Ples Balus

by Winston Brown

'NOMAD' - One man's struggle for survival in Niugini. John 'Hairy' Richards starts the aviation company in Papua New Guinea. Staff change, accidents happen but the company is successful. Far too successful some feel. In a tale of PNG aviation history, come on a journey of endeavour, hits and misses, through the lives of one of the many intrepid families who rode the wave of Independence and carved out their own slice of history. In a brutal attack, highland warriors assault Hairy. Traditional men with clubs, bows and arrows. This was no chance robbery by raskals. Could it be James Booker, wanting complete control? Or maybe the opposing airlines are fed-up with the competition. Hairy undergoes miraculous surgery and is then medivaced to Brisbane; doctors doubt he will survive. Booker offers twice the value for the shares. Hairy is suspicious, should he sell and release control? Entwined in these pages are memories of Papua New Guinea's, early, post Independence, aviation history and a memoir of actual events.

430 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

Peter Winston Brown had one of the highest IQ’s of the third form intake at St Andrew’s College in 1955; unfortunately, he was not ready to learn. Excelling in sport, he lacked application academically, culminating in failure to meet the standard, much to his parent’s disappointment. Farm training was decided upon and representative rugby became the main interest, whilst a 24 year old schoolteacher stole his virginity. Next he became a junior executive for a milk supply company, managed a ski field, before driving a bulldozer on the Benmore Hydro Scheme to gain funds for his overseas trip.
Australia first stop and the advertisement in the Courier-Mail caught his eye, Plantation Manager, Papua New Guinea. Just out of Rabaul lay Burns Philp’s, Kulon Plantation, and he was overseeing 170 labourers. Transferring to Kavieng as a relieving manager he met Cecilia, a very beautiful, mixed race Chinese; she was educated in Sydney and the resident pre-school teacher. Romance blossomed and upon seeking approval from Burns Philp to marry, the reply stated, ‘In the event of your marriage to Miss Cecilia Kwan you will automatically cease to be an employee of the Company.’ He immediately sought legal advice and when the District Commissioner heard of this racial slur, he was summoned to District Office. With fatherly advice the DC undertook to remedy Peter’s problem. Consequently, he received a fifty-pound cheque for his work as relieving manager and a further fifty-pound cheque as a wedding present.
They returned to New Zealand, and Peter worked as a building company administrator and then they purchased a seven-day a week fruit and vegetable business and became proud parents of a daughter and son, the business enabled Peter to pursue his ambition of learning to fly. After successfully passing the commercial exams he returned to night school and gained that School Certificate that had eluded him earlier. Returning to New Guinea he instructed then progressed into third level airlines and became a senior pilot. A colleague, knowing his business background, suggested they form their own airline utilising the Australian Government Aircraft Factory’s Nomad aircraft. With wife Cecilia able to take out Papua New Guinea citizenship they formed the first one hundred percent PNG owned airline.
This created jealousy and rage amongst the existing operators and every trick in the book was tried to bring about the Company’s downfall. In three years they expanded from one aircraft to five until Pete was assaulted at 4.00 am on the 23rd July 1979 at his home in Mount Hagen. Given away for dead or at the very best a vegetable, he survived the eight-minutes of cardiac arrest followed by lung collapse and was then medivaced to Royal Brisbane Hospital. Miracles certainly occurred but not without cost, short-term memory was a major problem. A frustrating twelve months saw them sell out of the airline, have his pilots licence renewed, subject to, ‘no passengers for six months’, then purchase six out-station trade stores and a Cessna 185 to supply goods and bring back coffee. The business further developed into a multi million Kina import business along with the wholesale spin-off, and to cap it all off they were granted the lease of the Ramu Sugar Supermarket and Bottle Shop.
Unfortunately, the marriage deteriorated, whether due to his frustrating recovery, their business success, over indulgence with alcohol or whatever. They were both too proud to take the steps needed to resurrect from their separated status.
The children were off at Rangi and St Andrew’s in New Zealand and Pete decided that he should join them. The children agreed that living with Dad was far superior to dormitory life and he realised that he had made one of the best decisions of his life. Whilst solo-parenting two teenage children was not easy, they developed their relationship into something very special. During this time Pete developed property in the buoyant eighties and a disas

Reviews

[Winston Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reviewer of Winston Brown’s PLES BALUS: One Man’s Struggle for Survival in Niugini says, “PLES BALUS is a novel of many parts.” But there is also a sense of awe and anticipation due largely to the manner in which the author has constructed the novel.

Love and devotion shines through in the generous thoughts of Maree, the wife of the hero, whose husband lies stricken with head injuries from an assault by highland warriors. As a counterbalance to these noble sentiments come the competitive, jealous, envious, and sometimes offhand actions of pilots, engineers, business persons and the suspicions felt by Hairy Richards. Hairy is the centre of the story, a pilot and businessman with skills waiting to be launched into a business world adapting to the fast moving cultural changes resulting from the Independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975. As the plot thickens and pilots take risks and work out their indiscretions, Hairy, with the help Maree handles these situations with growing confidence.

There are named and recognisable persons in the novel including trader Jim McKinnon and the Leahy brothers of Mt Hagen. This makes the novel lifelike but may well put players in embarrassing situations. Truth may not be far from fiction and in this fiction, damming accusations are made or implied which may or may not be directed to people alive or recently deceased. In this novel the plot appears to be cut off, leaving unresolved the possible capture and conviction of Hairy’s attackers and who, if anyone, put them up to it.

For those with an interest in aircraft, the technical side is sufficient and never intrudes on the story which includes breakdowns, overloading, heavy landings and near misses with the rugged terrain. There are few, if any, Nomad aircraft (wholly developed and built in Australia) flying today. Rather, the confident author and pilot is free to develop characters mainly through competent dialogue which also supports the action forward.

This is an ambitious but most readable and exciting novel. As a reviewer with some experience of PNG and in particular the Sepik area, the author’s ability to bring in towns, rivers, valleys, the seafronts, clouds and general weather conditions with apparent little exertion makes the book suitable for the general reader looking for romance, excitement and exotic locations.
Martin Kerr

[Winston Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to give this five stars because I wrote it but I would be very interested in as many reviews as I can possibly receive.

Merged review:

As the author I have no hesitation but to give my book five stars. I look forward to your review to confim my belief.