During the years 1974 to 1990 Mary and I lived in Papua New Guinea and this part of my travel was to visit places where we had lived. One place was Yonki in the Eastern Highlands where, when we arrived in the country, a new hydro-electric power station was being built and it was here we spent the first six years. (In 1977 our daughter, Jane, was taken to Yonki when ten days old having been born in Auckland and in 1980 our second daughter, Sally, was born in Madang). The dam was built after after we left the country and to see the dams was one reason why I wanted to visit the country again. The living area is called the Yonki Township through which flows the Ramu River. The power station is the Ramu Power Station and all being in the Ramu Valley.
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| Yonki Dam |
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| Our old house in Yonki |
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Looking towards the Yonki Dam from the veranda of our old house
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| Yonki Township from the old entrance gate |
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| The Ramu Power Station |
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| The dam wall on top of which is the Highlands Highway |
Hi, I used to live in Yonki between 1973-1975, aged 8, as part of Korean community responsible for building the dam. The photograph of your old house looked very familiar and suddenly I realised that it may have been my old house as well! The glass extension, water tank, slope on which the house was built...
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post.
Thank you for your comment. My wife and I went to PNG in January 1974 with Elcom travelling to other towns before moving to Yonki late '74 or early 1975. We actually arrived when the vertical shaft joined the horizontal shaft in the power station. I do remember that a Mr. Kim was the person in-charge of the Korean workforce but I do not remember there being any Korean children on the site. Yonki is now much greener than it was and there were no expatriates living there, everything is run by the local people now.
DeleteHi
DeleteI was actually in the horizontal shaft on some rail transport when it joined with the vertical! Mr Kim you mentioned was my father and I was one of two Korean children there.
My parents confirmed that your old house was indeed our old house, and chronologically thou may have moved in just after we left;). Once again thank you for this post as it gave my parents some measure of joy.
Kind regards
Min-Joong Kim
Hi David, Thanks for sharing some good old memories. Min-Joong Kim, thankyou for the effort you and the other Koreans gave in delivering Papua New Guinea's largest hydro- power station. Not to forget the team from Hyundai, Elin and Boving. You know, "the greatest achievers are the ones that we know nothing about", as the saying goes. And you are one of them. Actually, I grew up Yonki, my father worked there back in the 80's, moving to-and-from Pauanda Hydro Power Station (in the Southern/Western Highlands border) until I was born in Kainantu Hospital. I grew up in the 90's, attended Yonki Primary School from my early stages of development. I was fortunate to have experienced working in the Machine Hall back in Nov/Dec 2003, vacation employment, at the time I completed senior high. I note with wonder and amazement the design and the construction of the power-generating plant - how marvellous! Anyway, ELCOM is no longer in its former glory, things have changed drastically, PNG Power is the name now, Yonki Township has deteriorated to a worse level (have taken a trip in 2012 from Lae to Yonki to see how sad the once beautiful place, I call home - and my playground has deteriorated drastically. Just to give some picture, there are no more public parks, roads unsealed, once-green well-kept public loans now turned into subsistence agricultural grounds, social amenities rotten down, houses, ripped off material-by-material, and the list goes on... anyways, we did enjoy during our era! we had our time! :)
ReplyDeleteOh by the way, David.. Just by looking at the photo of your house I can guess it's few meters away from the street's end (roun-about), it's along Reeve Street; and at the back of your house is the old National Highway, part of it now under water.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your messages, Thomas. You are correct about the house. It used to have steel gates with kundu drums as decoration on them. The family now living in the house have looked after and improved the garden with it being full of orchids now. The township was somewhat run down, the playground no longer in existence, which I made all the equipment for by the way. I did have a technician working for me with a surname of Vue but I cannot remember his christian name. He became a foreman after I left the site in 1980 then resigned sometime later. My supervisor was Joseph Mase who has since died. Anyway, thanks for your comments again. My wife and I did enjoy our time in Yonki, indeed for the 16+ years spent in PNG.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your messages, Thomas. You are correct about the house. It used to have steel gates with kundu drums as decoration on them. The family now living in the house have looked after and improved the garden with it being full of orchids now. The township was somewhat run down, the playground no longer in existence, which I made all the equipment for by the way. I did have a technician working for me with a surname of Vue but I cannot remember his christian name. He became a foreman after I left the site in 1980 then resigned sometime later. My supervisor was Joseph Mase who has since died. Anyway, thanks for your comments again. My wife and I did enjoy our time in Yonki, indeed for the 16+ years spent in PNG.
ReplyDeletei am doing some research on the physical elements of construction of the 1998 to 1992 dam. is there anyone out there who knows this information. my name is peter and i can be contacted on peteraduffy4@gmail.com or via australian mobile 0437440090. i am seeking this information by end august 2016. thank you peter
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