New Guinea Club Revival

After the "Big Bang" of the twin eruption in Rabaul 1994, unattended building roofs groaned and eventualy collapsed under the weight of un cleared ash, Rabaul town was in a mess, Not destroyed mind you! But badly damaged. Touring the ash drowned town day's after the disaster I happened on the deserted New Guinea Club . The once imposing snooker emporium
had during flooding forcibly discharged its furniture through the damaged window openings, the once proud colonial sized snooker tables green cloth in tatters upturned and irreparably damaged were jammed against the smashed windows, the impact of this scene was such I was hardly aware of what had happened to the rest of the premisses.
The New Guinea Club had suffered a double whammy, not long before the twin eruption it loosed some of its facility to a devastating fire , the manager at that time was Shane Jenkinson a friend of mine, however before insurance funded repairs were effected the eruption happened. Flooding put paid to the remaining assets of the club roofs continued to cave in. out of town vandals, and looters created more damage, This once grand, graceful structure that had survived, earlier earthquakes, previous eruptions, air raid bombings, and Japanese occupation, was in grave danger of being completely abandoned, funding grabs against the club treasury were disgracefully made by deserting members voting successfully under cover of the crisis to move the clubs cash assets to a licensed facility based in Kokopo, fortunately the remaining members later convened to plug the gap, and moved to hold a meeting at the only facility available at the time, I was privileged to attend that meeting at our Hamamas Hotel, I moved successfully that hence forth our New Guinea Club members would meet on site every Sunday armed appropriately with brooms and shovels and an esky of SP,of course what else? Our president then and for next ten or so years was, The very dependable Paul Blainey (The Bear) became the treasurer, the grog providor, the organiser, and the anchor for the restoration,Paul took charge of the substantial treasury and invested the funds in hy yeilding bonds, He engaged the services of a builder Ken Morgan a fellow volunteer and member, now a life member who owned some basic earth moving equipment, and had some skilled labour available, Under the Bears leadership the attending members swept, shovelled, repaired, plugged gaps and secured the damaged cold room, Every Sunday morning the rag tag clubers who could attend, did so embraced in the spirit of community equalled only by the clubs founding members, People came and went over the next ten years or so but the Bear stood steadfast protecting his clubs cash assets, and overseeing the restoration before handing over the restored facility to a new incoming committee dedicated to the clubs survival God bless him God bless em