22 Lae-Kaindi-Bulolo Wau has a famous sloping airstrip, dating from the early days of gold mining in this territory. It was at the bottom end of the strip that the Japanese were stopped by Australian troops on their way in from Salamaua, on the coast, by way of the old pack track known as the "Skindewai track" from a bark house on the route. The Australian troops were flown in to Wau and Bulolo strips. They were still being landed at Wau as the battle went on in a coffee plantation at the lower end of the strip. The Allied command had little hope of stopping the Japs here, so Bulolo town was burned, and the gold dredges and hydro power plants put out of action. The Wau Valley perhaps four miles across and more or less circular. A surprising occurrence in this steep mountain country. Bulolo Gorge, between Wau and Bulolo, carries magnificent stands of tall Araucaria klinkii (= A. hunsteini fide Womersley). It seems likely to be preserved as a memorial to Jim McAdam, first Director of Forests in Papua-New Guinea, who died recently. Only one dredge now working (round the clock) in the Bulolo Valley -- the last of eight, specially built for air transport in up to 3-ton pieces and flown in from Lae in lumbering Junkers planes. This dredge seems to have a fairly large area of ground ahead of it. Sunday, April 5. The morning spent in the forests of the timber concession area, and on the clear-felled and reafforested areas on the slopes above the town to an elevation of about 3500 feet. Good access roads, well passable to an ordinary motor car, lead all through the forest and the planting we were in. Klinki Pine, at the rate of 12 million super feet a year, is being cut in these forests. Red cedar (Cedrela toona), Podocarpus and perhaps a few other valuable trees are cut after the towering, emergent "pines" are spot lumbered. After that the body of the forest is clear felled, burned, and planted to Araucaria cunninghamii ("Hoop Pine"). Klinki Pine so far has not been grown successfully in the forest nurseries at Bulolo. Unsuitable pH would appear to be the trouble, and it is not believed that conditions on the acid side are necessary. Small numbers of A. cunninghamii grow mixed with A. klinkii in this area, and go higher on the slopes. This is if anything a better timber tree than klinkii, and it has been used with almost spectacularly good results in the Bulolo plantings. The young plantings are given three annual weedings, then left to themselves. The oldest planting, now 7 years old, must be 25-30 feet high, and of very even, healthy growth. Planting interval is 8 or 9 feet. It is planned to put in a pulp mill to utilize the thinnings. I made notes in 1957 on the modern plywood mill which the Bulolo forests supply (it has a floor space of 3 acres). I think I also noted then that the average klinki pine cut was 230 feet high and something over 3 feet in diameter. Hurried collections in the Bulolo forests included a Pasania which occured scattered through the forest. This is what I would call a mid-mountain forest tree. The forest in general is composed of rain forest elements. Have heard it said that klinki does not regenerate under ordinary forest conditions. But I saw today numerous young trees of various ages. The species probably regenerates in openings in the forest canopy made by the fall of old trees. The cataclysmic ides does not seem to be necessary to explain the present stands of klinki. Many of the trees said to be overage. Returned to Lae after lunch at the Pine Lodge Hotel. A few miles (c. 5) on the road from Bulolo we called in to see an old friend of mine named T.W.Bayliss.