Retrospective: My Grandfather Ivan Champion

Firstly, a bit of background on my grandfather. I spent the first thirteen years in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I have devoted considerable time to scanning the negatives my grandfather took during the 1920s. For 95 years, these negatives remained at the bottom of suitcases and storage boxes, stored in poor conditions. Over the last eight months, I have been restoring them to their original state using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. The most remarkable thing about these negatives is that they were taken with a Kodak Box Brownie. They were developed using river water in the wilds of New Guinea.

My great-grandfather, Herbert William Champion, arrived in Port Moresby in 1898 at age 18. He came aboard Burns Phillip and Company's first steamship, the Moresby, supervising the unloading of the company's vessels. Governor George Le Hunte soon recognised his character and abilities and offered him a position in the Administration at the Government Store. After the accidental death of his boss, Henry Chester, my great-grandfather was appointed to his position. Some years later, he married Chester's widow and raised her children. He had three sons with her: Ivan, Claude, and Alan. In 1916, he was promoted to Government Secretary. In 1940, he was appointed Acting Lieutenant Governor of Papua. He was awarded a CBE. His three sons carried the family name with great distinction during the war years and in the new civil administration that followed. He planted and cared for most of the trees in the city centre, including the tamarinds in the parade that bears his name. My grandfather was born in Port Moresby in 1904. At age ten, he attended Manly Public School in NSW. He completed his schooling at Southport School in Queensland before returning to Papua in 1923 as a Patrol Officer. In 1926, the Administrator, Sir Hubert Murray, asked two patrol officers to attempt to cross New Guinea at its widest point, from the source of the Fly River in the south to the head of the Sepik in the north, and to follow it to its mouth. The patrol officers were Charles Karius:

And Ivan Champion:

In December 1926, they were transported upstream by the Government ketch Elevala, 500 miles from the Fly River mouth to the Alice River, where they would set out.

Two days later, twenty-seven carriers deserted, terrified by the eerie surroundings and the thought of being eaten by cannibals. Several police officers intercepted them and brought them back. The party penetrated the jungle for 100 miles before reaching a limestone barrier over 2000 feet high. They built two rafts and drifted back down the river, taking just thirty minutes to return to camp, while the journey on foot had taken two days.

At this point, Karius decided to take half the police and head northeast to find the Sepik, while my grandfather took the remaining police and carriers back to Daru at the mouth of the Fly River.

My grandfather decided to explore the mountains to the northwest before returning. He had taught himself navigation and always carried a sextant. He told Karius he was heading in the wrong direction. This decision marked a turning point for the expedition. My grandfather met friendly natives who led him beneath the limestone walls to the Bol River, a tributary of the Fly, and then to a native village called Bolovip at an altitude of over 6,500 feet. In those days, altitude was measured by boiling water in a hypsometer. My grandfather became friendly with these natives and learned their vocabulary by holding up items, naming them, and having them repeat the names.

Chief Tamsimara used sign language to describe a river flowing north. It was the Takin, one of the headwaters of the Sepik. These natives had never seen steel before. My Grandfather gave them a tomahawk and axe and showed them how to use them. They ate taro and used stone adzes to ringbark trees for planting crops. This was their first encounter with white men. They were amazed when my Grandfather took off his hat because they thought it was part of his body.

My grandfather returned to the base camp to gather supplies, but none of the carriers could continue. He built rafts for the 500-mile journey back to Daru at the mouth of the Fly River. The rafts often overturned in the rapids as they passed tribes at war with one another. At one point, headhunters and cannibals tried to board their rafts, but the police repelled them with rifles.

Headhunters from the Fly River:

Cannibal:

A second expedition commenced in September 1927. The group returned to Bolivip, where the chief led them across ridges of sharp limestone, through dense moss-covered undergrowth, and over vine bridges spanning more than 40 feet above rapids and deep chasms. Upon reaching an altitude exceeding 9,000 feet, Tamsimara identified a large basin surrounded by mountains. Within the valley, the explorers observed a wide, turbid, and slow-moving river.

As they began their descent, the surrounding area resonated with the distinctive frog-like warning calls of the Telefomin people. Armed individuals confronted the group with drawn bows and arrows. In response, both men used all the peaceful greetings they knew and raised their arms as a gesture of goodwill.

The final stage of their journey proved harrowing. Progress required wading through swamps inhabited by scorpions, lizards, and biting insects. To establish camp, they constructed elevated platforms several feet above the malodorous swamps, which bubbled with gases from decomposing vegetation and were populated by scorpions and snakes. Eventually, they located trees suitable for building rafts and began drifting toward the river's mouth. One morning, a rifle shot startled them, and as their rafts rounded a bend, they encountered the Elevala, which had travelled 500 miles upriver to rescue them. After enduring many months of severe hardship, they succeeded in crossing New Guinea at its widest point.

My grandfather aspired to join the Navy from an early age, but his poor eyesight initially prevented him from pursuing this career path. When war began, he was inducted into the Army and became a private in February 1942. Shortly thereafter, he was summoned to the Naval Base and informed of his appointment as a Lieutenant in the Navy. Aware that he would not pass the medical examination, he benefited from Commander Hunt's intervention, who arranged for an Air Force doctor to approve him. Ultimately, his navigation and surveying expertise enabled him to fulfil his childhood ambition.

He received command of the Laurabada, formerly the Governor's yacht, which was equipped with Lewis machine guns and redesignated as HMAS Laurabada. Operating under the cover of darkness in Japanese-controlled territory, he conducted troop rescue missions. In one notable operation, he rescued 156 soldiers and navigated through a violent storm, which provided effective concealment from Japanese aircraft. Following the Battle of the Coral Sea, he was ordered to search for survivors and successfully located two Navy pilots from the sunken aircraft carrier USS Lexington. He also completed numerous voyages transporting army units and coast watchers to island posts. Additionally, he was responsible for piloting Allied ships into Milne Bay and narrowly avoided the Japanese battle fleet as it approached the landing at Milne Bay.

Following the repulsion of Japanese forces, his primary responsibility was to survey a route from Milne Bay to Oro Bay. Upon completion of this task, he piloted Allied ships between these locations and was subsequently transported by American forces to assume command of the next vessel. He piloted the first United States Liberty ship into Buna and, towards the end of 1944, came under the command of the Royal Navy. He was then appointed commander of HMS Challenger to survey the Torres Strait, which enabled the British Pacific Fleet to transit the area at full speed.

He was discharged in October 1945 and subsequently returned to Port Moresby, where he assumed the position of District Officer in Daru. Throughout his explorations and military service, his sole injury occurred when he was gored by a wild pig while using a theodolite on the Admiralty Islands.

In 1951, he led the relief operations following the eruption of Mount Lamington volcano, an event in which more than 3,000 Orokaiva people and 35 Europeans lost their lives.

My mother, Ivane Plant (née Champion), participated in the relief operation following the Mount Lamington explosion.

He left the Public Service in 1964, having served as Chief Commissioner of the Land Titles Commission. Subsequently, he commanded the Laurabada for private owners in the waters of Papua New Guinea. Prior to his final retirement and relocation to Australia, he worked as a surveyor for oil companies along the Great Barrier Reef and undertook contract work in Southeast Asia, surveying sites for new harbour developments.

In 1967, a bishop from a Canadian mission who had visited Bolovip recounted a story to my grandfather. The steel axe that my grandfather had given to Tamsimara in 1926 was displayed prominently on the wall in the men's house. The community informed the bishop that the axe had been given to them by the first white man they had ever encountered, my grandfather.

In April 1961, a TAA Douglas DC3 aircraft was named in his honour.

Ivan Champion, aged 22 years:

My Grandfather:

Strickland River natives:

Distributing carrier's rations:

Our Aivara village camp:

Kambisi Warrior:

Untitled:

Orakaiva warrior:

My Grandfather: 

Our Ivivi village camp:

River crossing:

Untitled:

Goilala women:

Untitled:

Untitled:

My grandfather published a book in 1932 titled "Across New Guinea From The Fly To The Sepik."

In 1988, James Sinclair published a book titled "Last Frontiers: The Explorations of Ivan Champion of Papua."

Ivan Francis Champion O.B.E. passed away on August 12, 1989, in Canberra.