Open Writing

Jan's sister Susanne was due to marry Grahame Corfield and move to live in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Grahame, knowing my situation, suggested that I try and find a position in Port Moresby as Jan could also work and with house help costs being reasonable we could live on one salary and save the other.

On a whim one day I bought a Queensland Courier Mail newspaper and discovered an advertisement for Supermarket Manager for Steamships Trading Company in Port Moresby. The salary was much the same as I had been getting in Sydney, and accommodation was provided. I applied and was successful.

Once I knew for certain that I had been accepted and had put my signature on the dotted line, I drove to the office of Food Agencies and tended my resignation. Bill stood up held out his hand smiled and said, "No hard feelings. Eh! Owen". Had I been a violent man I would probably have been up for manslaughter or even murder. However, I merely looked at him in absolute incredulity turned and walked out.

Just before I was due to leave Australia I received a telephone call from Berri's marketing manager, who asked me if I was interested in being the New South Wales Sales Manager? Needless to say I thanked him and said that his offer had come far too late. Why had he not come forward earlier rather than let me go through hell? He told me that if it had been up to him, he would have done so.

Bill did not go unscathed, as soon after I left he lost his job and died of a heart attack a short time later.

I had no intention of ever returning to Australia. However, I had not counted on my ever- present 'friend' Kismet.

I flew to Moresby in January 1967 to start at my new position and to organize the house that we were promised. Jan and the children stayed with her parents in Brisbane.

Grahame offered me his single man's unit in Boroko while he and Susanne went on their honeymoon to New Zealand as the house I was allocated was unfurnished. He also included the use of his beloved vintage Mini Minor.

In my opinion the incumbent supermarket manager, who regularly went through a case of beer a day poorly ran the supermarket. His wife kept pace with him by going through a case of Liebfraumilch.

I found the manager's desk in a corner of the storeroom swarming with cockroaches. Every time I pulled out a drawer or a file I would have to wait for the disgusting creatures to scuttle off. I immediately went and saw the store manager, and said that the health hazard of dealing with food with vermin in such quantities was just not acceptable. He agreed and the pest exterminators were brought in and the whole store was fumigated every week for three weeks, thus improving the conditions considerably.

I soon put my Woolworths experience into practice by training my staff, and laying out the fixtures and displaying the stock, as it believed it should be done.

When I heard that the whole department store was in the planning stage of being fully refurbished, I suggested that there was far too much empty space between the receiving dock and the dispatch area at the rear of the building. Nor, in my view, should they be connected, as it made it much easier for goods to be stolen, not to mention all the wasted air space above the driveway. Unfortunately I did not put in my suggestion in writing and the idea was quickly put forward by one of my superiors who took the credit instead. I have never had the rat cunning of some people. Nevertheless I planned on making an impression when the move was made and the supermarket laid out the way I believed it should be done. Up to the time I arrived, the grocery section was used primarily to attract customers into the store to purchase on impulse goods from high profit sections like clothing, electrical goods and cosmetics.

When I first arrived in Moresby, I inquired about the company house I had been promised. It was currently being used by three single men who refused to move to the single men's quarters that they had been allocated. While this standoff was going on, the company gave me a house to use near Ela Beach. It was half rotten with termites with a Mekeo houseboy called Judy. Judy didn't like me and I did not trust him. When Jan and the children arrived a few days later and the men still showed no signs of leaving 'our' house Jan became furious. "Come on" she said. She and the children and I drove out to the house and parked our car in the driveway. The men realizing they were outmanoeuvred begrudgingly packed up and left.

Without thinking, I suggested that their houseboy stay with on us. Jan was horrified as she had seen the state of the place. As it turned out Peru proved a good choice and was soon educated to Jan's ways. It was a happy house, as Jan predicted when she went inside for the first time, `It has a good aura', she said.

© Clement 2007