"Wings of Gold: How the Aeroplane Developed New Guinea" Collection

This collection consists of copies of 57 black and white photographs collected by author James Sinclair for use in his book, Wings of Gold: How the Aeroplane Developed New Guinea, Pacific Publications (Sydney), 1978. The collection does not include copies of all photographs used in the book.

Aviation activities in the Territory of Papua, a territory of the British Empire located in the southeastern quarter of the southwest Pacific island of New Guinea, first occurred in the early 1920s, during a period when the territory was administered by the Commonwealth of Australia. Activities increased greatly in 1930, when an airstrip was constructed in the town of Bulolo (Morobe Province) to support gold dredging in the area. Dredging equipment was transported to Bulolo in pieces by air, with the first gold dredge beginning operations on March 21, 1932. James Patrick Sinclair was born in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, on April 18, 1928. In November 1947, he joined Australia's Department of District Services and Native Affairs, Administration of Papua New Guinea, serving from 1948 to 1957 in many locations as a patrol officer, assistant district officer, deputy district commissioner and district commissioner. Sinclair was the last Australian District Commissioner of the Eastern Highlands District (1969-1974), retiring from civil service in August 1975 after Papua New Guinea declared independence from the British Empire to become the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. In his retirement, Sinclair returned to his previous hobby of writing on Papua New Guinea history, eventually publishing more than 30 books prior to his death on October 9, 2017. Terry Gwynn-Jones was born in Malvern, England (UK) in 1933. In 1951, Gwynn-Jones joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) and subsequently served as a pilot in the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) before joining the Australian Department of Aviation in 1969. In 1975, veteran Battle of Britain pilot Denys Dalton—with Gwynn-Jones as co-pilot—set a new around-the-world speed record for piston engined aircraft, flying Beech Duke 60 (r/n VH-TKE) round trip from Brisbane, Australia, in 122 hours 19 minutes 57 seconds between July 20 and 25, 1975. In 1983, Gwynn-Jones was a member of the Australian team which won that year's World Ballooning Championship in France. A prolific writer, Gwynn-Jones published numerous aviation history books and articles, and served as a consultant and writer for the Time-Life Epic of Flight series. In the 1980s, Gwynn-Jones was appointed to a visiting fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and in 1987 he was appointed to the Board of Advisors of the museum's History of Aviation book project. Gwynn-Jones died in Brisbane on March 28, 2008.