Author Description

By the time Frank Pryke's ashes were buried at Samarai in 1937 there was little of Papua New Guinea he had not seen in his search for gold. He, more than any other, could have confirmed the miners' lore: 'There's gold in New Guinea but there's a lot of New Guinea mixed in with it'. Thoughtful, humane, energetic and tough, Pryke tried a number of occupations, tanner, publican, billiard saloon proprietor, fancy goods salesman and newsagent in a country town, and it was as a prospector that his determination, restlessness and bushmanship gave him success. Among the small group of men who mined gold in British New Guinea, German New Guinea, Papua, and Australian New Guinea, he alone made a candid record of what he saw, and much of his writing has survived. - Hank Nelson