155 A road had been established into the Pipipaia area for several years prior to the Togarao road. The road
followed more gradual inclines and the tops of ridges. It seemed to be a fairly stable road years ago and it has, no doubt, been improved with available gravel and vehicles.
In recent years, a road was built from the coast up to the Aita village of Pokoia. Again, the road follows the top of a gradually ascending ridge and the terrain lends itself to the road. Mr. Gordon Sure, the Rotokas
representative in the Provincial Government, acquired K100,000 in Government funds to develop the road. It is surfaced with gravel nearly the entire distance. There are many cocoa plantings along the road. It is most
likely that the good road has stimulated interest in maintaining and increasing production of cocoa in this area.
12.5 Rotokas Airfields
Of the three airfields planned andor built in the Rotokas area, the Ibu strip is probably the most famous. It has been described in the section on World War II activities. It is still incredible to me that the jungle was
cleared and a light plane landed within a total of eight days [see section 1.2.1]. The largest and most functional airfield, of course, is at Wakunai. The strip runs to the end of Kiviri Point
and is the commercial airfield for the area. In the early days, the Ansett Airline’s and Trans-Australia Airline’s DC3s landed regularly. A small shack was the airport terminal. With the island’s own air service provided by
Bougainville Air Services Boug Air, the strip has frequent landings and departures. It has been maintained, in part, by equipment from NumaNuma plantation located nearby.
The Togarao airfield was completed in 1967. There was no encouragement given by the government Patrol Officer when the possibilities of building the strip were being discussed a few years earlier. He had felt
that the work on the road would have longer-lasting results and, in the end, he was correct. For a while, however, the Rotokas people of the mountain villages had the convenience of air
transportation for themselves and their crops. It would not have been so if Harold and Hope Morton of Missionary Aviation Fellowship MAF had not come to the island with the intention of developing an air
service for more remote villages. The offer of air service by the Mortons was made on the basis that the missions United Church in particular would encourage their members to help build small jungle airfields near
their villages. This service was the start of Bougainville Air Services operated by the Provincial Government.
A New Zealander, Mr. Seton Horrill, was responsible for getting the airfield under construction at Togarao. Since there was no way to get heavy equipment into the area, hand tools were airdropped, but the
bulldozer, roller, and wheelbarrows were left to the creative genius of the people. A “bulldozer” was built from a heavy plank guided and pulled by rattan vine. The “roller” was a sago palm trunk, which again was pulled by
rattan vine fastenings. The earth was moved from one point on the strip to another, also, by mats woven of coconut palm leaves. Later, Harold brought in a form and cement, in order to build a heavy roller at the site.
The weight distribution, however, was such that navigating the roller was almost impossible in the soft earth.
The airfield eventually was operable. MAF’s Cessna 185s made frequent trips to take out cocoa and Irish potatoes. Expatriates interested in climbing Mt. Balbi’s craters came from Arawa and some plantations.
Maintenance of the airfield was time consuming. At first, grass cutting was done by machetes. Later, two small power lawn mowers were purchased to cut the 600-meter strip. Because of the good soil and heavy
rainfall, the grass needed cutting regularly. Eventually, with interest in the Togarao road picking up, drainage problems with the airfield itself, and one accident involving a twin-engine Norman-Britten Islander caused by
unpredictable winds, Bougainville Air Services or Boug Air as we knew it decided to have the airfield closed in 1975.
The airfield now is the site of the large Toi Kae Pie store, a soccer field with weekly soccer competitions drawing teams and spectators from many neighboring villages, basketball, and volleyball courts. The planes
are not missed. Motor vehicles seem to meet the needs and desires of Rotokas people far more. The most hoped-for airstrip in the Rotokas area was high in the mountainous Aita country where travel is
difficult. A feasibility study showed that it was impractical to build the proposed airstrip. Many people of those remote mountain villages who would have been served by the planes now live closer to the road and their
cocoa plantings most of the year.
156
Working by hand on Togarao airstrip; Harold Morton MAF making first landing in 1967
157
12.6 Travel Over Water
