Return to Volcano Town

Reassessing the 1937–1943 Volcanic Eruptions at Rabaul

R. Wally Johnson and Neville A. Threlfall

Pacific Series

Published by ANU Press

The Australian National University

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Email: anupress@anu.edu.au

Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au

ISBN (print): 9781760466039

ISBN (online): 9781760466046

WorldCat (print): 1394053743

WorldCat (online): 1393909427

DOI: 10.22459/RVT.2023

This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence.

The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

Cover design and layout by ANU Press

Front cover: This photograph of simultaneous eruptions at Vulcan (left) and Tavurvur volcanoes, Rabaul, was taken from Nangananga village by Torsten Blackwood overlooking Karavia Bay on 22 September 1994 (see Figure 8.3 for further details). The statue is of a tubuan (masked ritual figure) called ‘Ia Patarai’ from the Ralalar Clan who handed over this piece of land to the Catholic Church in 1882. The Nangananga Monument was built in 1982 to mark 100 years of the Catholic Church in the Rabaul area (1882–1982). The transaction from the Catholic Church to the Ralalar Clan was made using traditional Tolai shell money (tabu) and is acknowledged by the Christian cross on top of the tubuan statue. This information on the Nangananga Monument was kindly provided by Steven and Jennifer Gagau, Robin Bangin and Ia Kaum.

This book is published under the aegis of the Pacific editorial board of ANU Press.

This edition © 2023 ANU Press