FAREWELL WHITE MAN : Ken Fairweather
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, is only an hour or so from Cairns, and our closest foreign capital, and yet relatively few of us have been there. Brisbane is twice the distance!
Ken Fairweather has made the Port Moresby–Cairns run countless times over the last 50 years. Born in Melbourne, but based in Lae, Papua New Guinea’s second largest city, Ken is a trucking boss, and has been a farmer, a miner and a government minister.
Always a larrikin, he has had the optimism and skills to survive Papua New Guinea business and politics, through the 1980’s coffee boom and bust, the 1987 stock market crash, the Bougainville war and Peter O’Neill’s installation as Prime Minister. He’s made many enemies, and some unlikely
friendships that have stood the test of time.
Ken is a truly colourful character, and his new memoir, Farewell White Man, pulls no punches as he recounts the people and events that have shaped Australia’s volatile neighbour. This often-gritty tale is peppered with outrageous anecdotes that give insight into Papua New Guinea’s complex culture, politics and way of life.
“You walk around with a hand grenade up your arse and just when things are going well, you pull out the pin. Papua New Guinea and I have this in common.”
As Sean Dorney (ABC’s Foreign Correspondent — Pacific and Papua New Guinea) said, “Farewell White Man is a great read with lessons galore for those who care about Australia’s nearest neighbour.”
Farewell White Man is self-published and available from Collins Bookstore, Smithfield (Cairns) or online through www.farewellwhiteman.com
