20th anniversary of volcanic eruption in PNG's Rabaul

Transcript

This year is the 20th anniversary of the volcanic eruption which devastated Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.

Rabaul was one of PNG's major towns and holds unique historic significance for the events which took place there in the world wars.

However the eruption of nearby volcano Mt Tavurvur  on September 19th, 1994, decimated many of Rabaul's structures and buried most of a thriving town.

While much of the local population fled and the town lost its prominence in regional affairs, Johnny Blades finds that Rabaul still has a heartbeat.

Rabaul, a harbour town surrounded in by a series of mostly dormant volcanic peaks. The word picturesque doesn't quite do it justice. But walking around its roads still covered in black dust from ash, the grandeur of its colonial days seems very much a thing of the past.

Here, where a  bustling urban centre used to be, it's dead quiet. The town survived the ravages of World War II although the population of 37 thousand was reduced by around a third. However the eruption of Mt Tavurvur projecting huge amounts of ash downwind over Rabaul sent most people packing and the town's population is now around 7000.

Wendy has lived in Rabaul all of her life except a period immediately after the eruption.

WENDY: We stay here (in the) eruption then we run away to Kokopo and we come back and stay 16 years now. Volcano dust fall down but we still stay here with the dust.

The dust buried crop gardens and livelihoods alike. The thriving market, which was the Pacific region's biggest, was destroyed. Wendy says Rabaul has never been the same since.

WENDY: Before it was a very good town. Like a city. But now the volcano and dust fall down and destroy everything so now you just see dust - dusty place.

Rabaul people suffered hundreds of deaths in 1937 when the Tavurvur and Vulcan volcanoes erupted. While the town came back from that eruption, 1994 was more of a direct hit to the town itself. Another local, Peter Gaiye, says the place has still not overcome the setback of that eruption.

PETER GAIYE: He says everything was good here. Not now though. That they should build a town in this place again, get money from the government to rebuild it. But Alan Marat, the local MP, is not working for that.

However Marat, being one of PNG's few opposition MPs, has limited access to state resources. The MP was not available for an interview while I'm here, as he is in the national capital Port Moresby at the time. In terms of East New Britain, the national focus now has gone on to nearby Kokopo, further away from Tavurvur.

In contrast to Rabaul, Kokopo is quite the bustling town. It really is the hub of East New Britain now. There are plenty of people in Kokopo who come from Rabaul. They see how Kokopo has become Papua New Guinea's tourism hub.

But they feel the real jewel in the tourism crown is Rabaul whose importance as the headquarters of the Japanese in World War II, and the location of major military events including fierce aerial bombardments and prisoner of war atrocities, is well established.

What's not so well known is that one hundred years ago this year, Rabaul was also the site of a significant military skirmish in World War I when Australian soldiers came to take control of the capital of the former German protectorate.

There's only two or three elegantly jaded hotels in Rabaul now; tourists still drizzle in, mainly on account of the town's historical sites and spectacular views. I walked along a long desolate ash-covered road that used to be Rabaul's main street with New Zealander Alex Smith, who was last here 25 years ago.

ALEX SMITH: Obviously my memories are from childhood but it was bustling and verdant and people everywhere, and kind of one of those really nice, relaxed and beautiful towns in Papua New Guinea. It's quite eerie to come along here now and see where the town was and.. it's still beautiful but there's just ash and it's eerily silent. There's not much left.

Will this town ever recover its former glory? Rabaul remains an ideal natural harbour and still has what many consider the best wharf in the New Guinea islands region, and a series of big events to mark the centenary of the World War I events in September promise to bring more money into the town. Another local, Leslie, tells me the progress of development  in East New Britain will have a spinoff for Rabaul.

LESLIE: The government of PNG, even the province, even the people around the country, they used to promote East New Britain. It's a fast developing province. Yeah we'll come back.

He says employment is slowly increasing too.

LESLIE: Rabaul was a busy town was a good town. Otherwise, it could have been a city for PNG rather than Moresby, but just because of those volcanoes around town, that's why. But it's picking up again.

Ultimately, the town's fate may rest on the whims of the simmering volcano which still lets off smoke on occasion, if not one of its sleeping siblings within the caldera. Rabaul is used to raining bombs by now, but the town's mystery is only enhanced by every new chapter of devastation.