ROBERT Graham Matheson passed away in the Wesley Hospital Brisbane on Saturday, November 24, 2007 aged 78. He was buried in the Garden of Rest Cemetery, Maryborough Queensland (his home town) on the November 28. His passing brought to a close a long and close involvement with the surveying profession in PNG.
Graham Matheson first arrived in the Territory of Papua New Guinea in September 1951 and was employed by the Commonwealth Department of Works to set out the Taurama Military Barracks in Port Moresby. He was transferred to Lae where for a short period he undertook investigation surveys for the Lake Wannum hydro-electric scheme. Six months later Graham organised a transfer to the Department of Lands Surveys and Mines (LSM) and was appointed Surveyor for the New Guinea Islands, based in Rabaul.
The Survey Division of LSM consisted of Brooklyn Troy Webb as Chief Surveyor, two Australian survey chainmen, a Chief Draftsman and two Survey Draftsmen. A couple of pre WWII surveyors had returned after the War but Brook Web was the last remaining, so Graham, although it was now 1952, was the first of the new young surveyors to join the TPNG service.
There had been much hesitation about ever restoring Rabaul after the War. Firstly there was the pre-war volcanic eruption and then the total devastation of the Japanese occupation which had lasted until the War’s end. The RAAF had nothing much to do at the time and bombed the town each day. The Japanese were living underground in tunnels in the caldera wall. On Graham’s arrival he found everyone living in sisalcraft paper houses and only three permanent sets of walls - the New Guinea Club, the Masonic Lodge and part of the Burns Philp store.
Prior to WWII Rabaul had been the administrative capital of the League of Nations Mandated Territory of New Guinea under Australian control and had been administered separately to Papua. All land survey and registration records had been lost during the Japanese occupation and the few Australians who might have been able to assist with the title restoration process had been killed during the sinking of the Montevideo Maru. Local people had become aware of some of this and old survey pegs were being removed in rural areas.
In the meantime Lands, Surveys and Mines, representing the new combined Territory of Papua and New Guinea Administration in Port Moresby, was busily allocating new lots in Lae and Moresby, Cacao projects in Northern Papua, and in the New Highlands ventures at Goroko.
With the ill health of Brook Webb, Graham was transferred to Port Moresby in 1956 and in 1957 was appointed Chief of Division Surveys. This position was upgraded and renamed Surveyor General shortly afterwards.
Graham then set about modernising the administration of the Survey Division and introducing new and correctly drafted legislation to guide the proper functioning of surveying in a rapidly developing country. The recruitment of experienced expatriate surveyors allowed him to establish Regional Survey offices through out Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. Town Planning legislation was introduced together with a functioning Town Planning Section established within the Survey Division.
It was obvious that Survey Division staff did not have the physical capacity to attend to the rapidly expansion of demands to survey alienated land and undertake the surveying program for the copra, coffee and oil palm farm lots rapidly being introduced. As Surveyor General Graham organised, established and administered an ever increasing contract surveying funding program that introduced a number of private survey practices to the Territory. This well managed program created an enthusiastic and efficient partnership of private and public surveyors to manage the demands of a rapidly developing community.
A natural outcome of this influx of professional surveyors was the creation of the Association of Surveyors of Papua New Guinea. Graham, his deputy Clive Sparkes-Carroll, Senior Surveyor John Macartney and Tom Richards representing the private sector prepared the groundwork that made the Association a reality.
When Graham retired as Surveyor General prior to Independence of the new nation of Papua New Guinea in 1975 his achievements included:
- All title restoration had been completed and every parcel of alienated land surveyed. Land for new projects, the many new towns and new oil palm programs etc, were all surveyed in advance. This was done often under extreme physical conditions in the field and with great logistical difficulties.
- Private survey practices were established throughout Papua New Guinea.
- A well organised Administrative Division was in place.
- All legislation was created - Survey, Survey Co-ordination, Place Names.
- Town Planning legislation was in place with a functioning Town Planning Section within the Division.
- The Association of Surveyors of Papua New Guinea was established and operating well. It still is.
- Agreements had been reached with Indonesia and substantial marking of the border between West Irian and the new Papua New Guinea had been made across the island.
- A National Mapping Bureau had been established.
Graham took particular pleasure and pride in the establishment of the Degree in Surveying Course at the University of Technology in Lae. The first four graduates from this University began their training as surveyors in the Department of Lands Surveys and Mines Surveying Training School. This was another initiative of Graham’s that culminated in a National surveying graduate succeeding Graham as Surveyor General in 1975.
It was of great importance to him that in his latter years he was created a Fellow of the Association of Surveyors of Papua New Guinea. He was never reticent in reminding his friends and family of this particular privilege.

Previous | Back to Top | Next