After Madang we were transferred to Lae.
Approach Control was a lot harder here than at Madang. All Procedural Control in those days, no such thing as radar. A microphone and a pair of binoculars were our tools of trade.
Our daughter Elizabeth was born in Lae in August 1978.
Here's our house, just inland from end of the runway. Those two houses to the lower left weren't there in 1978. We were the last house on Oleander Avenue before Raun Warra (Round Water).
We inherited Patch the dog from the previous residents after they returned to Australia.
Things were about to change. Nadzab airport, several kilometres up the Markham Valley that played an important role in WW2, was re-opened and we moved operations from Lae which was later closed down. It was a 20 or 30 minute drive to Nadzab each day.
This is what it was like in 1944.
When we were in Lae I used to catch a few rides up into the Kabwum Valley. Very interesting, if not a little scary.
We left PNG in early 1979 to come home. We flew up to Hong Kong, then down to Singapore and boarded the Centaur for the trip to Fremantle.
Michael got to drive it for a little while.
And so it was back to Perth Airport and eventually back onto Approach Control.
