PNG Liberated

By Keri Algar

For a real giggle check out unstucktravel.com

what: surfing in papua new guinea

where: new Ireland island, north east of mainland

when: Christmas/new year’s 2010/2011

Surf pics, thanks to Steve “Froey” Arklay Photography

A soundtrack to PNG could start with David Bowie’s Space Oddity because as one salty sailor said, “It’s damn remote out here” and a queer place to arrive at. Then anything by Norah Jones to fall asleep to in the warm tropical breeze and bam! Rage Against the Machine’s Wake Up blares as your camera is nicked from under your nose in the bottle shop (Bia Stoa) and finally, Pharoahe Monch pumps Simon Says. Yes, PNG is a mixed bag where the melodic and the mental live side by side. It’s filthy, furious and fabulous.

Predator or prey?

Be careful, warned everyone before we left. It’s dangerous, they said, violent and volatile. In fact a month earlier an AusAID worker had been raped close to Madang, a budding tourist town on the mainland’s north coast and while the news was preoccupying, it was also thrilling to hear the words ‘bow and arrow’ and ‘surfing’ used in the same sentence.  (Coincidentally at the luggage carousel at Port Moresby, an Australian builder working in the highlands described meeting some young AusAID workers and his account of the situation made me wonder if the regrettable, terrible violation at Madang had been symptomatic of parachute aid work.)

With the exception of a chubby Brittish-looking couple there were only silent stares from black as night Melanesian faces, half a dozen thick on both sides, that lined the path to the domestic terminal. Once inside it was a matter of wriggling through the mosh pit at the check-in desk and getting amongst the rank and pervasive body odour of a dozen local men, I liked it.

On the bus

Inconvenienced and disgruntled travellers will tell you that Air Niugini is bedlam and you could be waiting days to get on a flight, which might be true and sure, we did have to stay a night in Moresby on account of the chaos, but Air Niugini covered the exorbitant hotel and after having been stung by so many airlines, getting on the next day without paying a dime for our board bags was a bonus. What’s more, scotch fingers and apple juice go down a treat when you’re flying over turquoise waters freckled by idyllic islands; scoping potential: hello paradise.

“Girls!” said Lou, Nusa Island Retreat’s surf guide, as he greeted us at Kavieng airport, “Welcome to the wild west”. We drove through the hot, dry, dusty roads alongside dilapidated decades-old buildings where only locals loitered under the shade of enormous leafy trees. Hearing our plans to play it by ear, Lou was keen to point out that this really could be lawless like the wild west, particularly during the holidays when he said the locals get on the turps and all hell can break loose, (with no Clintonesque character to save the girls’ day). Ultimately though it was arriving at Nusa Island, with its sand-floor bar, weird collection of injured animals and birds, beach side bungalows and easy access to the waves that convinced us to stay. For a pair of skint surfers AU$200 a day is a blow out, but we were the only surfers on the island (!?!) and it was worth its salt. Nothing is cheap in PNG.

the flair that twisted the knee?

“Surfing around here is like the 70’s, there’s no tension in the line-up like there is back home,” said Lou, who is originally from the Gold Coast. He wasn’t wrong. Things were looking a bit flat around Nusa that afternoon but we were keen to pop the tropical cherry so headed 20 minutes north by banana boat to Ral Island, one of those tiny sand and palm fringed jewels and a swell magnet where we surfed glassy, albeit lazy 3-foot waves. It’s a shifty right hander that wraps around Ral’s reef, and peaks in a few different spots. Lou had it dialled and was laughing the entire 200 metres down the line as he jagged the random wide ones.

The next day the swell was a little less lazy and we scored a supreme waveathon, no bikini pass required. Bloody Lizzie kept pinching me on the arm (hard) because she just couldn’t believe it – here we were surfing with a handful of local lads who were frothing more than us, unbelievable. And the energy kept building. The next morning Nago Lefts was on and we were into it. For me it was a bit of a mind fuck to paddle into because you’ve got to point yourself right, not left, in the direction of the bubbling reef to get onto the wave, but then it’s super fun, long and finishes in a racy inside section. Local powerhouse and PNG Surf Champ, Titima, was smashing the sets, completely owning the joint while his mates hooted non-stop. “It’s borderline crazy out here,” laughed Lou, with a wicked grin on his face.

hello darkness my old friend

Take your pick of any brand of beer anywhere in the world because they’re all golden at the end of a hot day’s surf. We were invited back for a cold one on the PNG Explorer, a surf charter boat run by Andrew and his wife Jude. The Explorer is the vessel for the search, and it’s crew epitomise the pioneering spirit of surfing, travelling and adventure: these guys are working hard on a good gig. We listened wide eyed to stories of unchartered reefs, uninhibited (or uninhabited?) islands, unridden waves; about how they scratch their heads at dinner coming up with new names for new breaks and then there’s the wave they don’t even want to talk about. This freedom! Coming from Sydney, the mini mal metropolis where kooks pay $5 to park their SUV’s for a one-hour surf, where they name their boats “Liquid Assets”, and only bogans drink coffee from McDonalds, it was dreamtime. What a pleasure to meet people who have challenged conventionality and risen above the mundane! There was a lunar eclipse, we got tanked and had a hilarious night.

By Christmas Eve Kavieng’s dusty roads were throbbing with queues and crowds; it was hot and there was a heavy feel about the place. You often hear travellers say that flashing a smile is the best way to confront a dodgy situation whilst helping yourself feel more secure –  granted – but in PNG you still want to watch your back. We did run into a couple of unsavoury characters, Australians included; it’s like they got washed up at the end of the line and never made it back. In a two week trip it’s hard to scratch the surface but I reckon there’s an undercurrent in this raw, lawless land. The wild glint in the men’s eyes hints at an unadulterated lust for life, for fucking and fighting. We ended up back at Nusa down one camera but in one piece, and up a bottle of rum.

Christmas rolled by, the swell dropped, and we were out of a place to stay but like Lou had prophesised, “Things just have a way of working themselves out around here”. The next minute we were being welcomed aboard a 39-foot catamaran called Baguette by Captain Danny and his crew Don and Rueben – all mad spearfishermen. The lull in the waves continued for a couple more days but we were busy free diving a sunken Japanese WW2 plane, cracking into crays and crabs and market shopping.

After a few bottles of wine the Captain was persuaded to sail up to the outer islands off Lavongai Island (New Hanover), 30 nautical miles north of Kavieng, for a few days of fishing, surfing and New Year celebrations and wow, what a trip. There’s just something about rolling about at sea, at nature’s mercy for wind, weather and food. Speaking of nature, the kids! Athletic and imaginative, I think they’d be happier playing with an eggs box than an Xbox. I didn’t hear a pikinini cry in the two weeks we were there and they were at once shy and gregarious, fearless and cautious, cheeky and polite. They are incredibly endearing kids and with the genetic anomaly which expresses itself as blond hair, unique looking to boot. The kids, like their parents were unassuming and never once asked us for money. 

lizzie ya minx, after a couple of beers

For the two days we took to sail up to Ungalik Island there was no swell (PNG is fickle, right?), but the set up was riddled with potential. We moored up alongside the PNG Explorer and after a couple of days out of the drink were pumped to get back in and stoked when Andrew picked us up en route for a wave – bless him – with an esky full of beers on ice for the most surreal New Years Eve session on record. An easy going right hander over a weed covered reef in a super picturesque setting of lush hills and crystal water. Magic.

Somehow, New Years Eve was debaucherous and edifying at the same time. We got loaded on the Explorer and then left the drinks for Ungalik where we’d been invited to celebrate with four villages to share songs, dances and comical mimes. A few of Andrew’s mates got hammered by betel nut and spent an intense half hour entertaining the villagers with their dribbling.

New Years on Ungalik Island

At midnight, according to Lavongai tradition, the villagers lit bunches of bound palm fronds along the beach and looking into the black horizon we saw the various island coastlines dotted with fires. The kids were running around laughing, positively mental, burning palms in tow. In Australia a consortium of authorities would’ve been brandishing fines all over the show to keep the nanny state organised, functional, predictable, manicured and boring, but on Ungalik Island if you don’t want to get burnt you get out of the way.

And just like that the trip was over: two days after we’d flown out, a solid ground swell hit the region – I don’t even want to think about how epic it must’ve been. Happily though, PNG marked the unwinding of time and the opening of doors, to see through the social distortion and reach for the sky.

Gold Coast: Not so organised crime

Gold Coast Crime: Challenging the Cliché

Keri E. Algar

In 1985 Queensland Governor Musgrave built his holiday home on a hill just north of Southport and the area began to get a reputation as a haven for Brisbane’s wealthy and influential. While ice cream prices soared alongside the high rises a century later, State Government corruption and unethical business dealings tarnished the quaint seaside resort’s image. The Gold Coast has been trying to shake off the notoriety of a disenchanted coast ever since.

 Today, the murmur of Russian mafia, bikie gangs, crooks, charlatans and misfits all plague the Gold Coast in reputation, perhaps more than they do in reality. Is what happens in the shadows of these high rises worse than other urban centers, especially those who cater and gravitate around entertainment? How much is hype, and how much is happening?

Criminologists, scholars and city officials are of the same mind about the existence of crime in Australia’s amusement capital. However, when it comes to the extent and the nature of criminal activity, the experts are divided.

A glance at the city’s newspaper headlines from 2009 runs like the rat-a-tat-tat of a semi automatic: a man shot dead in Burleigh Heads on Australia Day is allegedly the victim of road rage. In May a sixty-one year old security guard is stabbed to death, again in Burleigh Heads. A woman known to the man is also stabbed and bludgeoned to death. A Lone Wolf member pleads guilty to slicing off a man’s ear at the Currumbin rock pools and in August a man is shot in the stomach outside a convenience store at Coomera. It is frightening news to be sure. Though how indicative this sample of stories is when looking at crime with perspective is debatable.

Gold Coast district Superintendent Jim Keogh suggests that the media’s portrayal of criminal activity lacks objectivity. “Sometimes it fails to report crime accurately. It is very subjective to pick out a particular area and just keep flogging it. You instill upon the community the perception that the problem in that area is insurmountable. You’ve got to provide the whole picture,” says Keogh referring to Surfers Paradise.

It is considered by many as a paradise lost and bears the brunt of most criticism. The problems affecting the party precinct are undeniable. While a vibrant entertainment industry has brought considerable economic benefits, it is also responsible for major social issues. 

The drug and alcohol polemic is obvious, according to Bond University Professor of Criminology Paul Wilson. “Surfers Paradise has a concentrated number of licensed premises where I think you’ll find the rate is very high for assaults and drug related offences. Anyone who doesn’t believe that the rate and circulation of amphetamines isn’t very high on the Gold Coast is really in a cuckoo land. It might not come up on the offence list because the list only reflects arrests. The number of drugs circulating on the Gold Coast region, especially the nightclub area is huge,” says Wilson.

The relationship between substance abuse and criminal activity is apparent. An Australian Institute of Criminology survey released in 2000 reveals that over two thirds of arrestees in the Southport watch house tested positive to a drug at the time of arrest. The Southport data shows that for violent offenders, drink drivers and property offenders, over 60 percent tested positive for cannabis and around 15 percent for amphetamines.

“I don’t believe in media stereotypes but I think there is a certain reality in terms of how the Gold Coast is portrayed. If you just go around the nightclub area late at night, as I have done, then you can see that for yourself,” says Wilson.

Statistics continue to stack up against the party precinct. A 2003 crime and safety investigation commissioned by the City Council compares Surfers Paradise with its immediate neighborhoods including Main Beach, Chevron Island, and Northcliff. It finds that this area accounts for 24 percent of all crime reported in the Gold Coast district. Of the 24 percent, Surfers Paradise is responsible for 82 percent.

Of the 689 assaults reported across the Gold Coast last year, almost 500 were in Surfers Paradise. It is a vexation for Gold Coast residents that the city spanning from Tweed Heads to south of Logan is defined by the 4217 postcode.

“You might have one assault but have 20 thousand patrons in the precinct that night. One assault is one too many, don’t get me wrong, but you need to compare it with other entertainment areas. You certainly couldn’t compare the Gold Coast with a regional residential area and I wouldn’t say Surfers Paradise experiences higher crime rates than other entertainment precincts,” says Keogh.

A regional and district comparison using Queensland’s Police Annual Statistical Review for 2007-2008 is revealing. It is based on estimated residential populations and calculated per 100,000 people. The Brisbane Central district experiences almost six times the rate of reported drug offences and six times the rate of reported common assault than the Gold Coast district. There are three times as many sexual offences and two and a half times the amount of property damage crime reported.

Source: 2007-2008 Queensland Annual Statistical Review and 2008 NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

In contrast to this the South Eastern region from Logan to the Gold Coast is higher than every other region for the unlawful use of a motor vehicle. Similarly, the South Eastern region ranks highest for arson.

Using reported offence totals as opposed to crime rates per head, the South Eastern region recorded Queensland’s second highest number of murders with eleven, a fifth of the state’s annual tally. Of those, six were in the Gold Coast district. 

Keogh blames social values. “You’ve got to look at community values over maybe a decade or two and ask yourself if there is some devaluing of those ethics – people accepting responsibility for their own actions. We see it when people behave badly, when they assault other people. What sort of morals do they posses to commit such an act?” asks Keogh.

Surfers Paradise Councillor Susie Douglas is quick to defend her area. “A lot of people come and have a lovely time in Surfers Paradise, and they keep coming back. Not everyone thinks they are in danger of their life. In fact we’ve never had a death in a club or outside a club in Surfers Paradise whereas if you take a look at Fortitude Valley, Sydney or even down in Burleigh and that’s not the case,” argues Douglas.

The Division Seven Councillor maintains that any area with 20,000 will have problems. “The area’s reputation has been sullied by the press; I think the reputation has been greatly exaggerated,” says Douglas.

Meanwhile Keogh and Douglas point to the cooperation between law enforcement officers, security guards, City Council who manage the camera safety network (CCTV), the liquor licensing people and licensees. They work together in an effort to minimize harm caused by alcohol and drugs. Talks continue regarding the capping of nightclubs in the area and in October an additional 22 officers have been assigned to the Surfers Paradise beat.

Queensland’s Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson calls attention to the continued decrease in the level of most categories of reported crime from the previous financial year. In spite of the figures public perception of the Gold Coast in relation to crime is blighted: perhaps by the rumored Russian mafia, notorious gangs or racketeers. The idea that organised crime operates on the Coast is common.

Consider a September front page headline in the city’s leading newspaper. It made a Gold Coast connection with murdered Sydney businessman Michael McGurk: “Coast’s link to McGurk intrigue”. The link being McGurk’s fifteen minute meeting with the since delisted finance company, City Pacific. Even a stretch of the imagination can make front page headlines.

When Mick Gatto came to town to promote the recent release of his book in Brisbane, the newspaper declared the Gold Coast to be a popular destination for Melbourne gangland figures. Predictably the story was accompanied by a photo of Gatto smoking a cigar on his private Palazzo Versace balcony. One would think the association with the Cosa Nostra is a desirable one.

Meanwhile in 2008 Channel Nine’s The Strip managed to tick off every Gold Coast stereotype. Bikini clad babes, check. Russian mafia, check. Surfing legend, check. Extortion, check. Paradise Lost? Try a Gangster’s Paradise.

“People always want to know what’s going on and there’s nothing like a good story. Of course the profile of many underworld figures now has been very much celebritised. If you look back years ago, they would have kept their head down and bum up and under the radar. Now people want to read about it. We’re fascinated by what we perceive as their lifestyle. It [media] does make it look worse. In actual fact if you look at the statistics, crime in Australia has gone down,” says Anne Ferguson a PHD candidate at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.

“Here on the Gold Coast there have always been a lot of drugs available, a lot of crime…there are no borders in drugs and crime, and it’s no different than anywhere else,” says Ferguson, who is writing a thesis on factional television and fair trial in the case of Underbelly.

“I haven’t seen any firm evidence that there is an underbelly on the Gold Coast. There is some evidence [attacks on Russian immigrants] of perhaps Russian organized crime due to the numbers of Russian immigrants who established themselves here. How widespread that is, we don’t know,” says Wilson.

Russian mafia gangs hit headlines in 2004 when a number of internet phishing schemes affected various Australian sports betting agencies. In October this year during an international fraud symposium held on the Gold Coast, the Chief Inspector of the Romanian Police warned that eastern European card skimming gangs recognise Australia as an easy target because they see the justice system in the country as lenient. He told the symposium that crime gangs are operating on the Gold Coast.  

Keogh rejects the idea of an extensive underground network. “An underbelly dark side is a little bit far fetched here on the Gold Coast. Areas with high tourism do have an element of organized crime. You’ve got to look at the product being peddled…generally speaking you’ll have a drug element attached to a large entertainment area. Identity fraud is also another area that will cause concern,” says Keogh.

“There’s a lot of crooks on the Gold Coast, but there’s a lot of crooks everywhere,” says Gold Coast criminal defence lawyer Chris Nyst, in a 2003 interview with the ABC. He is known for defending former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, con man Peter Foster as well as bank robber Brendan Abbot. Nyst has extended his knowledge of the so called underworld into the big screen with his Gold Coast gangster film Getting’ Square, where apparently, art imitates life.

“There’s gold in the hills and there’s gals on the streets and it’s just one of those places. You can sort of show up on the Gold Coast with two cents in your back pocket and become a millionaire. It’s just one of those can-do places,” says Nyst.

Admittedly the Gold Coast is tourist resort similar to Miami in style and climate and Las Vegas in entertainment. As Wilson suggests, there are a lot of quite wealthy people with large homes and retirees often with large superannuation endowments. They can be a target for people with criminal inclinations that come for a holiday and decide to do a bit of work as well.

But as James Cook University media lecturer Mitch Goodwin points out, the papers exaggerate and fill people’s imaginations too readily with stories. “You can find your thrills in any city of Australia – I think the Gold Coast is a bit of a magnet for young people willing to spend some cash and have a good time. How can you compare the Gold Coast to Las Vegas? I mean, there’s just no comparison,” he laughs.

So while you might need to keep an eye on your identity, the chances of the Russian mafia swindling you of an overpriced ice cream in the shade of high rises this summer is slim. And should you dare stay for a drink past dusk, salut.