Stephen Pokawin discusses the role of visiting Australians and administrators in encouraging independence. He emphasises the importance of collaboration between the international community, Australian administrators, the political leadership in PNG's independence.
Lawrence Titimur describes how he won a scholarship in Grade 6 for Wolaroi College in Orange, NSW, where he spent four years Grade 7-10, 1969-72. He remembers completing an assignment on the trade union movement in Australia at school. He states that the schooling of so many PNGs in Australia was a scheme that helped contribute talent to the PNG public service.
Charles Lepani relates how after going to university in NSW, he received a scholarship from the ACTU to attend the University of PNG through Australian ACTU industrial advocate Bob Hawke who had come to PNG to work with Michael Somare, Reuben Taureka and others in the public service wage case, and Public Service Association executives Paul Munro and Ron Madgwick. The scholarship was for trade unionists, and Lepani relates how he spent time at Bob Hawke's home in Sandringham, Victoria, also meeting Bob Carr, then involved in the NSW Trades Hall Council.
