Papua New Guinea Patrol Reports

For Papua New Guinea, reports from government patrols represent a major source of primary information on the pre-independence (before 1976) era. Patrol officers and other officials wrote detailed documents reporting on all aspects of the work carried out by the patrols. Therefore, patrol reports give first hand accounts on many topics, from first contact with remote Highland villages, to census counts, tax collection, health care, administration of justice, plantations, missionaries, anthropological descriptions, tribal warfare, languages, etc.

Extensive microform sets of these reports and accompanying materials, such as correspondence and station (or patrol post) reports, have been acquired by the Melanesian Studies Resource Center and are open for use in the Library by qualified researchers. The collection is housed in and administered through the Mandeville Special Collections Library. Information on hours, photoduplication policy and pricing, etc. may be obtained from the website.

For other inquiries, please contact:

Mandeville Special Collections Library
UCSD Libraries 0175S
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0175
Phone: (858) 534-2533
Fax: (858) 534-5950
Email: spcoll@ucsd.edu

	Files of Correspondence, Journals and Patrol Reports from Outstations of British New Guinea and Papua, 1890-1941 (CRS G91) --58 microfilm reels. 839 files, containing over 5,000 documents. Orginals of these documents are held by the Australian Archives in Canberra. Includes only documents from British New Guinea (later named Papua)--roughly the southern half of present-day Papua New Guinea. Modern province names of this area include Central, Gulf, Milne Bay, Northern, Western, and most of Southern Highlands.
	Papua and New Guinea Patrol Reports, 1922-1955 (CRS A7034) --7 microfilm reels. 199 patrol reports, of which 105 were written between 1950 and 1955. Originals held by the Australian Archives in Canberra. Remainder are dated from 1922 to 1942. All modern-day provinces of PNG, except Manus and New Ireland, are represented in this set with at least one report.
	Most of the following patrol reports, on microfiche, were written after World War II. The microfiche were prepared by the National Archives of Papua New Guinea, which holds the original reports. Please note that UCSD does not have stocks of these microfiche available for sale, nor are we able to provide extensive photocopies. Microfiche may be purchased directly from the National Archives of Papua New Guinea (P.O. Box 1089, Boroko, Papua New Guinea).

Provincial boundaries in Papua New Guinea have changed from time to time. If you are trying to identify all of the possible reports on a given area, it would be wise to check the records for neighboring provinces and subprovinces, using your browser's "Find in page" function to look for particular placenames.

	Microfiche	Files	Reports	Dates (inclusive)
Central Province	650	280	2767	1934 to 1975
East New Britain Province	86		297	1946 to 1974.
East Sepik Province	348	180	969	1933, and 1945 to 1974
Eastern Highlands Province	402	109	1464	1944 to 1973
Enga Province (filmed with reports for Western Highlands)		152	934
Gulf Province	412	163	1737	1912 to 1974
Madang Province	300	139	1250	1936 to 1974
Manus Province	74	33	260	1943 to 1974
Milne Bay Province	342	204	1380	1923 to 1974
Morobe Province	451	293	1587	1933 to 1974
New Ireland Province	220	80	741	1945 to1974
North Solomons (Bougainville) Province	210	142	778	1943 to 1974
Northern (Oro) Province	277	160	1120	1943 to 1974
Simbu(Chimbu) Province	200	87	730	1940 to 1974
Southern Highlands Province	409	207	1926	1949 to 1974
West New Britain Province	199	92	738	1939 to 1974
West Sepik (Sandaun) Province	301	174	1060	1934 to 1974
Western Highlands Province (filmed with reports for Enga)		152	934
Western Province		209	1566	1903 to 1975