History

The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier was the main English-language daily newspaper of Port Moresby, established in 1969 from the merger of two earlier colonial-era papers. It served the expatriate community, government officials, and the growing educated Papua New Guinean readership during the territory's transition from Australian administration to independence in 1975.

The archive's clippings span 1970 to 1981, covering the final years of Australian colonial governance and the first years of PNG independence. This period saw continued reports of unexplained aerial and luminous phenomena across Papua New Guinea's highlands and coastal regions, following a tradition of sightings that stretched back to the famous Boianai observations of 1959 witnessed by Reverend William Gill.

Significance

Papua New Guinea holds a special place in UFO research history. The Boianai sightings of June 1959, involving multiple witnesses including Anglican missionaries, remain among the most discussed cases in Australian and international UFO literature. The Post-Courier's coverage from the 1970s captures later sighting reports from a region where dramatic topography, sparse settlement, and limited artificial lighting created viewing conditions rarely found elsewhere.

The Post-Courier is also one of the few sources in the archive that documents UFO reports from Melanesian communities alongside those from expatriate observers. This cross-cultural dimension makes the collection.