however, eschewed in favor of established serials; but individual papers generally bore a subtitle "Results of the Archbold Expeditions." Zoological papers—many substantial—were mainly published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, while the botanical appeared in Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, Brittonia, the later installments of Lauterbach and Diels’s series Beiträge zur Flora von Papuasien, and elsewhere.

The First Archbold Expedition (March 1933–March 1934) was, by its own admission, something of a "trial horse," sticking to relatively established means of land and water access. Accompanying Archbold were Rand (birds and other animals; AMNH) and Brass (plants, NY with duplicates elsewhere). The First Arch-bold Expedition worked a complete altitudinal transect from the south coast to the top of the Wharton Range in the western Owen Stanley Mountains. Here, access was facilitated by the already-mentioned Sacred Heart track to Ononge (south of modern Woitape), thence overland to Murray Pass. Stations towards Ononge included Kubuna, Dieni, Mafulu (1,200 m), and Mt Tafa (2,400 m); beyond there—towards Mt Albert Edward and the Neon Basin, the ultimate objectives—camps were made at Urunu, Ero Creek, and Gerenda (this last below the summit area). After its return from the mountains the expedition visited Yule Island en route to Port Moresby for Christmas. Its last foray (from January 1934) was by boat to Kikori, Daru, and the Binaturi and Oriomo rivers (including collecting stations at Wuroi and Dogwa), with also a first visit to the low Oriomo Plateau (northwest of Daru).

The thirteen-month Second Archbold Expedition to New Guinea (February 1936–March 1937) was centered in the Fly River basin, including the Fly River itself, its upper tributaries the Palmer and Black rivers, and parts of the Strickland River as well as some of the lakes (notably Daviumbu Lake and Murray Lake). Access to the area had improved as a result of oil and mineral prospecting activities, with Oroville Camp (now Kiunga) a potentially useful staging point for the principal objective, exploration of the Hindenburg limestone range between the Fly River and the upper Sepik River. In addition to a ketch, the expedition also had a plane (used particularly out of Daru); but, on 9 July, the plane was—as already mentioned—wrecked at Port Moresby. The just-initiated mountain work therefore had to be abandoned. Instead the party, after much work in the middle Fly, spent its final three months in extensive exploration of the so-called Trans-Fly region (between the lower Fly River and the Torres Straits and up to the international border). In addition to Archbold, Rand, and Brass, an American Museum mammologist, G. H. H. Tate (who would return on post–World War II Archbold Expeditions) was also in the party (animals, AMNH; plants, Harvard University Herbaria with duplicates elsewhere). Collecting stations include Rona (or Rouna) near Port Moresby, Daru, Mabaduan (notable for a granite outcrop geologically homologous with those in the Cape York Peninsula of Australia), Everill Junction, Oroville Camp, Palmer River (one month), Black River (two months), Lake Daviumbu (one month), Sturt Island (one month), Gaima, and (in the Trans-Fly) along the channels of the Wassi and Mai Kussa River, calling at Penzara, Tumbuke, and, in particular, Tarara; finally, Daru was once more visited.

The Third Archbold Expedition (also known as the Netherlands Indies-American Expedition), of thirteen months’ duration (April 1938–May 1939), was carried out jointly with Dutch interests. Working with Archbold, Rand, and Brass were entomologists L. J. Toxopeus and J. Olthof, another zoologist, W. B. Richardson, and forest botanists E. Meijer Drees and C. Versteegh. The expedition traversed in particular the Nassau Range from Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora) to the Lake Plain, partly by boat and land but mainly in a new amphibious plane, the Guba (one of two prototype PBYs, later the famous "Catalina" class of World War II and beyond). After fieldwork in the vicinity of Hollandia (now Jayapura) and the Cyclops Mts, a first mountain camp was established at Lake Habbema (3,225 m), with the Guba successfully landing and taking off from the water—then a new altitudinal record for a seaplane. From there camps were established at Letterbox (3,560 m) and Scree Valley (3,800 m), the latter near the summit of Mt Wilhelmina (now Mt Trikora). The expedition then worked its way northwards, with collecting stations at Moss Forest (upper Bele Valley, 2,800 m), Bele (2,200 m), and Baliem (1,600 m), the latter in the Grand Valley—a new "discovery," of which parts were explored by the team. Then followed a detailed examination of the central-eastern part of the Nassau Range, with stations at Top (2,150 m), Mist (1,800 m), Sigi (1,500 m), Rattan (1,200 m), Araucaria (800 m), and, by the Idenburg (now Taritatu) River, Bernhard Camp (50 m), the last named in honor of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Very extensive collections were amassed, including over 5,500 numbers of plants obtained by Brass, Meijer-Drees, and Versteegh (vertebrates at AMNH; insects at Leiden after processing at Bogor; plants in the Harvard University Herbaria with many duplicates in Bogor and elsewhere). Apart from its great geographical discovery, the expedition was the first to recognize the presence of Nothofagus in New Guinea—although specimens had been collected earlier, they initially were not correctly identified.

The substantial Dutch representation in this expedition was a reflection not only of pride but also a return of better economic conditions in the Netherlands Indies. Already the Dutch had resumed exploration (and resource investigation) in their own right, a notable goal being to "fill in" the remaining "white spaces" on the map—clearly evident to the world when Klein’s Nieuw-Guinée appeared. The use of radio and aircraft became standard, as elsewhere, and aerial photography was also strongly promoted.

In 1936 A. H. Colijn, with J. J. Dozy and pilot F. J. Wissel, made a largely successful general survey of the Carstensz Mts complex (now Mt Jaya), reaching the top of Ngga Pulu (dense fog obscuring the Carstensz Pyramid), although much would remain for Harrer and Temple in 1961–1962. A valuable small plant collection was secured by Wissel (Leiden, Bogor). In 1938 Wissel made another discovery: the three Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes. The following year an aerially supplied government station, Enarotali, was opened; this inspired two more large expeditions even while the Third Archbold was in the field.

The Royal Netherlands Geographical Society’s "Le Roux" Expedition of 1939, led by Stirling Expedition veteran C. C. F. M. le Roux with zoologist Prof. H. Boschma, collected insects and other animals in the Nassau Mts, Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes, and Etna Bay (Leiden). For at least part of the time they were accompanied by botanist P. J. Eyma and his assistant, E. Loupattij, who—over nearly a year (December 1938–November 1939, partly on their own account)—made extensive plant collections throughout the area (Bogor, Leiden; parts of the field data were, however, lost). Afterwards, explorer and controleur J. P. K. van Eechoud—one of two "Bapa Papua" (papa Papua)—collected birds, insects, and other animals during 1939–1940 in the Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes area as well as in the Mamberamo basin and the Van Rees Mts (Leiden).

ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY

Reference has already been made to the major expeditions and cruises, from some of which there were copious zoological results. But, as I have indicated, it became more possible and efficient to sponsor individuals with specific aims, as Walter Rothschild had already done for some time before the war with Albert Meek in British New Guinea/Papua.

From the United Kingdom, Rothschild continued—albeit on a smaller scale—his sponsorship, with collections going to his museum at Tring. Meek’s associates and successors, the Eichhorns, continued in Papua until 1923 and then worked in New Britain until 1925. Unfortunately, by 1932 personal circumstances forced Rothschild to sell most of his bird collection to the American Museum of Natural History in New York—five years before his death. Before then, however, he was able partly to support the expedition of Ernst Mayr (see below) and his subsequent studies, and in 1928 also to initiate sponsorship for Fred Shaw Mayer, so launching a career which would last nearly forty years (the present author met him in 1966) with stays in New Guinea of varying duration.

The considerable collections of birds by Bürgers on the German Sepik Expedition of 1912–1913, worked up, as already noted, by Stresemann in Berlin and published in 1923, filled in many gaps but a number of questions remained—notably concerning some "mystery" birds of paradise and bower birds collected from time to time by plume hunters before 1920 but not seen since. This led to joint American, British, and German sponsorship for a medical student turned zoologist, the future evolutionist, prolific writer, and ultimate centenarian Ernst Mayr (1904–2005). While still under supervision by Stresemann, Mayr traveled both to western and eastern New Guinea in 1928–1929, collecting many birds (Tring and AMNH) and mammals along with insects (Berlin) and some plants (partly lost, with duplicates in Bogor), ranging from the Vogelkop Peninsula (Siwi, Momu, and Anggi Lakes) to the Cyclops Mts (to the summit), the Huon Peninsula (including the Saruwaged Range, following in Keysser’s and Lane-Poole’s tracks to the summit), and the Herzog Mts south of Lae, crossing into the upper Snake Valley. Mayr’s results led in 1930 to a significant suggestion by Stresemann—that the "mystery" birds were of hybrid origin.

Shaw Mayer’s early trips were for the Tring Museum, collecting birds and mammals. Contemporary localities included the Vogelkop Peninsula (1928), the Wey-land Mts (1930), the Huon Peninsula (1931), and the Milne Bay Islands (1935). Later he amassed the first major collections from the Central Highlands of present-day Papua New Guinea as these became accessible (BMNH), an activity continuing after World War II.

A number of other zoological collectors also were active in the 1920s and 1930s—again with American sponsorship now more in evidence. During the years to 1928, Goodfellow once more was in the field, in 1925 searching for vertebrates in southern Papua; T. Jackson was active around Merauke in 1920–1924 (birds, MCZ); while Wirz, in addition to his already-mentioned sojourn in the central mountains, visited some coastal areas in the early 1920s including swampy Frederik Hendrik (now Yos Sudarso) Island as well as Merauke in the south (animals, Leiden). Wirz, later established at Basel University, would undertake further, largely anthropological, trips over the next three decades, passing away in 1955 in the Maprik area. P. T. Putnam in 1927 collected amphibians and reptiles in the Merauke area (MCZ). L. S. Crandall and H. Hamlin in 1928 collected birds in the southeastern mountains (AMNH).

From 1928 to 1933, in addition to Mayr (see above) zoological collectors included C. T. MacNamara in 1928–1930 on Mt Lamington (southeast of Popondetta; Mt Lamington later underwent a Peléean eruption which in 1951 killed 3,000 people and destroyed vegetation over a considerable area), focusing on beetles (Sydney, Adelaide); the Rev. L. Wagner in 1929, collecting beetles at Lutheran stations at Finschhafen, Wareo, and Komba, and in the Cromwell Range (Adelaide); W. G. N. van der Steen in the same year in the upper Digul River (insects, Amsterdam); J. T. Zimmer (see above) over 1929–1931, collecting birds on the Fly River (AMNH); W. J. C. Frost, obtaining in 1930 birds on the Vogelkop Peninsula and some of the western Papuan islands (Batanta, Waigeo, and Salawati); Dr and Mrs G. Stein in 1931 in the Vogelkop Peninsula, Weyland Mts, and Yapen (birds and some plants, Berlin and Bogor); S. L. Brug in 1932 on the southwest coast and in the Aru Islands (mosquitoes, Amsterdam, BMNH); and Herbert Stevens in 1932–1933, obtaining birds, insects, herpetofauna, and a few mammals (MCZ) in the upper Watut basin—the first to do so in this famous gold mining region (visiting among other places Wau, Mt Missim, Bulolo, and Bulowat). On the marine front, W. J. Eyerdam collected shells and corals (AMNH).

In the Territory of Papua after 1935, Ivan Champion and C. T. J. Adamson, inspired by the concurrent Archbold Expeditions (by whom some aerial support was provided), collected animals on their 1936–1937 Bamu-Purari patrol through the Southern Highlands (including Lake Kutubu, first discovered in 1936). In 1938 there was a small Papuan-Australian Expedition (BMNH).

Returning to Dutch New Guinea, E. Jacobson was active in 1936 on Waigeo (around the same time as was Cheeseman; see below), making collections of birds and insects (Bogor); and, while on the Denison-Crockett expedition in the schooner Chiva to the Vogelkop Peninsula and Raja Ampat Islands in 1937–1938, S. Dillon Ripley (a future Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution) collected birds in the Tamrau Mts and on Salawati, Batanta, and Misool (Philadelphia). Ripley later wrote a popular account of his trip (Trail of the Money Bird, 1942), including observations of Rabaul not long after its Pompeiianesque devastation.

The 1930s also saw a renewal of independent entomological collecting in New Guinea, beginning in 1933 with the intrepid Englishwoman Evelyn Lucy Cheese-man, who over her several trips benefited from sponsorship by the British Museum (Natural History). She was the first extensively to sample for insects in many areas. Her adventures—including unwelcome obstructions on the part of Australian officialdom as well as long coastal journeys on foot—are related in a number of entertaining books: The Two Roads of Papua (on her 1933–1934 trip), Six-legged Snakes (on her 1936 tour, partly with W. Stüber; see below), and Land of the Red Bird (on her 1938–1939 trip).

In 1933–1934 Cheeseman collected insects at Kokoda, Orrori, and Oquali (on the north side of Owen Stanley Mts), Isurava (900 m), and at Mafulu (1,200 m), Mondo (1,500 m), Dieni (600 m), Mt Tafa (2,550 m), all on the southern fall of the Owen Stanley Mts. During part of that period she worked with the First Arch-bold Expedition (see above). In 1936 she collected briefly at Kavieng, New Ireland, but much more substantially around Hollandia (now Jayapura) with visits to the Bougainville Range (on the border) and particularly in the Cyclops Mts. In 1938– 1939 she worked on Waigeo Island and on Yapen, from there proceeding to Hollandia (and Humboldt Bay), then working in the Mandated Territory at Aitape (having largely walked from Hollandia!), the Torricelli Mts, the hills between Vanimo and Hollandia, and the Bewani Mts. Many species have been based on her collections (insects BMNH; 1939 collections from the Mandated Territory at Adelaide; plants BMNH, Kew, including cryptogams from 1936).

Other entomological collectors worked on the mainland of western New Guinea, the Raja Ampat Islands, the Geelvink (now Cenderawasih) Bay islands, and elsewhere under Dutch control in this decade. These collectors included Jacobson (see above); Lt J. M. van Ravenswaay Claasen (Berau Peninsula, Vogelkop, in 1937, and Mappia, the Digul River, Merauke, and Ayamaru (insects; Leiden) in 1938); R. G. Wind (butterflies and other insects in 1939 along the south coast including Fakfak, Merauke, etc., sold to various museums); and, from 1930, the settler and professional collector W. Stüber (in 1936 with Cheeseman) in the Hollandia (now Jayapura)-Sawia area and hills to the south and east, including Sentani, Krisa Road, Korime, Mamda, Ajiop, Tarafia (600 m), Kofio (Komfe) Hills, Vokwar, Njau, Bougainville Mts (400 m), Bewani Mts, Nonno (Japoe), Cyclops Mts, and the Pim River (insects, Bogor, Leiden, with particular attention to Odonata); he also collected orchids (see below).

In the Mandated Territory, a new center for entomological activity was established at Kerevat outside Rabaul in 1928 when the Department of Agriculture set up an experiment station. There, J. L. Froggatt, B. A. O’Connor, and Gordon Dun were entomologists, but their collections are now mostly destroyed. Also in New Britain, G. F. Hill collected mosquitos and other insects (Macleay; CSIRO). But that big island would, beyond the Gazelle Peninsula, remain largely unknown until after World War II; nor was there much activity in the rest of the Bismarck Archipelago.

In September 1939, World War II broke out and in May 1940, the Netherlands was overrun by Germany. In the two years before war arrived in the Pacific there was a final flurry of Dutch activities; these in particular improved knowledge of the poorly known Bomberai Peninsula. The Negumy Expedition in 1941 included insect collecting (Bogor, Leiden) by the forester E. Lundquist (see also below) on the Vogelkop, McCluer Gulf, Agonda, Bomberai (or Onin) Peninsula, Etna Bay, Oeta (or Uta), and Najeju (south coast). The Indonesian official (mantri) Anta from Bogor collected on the Digul in 1941 while with Wentholt (see below). J. J. van der Starre collected insects at Kaimana (southswest) in 1941 (Leiden).

PLANTS

In Dutch New Guinea, in 1920–1921 H. J. Lam—followed in 1926 by W. M. Docters van Leeuwen—made substantial plant collections on their respective expeditions (see above), Lam reaching the summit of Mt Doorman. Otherwise, new botanical activity in the Dutch districts was relatively limited, though the writing up of earlier collections continued. Among the few other contributors were some primarily engaged in zoological work (see above), notably Mayr in the southern Arfak Mts and Cyclops Mts in 1928–1929 (Berlin, Bogor, Harvard), and the Steins in 1931 (Berlin, Bogor). In the early 1930s both Cheeseman and Stüber (see above) collected some plants, Cheeseman in Australian as well as Dutch territory (BMNH, Kew). Stüber focused particularly on orchids for commerce, finding among many others the "Sepik Blue," Dendrobium lasianthera J.J.Sm. (1932), while Cheeseman obtained, among others, mosses, ferns and grasses.

In Australian Papua, collecting early resumed with a visit in 1918 by the newly appointed Queensland Government Botanist C. T. White (who was also consultant botanist to the territory, in succession to Bailey), on invitation by Lt Governor Murray (Smith, his semi-independent senior civil servant and nemesis (see above), being away in Europe) and taking advantage of vacation leave. Several hundred numbers were collected (Brisbane, BMNH), all from the then-Central Division, and a report and collection list published.

White was relatively soon followed in both Papua and the Mandated Territory by the chief forestry officer for the Commonwealth of Australia, C. E. Lane-Poole (who would some forty years later open the main buildings of the Forestry School at Bulolo). In 1922–1924, as part of a forest assessment survey (see below), Lane-Poole collected extensively in areas with relatively easy access, yielding some hundreds of numbers (Brisbane, Kew). His results were the first of any significance in the former German territory since 1914, but would be the last under official auspices in both territories for most of the remaining years between World War I and World War II.

In 1925–1926 Brass (see Archbold Expeditions, above), like White a Queenslander, also came to Papua, but under private sponsorship. His patron was C. S. Sargent—director since 1872 of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. Thus began an association over some three decades of that institution with New Guinea. Brass collected extensively in the Gulf, Eastern, and Central Divisions, in the latter reaching the Owen Stanley Range watershed. 1,165 numbers were obtained (Harvard Herbaria). A second expedition, planned for 1929, unfortunately came to naught because of Sargent’s death; but in that year White reported in the Arnold Arboretum’s Journal on the majority of Brass’s collections.

Later individual collectors included two later-famous British anthropologists. One, Gregory Bateson, a son of the geneticist William Bateson, author of Naven and other books, and once Margaret Mead’s husband, collected in 1931 in the Baining areas of New Britain and also in the Sepik basin (Kew). Another, Beatrice Blackwood, collected in 1936–1938 in the upper Watut Valley (Morobe) and, in 1937, when excluded from the Watut, along the south coast of New Britain including Kandrian and Arawe Islands (Kew). Also paying visits were a British gentleman-traveler, A. H. Batten Pooll (1940, Central Division; collections, Sydney); and the Japanese botanists R. Kanehira and S. Hatusima collecting in 1937 in Morobe and the Bismarck Archipelago and in 1940 in the Vogelkop Peninsula and from Nabire inland to Dalman in western New Guinea, the latter the site of a copal or dammar (Agathis labilliardieri) gum enterprise (collections, FU, BO and Harvard).

The visit by the two Japanese in 1937 was hurried, limited to the schedule of a cruise ship which took in Kavieng, Rabaul, and Salamaua; a swift return flight from nearby Lae enabled a quick visit to Wau. Collections were accordingly relatively few but their results were soon published. Their 1940 collection was, with more than 2,800 numbers, rather more extensive, and gave rise to a considerable series of papers (unfortunately never completed), with the most substantial coverage for the Anggi Lakes after Gibbs. Appointments to the Botanical Gardens at Bogor under Takenoshin Nakai (director in 1943–1945, during World War II) certainly facilitated their research.

But—save for Brass from 1933 with Archbold—all these efforts would be far outdone by three indefatigable plantsmen: the British/Malayan plantation manager and orchidophile C. E. Carr and the American missionary couple Joseph and Mary Clemens. Mrs Clemens in particular would over some six years be responsible for more than 10,000 numbers in the Mandated Territory (almost all in Morobe District). Carr’s 1935–1936 contribution, from a still poorly-known part of the Owen Stanley Range (in spite of earlier visits by Macgregor and others), was perhaps equally important, his over 5,000 numbers being better prepared and with more duplicates than Mrs Clemens’. Both undertakings resulted in very thorough sampling of their respective areas.

Mrs Clemens first came to Finschhafen with her husband, a retired U.S. Army chaplain, in 1935, after work in the Philippines, Indochina, and Borneo. From then on they worked (after his death late in 1936 she continued on her own) extensively until being hurriedly evacuated in January 1942, collecting perhaps 14,000 numbers of plants. Stations included Malolo (near Salamaua), Wau, Lae, Kaiapit, Wantoat, Boana, Matap, Samanzing, Amieng, Mt Sarawaket, Sambanga (above present Kabwum), Ogeramnang (also visited by Mayr in 1929), Yunzaing, Sattelberg, Wareo, and Quembung, many of them Lutheran mission stations. Collections went until 1939 to Berlin (partly destroyed but duplicates elsewhere), and afterwards (until 1941) to University of Michigan Herbarium (MICH). With the Japanese invasion, all transport was cut off and some collections had to be abandoned at Boana or Finschhafen. The plants were said to have been destroyed but in the 1960s bundles of specimens were uncovered at the two major herbaria in Tokyo (Tokyo University (TI), National Science Museum (TNS)).

Carr, sponsored in part by the British Museum (Natural History), collected plants extensively in the Port Moresby region and on the north and south flanks of the Owen Stanley Mts around Mt Victoria (though not reaching the summit). Localities included Kanosia, Koitaki, Boridi (all in present Central Province), "The Gap," Alola, Lala River, Isurava Mts, Yodda Creek, and Kokoda (Oro Province). Over 5,500 non-orchid and some 1,000 orchid collections were obtained (BMNH, Singapore; many duplicates elsewhere, especially Canberra, Leiden).

Both collections were reported on in similar fashion, mainly either by Diels and others in the later installments of the Beiträge, or by Merrill, Perry, and their collaborators through the Archbold Reports (or elsewhere), but never as a whole; there simply were too many, particularly when all those obtained by Brass on the Archbold Expeditions were also flowing into botanical institutions. Moreover, some of Carr’s collections were not distributed until after World War II; his death in the field meant that this task fell to others. Even today, not all numbers have been fully documented. Some of the Clemens collections moved to Japan were published after 1950 in Japanese outlets.

Among residents in both eastern territories, the most outstanding botanist was Fr Gerhard Peekel, who continued his collecting in New Ireland from stations at Lemakot and Ugana. From Ugana he partly ascended the Lelet Plateau (1,000 m), a highland pocket not, however, collected for plants until after World War II—and where, in contrast to highland New Britain, Nothofagus is absent. With advancing years, he also focused much of his attention on compiling his valuable Illustrierte Flora des Bismarck-Archipels für Naturfreunde, which he saved from destruction under his robes when fleeing combat in 1942, and completed in 1947. The manuscript was after his death deposited in his order’s mother house in Steyl (Germany) and later microfilmed. (A full translation was prepared by E. E. Henty at Lae in the 1970s and 1980s and published in 1985 as Flora of the Bismarck Archipelago for Naturalists; but it is by no means complete for the region.) Others also collected, including two ministers (R. Lister Turner and A. H. Lambton, both in Papua) and, later, a schoolmaster (J. H. L. Waterhouse, in Bougainville and northeast New Britain; K and MAD/WIS); however, Waterhouse’s New Britain collections are relatively few compared with those made in the Solomons.

By contrast with all this non-official effort, government activity in the Mandated Territory after Lane-Poole’s visit remained, as already noted, negligible, rising only slightly from the mid-1930s. A herbarium was begun around 1934 at the Rabaul Botanic Garden (under the Department of Agriculture) but activity was limited and the small collection apparently was lost (a few non-forest tree duplicates survive at Kew and elsewhere). Plants (particularly forest trees) were also collected by J. B. McAdam (see also below) from his appointment in 1938 as a Forestry Officer through 1941, both in New Britain (there largely the work of J. L. d’Espeissis, another forestry officer) and around Wau (CANB, BRI), and by the entomologist J. L. Froggatt (BRI). But, as with insects (see above), outside the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain would remain floristically almost unknown until the 1950s—and even now, large areas are still poorly explored including much of the south and the mountains.

"ECONOMIC" EXPLORATION

A number of "economic" expeditions and surveys were also made between 1918 and 1942, not always with significant botanical or zoological collections. The majority were in the 1920s or onwards from 1935, run as a result of reconnaissance requirements or inspired by more favorable business conditions.

After the League of Nations mandate was granted for the Territory of New Guinea in 1921, the Australian authorities organized some exploratory surveys. A geological-geographical reconnaissance was made on the Ramu River around 1922, while from 1922 to 1924 Lane-Poole undertook his already-mentioned extensive survey of more accessible forests (following relatively superficial pre–World War I surveys in German New Guinea and the Territory of Papua). Lane-Poole’s well-illustrated 1925 report, which includes a botanical section as well as observations on the forests and vegetation, remains a classic. Key areas visited included the Central, Northern, and Gulf provinces in southeastern New Guinea and in the Huon Peninsula, Ramu basin, and parts of the islands in the Mandated Territory.

Of other "economic" undertakings, one of the more important—and also a pioneer with "flying machines"—was a major new search for sugar cane (Saccharum) germplasm led by E. W. Brandes in 1928 for the United States Department of Agriculture. His associates included the Dutch botanist J. Jeswiet (Wageningen Agricultural College, the Netherlands), a sugar expert who also made general plant collections (WAG); C. E. Pemberton (of HSPA, Hawai’i), collecting insect pests of cane (Bishop Museum); and pilot R. K. Peck (a Stirling Expedition veteran). With their amphibious plane (furnished by a Chicago businessman), they ranged widely (including the Sepik basin) but did much of their work in the Fly River basin (Lake Daviumbu and the Fly, Strickland, and Oriomo Rivers), with Jeswiet also collecting in the Port Moresby region. The some 130 lots obtained were aimed particularly at improvement of the crop in the southern United States, but replicates also were deposited in Australia.

In the 1930s, with new political developments as well as improved business and economic conditions, further "economic" biotic exploration took place. This included renewed attention to forest resources, but relatively little else; extensive land surveys were in the future.

In western New Guinea, the first significant forest surveys were carried out at this time, particularly in areas fairly readily accessible by sea. First in the field was Z. Salverda, active over several months in 1936–1937 in the McCluer Gulf (now Bintuni Bay), Bomberai, and along the southwest coast. In 1939 Salverda was followed by L. J. van Dijk (with assistance from Bogor officials (mantris)Aët and Idjan), based for five months at Manokwari. From there he made tours to Yapen, Biak, and (nearer Manokwari) Mios Num. Some 1,600 numbers, primarily of forest trees, eventuated from these two undertakings (Bogor). In 1939–1940 van Eechoud—in connection with the already-mentioned Dutch expeditions to Enarotali—collected some forest trees at the request of van Dijk, mainly near the Mamberamo (Bogor). In 1941 E. Lundquist (see also above) examined more closely some of the areas explored by Salverda; he was accompanied by Aët (collections, Bogor).

Land evaluation was also taken up. A pedologist, F. A. Wentholt, collected on three occasions in connection with agricultural surveys—part of proposed trans-migration projects as well as other potential development. On part of his last tour of duty (1940–1941), Wentholt was accompanied in the Merauke region and on the Digul River by Anta (see above; collections, Bogor).

In 1938 a forest service was established in the Mandated Territory, and, as already indicated, J. B. McAdam and J. L. d’Espeissis were engaged as its first officers; their collections are covered above under "Plants" (above). Both were involved in forest surveys and the establishment of plantations, including, for example, hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) near Wau (pers. obs.). McAdam was to return after 1942 as officer-in-charge of the Australian forestry companies (World War II section, below) and, after World War II, as head of the Department of Forests in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG; see Post–World War II Era section, below).

As for other plants and trees, one of the few long-term legacies of the limited official effort was the collection (for the United States Department of Agriculture, as part of citrologist Walter Swingle’s comprehensive research) of germplasm and reference material of a close citrus relative, Clymenia polyandra (Tan.) Swingle (now Citrus polyandra Tan.). This tree was previously discovered by Peekel in New Ireland but not then definitely known elsewhere; it has since been found in New Britain and on the New Guinea mainland. The stock has been used towards improvement of citrus plantations in the United States and other countries.

The outbreak of World War II in Asia and the Pacific in December 1941 ended all official efforts as well as activities in the private sector. By this time, however, in "metropolitan" countries enough collections had been accumulated from most of Papuasia to furnish sketchy but useful knowledge of the biota, particularly the higher plant flora and vegetation, and the mammal, bird, and butterfly fauna. But sensibility still was largely static and would largely remain so for some time before the biota could begin to yield more secrets in relation to dynamic concepts of biology, ecology, and biogeography. That would require much more field time and sampling—tasks which would be energetically pursued after 1945 (see the Post-World War II Era section below).

World War II (1941–1945)

The onset of World War II in the Pacific soon brought much of New Guinea under Japanese control, Rabaul being surrendered in January 1942. Much information had already been gathered in advance, including from those Japanese naturalists who had visited in the preceding decade. All (or most) established local collections—particularly at Rabaul and Kerevat—were abandoned and, in time, destroyed, if not evacuated to Japan.

Collecting, however, did not end with Japanese occupation or both sides’ military operations. With the duration and extent of both, not only was there a considerable demand for biological knowledge but, in addition, many individual servicemen would collect organisms on their own account. A wide range of areas as well as biota were thus sampled. Some lots did not survive the war or were otherwise lost, but several important collections have been preserved through deposit.

JAPANESE CONTRIBUTORS

Some insect and plant collections made by Japanese naturalists just before the war, or transported to Japan following their occupation, have been noted in the preceding section. Most lots were obtained in western New Guinea where from early 1942 until 1944 there was comparatively little military action. Circumstances further resulted in a focus on the Vogelkop and neighboring areas (including Jazira Doberai, Bomberai, and the Wandammen Peninsula). The most considerable contributions were in entomology. M. Satake studied natural history in general in 1942 and 1943, particularly in the Wandammen Peninsula and the adjacent Bird’s Neck, later publishing a book in Japanese (1963, Tokyo). Dr S. Issiki collected insects in western New Guinea including the Vogelkop (Windesi, Majosi, and, in the Wandammen Peninsula, Wasior) and on Rumberpon Island (Taipei; partly reported upon by Gressitt). Professor Toyohi Okada was at Aitape as a soldier, presumably collecting insects. Yoko-oji collected birds at Manokwari, 1942–1944 (Tokyo; all but seven destroyed).

The main botanical field contribution was by Takasi Tuyama (1943, Vogelkop and Yapen; bryophytes and other plants, Tokyo) but of lasting value has been the already-mentioned series of papers on the 1940 collections by R. Kanehira and S. Hatusima—many worked up and published during this period, with others perhaps elaborated. The two men’s retreat from Bogor, Indonesia, in 1945, where both had been active for some three years, as well as the surrender of Formosa (where Kanehira had been a professor in forest botany) and adverse conditions in Japan unfortunately brought a premature end to this project. Some further novelties based on these collections were, however, described by others after World War II, and a series index by P. van Royen appeared in 1983.

WESTERN ALLIES CONTRIBUTORS

As with the Japanese, Allied servicemen made relatively few contributions in vertebrate zoology; for both, there were naturally considerable obstacles. The Harvard zoologist and biogeographer P. J. Darlington, Jr., collected many carabid beetles, ants, frogs, and other animals, primarily at Dobodura near Buna (Oro Province, PNG) but also—as military operations progressed—at Milne Bay, Aitape, and Sansapor (in the Vogelkop). He also collected on the slopes of Mt Wilhelm (Simbu Province, PNG) while on leave after being mauled by a crocodile in the lowlands (MCZ). J. Frank Cassel collected birds and herps (amphibians and reptiles) at Finschhafen in 1944 (Cornell). L. W. Jarcho, C. W. Moren, W. M. Beek, G. H. Penn, A. M. Keefe, and W. H. Stickel collected amphibians and reptiles along the north coast, mostly in 1944 (MCZ, USNM); and by Melvin Kurz (AMNH). The contributions of Harry Hoogstraal as well as W. V. King et al. are mentioned below in the context of entomological work, while those of D. F. Grether appear in connection with the activities of plant collectors.

Entomological contributions—particularly from the United States and Australia—were extensive, often with results of lasting value through publication, either by themselves or by others. Early papers came particularly from J. N. Belkin, R. M. Bohart, Joanna Bonne-Wepster, Robert Domrow, D. S. Farner, J. L. Gressitt, D. J. Lee, Elizabeth Marks, C. B. Philip, Alan Stone, F. H. Taylor, and Herbert Womersley. Many others appeared in subsequent decades.

Among servicemen from North America, K. V. Krombein collected Hymenoptera and other insects, primarily at Nadzab, Markham Valley, 1944 (USNM). E. S. Ross and S. G. Jewett collected all groups of insects at Finschhafen, Hollandia, Maffin Bay, or elsewhere, mostly in 1944 (CAS). Borys Malkin collected mostly beetles, from several areas (USNM). Harry Hoogstraal collected generally as well as mosquitoes and ectoparasites in the Cyclops Mts (right up to the summit) and elsewhere, 1944–1945 (CAS, FMNH, USNM); unfortunately, much of his collection was lost. Willard V. King, W. E. Brewer, H. W. Cook, J. Forbes, W. R. Fullen, D. P. Furman, Donald R. Johnson, W. T. Nailon, George H. Penn (see above), L. W. Saylor, C. J. Steinhauer, and J. P. Toffaleti collected many mosquitoes along north coast, 1944 (USNM and CSIRO). Carl Mohr and W. D. Fitzwater collected mites, ticks, and other medical arthropods in the Buna-Gona area, and at Owi Island and Sansapor in 1944–1945 (USNM). Glen Kohls and Cornelius B. Philip collected chiggers (ticks) and other arthropods, etc., at Dobodura, Purdy Island, or elsewhere, 1943–1944 (USNM). Kenneth L. Knight and Lloyd E. Rozeboom collected mosquitoes in several northern coastal areas and islands, 1944–1945 (USNM). Grether collected butterflies with W. H. Wagner, Jr. (USNM), but their main work was in the Bismarck Archipelago (see below).

Many Australian and New Zealand servicemen also made insect and other invertebrate collections. Mosquitoes, chiggers (ticks), and other arthropods of medical interest were collected in northeastern Papua (PNG) and elsewhere from 1943 through 1945 by Frank H. Taylor (who also was stationed at Wewak), Anthony R. Woodhill, Carl Gunther, Ian M. Mackerras (later an author in, and editor of, the definitive Insects of Australia), D. O. Atherton, D. A. C. Cameron, F. Chippendale, D. H. Colless, H. A. Grandall, R. N. McCullock, M. H. Wallace, and R. Harry Wharton (Queensland Museum, Brisbane; Macleay Museum (Sydney University); and the Division of Entomology, CSIRO, Canberra). Another contemporary collector was Carl Gunther, who collected mites, etc., at Bulolo both before and after World War II (Queensland Museum).

In the major islands to the east and northeast of New Guinea—essentially a single theatre of war—L. J. Dumbleton collected mosquitoes, etc. on Nissan Island (CSIRO and Nelson), while in 1945 Marshall Laird studied mosquitoes and parasites at Jacquinot Bay, New Britain (Nelson). In the Solomon Islands George E. Bohart, J. M. Fritts, Ashley B. Gurney, Paul Hurd, L. A. Posekany, Barnard V. Travis, and George W. Wharton (USNM), E. Eldon Beck, E. Reimschüssel, Harry P. Chandler, and Dorald Taylor (BYU), and others collected—with some of them (including Gurney) also active on Bougainville Island and on Reimschüssel in the Admiralty Islands. The Admiralty Islands (especially Manus, with its great naval base) became notable particularly for the work of W. H. Wagner, Jr., and D. F. Grether in pteridophytes (UC), with Grether also collecting butterflies (USNM). Both of them (as well as A. H. Dark) subsequently reported on their collections.

Botanical work by servicemen was understandably impeded by the bulkiness of vascular plant collections, and major contributions—apart from the "New Guinea Forces" series described below—were few. Perhaps the most considerable contribution among North Americans was, as already noted, that of Wagner (with Grether) in the Admiralty Islands. Other significant lots—largely comprising grasses—came from Lee Burcham (USNM) and John R. Reeder (A). In 1942–1943 Carl de Zeeuw (later at the College of Forestry at Syracuse University, New York) collected plants (particularly large forest trees) in various parts of Papua, with a particular interest in their wood (vouchers in MEL). The Australian botanist N. A. Wakefield (from Victoria) collected plants (principally pteridophytes) in various parts of eastern New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, 1943–1945 (MEL, BMNH). H. S. McKee (originally from Northern Ireland, but later at Sydney University and ultimately resident in New Caledonia) collected plants in 1944–1945 in various parts of northeastern New Guinea (Brisbane).

These generally small individual contributions were, however, offset for forest trees by a fortunate combination of place and people. The effective re-occupation of Lae, Nadzab, and other airfields in present-day Morobe Province provided a mainland base for subsequent military and other operations (including relief of the isolated Highlands, which had remained under Australian administration). Early on C. T. White and J. B. McAdam (both with considerable pre-war experience—see under the section covering the years between World War I and World War II, above) convinced the authorities of the need for a better understanding of the tree flora and the uses and properties of individual species, which was at that time still quite patchy. In 1944 the New Guinea Forces (NGF) series of collections was begun at Butibum near Lae under the Australian Forces forestry unit directed by McAdam. Over 2,000 numbers of collections were made before cessation of operations in the latter part of 1945 (BRI, with replicates in LAE and elsewhere). In 1946 the series was resumed by the Department of Forests, Territory of Papua New Guinea (TPNG; see section on the Flora of Eastern New Guinea, below). A number of novelties would in the ensuing years be described from these 1944– 1945 collections.

The Post–World War II Era (since 1945)

INTEGRATED EXPEDITIONS AND SURVEYS (SINCE 1945)

The disruptions to most developed countries as a result of World War II were such that it would be several years before substantial expeditions again entered the field. Conditions on the ground in most of New Guinea were also difficult—the war had destroyed or severely damaged infrastructure in most coastal settlements. Papua was also affected by political changes in the Dutch Indies, including the emergence of Indonesia as a state. In the settlement of 1949 the Dutch contrived to retain control of Papua. In the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG)—created in 1945 with a unified administration at Port Moresby—Australia retained control, but reconstruction was at first slow.

Developments in the sciences also tended towards greater specialization; at the same time—particularly in the first quarter-century after the war—the sciences enjoyed considerable political favor, with state funds relatively forthcoming. But such expansion could not continue indefinitely; in more recent decades financing has been much harder to obtain, and then only for more targeted, short-term work. Political, economic, and social developments have also been major factors. All this has also had an effect on recruitment into the sciences, including the maintenance of taxonomic expertise, as several recent reports have indicated.

Western New Guinea (West Irian, Irian Jaya, Papua)

In what is now Papua, the Dutch also had to be seen to be doing something—even though costs outweighed the (not particularly high) level of return. Economic development in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) was also at first relatively slow but, in the 1960s and with greater external pressure, a firmer political commitment by Australia on the polity’s future had to be made.

Before the establishment of Netherlands New Guinea as a separate territory there was one expedition that took in the Raja Ampat Islands as well as the Vogel-kop Peninsula. In 1948–1949 an extended "Swedish-Netherlands Expedition" led by Sten Bergman, an ornithologist and natural historian, and accompanied by M. A. Lieftinck, D. R. Pleyte, Sjöqvist, and E. Lundquist (for more on Lundquist, see also the section on the years between the World Wars, above) along with Indonesian officials (mantris) Main and Djamhari visited the Raja Ampat Islands (including Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo), the Sorong region, and parts of the southwestern coast. From mid-1949 Bergman spent some months on the eastern side of the Vogelkop Peninsula, including a visit to the Anggi Lakes via Ransiki as well as a visit to the Wandammen Peninsula. Over the course of a year and four months following their arrival, visits at different times were made in the Sorong region (their logistical base) as well as in Raja Ampat. Pleyte and two officials (mantris) focused on Misool as well as around Sorong, but left the field before the end of 1948—possibly in advance of imminent political changes. Apart from Pleyte’s botanical collections, most of the harvest was zoological (birds, Stockholm; insects, Bogor, Leiden) although Bergman did collect some plants around the Anggi Lakes.

After 1949 and the advent of a separate Dutch administration, most efforts in biotic exploration were until 1963—with one exception below—individual (or in small specialist teams) or through state bodies such as the Forestry Service (Boswezen). Being largely disciplinary, they are taken up under the sections on Flora and Fauna of Western New Guinea, below.

There was only one multidisciplinary "large" expedition in the old style, traversing an extensive area and with geographical as well as natural science objectives—that of April–August 1959 to the Star Mountains. In addition to air support (as in 1938–1939), there now was helicopter transport (though one of the two helicopters was destroyed during operations). Leading the expedition were the zoologist L. D. Brongersma (then also director of the zoological museum at Leiden, now the Naturalis Museum) and G. F. Venema. Participating botanists included C. Kalkman, B. O. van Zanten, and J. J. F. E. de Wilde, while W. Vervoort (as well as Brongersma) collected animals (and, with Kalkman, plants). A naval surgeon, M. O. Tissing, took part in the ascent of the principal objective, the 4,640-meter ice-capped Juliana Top (now Mt Mandala)—there collecting a few plants. Kalkman and van Zanten reached Mt Antares (3,380 m, in the western Star Mountains). From the expedition base in the Sibil Valley (east of the Baliem), where there was already an airstrip, two members (Bär and Danselaar) afterwards pushed north, completing a land crossing—the first on the western side of the border, at the island’s widest point (the east had been crossed by land in 1927). The collections (Leiden) included, among the plants, a good representation of bryophytes (a speciality of van Zanten); these accordingly went first to Groningen. Results appeared in a relaunched Nova Guinea and elsewhere. A popular account by the two leaders is Het Witte Hart van Nieuw-Guinea (undated; in English as To the Mountains of the Stars, 1963). The expedition was a kind of "finale," and the Dutch knew it. They did, however, thus fill perhaps the last significant "white spot" on the world map (apart from much of Antarctica), the discoveries of Cerro Neblina (Venezuela/Brazil) and in the Vilcambamba (Peru) being just prior. This drama was enhanced by the nearly-simultaneous cross-island trek (also from south to north, but slightly west of the Dutch route) of a French film crew under J.-Y. Gaisseau; this resulted in the much-appreciated The Sky Above, The Mud Below—an experience of most of us who have done any real traveling in Papuasia.

International politics and sensibilities—and American pressure—now brought about an end to three-and-a-half centuries of the Dutch in the East Indies. In late 1962 control of Papua passed to a United Nations Temporary Executive Administration (UNTEA); on 1 May 1963 Indonesia took control. The territory was given provincial status and initially named Irian Barat; not long afterwards, this changed to Irian Jaya and remained so until the end of the 1990s. The Dutch administrative seat, Hollandia, was renamed Sukarnopura and, later, Jayapura. Although Indonesian sovereignty awaited final determination by plebiscite, the Act of Free Choice (Pepera: Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat) in 1969, higher education was given priority, and soon Cenderawasih University was built, its main campus at Abepura (outside Jayapura) with agriculture and forestry in Manokwari.

For some years afterwards there were no effective outside contacts. Only after 1969 and the Act of Free Choice plebiscite (Pepera: Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat) was there a renewal of visits by scientific teams, mainly from Europe, North America, and Australasia. During 1971–1973 the Australian Universities’ Expeditions—organized at Melbourne University—undertook in two operations glacio-logical and biological investigations on and around the Mt Jaya (formerly Mt Carstensz) glaciers. Geoffrey S. Hope and Judy A. Peterson (Canberra) were the team biologists. The expeditions’ work was summarized in The Equatorial Glaciers of New Guinea (1976) edited by Hope, Peterson, L. Allison, and U. Radok. In 1972 the former King Leopold III made his second expedition to Papua (the first had been, as already indicated, in 1929 with van Straelen). With J. Raynal (Paris), collecting continued into 1973 near the Mt Jaya area, Baliem Valley, and other places (Brussels, Bogor, Paris, Leiden).

In 1974–1976 a multidisciplinary expedition from Germany worked in the vicinity of the upper Eipomek River in the eastern Nassau Range—home to the Eipo, an isolated outlier group of the Mountain Ok of central New Guinea—under the title "interdisziplinäre Erforschung von Mensch, Kultur und Umwelt im zentral Hochland von West-Irian (Neuguinea)." With support from the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft and organized through the Museum für Volkerkunde in Berlin (already enriched by Moszkowski’s, the Behrmann expedition’s, and other ethnographic collections), a considerable team of specialists was active over some two years in various parts of the Eipomek River, including its eastern and western tributaries (and surviving two serious earthquakes, locally very destructive); their botanical collections are in Berlin. Their reports have since 1979 appeared in a special series "Mensch, Kultur und Umwelt in zentralen Bergland von West-Neuguinea" (Berlin).

The 1980s represented another quiet period, with the next interdisciplinary contributions being collections of papers—only a minority biological—rather than expedition reports, although some reflected recent fieldwork. Both involved the Irian Jaya Studies Programme in the Netherlands, and had as a primary focus the Vogelkop Peninsula. They were Perspectives on the Bird’s Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia (1997, Rodopi), ed. J. Miedema, C. Odé, and R. A. C. Dam; and Bird’s Head Approaches (1998, Balkema, as number 15 in their series Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia), ed. G. J. Bartstra. The biological papers are all general in nature; however, of interest for exploration history is a chapter in Perspectives on the 1907–1915 Dutch Military Expeditions (Militaire Exploratie).

By the 1990s and the advent of the Convention on Biological Diversity, however, there was renewed interest in how much—or how little—was known of the biota of New Guinea, both in east and west. For Papua this led notably to a 1997 workshop in Biak, sponsored by Conservation International in Indonesia and the United States; a Laporan Akhir / Final Report appeared in 1999 with a number of maps (and a CD-ROM with several database files) depicting perceived priority areas, for different biotic groups as well as in general.

Following the workshop, Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) became active on the ground. In 1998 fieldwork was carried out on the Wapoga River area of Yapen-Waropen regency (southeast of Waren), an area—without much prior attention—inland from Olifant-berg, one of A.B. Meyer’s 1873 localities. All sites were at 1,100 m or less save one (1,890 m, reached by helicopter), and partly accessible because of previous prospecting in the area by the U.S. mining firm Freeport McMoRan (see also below). The results appeared in RAP’s Report 14. A later Marine RAP was active in the Raja Ampat Islands (Report 22).

The Raja Ampat island group now attracted the attention of another U.S. organization, The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In 2002 a team from TNC carried out a several weeks’ survey with the aid of a 75-foot twin outboard-motored speedboat (the Pindito); of plants, 550 numbers were collected (Bogor in first instance). The 15-strong expedition (a third from media) was led by R. Salm (TNC); its zoologists were G. Allen (fish), D. Ivereigh (birds), A. Sumule and E. Turak, and botanists included J. P. Mogea and W. Takeuchi with support also from F. Liuw and D. Neville. Islands visited included Misool, Kofiau, Batanta, and Salawati along with the ultramafic Kawé—and, near to it, the partly ultramafic Waigeo. A first botanical report appeared in 2003 (Takeuchi in Sida 20: 1093–1116).

As a result of these surveys, the very high marine diversity of the Raja Ampat Islands—already partially known due to the Siboga and other earlier oceano-graphic work—now became effectively recognized, together with their distinctive geological history. At the same time, a much better idea was obtained of the plant and forest cover and its potential survival—more problematic in the drier islands. Yet the effects of long biological neglect were reflected in the number of new records (and even novelties)—some of relatively common taxa. As Takeuchi wrote, such were "indications of the undercollected status of the limestone, and show how poorly documented this flora still remains even after more than a century of... exploration" (and over two centuries if the partly unpublished collections of Labilliardière and perhaps other French explorers ever are fully accounted for). Parts of the rest of Papua are considered better known botanically (if a 1950 average for the Raja Ampat Islands of 25 collections/100 km²—with not much more at least until recent years—is deemed satisfactory); but some island groups, let alone individual islands, may still be undercollected.

These and other multidisciplinary undertakings—if now more focused (schwer-punktlich) than in the past, being shorter in duration and covering a smaller area—have once more become a main vehicle for natural history work in Papua. There have been relatively few long visits by single workers or small specialist teams, as was the case for van Royen and Sleumer in the years before 1962 or, more recently, for Widjaja, Mangen, and Milliken. Logistics, national sensibilities, and particularly security remain major current concerns. For decades all, or nearly all, of Papua has been a military zone, the armed forces active in parallel with civil administration. Moreover, those researchers in employment are under rather tighter constraints than in the past.

Eastern New Guinea

In the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG)—now under one administration at Port Moresby—a number of multidisciplinary efforts together amassed large amounts of material and covered a number of areas previously poorly known. These include the four Archbold Expeditions (nos. 4–7) of 1953–1964 and the CSIRO Land Research regional surveys of 1953–1970—the latter an extension of similar activities in northern Australia.

Archbold Expeditions

The Fourth Archbold New Guinea Expedition worked in eastern Papua between Collingwood Bay and Mt Dayman as well as on Goodenough Island—the last hardly before visited. Brass was leader and collected insects as well as plants. H. M. van Deusen (AMNH) was mammalogist and G. M. M. Tate (AMNH) was general collector; however, after six months Tate was evacuated, fatally ill (animals AMNH; plants Harvard).

The Fifth Archbold New Guinea Expedition was a continuation of the Fourth, but focused on an effective survey of many of the remaining Milne Bay islands. They continued in the D’Entrecasteaux group (Fergusson and Normanby islands) and worked also in the Trobriand Islands, Woodlark (where Montrouzier had preceded them over a century before), and the Louisiades (Misima, Tagula (or Sudest), and Rossel) and also visited Milne Bay on the mainland. Brass again was leader and collected plants and some insects, while R. F. Peterson was mammalo-gist (animals, AMNH; plants, Leiden).

The Sixth Archbold New Guinea Expedition focused on the northeastern mainland, taking advantage of the developing road network and other infrastructure to cover a fairly wide area. They worked in the present Morobe, Madang, Eastern Highlands, and Simbu provinces; localities visited included Mt Wilhelm, Mt Otto (Mt Sagueti), Mt Michael, Mt Elandora, around Okaba, Kassam Pass, and the Markham Valley as well as points from Lae to Mt Kaindi and Edie Creek. Again Brass was leader, with van Deusen as mammalogist. Other participants included J. Womersley, J. D. Collins, and T. C. Maa (the latter from the Bishop Museum), Maa remaining for a month during the Kassam Pass and Okaba sojourns making a collection of vertebrate ectoparasites (Bishop Museum; other vertebrates, AMNH; plants, USNM and Lae).

The Seventh Archbold New Guinea Expedition was led by van Deusen and focused on the Huon Peninsula. Participants included S. A. Grierson (as general zoologist and photographer), R. G. Zweifel (herpetology) and R. D. Hoogland (plants). Work was done in the Rawlinson Range, the Cromwell Mountains, and near Finschhafen, with Hoogland also reaching the Saruwaged Mts (animals, AMNH; plants, CANB).

Logistical and other support was generally in the hands of local residents under contract (e.g., Collins for the 1959 Archbold Expedition), and, as noted, local professional scientists and others sometimes accompanied these parties. Substantial general reports were published for the expeditions of 1953, 1956, and 1959, but preparation of that from 1964 lagged and was eventually abandoned. Zoological results continued to be published for the most part in the American Museum of Natural History Bulletin, and an "Archbold Office" remained there at least until the late twentieth century (under H. van Deusen and then K. Koopman). But botanical results (J. Arnold Arboretum) persisted only until 1953, by which time there had been a general turn by U.S. tropical botanists to the Americas. Overall, though, the Archbold reports have been, and are, the largest American contribution in the tradition set by other major undertakings, individually or collectively, including the reports of the Challenger, Siboga, and the first Leopold expedition as well as Nova Guinea and Beiträge zur Flora von Papuasien, all with treatments by specialists.

CSIRO Expeditions

While the Archbold expeditions remained renowned, other sponsors were not to be outdone. The markedly improving infrastructure of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG), including its expanding road and air network, was an attraction.

Particularly worthy of note in the post–World War II decades was the work of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia (CSIRO)—hitherto without any presence in New Guinea—and in particular its Land Research Division. Following a tradition first espoused by Linnaeus with his royally sponsored expeditions in Sweden, followed by others of the kind in the nineteenth century, the CSIRO Regional Surveys of 1953–1970—like those in still poorly-known northern Australia—were interdisciplinary. Participants included R. D. Hoogland (through 1966; later with the Taxonomy Unit, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, before returning to Europe), P. Darbyshire, L. Craven, R. Pullen, R. Schodde, P. C. Heyligers, K. Paij-mans, A. Kanis, and J. C. Saunders. The teams were active in most of the modern provinces (save in the Bismarck Archipelago), and on all surveys collections of biota were made (CSIRO, Canberra).

Fourteen survey reports appeared between 1964 and 1976, with three further syntheses on particular aspects including vegetation (1975) and some books (1976–1983). All the reports and synthesis featured illustrations, diagrams of land systems, and maps. A key aim was assessment for potential agricultural development; there was no similar mandate for conservation. But because there were no related botanical and zoological series, biotic results are by now widely scattered (though partially synthesized for some groups).

Noona Dan and Alpha Helix Expeditions

Two multidisciplinary ocean expeditions visited in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) in the 1960s, the first being the Danish Noona Dan (1962). This had as its general focus the western Pacific. After calls in Palawan and the Sula Archipelago they headed for the Bismarck Archipelago and were there for just over six months (January–June 1962). Stops were made in New Ireland (Kavieng and vicinity, also elsewhere including the already-mentioned Lelet Plateau), Dyaul Island (off the south of New Ireland), Mussau Island (one month), Lavongai (also called New Hanover), Manus Island, the western Admiralties including the Hermit Islands, the outer northeastern atolls, parts of New Britain including Hoskins, the Baining Islands, Blanche Bay (Rabaul and vicinity), and Credner Island, and the Duke of York Islands. They thence proceeded to the Solomon Islands (with a particular interest in Rennell) before returning to Denmark. Botanical collectors included S.-E. Sandermann Olsen, M. E. Køie, H. Dissing, S. F. Christiansen, and T. L. Wolff (Wolff was scientific leader). Several publications resulted. Botanically the Mussau Island call was the most useful—there had been no previous collecting there, the Emirau (also known as Squally) group (in the Bismarck Archipelago), or Tench Island. Perhaps the Mencke incident (under the section on Northeastern New Guinea (1875–1914), above) was a factor in making local relations difficult, but by 1962 Christianity was well established. In all, 19 scientists participated (at different times); substantial collections were made (Copenhagen).

Also of comparatively long duration was the R/V Alpha Helix New Guinea Expedition of May–November 1969. Sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and active mostly on or by the northeastern mainland and in the Bismarck Archipelago, it involved scientists from universities and museums in several countries, especially the United States and Australia. Research included studies on physiology and ecology, notably in vertebrates (C. Sibley, R. Zweifel), on bioluminescence in fireflies, etc. (J. P. Buck, J. E. Lloyd), as well as on marine life and fungi. Australian collaborators included J. Calaby, H. Cogger, and R. Schodde (USNM, AMNH, Yale, CSIRO, AM, etc.). (Sibley would later contribute significantly to a recasting of bird phylogeny, partly utilizing evidence from genomic sequences.)

Other Multidisciplinary Undertakings, Including Biological Stations

Multidisciplinary efforts over the last four decades of the twentieth century in eastern New Guinea and the Bismarcks have usually had quite limited, more in-depth geographical objectives, or have been ethnobiological. Almost all are nonofficial, some longer-term (e.g. the Wildlife Conservation Society (New York) at Crater Mountain and elsewhere, or the PABITRA initiative of ICSU’s "Diversitas" program) and some ad-hoc (including at least one Conservation International RAP survey as well as work in the Hunstein Range partly sponsored by the National Geographic Society in the United States). Also, a number of local stations have been established. Apart from the stations of the government at Lae, Bulolo, Kanudi, and elsewhere, independently-sponsored stations (including those related to educational institutions) have been established at Wau (from 1961 as the Bishop Museum Field Station, becoming in 1971 the Wau Ecology Institute, or WEI); in Madang Province including the Christensen Research Institute (1980s–1990s), the Leopold III Research Station at Laing Island (1970s onwards, with numerous contributions to its credit and collections in Belgium, PNG, and elsewhere), and the Parataxonomy Center (1990s onwards); Motupore Station in Central Province (for UPNG; 1971 onwards); Ivimka Station by the Lakekamu River in Gulf Province; and Crater Mountain in the Eastern Highlands (1990s onwards). More "informal" sites also exist, usually in association with local communities. Space, however, forbids a detailed account of their activities. (For people and activities at Wau in the 1970s, see Frodin and Gressitt (1982), in the References section, below).

FLORA OF WESTERN NEW GUINEA AND

ASSOCIATED ISLANDS (SINCE 1945)

Nieuw Guinea, Residency of Netherlands East Indies (1945–1949);

Netherlands New Guinea (1949–1962); UNTEA (1962–1963)

Botanical activity in western New Guinea after 1945 became largely a state undertaking, not unnaturally focusing on the woody flora and other plants of economic interest. Nevertheless, some expeditions, primarily those from the Rijksherbarium (now Leiden branch, National Herbarium of the Netherlands), had a more general remit. In this they were well supported by two successive professors of systematic botany, H. J. Lam (who himself had been in New Guinea with the Kremer expedition in 1920) and, after him, C. G. G. J. van Steenis (with a strong interest in the whole flora of Malesia, but notably that of the mountains).

The years prior to establishment of Netherlands New Guinea as a separate polity saw only relatively limited activity. In 1948 A. J. G. H. Kostermans with Weygers continued the forest reconnaissance work in Bomberai and the Vogelkop peninsulas begun before World War II, visiting areas bordering the east coast of the Vogel-kop but also collecting in the Namtui Mts (particularly for Cryptocarya massoy,a spice tree then still poorly understood but now known to be in patchy stands around mainland New Guinea) and for 12 days around Anggi Lakes. With the separation of Papua from Indonesia, autochthonous internal services came into being, including the Forestry Service (Boswezen) and Agriculture Service (Land-bouw). An agricultural station was initially developed at Kota Nica near Lake Sentani, nearby areas having been the site of a transmigration scheme. The research sections (including forestry) were, however, in a few years moved from there (and Hollandia) to Amban near Manokwari. There, over the period 1953–1962, a research station was developed. Resident botanists in the Forestry Service (Boswezen) included Ch. Versteegh (an associate of Brass during the Third Archbold Expedition in 1938–1939), C. Kalkman, and later W. Vink; they were assisted by Peter and Gerrit Iwanggin, Cris Koster, and F. A. W. Schram. In charge of surveys was Forester J. F. U. Zieck.

From a start in 1953, a relatively good representation of the lowland tree flora was collected in the BW-series (Boswezen Nieuw Guinea) during forest assessment surveys; but for reasons of economic accessibility not that much from above 1,000 m was obtained. Associated material including wood samples was also gathered. In the last two years of Dutch rule, however, the forest botanists broadened their collecting, a wide variety of plants being obtained before cessation of activities (Manokwari, Leiden, Bogor, Kew, and elsewhere) with numbers reaching just short of 16,000. Only some have so far found their way into contributions and revisions; however, the replicates at MAN have since been at least partially included in a database.

In the Vogelkop Peninsula, the Forestry Service (Boswezen) surveys paid particular attention to the Warsamson Valley (east of Sorong), Sausapor (north coast), the Kebar Valley (Araucaria cunninghamii and Agathis labilliardieri being present), the Arfak Plain and its deltas (west of Manokwari), Oransbari, Momu, and Ransiki (all on the east coast, and earlier visited by Kostermans and Weygers), Tisi and Muturi near Bintuni (at the head of the eponymous gulf), the Ayamaru Lakes (in the center towards Ayawasi), and Beriat (near Teminabuan)—this last with sandstone outcrops and white-sand lands (the latter with a higher-than-usual percentage of Myrtaceae and Dipterocarpaceae). In 1954 Zieck and Versteegh reached the Anggi Lakes, partly to examine stands of Agathis from which (as at Dalman; see above) copal was being extracted and traded. In the Raja Ampat Islands, Kaloal (on Salawati Island) was also surveyed, but otherwise those islands remained botanically neglected. Coverage elsewhere was relatively limited.

The first outside botanist was P. van Royen from Leiden with the first Rijksherbarium expedition (1954–1955). Partly with Versteegh (and, for a short time in October 1954, Lam) he explored many areas of the Vogelkop Peninsula as well as Batanta Island in the Raja Ampats; in the south he collected around Merauke and from there to the Fly River; he then visited the Cyclops Mts in the north. In 1955 he worked in Waigeo, obtaining materials for a valuable baseline report (1960). He also visited eastern New Guinea, partly to make formal contacts with the Division of Botany (see below). In 1955 and later Gressitt (see next section) collected a few plants (Bishop). In 1957 C. O. Grassl, on a sugar cane germplasm expedition, collected grasses in lowlands and at Anggi and Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes (Leiden). In 1959 Kalkman participated in the Star Mountains expedition (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above), but made somewhat fewer collections than might have been expected. In 1961 P. van Royen with H. O. Sleumer, comprising the second Rijksherbarium expedition, did valuable work in the Vogelkop Peninsula, visiting the Kebar Valley, Tamrau Mts, the Nettoti Range, and the northern Arfak Mts, and also climbed into the Cyclops Range (Leiden). Some results from the two Rijksherbarium expeditions appeared in Nova Guinea, but no full account of the plants resulted.

Not much collecting was done in the main ranges during the remaining years of Dutch rule. In 1958 Bergman collected plants in the Swart Valley, including the curious Papilionopsis stylidioides Steenis—revealed in 1977 as an artifact: an inflorescence of a legume, Desmodium (now Hylodesmum) repandum inserted into a sterile tuft of a monocot, Burmannia disticha. A few plants were obtained on the 1961 New Zealand expedition to the Carstensz (now Jaya) Mountains by D. E. Cooper and Philip Temple, and then in 1962 by Temple and Heinrich Harrer (Auckland). This latter party was the first to reach the summit of the Pyramid, now known to be the highest point in New Guinea and thus the goal of expeditions for more than fifty years. Major collections from this area were, however, not made until after 1970, and then facilitated by improved access consequent to reconnaissance and establishment of the copper mines at Ertsberg and Grasberg by Freeport Sulfur (now Freeport McMoRan).

Irian Jaya, Later Papua (since 1963)

Following the advent of Indonesian administration and in connection with the founding of Cenderawasih University, an agriculture and forestry college was set up in 1964 at Amban near Manokwari, close to the already-mentioned experiment station. This opened up more opportunities for local education in applied biology and related fields. In due course the forest herbarium was transferred to the Manokwari campus of Cenderawasih University, with which it remains associated. However, the forest herbarium suffered from relative neglect until the last decade or so. From the 1990s, however, there have been substantial additions as well as rehabilitation, and MAN is now functioning as the leading botanical collection in Papua.

In 1966, plants (Bogor) were collected by W. Soegeng Reksodihardjo (then at Bogor) with Kostermans around Sukarnopura (formerly Hollandia, now Jayapura) and its environs (including Abepura), Lake Sentani, the Cyclops foothills (including Deplanchea glabra) and in the Baliem Valley (including Wamena and Wellesey, ascending to 2,500 m); a visit was also made to Biak Island before return to Java. In 1967 Soegeng, together with the Bogor official (mantri) Nedi, returned to New Guinea as his country’s botanical representative to the Indonesian-Australian border survey party. They collected (Bogor) from April to June at different localities from the foothills of the Star Mountains south to the coast: Ok Walimkan River (Papua), Ingembit (on border), Yat, Angarmaruk, and Weam (PNG), and Bensbach (Papua). In 1968–1970 a Japanese expedition under Y. Kobayashi investigated lower plants in the Wamena area of the Baliem Valley and elsewhere (Tokyo). Vink (see above) made a short return visit in 1968, adding a few more BW-numbers from the Warsamson Valley and elsewhere.

Following the plebiscite, the Act of Free Choice (Pepera: Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat) of 1969 with its ostensible confirmation of Indonesian sovereignty, came a renewal of visits from European, American, and Australasian scientists; but at least through the 1970s their botanical work was generally undertaken in association with interdisciplinary undertakings (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above). The Australian Universities’ Expeditions of 1971–1973 obtained a fair number of plants, mostly from G. S. Hope and J. A. Patterson (CANB). These teams were soon followed by J. Raynal, a member of the Leopold III expedition from Belgium (see also the Integrated Expeditions section, above). Raynal collected during 1972–1973 in the Baliem Valley and near Mt Jaya (Bogor, Brussels, Paris, Leiden). (This undertaking later inspired the creation of the Belgian research station on Laing Island; see the Integrated Expeditions section, above.) In 1976 P. Hiepko, W. Schultze-Motel, and W. Schiefenhovel (the latter concerned with medicinal plants) were in the Eipomek Valley (see the Integrated Expeditions section, above).

In the 1980s E. Widjaja visited Tembagapura and vicinity, below Mt Jaya. Later she collected in the Vogelkop Peninsula. Also in that decade came the flora and vegetation studies undertaken by J.-M. Mangen in the Jayawijaya Mountains and in particular near Mt Trikora (formerly Mt Wilhelmina). Over three sorties (via the Baliem Valley—three days’ walk to the northeast of his study areas) in 1982– 1984 Mangen carried out extensive topographical, floristic, and vegetation studies (reported upon in French in 1986 and in English in 1993; collections in Luxembourg). It was a continuation, in more detail, of Brass’s 1938–1939 work. Later, Mangen made an expedition to the Valentijn Mountains—a range not otherwise botanically examined, but partly continuous with high mountains near the Yali lands (see below).

A different kind of expedition was that made by William Milliken (with Sertu Very Bakaru) in September–October 1992 to the Yali area (northeast of the Baliem Valley and west of the Eipomek Valley). The object was ethnobotanical documentation, and a considerable number of vouchers were obtained (Kew). The work formed part of the International Scientific Support Trust’s "Expedition to West Papua 1992," and a report was circulated.

Soon after in the 1990s came two considerable undertakings, the first at various points in the Vogelkop Peninsula (1994–1995) with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in the United States, the second (1998–2000, locally supported by Freeport McMoRan) in the main ranges along the access road to Tembagapura and at points beyond, including the alpine areas. For both expeditions the major metropolitan participant was the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; scientists from Bogor, Manokwari, and Tembagapura also took part. From the work of 1994–1995, some 2,000 collections were made. These collections have not been worked up into a definitive synthetic work (and no plans for one exist) although some background works of limited circulation and interim lists have appeared, including Checklist of the Flowering Plants of N.E. Kepala Burung (Vogel-kop), Irian Jaya (1997)—the first synthesis, albeit avowedly provisional, for any part of the Vogelkop Peninsula. The 1998–2000 field campaigns yielded the largest new collections from the Mt Jaya region, exceeding all before. A considerable portion of these new collections (along with, where relevant, earlier records—particularly those of Boden Kloss in 1912–1913) have been a primary basis for a florula, The Alpine and Subalpine Flora of Mount Jaya—covering areas over 3,000 m with a small, somewhat lower area near Tembagapura featuring a subalpine facies.

More recently, Kew botanists have collaborated with those at MAN, Lae, and elsewhere in work towards an account of New Guinea palms; in connection with this W. R. Baker visited at points in the Vogelkop and Wandammen Peninsulas. D. Hicks was for periods of time based at MAN as part of a U.K. Darwin Initiative assistance program. Other work has, for logistical, security, and other reasons, been to a considerable extent associated with integrated area surveys (see Integrated Expeditions section, above).

FAUNA OF WESTERN NEW GUINEA AND

ASSOCIATED ISLANDS (SINCE 1945)

Nieuw Guinea, Residency of Netherlands East Indies (1945–1949);

Netherlands New Guinea (1949–1962); UNTEA (1962–1963)

As in botany, there were a few zoologists who returned to the field in western New Guinea before its separation from the new state of Indonesia. Most notable were S. Bergman and M. A. Lieftinck (see above) in 1948–1949, active in Raja Ampat, Sorong, and the eastern side of the Vogelkop Peninsula. But in the 1950s as civil developments proceeded and western New Guinea entered its last period of relative stability, more sustained field activity got under way. In particular, with economic and human development, entomology came more to the fore than in the past, moving beyond a concern primarily with Coleoptera and the showier Lepidoptera.

In 1952, L. D. Brongersma (with W. J. Roosdorp) collected animals in the north, in the Vogelkop Peninsula and at Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes and Merauke (Leiden). In that same year Bergman returned (remaining until 1953) with a further visit in 1958, this last inclusive of the Swart Valley (collections, Stockholm); he also published popular works covering these travels as well as on that of 1948– 1949. In 1954 L. van der Hammen collected Acarina (ticks and mites) etc. in the Vogelkop Peninsula, on Geelvink Bay, the Wissel Lakes, and in the vicinity of Hollandia (now Jayapura; including Lake Sentani). In 1954–1955 Brongersma (with M. Boeseman and L. B. Holthuis) again collected animals (Leiden), taking in many localities in the Vogelkop Peninsula, on the islands in Geelvink (now Cenderawasih) Bay (Yapen, Biak), and along the Digul River. Brongersma also collected animals, with M. Boeseman and L. B. Holthuis, at many localities in the Vogelkop Peninsula, along the Digul River, and on Biak, Yapen, and elsewhere. In 1959 Brongersma returned to lead the scientific team under the Star Mountains expedition (see Integrated Expeditions section, above). In 1960–1961 S. Dillon Ripley (with his wife) came once more to western New Guinea, collecting birds on the northern slopes of the Snow Mountains (Yale).

The 1950s also saw the beginnings of several years of entomological surveys by the Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawai’i, U.S.) under the direction of the present writer’s previous co-author, the late J. L. Gressitt (collections therein). In 1955 Gressitt (largely in company with R. T. Simon Thomas, then recently arrived as a government agricultural entomologist, working out of Manokwari) collected insects for a month—mainly in the Wissel Lakes area (including Kamo Valley) but also at Hollandia (now Jayapura), Sentani, the Cyclops Mountains, and Biak Island. In 1957 Gressitt revisited the Cyclops and Biak; in 1958 he spent three weeks in the Swart Valley (Nassau Range)—visited by Lam in 1920—and areas to the west. In 1959 he collected with T. C. Maa in the Cyclops, on Biak Island, and at Fakfak (including caves) and inland on the Bomberai Peninsula. In 1962 he collected in the Cyclops Mts, Biak, Nabire, and Wissel Lakes (partly in company with J. Sedlacek, N. Wilson, and H. C. Clissold). Afterwards Gressitt would become more involved with Papua New Guinea (where from 1961 he had established for the Museum a field station at Wau, which is now the Wau Ecology Institute). Gressitt did, however, make two final trips (1977 and 1979) to Papua, mainly to establish contacts at the Abepura (outside Jayapura) and Manokwari campuses of Cenderawasih University, but also visiting Biak, Sorong, and the Arfak Mountains.

As an associate in Gressitt’s program—but separately—D. E. Hardy in 1957 collected at Manokwari, Anggi Lakes, and elsewhere on the Vogelkop, and Sentani and Hollandia (now Jayapura). In 1959 Maa collected at Waris, Sarmi, Holmafin, the Baliem Valley (then recently opened to outsiders), and Merauke, as well as on the Vogelkop Peninsula, besides the above-mentioned. In 1961 L. W. and Stella Quate collected at Bokondini, Lake Archbold, and Ok Sibil (in the Star Mountains). In 1962 and early 1963, in addition to Sedlacek, Wilson, and Clissold, collecting was done by L. P. Richards, Max C. Thompson, Philip Temple (a participant in expeditions to Mt Jaya, including that of Harrer), Heinrich Holt-mann, and Ray Straatman (all at Bishop Museum). (Straatman later moved to Papua New Guinea.)

On the applied front, during the final years of Dutch rule, Simon Thomas continued as agricultural entomologist (collections, Manokwari). Active as medical entomologists were Rudolph Sloof, Dirk Metzelaar, Johannes van den Assem, and Willem J. O. M. van Dijk; their main concerns were with malaria and mosquitoes (collections, Amsterdam).

Irian Jaya; Papua, Province of Indonesia (since 1963)

After effective (and later de jure) power passed to Indonesia, little animal collecting was done for some two decades. Major activities during this time mostly centered around three surveys in the 1960s. In 1963–1964 the "Cenderawasih Expedition" comprising S. Soemadikarta (from Bogor) and Boeadi collected some animals east of Wissel Lakes (Bogor). Around the same time a Kyoto University science expedition worked from Wissel Lakes to Ngga Pulu; its chief biologist was Y. Yasue. In 1964 came a joint Cenderawasih University/Explorers’ Club of Nanzan University (Japan) climbing trip to Ngga Pulu (on the Mt Jaya massif); one of its participants, Yosii (Nanzan), collected Collembola. In 1977 and 1979 Gressitt made, as already noted, relatively brief visits; while in 1979 Prof. Jared Diamond (see also Fauna of Eastern New Guinea section, below) studied birds along the Mamberamo River and in the Foja (also known as Gauttier) Mts.

In spite of an apparent lull in surveys and collecting, however, official recognition of the need for continuing zoological studies in Province of Irian Jaya came in 1971 with the establishment of a museum on the Abepura campus of Cenderawasih University. This now houses representative collections from the several integrated surveys of more recent decades (see Integrated Expeditions section, above).

FLORA OF EASTERN NEW GUINEA: TERRITORY OF PAPUA AND NEW

GUINEA (TPNG)(1946–1971); PAPUA NEW GUINEA,

INDEPENDENT FROM 1975 (SINCE 1971)

Government: Division of Botany and National Herbarium, Lae

The leading contributions to our stock of collections from eastern New Guinea have since 1945 been made through the Division of Botany, Department of Forests (now PNG Forest Research Institute, or FRI). Its herbarium was in the 1970s designated as the National Herbarium, and its upkeep and enhancement (along with that of the Botanic Garden), as well as research, remain the Division’s (now Section’s) core activities.

The loss due to World War II of all earlier (though not numerous) local collections, the more than 2,000 made in 1944–1945 by forestry services companies (initially taught by C. T. White from the Queensland Herbarium), and the appointment of McAdam (these forces’ commander) as Director for Forests for the postwar Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) all led to a favorable climate for establishment of a botanical division within the new Department. Although having in its early years an emphasis on forest trees, relatively soon the Department of Agriculture transferred to it all its botanical interests (except for pathogenic fungi); it thus received collections from its staff as well.

Established in 1946 on the 1944–1945 site and in 1949 moved to the new Botanic Garden near the War Cemetery (both sited on a former plantation), the Division was until 1975 directed by J. S. Womersley. From the second set of the Forces’ collections, left behind at war’s end, its herbarium (LAE) and associated collections were strongly developed, along with a program of botanical illustration. A purpose-designed building was opened in 1965. Over time acquisitions included many duplicates from pre-war decades. LAE now is home to a collection of some 300,000 or more higher plants and bryophytes from Papua New Guinea and neighboring areas (particularly Papua and Solomon Islands), and has hosted (and also jointly sponsored) many botanical expeditions from abroad. The staff was at its largest in the 1960s and 1970s. In the latter part of the 1980s the Division became a section within the Forest Research Institute on its incorporation, which also consolidated various Departmental research units within an adjacent new building, constructed (with more herbarium space) with Japanese assistance.

During the years to 1980 (and sometimes beyond), the staff included M. Galore (chief from 1975 to 1983), A. G. Floyd, E. E. Henty (finally senior botanist and, as we have seen, translator and editor of Peekel’s florula of the Bismarck Archipelago), A. Millar (active in particular with the Garden, but from 1971 in Port Moresby), P. van Royen (later at Bishop), D. Sayers (in the Garden, later in Britain), T. G. Hartley (as an associate; later Harvard and then CSIRO, Canberra), A. Gillison (later Bulolo and then CSIRO, Canberra), J. Buderus, D. G. Frodin (the present writer, later at UPNG and Kew, and currently Chelsea Physic Garden), K. Woolliams (in the Garden, later at Waimea Arboretum, Hawai’i), C. E. Ridsdale (later Leiden), A. W. Dockrill (later CSIRO, Atherton, Queensland), M. J. E. Coode (later Kew), J. Vandenberg, D. B. Foreman (later Melbourne), R. J. Johns (later Bulolo, then PNG University of Technology and Kew), P. F. Stevens (later Harvard, then University of Missouri–St. Louis/Missouri Botanical Garden), G. Leach (later UPNG, then Darwin), W. R. Barker (later Adelaide), N. Clunie, J. Croft (later Canberra), B. Conn (later Melbourne and Sydney), P. Katik, Yakas Lelean, Kipira Damas, and J. Wiakabu. In more recent years K. Kerenga, R. Kiapranis, O. Gideon (now UPNG), and R. Banka, and, as an associate, W. Takeuchi, have been active. In excess of 60,000 numbers in the institutional New Guinea Forests (NGF, later LAE) series—continuing on from numbers of collections started in 1944—were collected over some forty years from all parts of the country, at localities too numerous to mention but with many "firsts." Some of these, including a number of mountain summits, were in association with outside expeditions (see below, as well as the section on Collections, below).

The Division has attracted many visitors over the five decades of its existence, some remaining for considerable periods of time and undertaking their own fieldwork or taxonomic or other studies. Some are mentioned below under "Other Collectors." A significant recent project has been a revision of New Guinean palms (together with botanists in Manokwari as well as Kew botanists J. Dransfield and W. Baker).

Government: Bulolo, Konedobu

Other herbaria also came into being in PNG to meet particular needs, both within (see below) and outside of the government.

In 1957 the forerunner of the Forestry College at Bulolo was established within the Department of Forests and, with teaching an imperative, an herbarium was developed (with contributions by J. J. Havel, H. Streimann (later in Canberra), A. Kairo, A. Gillison, R. J. Johns, B. Conn, A. Hay (both presently in Sydney), La-wong Balun, and others). In recent years the College has moved into the higher education sector (under PNGUT at Lae). Active collecting has been carried out in the Wau-Bulolo region (for which in 1983 Streimann published a checklist of the lichenized fungi, bryophytes, and higher plants) and elsewhere.

At the adjacent Forest Research Station work in forest pathology commenced about 1969; the fungus herbarium started there currently has the best local collection of macrofungi. Contributors included J. Simpson and F. Arentz. In the 1980s this unit moved to Lae when the units of the Research Station were absorbed into FRI. Another of the Station’s staff, the silviculturalist N. Howcroft, likewise moved but continued his considerable side interest in Orchidaceae (notably the ground-dwelling Spathoglottis).

At Konedobu, the headquarters of the Department of Agriculture, Stock, and Fisheries (DASF; later the Department of Primary Industry (DPI) and, from the mid-1980s, Department of Agriculture and Stock (DAS)), a Plant Pathology her-barium was begun about 1955. It was built up largely by Dorothy E. Shaw and more recently has been under G. R. Kula. Its contents consist largely of pathogenic microfungi, but small collections of other thallomorphic plants are also held.

Nongovernmental Institutions

At the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), the herbarium was started in 1968 by R. Robbins and M. Pulsford but from 1971 was greatly enlarged by Frodin (until 1985) with contributions from others (including A. Millar, A. Gebo, J. Powell, C. Huxley, J. Dodd, I. Johnstone, G. Leach, and P. L. Osborne). In 1978 the herbarium was badly damaged by an accidental fire, but most collections were saved. New facilities were constructed during 1983–1984 as part of a complex known as the Natural Science Resource Centre. A principal aim was (and is) the study and documentation of the distinctive seasonal flora of the Port Moresby region (including the already-mentioned offshore island of Motupore), but research into other areas was also carried out including mangroves (including a manual), seagrasses, ant-plants (Rubiaceae), and freshwater aquatic macrophytes (again with publication, in 1985, of a manual by Leach and Osborne). After Frodin’s departure, H. Fortune Hopkins was (through 1990) lecturer-in-charge, continuing among other activities work on the Motupore florula, published jointly with Menzies (see below) in the mid-1990s. In the latter part of that decade (following completion of his PhD), O. Gideon took up this post, transferring from Lae. Technical staff—most of whom also collected—have included A. Gebo, K. Naoni, A. Vinas, M. Kuduk, and P. Piskaut, and many students similarly contributed. Undergraduate courses in plant diversity continue to be taught.

A herbarium was also set up at the University of Technology (PNGUT) by R. Johns after his accession to the professorship of forestry, the full degree course of which was taught there from 1980. This served as a depository for vouchers from forestry plots and vegetation studies as well as a teaching resource. Subsequently it came under P. Siaguru.

Outside Expeditions

In the three decades after World War II, numerous externally-funded botanical expeditions were conducted. With most was associated, as already indicated, the Division of Botany, where original or duplicate sets of their collections have been deposited (though in a few cases these are also, or only, at UPNG). The largest undertakings incorporating botanical work were the four later Archbold Expeditions (1953–1964), on which Brass was botanist for the first three and Hoogland for the last, and the several CSIRO land surveys (mostly 1953–1969; for both, see section on Integrated Expeditions, above) but there were many others, principally from Europe. Some comprised a single individual who might make Lae a base and run field trips from there over several months to a few years.

Of particular interest for some of the external expeditions were, not unnaturally, the high mountains; and in general the montane flora with its distinct Gondwanan affinities was attractive (and now more accessible). In 1956 Hoogland and Pullen worked on Mt Wilhelm (first named, as already indicated, by Zöller in 1888, but only later ascertained as the highest in eastern New Guinea), where they were joined by Womersley and Galore (LAE). Their collections were the first of any real extent to be made on this peak (in 1970 the subject of a florula, and where for a time ANU maintained a field station). In 1957 R. C. Robbins worked on vegetation on Mts Wilhelm, Hagen, and Giluwe, and, also in 1957, J. C. Saunders was in the Kubor Mts. Several mountains in the Eastern Highlands and Simbu were visited by Brass in 1959 with the Sixth Archbold Expedition, while in 1964 Hoogland climbed high into the Saruwageds with the Seventh Archbold Expedition. In 1960 Hoogland, Schodde, and Robbins worked on Mt Sugarloaf (west of Mt Hagen); in 1961 Hoogland and Darbyshire worked in the Torricelli Mts, and in 1966 Hoog-land and Craven spent some time in the Hunstein (also known as Sumset) Range—making the first plant collections there since Ledermann.

By the 1980s such expeditions, along with those of locally-employed scientists, had covered most parts of the country; but such was the terrain as well as issues of access that many gaps still remained; also, the unusual flora present over some substrates was only gradually recognized for what it was. Moreover, a number of areas worked by German collectors before 1914 had never been revisited. In the last two decades, there has been some gap-filling—particularly under outside sponsorship and often as part of more general bioinventories.

A byproduct of the CSIRO botanical work was an extensive card file (maintained through 1968) of taxa in the New Guinea flora with literature references compiled by Hoogland (CSIRO, Canberra; two copies exist in book form—one in FRI, Lae). It has, however, yet to be included in a database or even digitally imaged in the way that the large Hu card index for China at Harvard has been. But for the most part the very substantial botanical collections were not worked up into separate reports but simply have joined the general stock drawn upon for Flora Malesiana, its precursors, and individual revisions. Very many remain to be documented, with some of them as-yet-undescribed novelties. A large proportion of the distributed collections has been entered into databases, but as part of other projects.

Other Collectors

C. R. Stonor, in the course of his ornithological work, in 1948–1949 collected plants on Mt Hagen and Mt Wilhelm (Edinburgh). In 1954 H. S. McKee collected in the Wahgi Valley (Brisbane, Lae). In 1955, in continuation of his long expedition in western New Guinea, P. van Royen collected at Bulolo, the Bulldog Track south of Wau, Lae, and near Port Moresby (Leiden). From 1958 (continuing until 1979) Dr D. Carleton Gajdusek (National Institutes of Health, United States) collected plant and animal material as vouchers for food and drugs in the Eastern Highlands and many other areas while studying the spongiform encephalopathic disease, Kuru (related to "mad cow," or BSE, and nvCJD), and related topics, for which he became a Nobel Laureate. In 1960 J. A. R. Anderson collected 22 numbers on Mt Wilhelm (Edinburgh) and in the same year F. R. Fosberg collected in the vicinity of Goroka, Lae, and Rabaul (USNM).

The relative trickle of the 1950s now turned into a flood, and substantial collections in all groups were made. In the first half of the 1960s P. van Royen (while on the LAE staff) collected with H. O. Sleumer on Mt Wilhelm and in New Britain (Sleumer particularly interested in Rhododendron), on Mt Wilhelm with the plant physiologist F. W. Went (then director of the Missouri Botanical Garden), and on the Huon Peninsula with S. Carlquist (RSA). The 1962 Noona Dan expedition (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above) made a considerable plant collection in the Bismarcks. In 1963, W. Vink (Leiden) and Pullen (CSIRO) collected on the Kubor Range, while Carlquist collected with Henty (LAE) at Mt Piora. F. Kleckham of DASF collected plants on Mt Strong; G. Rosenberg collected plants and insects on Mt Amungwiwa; and R. Heim collected fungi in the Central Highlands (Paris). In 1964–1965 A. Clive Jermy (BMNH) led a BMNH/University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne expedition, initially working in the Finisterres—not visited since before 1914—and then in parts of the Highlands including Okapa, Mt Elandora (Krätke Range), and Mt Wilhelm as well as in the Herzog Ranges south of Lae. He was accompanied by T. G. Walker (who later collected in New Britain), A. Eddy, P. W. James, and M. E. Bacchus; for the Finisterres they were joined by Sayers (LAE) and Pullen (CSIRO). In the first serious undertaking of its kind, pteridophytes and non-vascular cryptogams were emphasized; but some 1,000 numbers of phanerogams were also obtained.

During 1962–1965 T. G. Hartley—connected to CSIRO but not part of the land survey program—was engaged in systematic sampling for alkaloids and other medicinal properties (an extension of similar work on the Australian flora); several localities, mainly in Morobe and Eastern Highlands, were visited (plants, CSIRO, Canberra). His final report, A Survey of New Guinea Plants for Alkaloids, appeared in 1973 (Lloydia 38: 217–319), covering, in taxonomic sequence, all his collections. (Later he joined the organization as a taxonomist in the present Australian National Herbarium and remains active in Malesian and Australasian taxonomic research.)

The opening of the new herbarium for LAE in early 1965 facilitated the work of outside visitors as well as the staff. In that year Gillison, van Royen, and Buderus (LAE) worked on Mt Biota, west of Mt Albert Edward, and B. Craig (later with the National Museum in Port Moresby) in the Star Mts. Later M. J. van Balgooy visited the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG), notably working on Mt Wilhelm (Leiden, his collections particularly fine). His trip was the first of a number organized from Leiden in pursuit of the notable high-mountain and alpine flora (eventually a major basis for van Royen’s Alpine Flora of New Guinea). Balgooy was followed in 1966 by C. Kalkman and W. Vink. With Gillison and Frodin (LAE) as local counterparts, they spent some three months in the Doma Peaks, followed by a short visit to the Telefomin area including part of the Hindenburg Range (Leiden, Lae). In August 1968, on a privately financed expedition, P. Woods (Edinburgh) and M. Black with Ridsdale (LAE) collected towards Murray Pass and on Mt Albert Edward, with Woods and Black specializing in orchids (Leiden; Lae). In 1969–1970 M. J. S. Sands (Kew) with Coode (LAE) worked on New Ireland, obtaining the first significant collections from its southern mountains (Kew, Lae).

The strong pace carried on well into the 1970s, the last decade of relatively liberal public funding for fieldwork. In 1970–1971 Y. Kobayashi collected lower plants on Mt Wilhelm, Mt Hagen, and at Oksapmin. In 1971 F. R. Mitchell (from the United States) came from Christchurch and collected plants in several areas (DSIR, Lae). In 1972 there was another substantial joint Leiden-Lae mountain massif expedition, this time to Mt Suckling; members included J. F. Veldkamp (Leiden), Stevens, Frodin (UPNG), N. Cruttwell, R. Pullen, F. Essig, and entomologists T. L. Fenner (DASF, Konedobu) and Gressitt (plants, Lae, Leiden; insects, Konedobu, Bishop, etc.). In 1973 M. Jacobs (Leiden) and K. Paijmans (CSIRO) collected on Mt Bosavi. In 1974 Craven and Croft worked on Mt Victoria. In 1975 the last of the major Leiden-Lae expeditions worked in the eastern Star Mts with Veldkamp and A. Touw (Leiden) and Barker, Conn and Croft from LAE (Leiden, Lae). In the same year Sands was again in New Ireland (with G. A. Pattison and J. J. Wood) as well as on the mainland (Kew, Lae), while a group of Japanese botanists led by S. Kurokawa and M. Inoue collected mainly cryptogams on Mt Albert Edward, the Wau area, and the Saruwaged Mts.

The Bishop Museum in 1976 collaborated with WEI in a primarily botanical expedition to several high mountain areas, with van Royen as leader (collections at Bishop and WEI). Visits were made to Mt Victoria (Royen, P. Kores, Frodin, R. T. Corlett); Mt Amungwiwa (Royen, B. Gagné); the Finisterres (Royen, Kores, B. Gagné, and Gressitt), and the Victor Emanuel Mts (Royen, Kores, B. and W. Gagné, Gressitt). The previous year, Corlett (ANU) also collected on Mt Giluwe, Mt Amungwiwa, and elsewhere, while the Gagnés continued to collect insects as well as plants in various places, 1976–1980 (with a tour to the Louisiades in 1979). In 1977 Veldkamp worked in the Western Highlands (Leiden).

Churchmen were also active, as in the past. Canon Norman E. G. Cruttwell (1916–1995) was an Anglican missionary from 1946 until the late 1980s. He was long stationed at Dagwa (eastern Papua) and from 1976 at Goroka, and developed a particular interest in rhododendrons and orchids. He visited, among other high spots, Mt Simpson in 1947 and 1968, Mt Dayman in 1951, 1974, etc., Mt Amata in 1959, and Mt Suckling (1972, see above). Outside Goroka he set up a high altitude botanic garden (Lipizauga Sanctuary) in the Gahavisuka Park—one of only two such parks in the country relatively near urban centers. Among other missionaries doing botanical work were the Rev. H. A. (Bert) Brown, based at Elema but also traveling to the Kunimaipa (near Mt Strong); and, until the end of the 1970s, Br. William Borrell at Kairiru off Wewak. In 1960 Fr. E. Borgmann (Mingende, Simbu Province) studied chromosome numbers of Mt Wilhelm plants, shortly thereafter publishing a landmark paper.

Anthropologists also made substantial plant collections. R. Bulmer (and Ian Saem Majnep, active in the Simbai District of Madang Province) were particularly notable for thoroughness of collecting and documentation; so, too, was N. Bowers (Western Highlands). This work has been further pursued by R. Gardner (Auckland) in more recent years. The geographers H. E. Street and H. Manner in 1967 collected in the Koinambe area of the western Bismarcks (Lae, Leiden). Medicinal plants were studied over a number of years by D. K. Holdsworth (UPNG), with some collections deposited in that herbarium (in 1991 he contributed to the first volume of a general work on PNG medicinal plants). In the 1960s, P. Eddowes made collections in connection with wood-anatomical work (Lae, UPNG).

With respect to particular plant groups, the collecting of orchids has been accomplished by—among others—A. Millar, P. Woods (see above), N. Howcroft (see above), T. Reeve (Laiagam), J. Dodd (see above), and, for a few years from 1988, P. O’Byrne (Port Moresby). O’Byrne’s field and related work soon led to his Lowland Orchids of Papua New Guinea (1994)—the first major work on the New Guinea orchid flora since those of Schlechter (an English edition of which was published in 1982), although Orchids of Papua New Guinea: An Introduction by Millar had first appeared in 1978. Over the last decade a full revision of New Guinea orchids has been under way under E. de Vogel (Leiden), resulting in a series of CD-ROMs; some groups were also studied at Kew. A major survey of Dendrobium by H. P. Wood appeared in 2006.

Henty focused in grasses, his work leading to A Manual of the Grasses of New Guinea (1969). R. E. Holttum also studied bamboos in addition to ferns (see below). B. Verdcourt carried out fieldwork in PNG in 1976 and 1978 under a U.K. government grant, resulting in Legumes of New Guinea (1979). In the early 1970s G. Argent (Edinburgh) worked on Musa; in addition to the assembly of a living collection of bananas in Lae his work led to a still-standard taxonomic revision. Sleumer specialized in rhododendrons, and before long rising interest in the Vireya group (to which all native species belong) and other mountain Ericaceae brought others: Woods and Black in the late 1960s (see above), H. F. Winters and J. J. Higgins (USDA) in several areas in 1970 (U.S. National Arboretum), and, in 1978–1979, K. Arisumi and associates (Kagoshima).

Croft and Johns have specialized in ferns, a group in connection with which (in addition to Jermy and Walker; see above) Holttum and B. Parris(-Croxall) also paid visits, the latter—now in New Zealand—collecting in several areas, 1971– 1972 and 1977 (Cambridge, Lae).

There were also other expeditions specializing in bryophytes and other plant and fungal groups (including lichenized fungi) as well as some resident activity in these groups (e.g. by Dorothy Shaw, Heiner Streimann, and Peter Lambley). A considerable proportion of their studies has been published, with all those named here producing annotated checklists in their groups.

In the 1960s and 1970s a number of botanists were aided in the field by Aubita Kairo, an assistant at Bulolo Forestry College, who could from sterile material recognize most genera of trees and who identified many in the WEI arboretum. Paul Katik, Artis Vinas (until 1979, then UPNG and Bulolo), Yakas Lelean, and (in earlier years) Michael Galore and John Koibua also assisted many (including the writer). Katik also acquired an ability to recognize almost all genera and many species of seed plants at sight, so ranking with Indonesian official (mantri) Nedi at Bogor. But, due to retrenchment, Katik had to leave the FRI in 1992 and since has worked privately. Other local assistants were associated with UPNG.

Ecological and Paleoecological Investigations

The vegetation history and pollen analysis studies carried out from 1960 until the late 1970s under the direction of Professor Donald Walker (ANU) involved substantial fieldwork. Early studies were largely carried out in Western Highlands and Enga provinces. In 1965 Walker established the Mt Wilhelm research laboratory at Pindaunde (3,300 m) with help from Bishop Museum and the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) administration. Much research was done here on vegetation, palynology, and climate. In 1974, the station was ceded to the National Parks Board.

Some specific studies include: 1965, Walker and J. R. Flenley on pollen deposits in Enga Province (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 1); 1966, Jocelyn Wheeler Powell on Eastern Highlands deposits (Gressitt 1982: chapter II, 4); 1966–1967, intensive studies on Mt Wilhelm by D. McVean and L. K. Wade; 1968, Walker, B. O. van Zanten, W. A. Weber (Colorado), McVean, and Johns (prior to his Government and PNGUT service) on vegetation studies including the cryptogamic flora at Mt Wilhelm; 1968–1969, G. S. and Jeannette Hope on vegetation history and animal ecology at Mt Wilhelm, G. S. also working at Mt Giluwe and later in the Owen Stanley Mts (as well as at Mt Jaya; see sections above on Integrated Expeditions and Flora of Western New Guinea); and 1972, J. A. Peterson (see also the just-mentioned sections) on glacial history, and J. M. B. Smith on alpine plant ecology at Mt Wilhelm and on the Kubor Range (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 2). In 1976 S. Garrett-Jones worked at Lake Wanum (near Lae; "inland" mangal remnants are known in the vicinity). In 1977 planned fieldwork at Lake Trist (east of Wau) was aborted, but some studies were carried out at Lake Kutubu and a small lake near Mt Ialibu.

Other vegetation studies include those by R. Hynes, J. Ash (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 5) and N. Clunie on Nothofagus (Clunie also on New Britain); N. Enright on Araucaria (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 6), P. C. Heyligers in the Port Moresby region, 1963–1967 (Gressitt 1982: chapter III, 8); K. Paijmans on Mt Albert Edward in 1970 and in Galley Reach in 1975; and P. Edwards and P. J. Grubb near Mt Kerigomna above Marafunga in 1970–1971. For some twenty years from 1970, Johns, while at Bulolo and Lae, sampled numerous vegetation plots (references in P.N.G. Conservation Needs Assessment, 2: 55–60. 1993).

The 1980s and Beyond

After the mid-1980s, with changing interests, increasing financial stringency (and irregularities), "privatizations," a decrease in the quality of life (including security) in many more closely settled areas (including the cities and towns), more regulations, and—notably—an insecure central government, collecting declined notably. Only a few people have done anything substantial, notably W. Takeuchi in many areas under varying sponsorship since the late 1980s, and the present writer (with G. Morren, Rutgers University) in 1992 and 1993 in the Telefomin District, this latter undertaking with particular reference to uses and local ecology among the Miyanmin—an area not otherwise sampled (Kew, Lae). In 1992, with E. Gabir, Frodin and Morren reached some Miyanmin lowland areas along the Iwa (also known as May) River (Fiak Airstrip and Hotmin—the latter ca 10 km or so south of the furthest point reached by the Behrmann expedition). There have also been a number of more targeted field undertakings, including (as already mentioned) those for palms and, as of late 2005, for orchids (E. de Vogel, pers. comm.).

Government activity has now dropped to relatively low levels. Takeuchi has indicated that since 1989 additions in the NGF/LAE institutional numbering sequence have averaged only some 400 numbers/year—well below earlier rates, particularly in the 1960s and early 1970s. This reflects significant staff cuts since the 1970s; the focus is presently on maintenance of existing resources.

The alpine flora was gathered together in an impressive series of volumes (1980–1983) by P. van Royen, following upon his 1976 expedition. This must, however, be but a starting point for further research on this fragile ecosystem; probably only at Mt Wilhelm (and Mt Jaya) has collecting reached a relatively advanced level—almost everywhere else visits have been at scattered times. The Mt Victoria complex, for example—although the first to be visited (in 1889)—has only rarely been studied since (e.g., in 1976; see above).

At lesser elevations, knowledge remains patchy. Effective inventory of any given area will come about only with repeated, relatively sustained visitc and where conditions (including local relations) are favorable, and most likely with outside or nongovernmental organization (NGO) support. A fair idea of our present knowledge may be had from the various recent conservation needs assessments (see References section, below). Formal documentation is, however, likely to remain a slow process (and to many recondite in language and style) without radically different approaches.

FAUNA OF EASTERN NEW GUINEA: TERRITORY OF PAPUA AND

NEW GUINEA (TPNG)(1946-1971); PAPUA NEW GUINEA,

INDEPENDENT FROM 1975 (SINCE 1971)

In contrast to the plant world over much of this period, there was no single government body—nor perhaps could there have been—responsible for fauna, there being many different stakeholders. As a result, a number of separate official collections came into being, some of them before re-establishment (in 1954) of the old Papuan territorial museum as the National Museum. Even afterwards the Museum’s primary focus in research was on ethnography and archeology, although gradually a zoological collection, predominately of higher vertebrates, was built up. Of agency collections, DASF (later DPI) accumulated important holdings of fish (and other aquatic organisms) as well as insects, while the Department of Forests developed a collection of forest insects at Bulolo (later moved to Lae). Collections were also built up at Wau Ecology Institute (see below) and the universities (particularly the University of Papua New Guinea). There is also a collection at the Parataxonomy Center in Madang.

Vertebrates

N. B. Blood collected birds in the highlands 1945–1947 and later (AM). Fred Shaw Mayer (see above) collected birds in the Mt Hagen area in 1946–1947 and on Mt Wilhelm in 1949. In 1948 Blood set up at Nondugl in the Wahgi Valley the bird of paradise (plus other wildlife) sanctuary partly funded by Sir Edward Hallstrom. Its management was passed in 1954 to Shaw Meyer and in 1960 to M. J. Tyler (see below), In the early 1960s it was turned over to the government and moved to suitable forested land by the Baiyer River, also in the Western Highlands. It is now a National Park, with as well some botanical significance. The first two managers at the new location were Graeme George and Roy Mackay.

Another government manager of this period, Angus Hutton (of the tea plantation at Garaina and previously resident in India), collected animals at Garaina and elsewhere in southeastern Morobe.

A contemporary of Blood and Shaw Mayer was E. Thomas Gilliard of AMNH, there an associate of A. L. Rand. Gilliard made several trips (1948–1959) to collect birds (AMNH): Astrolabe Range (1948), Wilhelm, Giluwe (1950), the Kubor Range (1952), the Victor Emanuel and Hindenburg ranges (1954), Mt Hagen and the Finisterres (1956), New Britain (1958–1959) including a climb into the remote Whiteman Range, and the Adelbert Range (1959). He also collected butterflies (AMNH), obtaining new species of Delias, and a few plants (Harvard). Gilliard was partly sponsored by the National Geographic Society of Washington DC, and wrote and photographed for National Geographic. Apart from formal papers, much of his work is summarized in his Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds (1965) which also contains useful historical material. He was in addition a co-author (with Rand) of Handbook of New Guinea Birds (1967).

The Gyldenstolpe expedition of 1951 in the Hagen/Wahgi area concentrated on birds but also collected other animals and plants. Its principals were the Swedes Nils Gyldenstolpe and his wife (Stockholm; results in Ark. Zool. 8(1), 1955). In 1954 Ellis Troughton, assisted by Norman Camps as well as by Blood, collected mammals in the Western Highlands (AM; Australian Mus. Mag. 11: 246). Blood and Camps also assisted Gilliard and Gressitt. In 1955 Rev. O. Shelly collected some frogs in the Wahgi Valley (AMNH). In 1959 Reimer collected some animals in Kikori area, Papua Gulf (München, Frankfurt).

Turning to the 1960s, the establishment of the Bishop Museum Field Station (later the Wau Ecology Institute) at Wau (1961) provided a new focus (see also Integrated Expeditions and Surveys section, above). Vertebrate research also figured in its activities, with mammals and their ectoparasites of particular interest. Collections were made by M. C. Thompson and P. Temple; R. Traub (USNM) with Abid Beg Mirza, M. Nadchatram, E. Mann, Wilson, Ziegler, R. Greene (Bishop; WEI), D. Schlitter, and S. Williams (also Carnegie). Early outside visitors included, in 1962, Alden H. Miller (birds) and W. Z. Lidicker, Jr. (mammals), focusing on the Wau-Bulolo area (MVZ).

Separately, Professor T. C. Schultze-Westrum (a nephew of L. Schultze-Jena; see above) in 1964 and 1970 studied mammals and conservation at Mt Bosavi and elsewhere for the IUCN and the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) authorities. Also in 1964 and continuing over several visits, Jared Diamond (most recently author of Guns, Germs and Steel (1997) and Collapse (2004)) undertook his detailed surveys of birds of certain mountains, including Mt Karimui and the Torricellis, pioneering certain aspects of ecology and biogeography and at the same time making recommendations for conservation (collections mainly AMNH). In 1972 Diamond published his critical Avifauna of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea, a notable contribution to the literature.

During the CSIRO surveys (see above, Integrated Expeditions section) R. Schodde collected many birds (and some insects) as well as plants, for example, with S. Schodde at Lake Kutubu and Mt Giluwe (1961) and in Central Province (1962). W. B. Hitchcock collected birds in 1963 with botanists W. Vink and R. Pullen (CSIRO), Pullen also collecting some insects (CSIRO).

The Noona Dan expedition of 1962 (see Integrated Expeditions section, above) in its survey of the Bismarck Archipelago also collected animals, with Torben Wolff, Leif Linneborg, Finn Salomonsen, and Wm. Buch particularly interested in birds, insects, and fresh water and marine organisms (Copenhagen).

More detailed herpetological work had its advent in the 1960s. Fred Parker, a government officer, from 1960–1978 made large herpetological collections in many parts of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (MCZ, AM, etc.). Harold Cogger collected reptiles and amphibians in several areas, especially in the former Territory of Papua. Michael J. Tyler, Shaw Mayer’s successor at Nondugl, from 1960 collected many frogs and reptiles in Wahgi Valley and on the Wahgi-Sepik divide; and in 1967 he made a frog survey of New Britain (Adelaide, AM, BMNH, AMNH). Richard Zweifel in 1964, 1968, and 1969 collected many frogs in several areas in the Highlands, the Wau area, and along the north coast (AMNH). In 1969 Harold Heatwole, while on the Fairbridge New Guinea coral reef expedition, studied reptiles on some smaller islands in eastern Papua. George Zug collected reptiles and amphibians in 1971 at Mt Kaindi and elsewhere (USNM). In 1968 James Menzies joined the staff of UPNG, beginning his long association with New Guinea herpetology (as well as mammalogy and, with collaborators, in botany); after a period in Africa in the 1980s he returned, first to the National Museum, then back to UPNG (retiring in 2001).

In more recent years Tim Flannery (now in Adelaide, and author of Mammals of New Guinea (1990; 2nd ed., 1995) and Mammals of the South-West Pacific and Moluccan Islands (1995) as well as The Future Eaters (1994) and Throwim Way Leg (1998), the last an account of his fieldwork from 1981 onwards) has been the most prominent in mammology; but Menzies also made significant contributions including A Handbook of New Guinea Marsupials and Monotremes (1991). In ornithology B. Beehler (now Washington DC), B.J. Coates (now Queensland), T. K. Pratt (now Hawai’i), and M. LeCroy (New York) have been very active since the 1970s; and resident "twitchers" (especially B. W. Finch, P. Gregory, K. D. Bishop) have continued their observations. Most notable, perhaps, were the doctoral and postdoctoral ornithological field studies conducted on Crater Mountain and Mt Missim in the 1970s and 1980s by A. Mack, D. Wright, B. Beehler, T. Pratt, and S. Pruett-Jones. These encompass the most significant fieldwork completed to date on New Guinea’s birdlife, and at Crater Mountain led the way towards long-term involvement (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above). Beehler and Pratt (with D. A. Zimmerman) have published what is now a standard handbook (Birds of New Guinea, 1986; see also Burung-burung di Kawasan Papua, 2001). The Bismarcks (with the Solomons) were quite recently also the subject of a monograph, The Birds of Northern Melanesia (2002) by Mayr and Diamond. In herpetology, besides Cogger, Tyler, and Menzies (particularly in amphibians), M. O’Shea has studied reptiles (notably snakes). Gerald Allen (Perth) has been active in ichthyology, publishing moreover two field guides, respectively in 1991 (freshwater fish) and 1993 (reef fish)—both through the Christensen Research Institute.

At the present time, the vertebrates of Papua New Guinea (or New Guinea as a whole) are relatively well covered in field and technical guides, all dating from the 1980s or later and to some of which specific reference has been made. Nevertheless, as the various conservation assessment reports (see References section, below) indicate, many gaps remain.

Arthropoda (Insects and Spiders)

As with birds, an early sponsor in entomology after World War II was Halls-trom—in effect carrying on the Rothschild tradition. He engaged Wm. W. Brandt, earlier from Europe, to make a large collection of Lepidoptera—primarily butter-flies—in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) from 1949 to 1955, covering many localities. Hallstrom then terminated the operation and gave the collection for the future national collections (while depositing it for safe-keeping with CSIRO at Canberra, in the manner of Macgregor long before with his official collections, sent to the Queensland Museum). Brandt then collected half-time for the Bishop Museum (miscellaneous insects) from 1956 to 1960 (Bishop), the other half of his time being spent on Lepidoptera for the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (and adding to the collections deposited by Hallstrom; CSIRO). Later on he was employed by CSIRO to curate the collection and to do some further collecting in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (CSIRO).

In the 1950s Stan Christian, Harry A. Standfast, Wallace Peters, and others worked on mosquitoes and built up a reference collection (now at UPNG) as well as making studies of malaria transmission and teaching mosquito control. Gordon Dun of the Mandated Territory service (see section Between World War I and World War II, above) carried on with DASF to about 1960. In 1954 he was joined by Dr Joseph J. H. Szent-Ivany, a refugee from Hungary (where he had been a curator of Lepidoptera at Budapest and university lecturer in zoogeography) who had migrated to Australia. On field trips and vacations until in 1966 retiring from government service (and later at Wau Ecology Institute; see below) Szent-Ivany collected extensively in various areas, greatly adding to the DASF collection (Konedobu).

Other government entomologists who helped add to the DASF collections included J. H. Barrett, T. L. Fenner (see also Flora of Eastern New Guinea section, above), J. Healy, L. Smee, A. Catley, R. M. Stevens, T. V. Bourke, G. Baker, E. Hassan, Stuart Smith, J. N. L. Stibick, and Jan Greve. Further additions were made in 1962–1963 by J. Allen, J. M. Carlisle, D. Hutton, I. Johnson, D. Price, M. Stevens, M. Erben, and G. Rosenberg who collected insects on various mountaintops in those years. In the 1970s Donald Sands (later chief entomologist) collected butterflies as well as other insects (DASF; CSIRO).

In 1955 Edward O. Wilson, then a graduate fellow at Harvard University, collected and observed ants in various areas, mainly in the northern and southern lowlands but also ascending to the top of the Saruwaged Range (MCZ). From this work he developed the concept of "the taxon cycle" as an evolutionary geographical process. Elements of E. O. Wilson’s work in New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands also feature in his many popular books (e.g., The Diversity of Life, 1992; Naturalist, 1994).

In that same year J. L. Gressitt (see also above) commenced his 26 years of annual visits or extended stays, focusing on insects: 1955 in the Eastern and Western Highlands, Mt Otto, Mt Wilhelm, the Jimi Valley, the north coast, Manus, New Ireland, and New Britain; 1956 in Kokoda, New Britain (including a coconut beetle study for DASF), and the Solomons; 1957 in the Solomons, the north coast, and Biak; 1958 in Southern Highlands and Baiyer River; 1959 on the north coast, in the Cyclops Mts, and at Fakfak; 1960 in the Oriomo region and Cape Rodney; 1961 (with wife Margaret) to many highland areas, Mt Karimui, and Mt Giluwe, as well as Maprik, Dreikikir, Lae, and Popondetta.

With longer-term surveys and studies in mind, during his 1961 visit Gressitt established the Bishop Museum Field Station at Wau (see also section on Integrated Expeditions, as well as under Vertebrates above). There, he settled in residence Joseph Sedlacek, his wife Marie, and their son J. H. Sedlacek. There then ensued continuous insect collecting for the Bishop Museum, along with the already-mentioned collection of parasites with their vertebrate hosts as well as plants for identification of insect hosts.

Besides the Sedlaceks’ decade of work in succession to Brandt, Ray Straatman (after migrating from Netherlands New Guinea) collected 1961–1966, and Abid Beg Mirza 1967–1974 (and in 1975–1980 part-time while manager of WEI). For shorter periods during the 1960s many others (not all entomologists) participated, including T. C. Maa, Wallace A. Steffan, G. A. Samuelson, L. W. and S. Quate, Y. M. Huang, S. Sirivanakarn, Nixon Wilson, F. J. Radovsky, and A. C. Ziegler (all associated with the Bishop Museum research staff); Dr and Mrs Szent-Ivany as associates for varying periods of time; and E. J. Ford, Jr., Peter Shanahan, Geoff Monteith, P. H. Colman, N. L. H. Krauss, and H. Clissold as well as local assistants Tawi Bukam, Rennie, Spanis, Wita, Gewise, G. Nalu, and others. Cooperating researchers from other institutions largely funded by or through Bishop Museum included Drs C. D. Michener, E. N. Marks (see section on the World War II era and also below), John Smart, Peter Mattingly, D. Eimo Hardy, Robert Traub, M. Nadchatram, J. Balogh (1969 trip only), and Y. Hirashima. Field areas examined by Gressitt included, in 1963 and 1966–1967, Enga, Tari, the Kubor Mts, and Mt Michael; in 1965 (with T. C. Maa) to Mt Ialibu; in 1966 (with E. C. and R. Gressitt) to Mt Wilhelm and the Kubor and Schrader ranges; in 1969 to the Bulldog Road, Garaina (with M. and E. Gressitt), Mt Wilhelm, and Angoram (with Balogh and Hirashima); and in other years many other areas (all Bishop Museum, with some reference material retained in Wau).

From 1970 work at Wau gradually shifted to ecological and other research (covering a wider field) as well as, in time, education, conservation, and handbook preparation. In 1971 the Field Station became separately incorporated as Wau Ecology Institute; but many of those mentioned in this section continued to work or be based there, and others would join them in various capacities for targeted research (among them Hampton Carson on Drosophila diversification). In the later 1970s Gressitt was succeeded as Director by H. Sakulas, but until Gressitt’s tragic death in April 1982 in China he remained closely associated.

From 1962 another important local collection began its development, this time at the Forest Research Station in Bulolo. Barry Gray and Ross Wylie, and later Peter Shanahan, John Dobunaba, and Dr H. Roberts, built up a large collection and much data for forest insects. In the latter 1980s the collection was moved to Lae as part of the Forest Research Institute (see section on Flora of Eastern New Guinea, above), where it remains. Many scolytid beetles were described from this collection by Schedl. From the 1970s a reference collection was also assembled at the Insect Farming and Trading Agency in Bulolo; for some years it was headed by the lepidopterist Michael Parsons who while there also developed extensive data on distribution—later part of a substantial book (The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea, 1998). Parsons also studied some of the host plants.

A laboratory for study of the screw-worm fly was set up around 1964 by CSIRO—run in connection with related activities in Australia, and their first longer-term presence in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG). P. Spradbery, D. Sands, and R. Tozer were entomologists there, the last-named active into the 1980s.

A wide range of insects was collected by others, both within and outside of government and by amateurs as well as professionals. From the latter part of the 1950s onwards beetles in particular continued to attract amateurs, so continuing the tradition of von Benningsen (see section on New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, 1875–1914, above). Sir Alan Mann, in the 1950s Chief Justice of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, collected many beetles as well as other insects. A somewhat later (1962–1974) beetle collector was Dr R. W. Hornabrook, a government physician initially at Okapa studying Kuru (see above) and later first director of the Institute of Human Biology at Goroka (now the Institute of Medical Research). Most of his collections were from the Highlands and in the Huon Peninsula (Wellington; some types in BMNH and Bishop). Another amateur, Henry Ohlmus, from 1961–1980 assembled much material from the highlands and elsewhere (mostly Canberra and Brisbane; some types in Bishop). A Canadian amateur, R. Parrott, in 1970 made a large collection in the northeast.

Janos Balogh (partly with I. Loksa) on six visits (1956–1980) made many collections, mostly of soil arthropods (Budapest). In 1957 Drs Eugene Munroe and George Holland from Ottawa made extensive collections of moths, mostly at highland localities (CNC). In 1964 M. E. Bacchus, as a member of the BMNH-University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne expedition (see section on Flora of Eastern New Guinea, above), collected beetles (especially water-beetles) near Wau, Huon Peninsula, etc. In 1966 Prof. J. Illies (general editor of the Junk series Monograph-iae Biologicae) searched for Trichoptera in the Eastern Highlands (Schlitz). In 1968–1969 Pierre Jolivet studied ecological aspects of several arthropod groups, including parasites, in the Eastern Highlands and elsewhere; later he published an introduction to New Guinea entomology (see section on References, below). In 1978 P. Deharveng collected Collembola, both at Wau and elsewhere (Toulouse).

From Australia D. K. McAlpine in 1963–1964 collected Diptera (AM). Elizabeth Marks made several visits collecting mosquitos, mostly in Papua between 1957 and 1979 (QIMR). G. Monteith in the 1960s collected insects, especially Hemiptera on several visits (Bishop, Brisbane). I. W. B. Thornton (Latrobe University) and C. N. Smithers (AM) in 1970 collected Psocoptera in several areas of the mainland and in 1974 in the Bismarcks.

In recent years active entomologists have included Scott Miller (Bishop, then Smithsonian) and D. Polhemus (Smithsonian), the latter interested in particular in aquatic insects.

Other Invertebrates

F. R. Allison collected Protozoa (NZ). D. F. McMichael collected land and freshwater mollusks at many areas, both east and west on two trips (1955, 1956) as a Bishop Museum fellow (AM). Y. Kondo collected some land mollusks, 1965 (Bishop). But much activity here was associated with marine expeditions (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above).

PALEOHISTORY: BRIEF REMARKS (SINCE 1945)

Animal fossils were studied in the Bulolo-Watut area by Michael Plane (CSIRO). Ethnological and archeological animal material was studied in the highlands (Jimi Valley, 1955, etc.) by Ralph and Susan Bulmer (AM, Auckland; see also Gressitt 1982: chapter II, 3). Archeological animals were also studied by J. Hope in 1969 (ANU; see also section on Flora of Eastern New Guinea, above) and James Menzies in the 1970s (UPNG). Vertebrate fossils were also obtained and studied by T. Flannery (working with Plane), with a contribution on the Pureni area (Southern Highlands). Plant fossils (notably pollen) were the subject of several years of work by D. Walker and his associates on the Quaternary era (see Flora of Eastern New Guinea, above). D. Haig (UPNG) examined Foraminifera in the 1970s and 1980s. All these (with other contributions too numerous to mention here) have now provided a clearer, though still sketchy, view of the pre-Tertiary, Tertiary, and Quaternary paleobiotic history of New Guinea in train with contemporary changes in geological and biological thought.

Collections

MAJOR COLLECTIONS OF NEW GUINEA BIOTA

Collections within Papua or Papua New Guinea are underlined. For plants abbreviations in parentheses follow usage in Index Herbariorum I: Herbaria of the World (8th ed. 1990, New York). An asterisk (*) indicates institutions with more or less significant holdings of pre-1942 plant material. (The majority of the Berlin herbarium was lost or destroyed during World War II, but pteridophytes, a few flowering plant families, and many types are intact, as well as replicates, e.g., of Clemens, not yet distributed before the war. Plants were also lost from the British Museum (Natural History) in 1940 likewise due to bombing.)

All groups (mainly historical collections): MNHN, Paris.

Vascular plants: Arnold (A),* BMNH (BM),* Berlin (B), Bishop (BISH), Bogor (BO),* Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane (BRI),* CSIRO, Canberra (CANB), Edinburgh (E), Firenze (FI),* Fort Worth, Texas (BRIT), Gray Herbarium (GH),* Kew (K), Lae, PNG (LAE),* Leiden (L),* Manokwari, Papua (MAN), Melbourne (MEL),* New York Botanical Garden (NY),* Sydney (NSW),* USNM (US),* Waigani (Port Moresby), PNG (UPNG), Utrecht (U),* Wroclaw, Poland (WRSL).*

Non-vascular plants and fungi (in addition to institutions indicated above): Farlow (FH),* Geneva (G),* Tokyo (TNS), and Nichinan, Japan (NICH), general; Bulolo (now Lae) and Konebobu (Port Moresby), PNG, fungi; Budapest (BP) and Uppsala, lichenized fungi (lichens); Helsinki (H) and Jena (JE), bryophytes; Berkeley, California (UC), algae.

Vertebrates: Abepura (Papua), Berlin, Bogor, Genoa, Waigani (general); AMNH, BMNH, Bishop (mammals); AMNH, BMNH, Bishop, CSIRO, Genoa (birds); AM, AMNH, Bishop, Leiden, MCZ (reptiles); AM, AMNH, Adelaide, Bishop, Leiden (amphibians); AM, Leiden, BMNH, Copenhagen, Leiden, USNM (freshwater fish); Kanudi (Port Moresby), PNG (marine fish and other vertebrates).

Insects and other arthropods: AM, AMNH, BMNH, Berlin, Bishop, Bogor, Bulolo (partly now Lae), CAS, CSIRO, Genoa, Copenhagen, Kanudi, Konedobu, Leiden, Lyon, Manokwari, UPNG, WEI (general); BMNH, Bishop, Leiden (Odonata); BMNH, Bishop, CNC, CSIRO, Leiden (Lepidoptera); AM, BMNH, Bishop, Dresden, Leiden (Coleoptera, Diptera, etc.); TMDU (muscoid Diptera); Adelaide, Bishop, BMNH, Leiden, USNM, Budapest, Amsterdam (arachnids and parasites); Budapest, Bishop (soil arthropods); Budapest (freshwater Crustacea).

Mollusks (terrestrial): AM, BMNH, Leiden.

Marine invertebrates: BMNH, Leiden, Brussels.

PRINCIPAL REPOSITORIES
AM	Australian Museum (incl. parts of the colls. of Macleay Museum, Sydney University) (Sydney, N.S.W., Australia)
AMNH	American Museum of Natural History (New York, N.Y., U.S.)
ANU	Australian National University (Canberra, A.C.T., Australia)
Abepura	Cenderawasih University (Abepura, Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia)
Adelaide	South Australian Museum (Adelaide, South Australia)
Amsterdam	Natura Artis Magistra (Zoological Museum) (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Arnold	Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.)
Auckland	Auckland Institute and Museum (Auckland, New Zealand)
BMNH	Natural History Museum (London (South Kensington), England, U.K.) [Formerly British Museum (Natural History); name changed in 1989.]
BYU	Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah, U.S.)
Berlin	Botanisches Museum (Free Univ.); Naturhistorisches Museum (Humboldt-Univ.) (Berlin, Germany, the Botanisches Museum in Dahlem)
Bishop	Bernice P. Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawai’i, U.S.)
Bogor	Herbarium Bogoriense/Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, PPPB, LIPI (near Bogor, West Java, Indonesia)
Brisbane	Queensland Herbarium (Mt Coo-tha); Queensland Institute of Medical Research (Herston); Queensland Museum; University of Queensland (St. Lucia) (all Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
Brussels	Institut Royale d’Histoire Naturelle de Belgique (Bruxelles/Brussel, Belgium)
Budapest	Termeszettudomanyi Museum (Hungarian National Museum) (Budapest, Hungary)
Bulolo	Forestry College Herbarium (Bulolo, P.N.G.). [For Department of Forests collections of fungi and insects, see Lae. Collections of the Insect Farming and Trading Agency remain at Bulolo.]
CAS	California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco, Calif., U.S.)
CNC	Canadian National Collection (Ottawa, Canada). [Insects at Agriculture; others at National Museums of Canada.]
CSIRO	Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Canberra, A.C.T., Australia). [Includes Australian National Herbarium (Div. Plant Industry) and Div. Entomology.]
Canberra	See ANU, CSIRO
Copenhagen	Zoological Museum, Univ. Copenhagen (København (Copenhagen), Denmark)
DAS	Department of Agriculture and Stock, P.N.G. (formerly part of DASF, then DPI). See Konedobu.
DASF	former Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries, P.N.G. (later DPI, now Depts. of Agriculture and Stock (DAS) and Fisheries and Marine Resources (DFMR)). See Kanudi, Konebobu.
DFMR	Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources (formerly part of DASF, then DPI), PNG. See Kanudi.
DPI	former Department of Primary Industries, PNG (DPI, formerly DASF, now Depts. of Agriculture and Stock (DAS) and Fisheries and Marine Resources (DFMR)). See Kanudi, Konedobu.
DSIR	former Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand). [Biological collections now under Landcare Research, same address.]
Dresden	Staatliches Museum fur Tierkunde (Dresden, Sächsen, Germany)
Edinburgh	Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland
Farlow	Farlow Herbarium of Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.)
Field	Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, Ill., U.S.)
Firenze	Museo Botanico, Univ. Firenze (Florence, Italy). [Colls. Beccari, particularly Palmae, Pandanaceae]
Fort Worth	Botanical Research Institute of Texas (Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.)
Frankfurt	Senckenbergisches Institut und Museum (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany)
Geneva	Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques; Museum d’Histoire Naturelle (both Ville de Genève, Switzerland)
Gray	Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.)
Harvard	Harvard University Museums and Herbaria. See Arnold, Farlow, Gray, MCZ
Helsinki	Botanical Museum, Univ. Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland)
Honolulu	Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station, Honolulu, Hawai’i, U.S. (insects, now Bishop)
Kanudi	collections (fish and other marine organisms) of DFMR (earlier DASF, DPI) (Kanudi, Port Moresby, PNG) [Catalogue, 1974: A catalogue of the fish reference collection at the Kanudi Fisheries Research Laboratory, Port Moresby by P.J. Kailola. DASF Res. Bull. 16.]
Kew	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Richmond, Surrey, England, U.K.)
Konedobu	collections (insects, fungi) of DAS (earlier DASF, DPI) (Konedobu, Port Moresby, PNG)
Lae	Herbarium, Div. Botany, Forestry Research Institute (FRI); also collections (formerly at Bulolo) of forest fungi and insects, FRI (Lae, Morobe Province, PNG)
Leiden	National Herbarium of the Netherlands (Leiden branch); Naturalis (formerly Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie) (Leiden, the Netherlands)
MCZ	Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.)
MVZ	Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley (Calif., U.S.)
Macleay	See AM. [Some material remains in Macleay.]
Manokwari	Agriculture College of Cenderawasih University; Forestry and Agriculture Experiment Station (Amban, Manokwari, Papua, Indonesia)
Melbourne	National Herbarium of Victoria (South Yarra); Museum of Victoria (Melbourne, Vic., Australia)
München	Zoologische Staatsammlung der Bayerische Staat (Munich, Bavaria, Germany)
Nelson	Cawthron Institute (Nelson, New Zealand; now part of Landcare NZ (formerly DSIR). [Insects to Auckland.]
New York	New York Botanical Garden (Bronx, New York, N.Y., U.S.)
Nichinan	Hattori Botanical Laboratory (Obi, Nichinan, Miyazaki Pref., Japan)
Paris	Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France)
Port Moresby	See Kanudi, Konedobu, Waigani
QIMR	Queensland Institute of Medical Research. See Brisbane
RSA	Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Herbarium (Claremont, Calif., U.S.)
Sydney	Australian Museum (see also AM); National Herbarium of New South Wales; University of Sydney, Newtown (all Sydney, N.S.W., Australia)
TMDU	Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo) (Muscoid Diptera)
Tokyo	National Science Museum (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan)
Toulouse	Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France) (Collembola)
Tring	Rothschild Museum (Tring, Herts., England, U.K.), now a BMNH branch. [Most bird collections sold in 1932 to AMNH. Remainder of museum merged with BMNH in 1937 under Rothschild’s will. Insects now in London; BMNH birds at Tring.]
UC	University of California Herbarium (Berkeley, Calif., U.S.)
UniTech	P.N.G. University of Technology (Lae, Morobe Prov., PNG)
UPNG	Natural Sciences Resource Centre, University of Papua New Guinea (Waigani, Port Moresby, PNG) [Includes herbarium along with entomological and zoological collections.]
USNM	National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C., U.S.). [Includes U.S. National Herbarium as well as entomological and zoological collections.]
Uppsala	Evolutionary Biology Centre, Univ. Uppsala (Uppsala, Sweden)
Utrecht	National Herbarium of the Netherlands (Utrecht branch) (Utrecht, the Netherlands)
WEI	Wau Ecology Institute, Wau, Morobe Prov., PNG. [Formerly Bishop Museum Field Station.]
Waigani	Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery (Waigani, Port Moresby, P.N.G) (Vertebrates); University of Papua New Guinea (see UPNG)
Wellington	National (formerly Dominion) Museum (Wellington, New Zealand)

Selected References

Because a bibliography of all historical sources of information as well as the results of collecting mentioned in this review would fill a large volume, most works mentioned by author or title in the text are not repeated here. Only some more general sources are accounted for below.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

The most substantial older twentieth-century bibliographies are Toa kyo-ei-ken sigenkagaku bunken mokuroku 1: [New Guinea] (1942, Dept. Education, Japan) and An annotated bibliography of the southwest Pacific and adjacent areas 1 and 2 (1944, Allied Geographical Section) along with a general bibliography in five volumes issued in the 1980s by the University of Papua New Guinea Library. For Papua there is also West Irian: a bibliography (1984, Dordrecht: Foris, as KITLV Bibl. Ser. 15) by J. van Baal, K. W. Galis, and R. M. Koentjaranigrat (a revision of Bibliographie van Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea (1962) by Galis). For specific biota there have been published Bibliography of New Guinea entomology (1968, as Pacific Insects Monogr. 18) by J. L. Gressitt and J. J. H. Szent-Ivany; Bibliography of invertebrate animals from New Guinea (1973, in Science in New Guinea 1: 41–46) by W. H. Ewers; Papua New Guinea fisheries bibliography (1985, Port Moresby, as Dept. Primary Industry Tech. Rept. 85/3) by J. M. Lock and D. C. Waites; Bibliography of freshwater ecology in Papua New Guinea (1988, Waigani (Port Moresby), as Dept. Biology (UPNG) Occ. Pap. 9) by P. L. Osborne; and A bibliography of the flora and vegetation of Papua New Guinea (1996, in Papua New Guinea Journal of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 39(2): 20–168) by S. Saulei. The entomological bibliography contains taxonomic and subject indices; those of Lock/Waites and Saulei have broadly circumscribed subdivisions. More or less extensive lists of references furthermore appear in several of the other works listed here.

ENCYCLOPEDIC WORKS, GENERAL MONOGRAPHS, AND OTHER REVIEWS

General encyclopedic works on, or inclusive of, New Guinea are Neu-Guinea ([1899], Berlin: Schall, in their series Bibliothek der Länderkunde), ed. M. Krieger; Deutsches Kolonialreich (1910, Leipzig), ed. H. J. Meyer; Deutsch-Neu-Guinea (1911, Berlin: Reimer) by R. Neuhauss; Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (1920, Berlin) [now available on the Web]; Nieuw-Guinée (1935–38, the Hague) and its second edition, Nieuw-Guinea (1953–1954, the Hague), both ed. W. C. Klein and island-wide in coverage; and Encyclopaedia of Papua New Guinea (1972, Melbourne).

Very important for biota in general is Biogeography and Ecology of New Guinea (1982, Junk, as Monographiae biologicae 42), ed. J. L. Gressitt; a wide range of groups (and some ecosystems) is encompassed. Earlier coverage for flora and vegetation may be found in an essay by H. J. Lam in Nieuw-Guinée (1: 187–210) and one (with references) by C. G. G. J. van Steenis in its successor (2: 218–275); others have appeared since, including Documentation of the flora of New Guinea (pp. 123–156) by B. J. Conn in Biodiversity and terrestrial ecosystems (1994, Taipei, as Mon. Inst. Bot. Acad. Sin. 14), ed. C.-I. Peng and C.-H. Chou. For entomology reference may be made to La Nouvelle-Guinée Australienne: introductionécologique et entomologique by P. Jolivet (1971; in Cahiers du Pacifique (Paris) 15: 41–70).

More recent reviews, with particular reference to conservation, include Papua New Guinea Conservation Needs Assessment (1993, [Port Moresby]), ed. B. M. Beehler; Papua New Guinea Country Study on Biological Diversity (1994, [Port Moresby]), ed. N. Sekhran and S. Miller; and Lokakarya penentuan prioritas konservasi keanekaragaman hayati Irian Jaya [Biak, 7–12 January 1997]: laporan akhir/ The Irian Jaya Biodiversity Conservation Priority-Setting Workshop [Biak, 7–12 January 1997]: Final Report (1999, Washington, D.C.), ed. J. Supriatna. All are generously furnished with tables and many maps from which some idea of the present state of knowledge can be gained; they form parts of chapters (or sections) on biodiversity (the 1993 report features treatments of individual biotic groups or environments). For plants may be added the chapter on New Guinea by P. F. Stevens (pp. 120–132) in Floristic inventory of tropical countries (1989, New York), ed. D. G. Campbell and H. D. Hammond.

SERIAL PUBLICATIONS AND PERIODICALS

Important general series are Nova Guinea (1909–1966, Leiden); Results of the Arch-bold Expeditions (American Museum of Natural History, and (for plants) the New York Botanical Garden and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University)—the papers in the AMNH Bulletin being numbered; the several numbers of the CSIRO Land Research Series pertaining to present-day Papua New Guinea; the Christensen Research Institute Publications; and the Wau Ecology Institute Handbooks. Useful for exploration and topography (and rich in maps) are Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten (1888–1929, Berlin) and its Ergänzungshefte (1908–1930, Berlin) and, for German New Guinea, Nachrichten über Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land und den Bismarck-Archipel (1885–1998). For British New Guinea (and Papua) the Annual Reports for 1884–1885 to 1913–1914 similarly contain much that is useful, with some specifically biotic appendices.

Current and past outlets in Australia include the publications of Queensland Museum, Queensland Herbarium (Austrobaileya), University of Queensland, Australian Museum, South Australian Museum, National Herbarium of New South Wales (Telopea), Australian Journal of Systematic Botany, and the Linnean Society of New South Wales.

Elsewhere, for Asia Gardens Bulletin, Singapore, and Reinwardtia and its predecessors (Bogor) may also be mentioned, along with the Bulletins of the National Science Museum (Tokyo) and Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory. In Britain Kew Bulletin as well as the Bulletins of the British Museum (Natural History)/ Natural History Museum have run results based in whole or in part on collections from New Guinea. On the European continent Flora Malesiana (1948–, now based at Leiden) is a key reference but still far from complete; for the nearer term, much research has appeared in the serial Blumea, another Leiden-based publication. Beiträge zur Flora von Papuasien (1912–1942, with 150 contributions in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie) remains historically important, along with some other German publications including Pflanzenreich as well as those from the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. For bryophytes, Acta Botanica Fennica (Helsinki) embodies a substantial amount of recent research. In the United States of America, for entomology mention should be made of several Bishop Museum series (Pacific Insects; Pacific Insects Monographs; Journal of Medical Entomology; and Insects of Micronesia). For zoology in general there have been many outlets, but because of the Archbold Expeditions the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History has been very significant.

Local journals include those of the (now defunct) Papua New Guinea Scientific Society; the PNG Agricultural Journal (now PNG Journal of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries); the PNG Medical Journal; and Science in New Guinea. The PNG Wildlife Division reports as well as the Botanical Bulletins of the PNG Division of Botany may also be mentioned.

EXPLORATION

For general exploration through the early 1960s, the best single reference is New Guinea: the last unknown by G. Souter (1963, Sydney). A useful earlier review (to 1934) by C. C. F. M. le Roux appears in Klein’s Nieuw-Guinée (1, 1935; see above). Valuable for expeditions, individuals and localities up to 1902 is the very detailed Entdeckungsgeschichte von Neu-Guinea by A. Wichmann (1909–1912, Leiden; in Nova Guinea, 1–2). All three works are well documented.

Botanical exploration (for Malesia in general) is covered by M. J. van Steenis-Kruseman in series I of Flora Malesiana (1, 1950; 5, 1958; 7, 1974) with later coverage in Flora Malesiana Bulletin. For zoology, entomology, and marine biology, there is no single source, although monographs and reviews of major groups sometimes include historical sections.

"Bioinventory"—a current successor to "primary" and most "secondary" biotic exploration—is usefully aired in W. Takeuchi and M. Golman, Floristic documentation imperatives: some conclusions from contemporary surveys in Papua New Guinea (in Sida 19: 445–468. 2001) and A. Allison, Biological surveys—new perspectives in the Pacific (in Organisms, Diversity and Evolution 3: 103–110. 2003). Finally, reference may be made to The natural world of New Guinea: hopes, realities and legacies by the present writer (pp. 89–138 in Nature in its greatest extent: Western science in the Pacific (1988, Honolulu), ed. R. MacLeod and P. F. Rehbock).

Acknowledgments

For their 1982 chapter, Frodin and Gressitt were indebted for assistance to Drs. F. R. Fosberg, L. B. Holthuis, P. Raven, P. van Royen, J. J. H. Szent-Ivany, and to curators and librarians of the Bishop Museum, California Academy of Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, Museum of Comparative Zoology, the University of Papua New Guinea, the Rijksherbarium (Leiden), and others. The present revision has been entirely the work of the writer, who here acknowledges the facilities of the Herbarium and Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as well as some assistance through personal communications.

Marshall, A. J., and Beehler, B. M. (eds.). 2006. The Ecology of Papua. Singapore: Periplus Editions.

1.3. The Socio-cultural Plurality of Papuan Society

J. R. MANSOBEN

The Socio-cultural Diversity of Papuan People

THR PROVINCE OF PAPUA (as construed to include all of western New Guinea) is the largest in Indonesia (416,000 km², or three times the size of Java). Within this expansive area, two million people live at the lowest population density in Indonesia (approximately 4 persons per km²; 1999 census data). Despite this relatively small population size, Papua exhibits a much greater diversity of ethnicities and cultures than any other Indonesian province. This chapter is an overview of the variation in language, social structure, leadership systems, religion, livelihood systems, land tenure system, orientation of cultural values, and work ethic in this highly diverse province. Although a complete review of these diverse elements would fill many volumes, the information given here may help provide some insight into Papua’s rich cultural and social heritage, and may assist in the design of suitable and sustainable programs for the development of Papua and its peoples.

Languages

According to language experts at the Summer Institute for Linguistics, approximately 269 living local languages are spoken in Papua (Ethnologue Website). Language provides a means of communication as well as a symbol of group identity, suggesting that Papua contains a minimum of 269 distinct ethnic groups.

Papua’s languages are typically classified into two large groups, or mother languages: Austronesian and Non-Austronesian (often called Papuan). The Austrone-sian mother language group is comprised of languages spoken by coastal communities (e.g., Biak, Wandammen, Waropen, Maya). The Non-Austronesian (or Papuan) language group contains languages spoken by people that live in remote areas in the center of the island, from the western Vogelkop to the eastern tip of New Guinea (e.g., Meybrat, Dani, Ekari, Asmat, Muyu, and Sentani).

The Papuan language groups are divided into ten phyla: The Trans New Guinea Phylum, West Papuan Phylum, Sepik-Ramu Phylum, Torricelli Phylum, Sko Phylum, Kwomtari Phylum, Arai (Left May) Phylum, Amto-Musian Phylum, Geelvink Bay Phylum, and East Bird’s Head (Vogelkop) Phylum. These phyla are further split into language families. Hence, one phylum consists of several language families, each containing several local languages or dialects. This language classification was initiated by Voorhoeve and McElhanon. The high linguistic diversity on Papua provides a unique opportunity for the study of languages and language evolution.

The diversity of languages in Papua poses a challenge to development efforts in this area, since mutual understanding and communication is difficult when so many different languages are spoken in one province. However, the diversity of languages in Papua has led in recent decades to the widespread adoption of Bahasa Indonesia (and Melayu languages in the past), which serves as an intermediary language that is used among different ethnic groups within Papua and with people from other parts of Indonesia. Therefore, despite the high linguistic diversity in Papua, most Papuans speak and understand Bahasa Indonesia. Indeed a higher proportion of Papuans are fluent in this language than people in most other Indonesian provinces. This common language helps to offset some of the challenges inherent to the high linguistic diversity in Papua, and should aid development efforts in Papua in the future.

Social Structure

In this context, social structure refers to the patterns of social relationships that maintain group cohesion and social unity. Typically, these patterns of social relationships are organized around kinship, and can be characterized by the terminology used to refer to family members and their inheritance systems. Kinship terminology is extremely useful in understanding social structure because kinship terms frequently convey details about the roles of family members and the interactions among them, and about social rights and responsibilities, all of which may differ greatly among groups.

Pouwer (1966) suggests that the people of Papua can be divided into at least four groups based on their systems of kinship terminology. The first group uses a kinship terminology system similar to the Iroquois, a Native American nation (Iroquois type). The Iroquois system classifies cousins in parallel with siblings, and uses a different expression for cross-cousins. Another characteristic is the use of the same expression for father and all male brothers from both maternal and paternal sides (uncles). The languages of Biak, Iha, Waropen, Senggi, and Marind-Anim, Humboldt (Yos Sudarso) Bay, and Me are included within this group.

The second group uses kinship terminology similar to those used by native peoples in Hawai’i (Hawai’ian type). In this system, the same expression is used for siblings and all parallel and cross-cousins. Ethnic groups using this kinship terminology include Mairasi, Mimika, Hattam-Manikion, Asmat, Kimam, and Pantai Timur Sarmi people.

The third group uses the Omaha type kinship system. Omaha type is a system that uses different terms for matrilineal and patrilineal cross-cousins and incorporates information about generations into their kinship terminology in an asymmetric way. On the maternal side, cross-cousins are raised a generation while those on the paternal side are lowered a generation. Hence, the expression for mother’s brother’s son is the same as mother’s brother and the expression for father’s sister’s son is the same as sister’s son. Included in this group are the people of Auwyu, Dani, Meybrat, Mek in the Star Mountains, and Muyu.

The fourth group contains people that use the Iroquois-Hawai’ian type of kinship terminology. Included in this system are people of Bintuni, Tor, and West Coast of Sarmi (Pouwer 1966).

Papuan peoples can also be classified according to which of two major inheritance systems they recognize. The first inheritance system used in Papua is patrilineal, where inheritance is from father to son or among other male kin. This system is used by the people of Meybrat, Me, Dani, Biak, Waropen, Wandammen, Sentani, Marind-Anim, and Nimboran. The second major inheritance system used in Papua is the matrilineal system, in which inheritance is passed through the female kin. Some Papuan people use a system that is intermediate between these two major types. In such bilateral systems, inheritance is either through the father’s or the mother’s kin. This type is used by remote communities in Sarmi. Similarly, some communities practice ambilateral or ambilineal structure, for example in the communities of Mimika, Mappi, and Manikion, inheritance is sometimes through the maternal line (Mappi and Mimika) and sometimes through the paternal line (Manikion) according to individual choice (Bruijn 1959; Pouwer 1966).

One additional notable characteristic differs among social structures found in Papua. Some peoples group the community into a phratry (a group of clans tracing descent to a common ancestor) while others practice moiety (dividing the group into two halves for ritual purposes). Among Papuan people who use moiety groups are Asmat (aipmu and aipem), Dani (waita and waya), and Waropen (buriworai and buriferai). However, there are also ethnic groups that do not recognize this principle, for example the people Muyu and Biak (Heider 1979; Held 1947; Kamma 1972).

Land Tenure Systems

Two major types of property rights and land use practices are common among Papuan peoples: communal ownership systems and individual ownership systems. In communal ownership systems the land that provides the main resources necessary for livelihood are owned communally. Two types of communal ownership systems are found in Papua, those based on small clans or lineages and those based on large clans or villages (kampung).

In the communal ownership system based on clans, all members of the clan (marga, keret), including unmarried women, have equal rights to use the clan lands for their livelihood. Although all members have the same rights in principle, individuals do not have the freedom to decide where they want to conduct their economic activities (e.g., to open new agricultural land or collect certain forest products). The clan head (kepala marga) regulates and monitors the clan’s land use, but often makes decisions about land usage in conjunction with other clan members. Importantly, no member of the clan (including the head) has the authority to cede ownership of the land to an outside party (e.g., the government or a private company). Such decisions must be made communally, and any proceeds from the sale or lease of such land are shared equally among all clan members. Clan-based communal ownership system can be found in the following ethnic groups: Dani, Meybrat (Ayamaru), Muyu, Marind-Anim, Auwyu, Wandammen, Simuri, Irarutu, Biak, and Waropen.

In large clan (kampung) based communal ownership systems, land ownership rights are held by the community head, who has the authority to make land-use decisions in conjunction with clan leaders (e.g., in Sentani the authority to manage the land is jointly held by community heads (yo-ondoafi) and clan heads (khoselo). Neither clan nor community leaders can make decisions alone, and plans for community development, land use, and ownership must be made jointly. Any proceeds from land sale are distributed within the village according to the internally recognized differences in land rights and authority of different members. Frequently, individuals deliberately "forget" the relative authority or rights of a particular individual, which can lead to conflict within the community.

Political Systems

Political systems are also highly variable in Papua. To understand the traditional political systems used by the Papua people, Mansoben (1985) applied the continuum model suggested by Sahlins (1963) to available ethnographic data and identified four political systems in Papua. These four systems are big man (or powerful man) systems, kingdom systems, ondoafi systems, and mixed systems.

Sahlins (1963) suggested that political systems could be analyzed along a continuum. On one end of the continuum the political system is characterized by ascription or inheritance; while on the other end the political system is characterized by achievement. On the ascription end of the continuum are chief (head of ethnic group) systems, while on the achievement end are the big man systems. Applying this continuum to the political systems in Papua, Mansoben (1985) found that in addition to the two systems at the extremes of the continuum, some Papuan political systems contain elements of both systems and belong somewhere in between. These systems are called mixed systems. Furthermore, two distinct types can be identified in Sahlin’s ascription leadership system: kingdom and ondoafi.

The major differences between Papuan political systems are the geographical extent of their power and their political orientations. Below I briefly discuss the principle characteristics and major differences among the four most common political systems in Papua.

In big man political systems the leadership position is based on individual achievement. The source of power in this political system is derived from the big man’s personal abilities or achievements, such as success in allocating and distributing wealth, diplomatic or oratory skills, courage on the battlefield, physical strength, or generosity (Sahlins 1963; Koentjaraningrat 1970). Big men characteristically hold a substantial amount of personal power, and have autonomy to make important decisions single-handedly. The Dani, Asmat, Me, Meybrat, and Muyu peoples have big man political systems.

The kingdom system is primarily characterized by ascribed political status or inherited leadership position. Political power is conferred on individuals due to their family membership and birth order. In kingdom systems power is passed patrilineally, and patrilineal lines form traditional bureaucracies in which individuals have clearly-defined roles, responsibilities, and authority. All positions of authority are passed down through the male line, and if a man’s first son is inappropriate for the job, it is passed to another clan member. The kingdom system is common among communities in southwest Papua, including the Raja Ampat Islands, Onin Peninsula (on Bomberai peninsula), McCluer Gulf (Berau Gulf), and Kaimana.

The ondoafi system is similar to the kingdom system in that leadership positions are inherited and traditional bureaucracies are utilized. However, the ondoafi system differs from the kingdom system in its geographic range of power and political orientation. The power of an ondoafi leader is limited to a single village (yo), and the social unit consists of one ethnic group or subgroup. In contrast, the authority of leaders in kingdom systems is not limited to one village, but covers a wider area. Also, in kingdom systems the social units consist of several ethnic groups. Other characteristic of ondoafi is its alliance system, in which several villages act as a unit, trace their ancestry to a single individual, and acknowledge a single leader for the larger community. This "great leader" typically comes from a village in the center of the geographic range encompassed by the larger community. Finally, while the principle focus of the kingdom political system is on trade, in the ondoafi system the center of political orientation is religion. O ndoafi systems are practiced in northeast of Papua, by the people of Sentani, Genyem (Nimboran), Humboldt (Yos Sudarso) Bay, Tabla, Yaona, Yakari-Skou, and Arso-Waris.

The final political system found in Papua is the leadership mixed system, in which leadership is obtained through either inheritance or achievement. In other words, an individual can be a leader based on his personal ability, achievement, or birthright. Leaders that gain their authority based on achievement usually appear during times of stress, such as war, famine, epidemic disease, or cultural decadence. Such leaders are known as situational leaders, since the leader is chosen based on his ability to overcome the particular challenge facing the community. In mixed systems power is usually inherited during "safe" times, when external and internal threats are low. During such stable times, the leaders are chosen from the traditionally powerful family. In contrast to the kingdom and ondoafi systems, bureaucracy is not found in mixed systems. Mixed systems are common in the people who live around Cenderawasih Bay, such as the people of Biak, Wandammen, Waropen, Yawa, and Maya.

Religion and Belief Systems

Before Islam and Christianity were introduced to Papua, each ethnic group had its own traditional belief system. Although traditional belief systems varied among groups, most groups believed in a single Goddess or God that held supreme power over other deities. This God or Goddess had different names in different groups. For example in Biak-Numfoor culture this highest Goddess is called Manseren Nanggi or the Sky God, Moi people recognize Fun Nah, Seget people use the name Fun Naha, Waropen people refer to their supreme god as Naninggi, Wandammen recognize Syen Allah, Marind-Anim people Dema, Asmat people Mbiwiripitsy, and the Me people Ugatame.

Ethnographic accounts of traditional belief systems in Papua indicate that the principal Goddess or the Highest God is considered to be the creator and to have absolute authority over human destiny. In addition, most followers of these traditional religious systems believe that the power of this God is manifest in natural forces, such as wind, rain, and thunder; or believe that the power resides in natural objects near human settlement, such as large trees, streams, river currents or eddies, the bottom of the sea, or certain bays. Since it is believed that these spirits have the power to control people’s lives, they are feared and respected. Various activities express this fear and respect, in the form of offerings and rituals. These behaviors demonstrate an acknowledgement of the existence and power of the spirits and are thought to foster good relationships between humans and the spirits.

The Papuan people also believe that the spirits of dead ancestors are given power by the Creator God to control people that are still alive. Hence, the living must maintain positive relationships with their ancestors to protect themselves from disasters that may occur if deceased relatives are angered. This is the basis for ancestor worship, which is expressed in various forms, for example, the praise of korwar statues and the mon ceremony in Biak-Numfoor culture, the skeleton payment ritual of Meybrat people, the mbis ceremony of the Asmat. Since the arrival of Islam and Christianity traditional practices, including ancestor worship, are becoming less common. However, when traumatic events occur, such as accidents, illness, and death, many Papua people still seek solace and inspiration from traditional practices.

Major religions, such as Islam and Christianity, arrived in Papua at different times. Islam entered Papua first, brought to the Raja Ampat Islands and Fakfak by traders from the Maluku Islands in the 13th century (Leeden 1980). Christianity was introduced to Papua in Mansinam Island on February 5, 1855, by two missionaries, Ottow and Geissler who were sent by the Dutch Bible institution Utrecht-sche Zendingsvereniging (Kamma 1953). Catholicism came to Papua in 1892. Other Christian denominations, such as Pentecostal, Adventist, and Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA), came to Papua after World War II. Hinduism entered Papua in the 1960s. According to 1980 census data, 12% of Papuans were Islamic (132,930 people), 23% were Catholic (256,209 people), and 65% were from other Christian denominations (768,279 people).

Ecology and Subsistence Systems

In Papua four broad categories of ecological environments can be recognized: swampy areas, coastal lowlands, foothills and small valleys, and highlands (Walker and Mansoben 1990). Each of these zones supports different subsistence systems. In swampy areas people primarily depend on sago as a staple food, supplemented by fish (e.g., Asmat, Mimika, and Waropen). For people living in coastal and riverine zones (e.g., Biak, Wandammen, Moi, Simuri, Maya, the Raja Ampat Islands), fishing, sago cultivation, and agriculture are the primary economic activities, while hunting serves as an alternative strategy. People living in the foothills and small valleys depend primarily on agriculture and sago, supplemented by hunting and animal farming (e.g., Muyu, Genyem, and Arso). Finally, in the highlands, farming and raising pigs is the primary subsistence strategy (e.g., Dani and Me).

The natural environment influences the technological adaptations and culture (e.g., social organization, belief systems) of the people living there. For example, in the highlands zone, communities live in large houses and have relationships with their extended families, forming clan networks and more complex federations (e.g., Dani). In coastal areas, islands, and riverine zones, people tend to live in small, independent, nuclear family groups of four to five individuals (e.g., North Coast; Koentjaraningrat 1970), although some groups (e.g., the people of Kimaam in Kolepom [Yos Sudarso] Island, and Meren-Vlakte) the people live in more extended families (about 10–15 individuals; Koentjaraningrat 1970).

For several decades researchers have examined the relationship between ecological environments and the diversity of Papuan people. J. van Baal observed that Papuan people who subsist on sago in swampy and riverine zones tend to have larger and more frequent celebratory religious ceremonies compared to the Papuan people who eat root plants or live in the highland zone, and implied that the complexity of rituals and belief systems of the Papuan people is influenced by environmental conditions. Ecological factors also influence the degree of mobility of groups. V. de Bruijn suggested that the inability of the Biak-Numfoor Islands to support people led the communities that lived there to sail, trade, and headhunt along the coasts of north coastal Papua and eastern Indonesia (Maluku and Sulawesi Islands), following which they resettled in various places in north coastal Papua (e.g., Vogelkop, Raja Ampat Islands, Halmahera; de Bruijn 1959). Similarly, W. H. K. Feuilletau de Bruijn argued that the ecology of the Biak-Numfoor Islands prohibited productive farming, and led the peoples living there to develop a more advanced knowledge of astronomy and boat building than is found anywhere else in Papua.

Population Distribution

Census data from 1995 showed that Papua was inhabited by 2,031,620 people, 27% of whom lived in cities and 73% of whom lived in villages, indicating that the majority of Papuans live in rural areas. A slight change in population distribution is indicated by census data from 2000, when 39% lived in towns and 61% lived in rural areas (BPS 2002). The population distribution is changing rapidly, as government has developed new regencies (kabupaten) from formerly 13 regencies to 26 regencies and municipalities now.

Philosophy of Life

Cultural values, manifest in social norms, ethics, regulations, and laws differ substantially among communities. A characteristic that may be highly valued by ethnic group A may not be considered good by ethnic group B; important obligations recognized by ethnic group C may not considered important for the ethnic group D, and so on. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that different cultures can be characterized by their approach to five basic concepts.

Concept of the Meaning of Life

All cultures in the world have their own concepts about the meaning of life, the ultimate purpose of existence, and how the journey of life should be traveled. Religions usually provide guidance that shape beliefs about the meaning of life. Concepts of the meaning of life vary tremendously; for example, some people view life as a misery that cannot be avoided, others see life is a way to redeem past sins, still other as an opportunity to accept and cherish oneself and others regardless of faults.

Perception of Work

Cultures differ widely in their views on the meaning of work. In some cultures work is centrally important, and is one of the ways in which one finds meaning in life. Other cultures view work as a way to gain respect from fellow citizens, still others view it as a way to serve others.

Concept of Human’s Relationship with Nature

Some cultures view nature as a resource solely for human use, others believe that there must be a balance between humanity and the natural world, and that natural laws need to be obeyed to maintain harmony. Still others see nature as an all-powerful force to which humans must submit.

Perceptions of Time

Various cultures have various perceptions of time, particularly in regards planning for the future. Some peoples focus on the present, and have a relatively narrow conception of time. Others are more oriented to the future, and place value on planning for events to come.

Perceptions of Fellow Humans

There are cultures that highly value the vertical relationships in society. Such cultures respect leaders and senior people, and look to them as guides for the community. Other cultures have a more horizontal view, and focus on interpersonal relationships. Some cultures emphasize self-reliance, while others stress the interdependence of people and the need to cooperate.

These five principles can be used to assess the attitudes of people or communities, and are especially important in determining how a culture or community feels about the future, and how they view interactions with the outside world. These are important considerations for those interested in community development. Koentjaraningrat noted that some cultural values are particular assets that facilitate future community development: (1) orientation towards the future; (2) intention to explore the natural environment; (3) placing a highly value on human work; and (4) consideration of fellow humans (Koentjaraningrat 1974).

CULTURAL VALUES OF PAPUAN PEOPLE

Various analyses have suggested that Papuan culture is not particularly innovative when it comes to nature exploration. This may be due to the traditional (and still active) belief that nature has spiritual powers over human life and destiny that are to be feared and respected. This cultural value may contribute to the passivity towards the natural environment. In one way, this passivity is beneficial for nature preservation, as it suggests a harmony with nature that is largely environmentally-friendly. In other ways, this belief may hinder creativity and innovation. For example, although knowledge of the natural world (e.g., traditional medicine) is substantial in many Papuan cultures, this knowledge is typically limited to a few individuals or ethnic groups and is not developed or refined using modern scientific techniques. This limits the scientific, economic, and health benefits that can be derived from utilization of the natural world. However, this generalization is by no means universally true, as some Papuan cultures (e.g., those in Cenderawasih Bay) do have a history of exploration of the environment and expeditions within and outside of Papua. The tendency towards exploration led to expertise in the technology of shipbuilding and navigation in these cultures, as noted above.

Although many Papuan cultures appear to be relatively passive towards large-scale exploration of nature, they do highly value individual efforts and respect individuals who are industrious and innovative. The cultural value placed on individual effort encourages many Papuans to work harder, which in turn benefits the group as a whole. It also builds a sense of independence and self-confidence in some individuals, and in others builds a sense of responsibility. As mentioned above, this cultural value can be a major asset for community development and improvement.

If we use the traditional leadership systems and cultural values as a "window" into Papua’s culture, we can see that the premium placed on hard work and industriousness is beneficial in many Papuan cultures. For example, as discussed above, in many big man systems (e.g., Meybrat, Me, Muyu, Dani, and Asmat) the leader gains power through personal abilities and achievements (achieved status). In the Meybrat culture, a person is highly respected if he is successful in devising and implementing systems for the exchange of ceremonial cloth. A successful Meybrat man would be called bobot to acknowledge this achievement. Similarly, in the Me people a person who has good diplomatic skills, is kind and honest, and economically successful (i.e., acquires much agricultural land, many pigs and wives, and cowrie shell "money") is highly respected and recognized as the leader of the community. Such a person is known as leader (tonowi) and rich man (sonowi). The Muyu people respect and confer power upon men with talents in organizing large pig feasts and ceremonies. In cultures where warfare is of central economic and ritual importance (e.g., Dani, Asmat), men with courage and strength during battle are respected and become leaders.

Anthropological analysis of Papuan cultures shows that two very different attitudes towards interpersonal relationships are found in Papua. First, some cultures are strongly vertically-oriented. Cultures with the kingdom leadership system (e.g., those on Onin (part of the Bomberai) Peninsula, Kowiai area, the Raja Ampat Islands) strongly exhibit this orientation, as do cultures in northeast Papua that practice the ondoafi leadership system (e.g., Tabla, Skow, Nimboran, Sentani, and the people of Yos Sudarso Bay). In these cultures, the leader is viewed as a descendant of a mythical ancestor who plays a special role as mediator between the real and the supernatural worlds. As these leaders are believed to have magical powers, they are widely respected and consulted by all community members.

Koentjaraningrat (1974) believed that vertically-oriented systems tend to reduce an individual’s sense of independence and self-confidence. He also argued that these systems reduce self-discipline, since individuals can come to feel that they must only obey cultural rules and laws only if they are being watched by more powerful individuals. Finally, leaders having considerable power to dictate the lives of other community members can reduce the sense of responsibility felt by those with little power (Koentjaraningrat 1974). Although some of the byproducts of such systems (e.g., lack of discipline and responsibility, lack of innovation) are detrimental to community development, there are some positive outcomes as well. For example, a strong leader can efficiently organize and motivate community members to participate in development projects.

A second view of interpersonal relationships has a more horizontal orientation, as noted above. In cultures that hold such beliefs (e.g., Biak), the relationships among the community members in a clan are very strong, and group needs are prioritized above individual needs. Among the clan members, solidarity is high, based on the view that "a part is the whole" (pars-prototo). This view creates a sense of security for clan members because they know that they will always be helped in difficult times. However such a system means that community members have a strong obligation to continually maintain good relationships and share resources with neighbors. This obligation to share means that individuals or communities cannot accumulate or save capital for future investment. Thus, a strong horizontal orientation does not facilitate community development.

WORK ETHIC

A community’s work ethic encapsulates the social norms and general attitudes towards work. In common parlance, work ethic can be defined as the level of enthusiasm and industriousness typical of a person or group. As noted above, Papuan cultures tend to value work highly, and work is thought of as something that produces a product that can be enjoyed by oneself and others. In this view, unproductive people have low social status. However, the definition of productivity varies substantially among groups, based on methods required to make a living in different environments.

The work ethic of communities that live collectively in swampy areas and depend on sago for subsistence (e.g., Asmat, Kamoro, Waropen, Bauzi, and Inawatan) is different from the work ethic of other Papuan people who depend on agriculture. In collective societies the work ethic focuses on efforts to fulfill immediate needs (e.g., collecting enough food for a single day) and does not stress work as an investment in the future. People in these groups do not value hard work beyond what is necessary to enjoy life in the present. This view is quite compatible with their social organization and lifestyle, because each family is an element in a production group in which each family does the same work. Collective societies gather products that are immediately available in nature, and do not need to focus on producing or maintaining the resources they utilize. This work ethic is successful and well-adapted to the ecological conditions under which these societies live, but makes collectively-living communities poorly suited to entering the market economy. Such people require support and training in modern technology to allow them to enter the market economy, and empowerment to manage and harvest their resources in a way that will allow the products to be sold at central markets.

In contrast to collective societies, the people who practice agriculture have a work ethic that is more geared towards investment for anticipated future returns. Opening land for agriculture is a long process that includes tree-cutting, planting, tending gardens, weeding, and harvesting. This process can take from six to ten months, sometimes more, depending on the types of the plants being grown. This protracted process requires perseverance and diligence, and indicates that Papuan agricultural societies have a particularly strong work ethic. It should be noted that this strong work ethic not only results in sustenance for the household, it also provides products for the market economy. The emphasis on investment for the future is an asset to agricultural societies as they enter the market economy.

Many Papuan cultures also are highly competitive. Most Papuan ethnic groups (e.g., Meybrat (Ayamaru), Me, Muyu, Biak, Dani, and Waropen and Serui in Cenderawasih Bay) are inherently competitive. Individuals compete to become powerful and successful members of their groups by accumulating wealth or demonstrating diplomatic expertise, proficiency in warfare, organization abilities, or magical abilities. Therefore Papuans are well-endowed with a competitive spirit, which is valued in the modern world and should prove to be an asset as they enter the global economy.

The challenge now is to determine how to help Papuans enhance these cultural assets and apply them for the development of Papua and the rest of Indonesia.

Culturally-and Ecologically-sensitive Development

One important issue is ascertaining how to help develop and empower Papuan people in a climate that is so ethnically and culturally diverse. Clearly, the correct approaches will depend heavily on the particular situation and society, on the ethnic, religious, and economic status of communities, and the type of development program to be conducted.