Papua New Guinea has lost one of its leading plantation silviculturists with the passing of Alan Cameron this month. Allan was the co-author with Kevin White of the ‘silviculture bible’ titled Silvicultural Techniques in PNG Forest Plantations, Bulletin No. 1, Division of Silviculture, Department of Forests, Port Moresby. The publication is still used today in the management of PNG’s tree plantations.
Alan commenced his tertiary studies in forestry after he was interviewed by Jim McAdam MM Director of Forests TPNG and awarded a TPNG Forestry cadetship in 1956. He graduated B.Sc. For. (Hons) University of Queensland in1962 and Diploma of Forestry (with distinction) Australian Forestry School (1960). He was dux of his final year at the Australian Forestry School Canberra and awarded the Sir William Schlich Memorial Gold Medal (1960).
As part of his cadetship, after two years at the University of Queensland, at the end of 1957, Alan spent 13 months of field work in Bulolo, Wau and Kerevat plantations in PNG. He then went to Canberra (Australian Forestry School) for the last two years of the frive-year course.
In January 1961, Alan returned to PNG and was based at the Brown River Forest Station. In 1962 he commenced investigations into the characteristics of both teak and kamarere and the tree breeding program for both species was commenced. This was extended to hoop and klinkii pine later with Bulolo as the area of focus.
Several teak plantations were inspected, including the original teak area near Madang, where Germans had introduced the species to PNG in the 1880s. The purpose was to assess the more desirable trees that could be used to establish seed orchards. This program commenced in 1963 at Brown River and Kerevat with a couple of forest officers and a few local staff. In February 1964 Alan received training in computer use and program writing. He wrote the program for treatment of tree measurement data and started processing plantation growth data with the computer that year and extended it to written reports soon after. Alan’s scientific writings included Genetic Improvement of Teak in New Guinea and Forest Tree Improvement in New Guinea with a paper prepared for 9th Commonwealth Forestry Conference in New Delhi in 1968.
In 1965 Alan was awarded the W.N. Hedges Prize, an award associated with the journal Australian Forestry. It recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of forestry, specifically through a written essay. In 1966 Alan was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate the teak improvement programs in Malaya, Thailand, Burma, India, and Ceylon. Because of the military takeover of Burma in 1962 Alan was unable to visit any of the teak forests. The most progressive operations were in India. He fortunately found some remarkable trees in the southwest and collected some cuttings and sent them to PNG for grafting. They were the best-shaped teak samples he had ever seen.
Later, Alan conducted studies in the Bulolo plantations on hoop pine and klinki pine and supervised silvicultural research. In 1969 he served in a UNFAO program assessing tree species, particularly eucalyptus species not present, in Australia. He visited Malaya, The Philippines, and Indonesia.plantations established in the Philippines by a company for export to Japan for pulping.
In Indonesia (Sulawesi Is) Alan visited several locations. As they started their return to the capital of the Island the Indonesian Forest Officer insisted that he replace the official driver of the incredibly old canvas topped Jeep. He did not drive well and got too close to the edge and rolled down a steep slope. There were three in the front seat. Alan was in the middle and had no backrest. He dived into the back of the jeep and hung onto the frame that saved his life. The other two, one an Australian, were killed. The vehicle was upside down and he was trapped.
Fortunately, the official driver had been standing on the back bumper bar and jumped off. He went back to a village some miles down the road and brought a team of men up to see what could be done. Alan spent three hours trapped under the vehicle with a smashed wrist and injured shoulder. The team got him out and he was taken back up to the road. Fortunately, a vehicle came up and took Alan to a medical facility where he was treated for pain and swelling.
Alan left the PNG Forest Department in early 1970 for family reasons. He then worked as a project director for Savoy Corporation Ltd in 1970-1973 and 1975 based in Melbourne. He supervised several forest operations in Victoria and Queensland and went to Indonesia to
assess the potential for investment in timber harvesting and processing. He was involved in establishing a wood chipping operation near Launceston, including selection of the processing equipment and purchase of land for plantations. The proposal was for a pulping process be set up in the longer term. Then the company in Melbourne was taken over by Alan Bond and the focus was seriously changed.
In 1975 Alan joined CSIRO as a senior research officer, division of forest research (1975-1979). The major focus of his work was to improve the efficiency of logging operations and equipment. Alan left CSIRO at the end of 1979 to return to PNG to work for PNG Forest Products as officer-in-charge of harvesting. In 1981 Alan was appointed general manager and a director of the company and was selected by several national organisations to assist the industry’s relationship with government and timber exports of species. The company had the largest wooden chopsticks factory in the world. It was also involved in gold mining, cattle, pig, and chicken raising, retailing and electricity production.
Alan left PNG Forest Products in 1986 and bought a small farm near Lismore NSW but spent a lot of his time as a forestry consultant working for several international aid agencies (UN, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, AusAid) and a few private companies. The jobs took him to 15 countries bringing his life experience to 27 countries including six continents and many islands.
Alan undertook various technical college qualifications at certificate level in horticultural practices, including irrigation, agricultural chemical use, plant culture, harvest and post-harvest quality control This pioneering work was to access as much information as possible on PNG forest regeneration.
