Hunting the Bensbach, West Iran. 1969

[perentie]

Looking through some old photos and thought I would share them. May be of interest.
First some background. Born a Kiwi and as a teenager joined the New Zealand Deerstalkers Assn. The older members took us young ones out camping and showed us the ropes. I had a small collection of guns but none useful for deer shooting so bought my first new rifle . It was a Parker Hale Safari Delux in .308.
Parker Hale converted these from 98 Mausers. It killed a few Red Deer back then.
However a mate and myself had just finished Ag College at Lincoln and decided to see Australia, so we packed our Mountain Mule backpacks, booked a flight on the Electra to Melbourne and left. No Passports needed back then and I took an old Winchester 73 in 44-40 as hand luggage and it went in the overhead locker..
Got a job at the State Research Farm at Werribee and earned enough to buy a 1963 Land Rover ex Ambulance from Woomera Rocket Range. Suited us as it had two stretchers to sleep on.. Left Werribee and worked our way around OZ. Cane cutting at McKay, ringers on Yelvertoft Station , Mt Isa, over to Perth digging swimming pools by hand in back yards etc. Jobs were easy to get back then.
This took about a year and my mate decided to go back home and learn the family business. I kept going north and got a job driving a D6 and a JD tractor scraper sinking dams on farms around Eneabba.
Saw an ad in a paper someone left lying around. SUN SWEAT & SATISFACTION headlines. Come to PNG. then a list of jobs.
Applied for 2 or 3 and landed one as a Stock Inspector at Mt Hagen with the Dept Ag Stock and Fisheries.
Had to drive back east to Brisbane and put the Landy on a boat to Port Moresby and I flew up.
Once there I was told I could not drive to Hagen so sent the Landy to Lae and I flew to Hagen and got settled in and hitched a ride in a cattle truck to Lae and drove the Landy back. Not many photos from back then but here is the Landy on top of Mt Kosciusco back when you could. Excuse the mildew on the slides.

On the top of Mt Kosciusko 1967 001 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

More later. See if this works.
Keith

[Wapiti]

Great shot mate.
I envy your ability to stalk deer in your home country.

[Wm.Traynor]

Interesting story, perentie

[wrenchman]

Thanks for sharing

[GQshayne]

Plenty of adventures too I'll bet.

[perentie]

For some reason the Govt office hours were 0745 to 1606 but being a field officer I could work my own hours as long as the job got done. After work most would go up to the Hagen Park Motel for a stubby of SP (South Pacific Breweries) beer and discuss stuff as one does. I forgot who it was but someone brought up hunting, and as there is nothing to hunt here West Irian was mentioned.
Mark seemed to know his way around and did the organising. I just paid in my share of the costs and went along for the ride.
We got all our gear together, chartered a Beechcraft Baron and flew to Weam which is still in PNG but close to the border. There the Patrol Officer took us over the Bensback to meet some locals and organise guides and canoes.
All PNG Govt vehicles were blue Land Cruisers . I was issued with a LWB ute myself and this Patrol Officer had a shorty.

toyota on barge by Keith Cree, on Flickr

We were told that a couple of days down river the bush opened up into vast grassy flood plains with lots of deer. It seems the natives there dont have guns and had no way of killing them so they hadnt been hunted.
We got two locals that lashed two canoes together and we loaded all our gear on board.

loading canoe by Keith Cree, on Flickr

We were off.
Mark is the big guy on the left, I am the skinny kid on the right and Macca up front with the hat. Alan must be taking the photo.
My camera back then was a Canon Demi pocket camera. It was a half frame which meant that one got twice as many slides from a roll of film.

canoe by Keith Cree, on Flickr

[womble]

Thanks for a glimpse into a bygone era. Fascinating images. Clearly favour the landrover over the land cruiser. Pushing a Toyota in one image I like it.
Really, thanks for sharing it all. A different generation before my own. An even more adventurous youth.

[perentie]

Got to where the plains opened up and set up camp.
I dont seem to have any pics of the deer roaming around. Dont know why.

plains 02 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

camp 03 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

Mark caught a fish or two but I cant remember what our meals were.

mark and fish by Keith Cree, on Flickr

group deer by Keith Cree, on Flickr

It wasnt really hunting or stalking as I knew it. More like shooting cows in a paddock. Never mind the locals enjoyed the meat. I kept the antlers off mine and bought them home. Still have them as a hatrack on the verandah today.

[perentie]

I think the others were using sporterised Enfield .303,s while I was using my Winchester 94 in 30-30.

deer and 30-30 by Keith Cree, on Flickr

village by Keith Cree, on Flickr

We visited the local village and Border Post and had a photo shoot with the Border Patrol.

post by Keith Cree, on Flickr
Keith with guards by Keith Cree, on Flickr
guards 03 by Keith Cree, on Flickr
border post by Keith Cree, on Flickr

[Wm.Traynor]

Those pics are good, perentie Love that one with the "hatrack" The others certainly have character.

[perentie]

Well thats about the end of it. Packed up and made our way back without incident. Flew back to Hagen and finished out my first contract. They were work 21 months then 3 months leave.
Transferred to New Ireland, got married, built a 38 ft Ferro Ketch, finished that contract then transferred to Bougainville for two contracts.
Finally pulled the pin and sailed back to Australia. Settled on the Sunshine Coast. Met up with Mark from this story. He had an Earthmoving business there.
I started weed spraying, then because there was a building boom it was hard to get a Bobcat so I bought an old Mustang skidsteer and a 1 ton mini excavator and started doing house slabs etc
When we retired 25 years ago to Kilkivan we found Alan from this story was farming here not far from us. Small world Ay..
I was in my 20s in this story and in my 80s now and starting to forget a lot of stuff so thought I would write it down and see if it helps.
I have restored several Land Rovers and still have the old 2A Forward Control my wife and I pulled out of the bush in Bougainville 50 years ago..

If anyone is interested that story is here on a South African 4x4 Forum


https://www.4x4community.co.za/forum/sh ... highlight=

[Wm.Traynor]

I read that link, perentie. It seems that you are one heck of a handy person and as one comment says, "....not afraid of hard work". I am approaching my eighties now and my memory is becoming a bit sketchy too, now that you mention that sort of thing
Thank you for those pics

[perentie]

I read that link, perentie. It seems that you are one heck of a handy person and as one comment says, "....not afraid of hard work". I am approaching my eighties now and my memory is becoming a bit sketchy too, now that you mention that sort of thing
Thank you for those pics

Thanks.
I found that just writing about it bought back other memories too.
My wife and I had 47 happy years and everything just seemed to work out for us. Not having kids helped also. Left us with a bit more to invest.
Hitting 80 came as a bit of a shock as I dont normally take much notice of birthdays etc. Now I find myself looking at other people in passing and wondering if they are 80 too.
Never mind I am only 10 minutes from our local rifle range (established 1912) and there is a couple of teenagers I am getting in to shooting Blackpowder.
I get up there every Sunday and that keeps the mind active as well.

[Wm.Traynor]

I read that link, perentie. It seems that you are one heck of a handy person and as one comment says, "....not afraid of hard work". I am approaching my eighties now and my memory is becoming a bit sketchy too, now that you mention that sort of thing
Thank you for those pics

Thanks.
I found that just writing about it bought back other memories too.
My wife and I had 47 happy years and everything just seemed to work out for us. Not having kids helped also. Left us with a bit more to invest.
Hitting 80 came as a bit of a shock as I dont normally take much notice of birthdays etc. Now I find myself looking at other people in passing and wondering if they are 80 too.
Never mind I am only 10 minutes from our local rifle range (established 1912) and there is a couple of teenagers I am getting in to shooting Blackpowder.
I get up there every Sunday and that keeps the mind active as well.

Still shooting? Your eyes can't be stopping you then. I am waiting for my insurance company to allow me to have cataracts treated before resuming. And wouldn't you know it; I've been thinking about black. It really is another language Happy shooting mate; you've earned a rest