8 Field Survey Squadron (8 Fd Svy Sqn) was a unit of the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Survey Corps (RA Svy), being raised in December 1971 at Popondetta, Territory of Papua New Guinea and disbanded twenty-four years later on 1 December 1995 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The squadron's initial role was to establish geodetic survey control, establish topographic survey control for mapping, compile and field complete preliminary topographic maps, and conduct other surveys and mapping including acquiring air photography. In 1980 the role changed to provide support and advice to the PNG Defence Force and PNG National Mapping Bureau on all aspects of survey and mapping and to provide liaison support for Australian based survey units on operations in the country.Laing, A.W. Colonel (Retd) RA Svy, The End of an Era – A short history of the Royal Australian Survey Corps' involvement in mapping, charting and geodesy in Papua New Guinea in the period 1942–1995 unpublished 1995
The unit was based at Popondetta in the Northern District (January 1972 – June 1975), Wewak in the Sepik District (June 1975 – June 1980) and the capital Port Moresby (June 1980 – December 1995). Although based in these towns, elements of the unit operated across the entire country from the western border with Indonesia to Bougainville in the east. In the decade prior to 1972 most of the field survey effort was concentrated on the main island having been conducted by Australian based units deployed there for a few months in most years. Initially the focus of 8 Fd Svy Sqn work was in the islands to the east. The squadron served continuously in PNG from it being a Territory of Australia, through self government in December 1973, to Independence on 16 September 1975 and then for another 20 years. The unit remained a part of the Australian Army (not part of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force) and after Independence was under the auspices of Australia's Defence Cooperation Program.
Unit accommodation at Popondetta in the Northern District was in the recently vacated District Engineers Office (Royal Australian Engineers) which had moved to Mendi in the Southern Highlands. When the unit moved to Wewak in July 1975 it was accommodated in Moem Barracks on Cape Moem, the home of the 2nd Battalion, Pacific Islands Regiment. With the 1:100,000 mapping programme complete in 1980, the unit relocated to Port Moresby.
Like any military unit there were often miscellaneous tasks to be done. Popondetta is located between Kokoda and the Gona-Sanananda-Buna Second World War battlefield sites and large airbase complexes around Dobodura. The unit was often called upon to assist with Explosive Ordnance Demolition tasks in those areas. Mount Lamington, a volcano which exploded in 1951 killing more than 3000 people up to 14 km away, is 20 km south-west of Popondetta. One of the daily duties of the squadron was to observe the vertical angle, by theodolite, to the mountaintop to compute any apparent change in height. Results were reported to the Rabaul Vulcanology Observatory.Jensen, P.A.,Personal notes having served with 1 Fd Svy Sqn in TPNG 1970, with 4 Fd Svy Sqn in TPNG 1972 and 8 Fd Svy Sqn in PNG 1974–75
Unit structure and its people
8 Fd Svy Sqn was raised at Popondetta in December 1971 with an establishment of two officers and sixteen other ranks (1 x Major Officer Commanding, 1 x Lieutenant Troop Officer and Second-in-Command, 1 x Staff Sergeant QuarterMaster Sergeant, 1 x Sergeant Chief Clerk, 1 x Staff Sergeant Topographic Surveyor, 1 x Sergeant Topographic Surveyor, 4 x Corporal Topographic Surveyor, 6 x Sapper Topographic Surveyor, 1 x Private Cook, 1 x Sapper Storeman). The first parade at full strength was 19 January 1972. The establishment increased in the next few years with an average of three officers and twenty-five other ranks from 1973 to 1980. The personnel establishment reduced to six all ranks when the squadron moved from Wewak to Port Moresby.
Officers Commanding Major AW Laing (December 1971 – January 1974) Major BE Dalton (January 1974 – April 1975) Major KJ Murphy (April 1975 – December 1976) Major PH Woods BEM (December 1976 – July 1980) Captain PM Bion (July 1980 – October 1980) Captain RL Roche (October 1980 – December 1982) Major RW Cooper (December 1982 – December 1984) Major SJ Vote (December 1984 – January 1987) Major EP Ralston (January 1987 - January 1989) Major MM Byrne (January 1989 - January 1991) Major JW Gregs (January 1991 - January 1993) Major CF Parkinson AM (January 1993 – 1 December 1995)
Two 8 Fd Svy Sqn officers, Major Alex Laing and Lieutenant Simon Lemon, were later promoted Colonel and appointed Director of Survey Army Headquarters and head of Royal Australian Survey Corps.
Four members of the squadron were awarded the PNG Independence Medal.
Postings for single and married male soldiers with families were normally for one and two years respectively. For most wives and families, life there especially in the very tropical and small town Popondetta was something which they had never experienced before and pre-arrival information did not quite cover reality. There were few of the conveniences and supports of home, but partners formed their own groups and integrated with the community which was essential during the long and frequent absences of their surveyor soldiers.Defence Widow Support Group ACT, 2012, Here There & Away – Voices of the families of those who served, Big Sky Publishing Pty Ltd, p271 Dawn Laing, Christmas in Popondetta; p282 Tosha McHenry, No Worries!; p160 Dawn Laing, The Bedtime Story.
Background and origins
Early Charting, Mapping and Surveys
Spain voyaged along some of the north coast of Papua New Guinea in 1545. One hundred years later in 1643 the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman charted part of the coast from New Ireland west along the north coast of New Britain and New Guinea on his way to Batavia (Jakarta) from his journey of exploration and charting including Tasmania and New Zealand. By the turn of the 20th century Great Britain, Germany and France had produced coastal charts mainly for marine navigation for trade, commerce and exploration. Some charts included basic plans of key points around ports, coastal towns and plantations. In the First World War, Germany surrendered German New Guinea mandated in 1899, including New Britain, New Ireland and Bougainville to Australia and military surveyors and draughtsman as part of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force worked as part of land administration under the direction of military officers.
Second World War
In the Second World War it was not until Japan attacked and captured Rabaul on New Britain on 23 January 1942 that much emphasis was placed on surveys and maps for military purposes in the Territories of Papua and New Guinea. Existing surveys and maps were mainly about government administration, mining, agriculture and forestry. A state of emergency was proclaimed on 27 January 1942 including the compulsory callup of civilians. The Army's New Guinea Force issued orders for raising a New Guinea Survey Section of twenty-five officers and men in March 1942, under the command of Lieutenant EC O'Reilly a New Guinea surveyor. The men were mainly 'old New Guinea hands', some of them being surveyors and members of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles and others from the Queensland 49th Infantry Battalion Intelligence Section and some suitably qualified civilians. In early July 1942 the Survey Section was reinforced by a thirty-three man all volunteer group of the 3rd Aust Field Survey Company RAE from Victoria, retitled 2nd Aust Field Survey Section and Captain John Herridge appointed Officer Commanding. The section had field survey and draughting elements and limited one colour sun-dyeline printing. Most colour maps and larger print runs were sent to 2/1 Army Topo Svy Coy (Toowoomba) for rapid cartographic finalisation and printing. One of the original officers, Lieutenant Noel (Gerry) Owers a New Guinea surveyor, was given the tasks of surveys for installations and roads.
The Japanese landed at Gona-Buna on 21 July, had captured Kokoda on 29 July and were advancing in force towards Port Moresby. On 15 August, Owers and two sub-sections (16 men total) commenced the task of blazing a jeep road forward of Iiolo across the Owen Stanley Ranges to Kokoda as an alternate route to the footpath Kokoda Trail for supply of forward troops and evacuating the sick and wounded. On occasions the two survey parties had to evade the Japanese advance and surprised front-line Australian infantry patrols who were not aware that the surveyors were forward of them. After the Japanese were stopped within sight of Port Moresby at Ioribaiwa Ridge and the Australian advance started, the need for the road reduced as air transport improved, and the impossible task, at an impossible time, in impossible terrain was finally abandoned. That road has never been built. The work of Owers' parties was honoured by naming the intersection where his track departed from the mule track down to Uberi on the Kokoda Trail, as Owers Corner. The priority then changed to surveys and standard and special mapping for the advance through Kokoda and preparation for the assaults and defeat of the Japanese at Gona-Sanananda-Buna in early-1943. The other priority area was the Port Moresby Defence Area and the coastal strip south-east towards Milne Bay. The section was again reinforced on 29 October with a draft of seventeen men from 3 Aust Fd Svy Coy RAE then at Gymp ie. It was not until near the end of 1942 that other Australian or American field survey units were sent to New Guinea with elements of 2/1 Aust Army Topographic Survey Company AIF and 3 Aust Fd Svy Coy AIF in Port Moresby and detachments deployed.
In January 1943 the section was retitled 8th Aust Field Survey Section AIF. In March a sub-section flew into Wau as part of Kanga Force remaining there for more than six months in direct support of the combat troops in the Wau-Bulolo-Salamaua areas. All methods of field survey were used, much based on the urgency of the need: astronomy, triangulation, theodolite and chain traverse, plane-tabling, compass traverse, levelling, trigonometric heighting, barometry, intersection of prominent features behind the enemy to improve artillery targeting. A narrow triangulation chain was carried from the astronomic datum at Wau, north through Bulolo into the Markham Valley in anticipation of the Australian attacks on Japanese held Lae. In October the sub-section was to be relieved and they walked out 110 km to the south coast on the Wau-Bulldog road and then by steamer to Port Moresby. After sixteen months of active service 8 Aust Fd Svy Sect was absorbed as No 2 Field Section of 6th Aust Army Topographic Survey Company and moved to Australia.