Obituaries Australia

Fred Archer, 1916

Stater Library of Queensland, 2363149

The death has occured in Brisbane of Mr F. P. [Fred Palmer] Archer of Rabaul, a pioneer Australian planter on Buka Island.

Mr Archer worked in all three Australian eastern States as a bullock driver, farm hand and sawmiller before serving in France with the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1.

During his war service he was seconded to the Australian Flying Corps, working as a mechanic and rigger on the aircraft flown by Ray Parer, who later became an aviation pioneer in PNG.

Mr Archer came to PNG in the early 1920s as a field officer with the Commonwealth Expropriation Board, which administered the transfer of former German-owned plantations to Australian soldier settlers.

Later he settled on Jame Plantation on Buka, and served on Buka and Bougainville as an intelligence officer after Japan occupied the New Guinea Islands' in World War 2.

Mr. Archer re-established Jame after the war, and was prominent in a number of business ventures including the establishment of regular shipping services between Rabaul and ports on Bougainville and Buka.

For the past 15 years, Mr Archer had been living in retirement in Rabaul.

In recent years he established a number of companies and trusts for people from Wuvulu Island, an area which he had known for more than 50 years since managing a plantation for the Expropriation Board.

Mr Archer was also prominent in political moves several years ago to safeguard the land rights of the Wuvulu people.

Mr Archer, who was 89, was unmarried. He died in hospital in Brisbane.