Barry Holloway

Sir Barry Blyth Holloway, KBE (26 September 193416 January 2013) was an Australian-born Papua New Guinean politician.

Early life

Barry—a sixth generation Tasmanian—was born in Kimberley, Tasmania on 26 September 1934, to Arch and Betty (née Blyth) Holloway, in the homestead "Armitstead", the same house where his mother was born. He was educated in Kimberley, Launceston Church Grammar School and Hobart High School.

Kiap

In 1953, he went to Papua New Guinea as a 'Kiap' (Patrol Officer), fell in love with the place, has made PNG his home ever since, and even relinquished his Australian citizenship to become a PNG citizen in 1975 when PNG gained independence from Australia (PNG does not allow dual citizenship). He spent most of his life in Port Moresby and in the Eastern Highlands (Kainantu and Goroka).

In a recent interview with ABC, the late Sir Barry said: "We started a six-week orientation course. We were given basic multi-functional activities to do, such as learning how to map, how to handle government stores and all sorts of clerical work which really dampened our spirits somewhat, because we were coming up for high adventure", he said. After two years with a senior patrol officer on the island of Bougainville, he was sent off on his own to man a remote outpost in Madang Province.

In 1960, Sir Barry worked as a Patrol Officer with Graham Pople as well as the District Officer at Kainantu. There was one Land Rover allocated to all officers and often the District Officer would use the vehicle. Mr. Pople states;

"Barry overcame this problem in his own way. He went out and bought a Volkswagen (Beetle) and this was used by us a heck of a lot. Our work was a lot more efficient because of the availability of Barry's vehicle. "Management" was all aware how vital to our successful work that this vehicle was".

Politician

In 1968, Papua New Guinea having begun a transition towards self-government, he was (along with Albert Maori Kiki, Michael Somare and Tony Voutas) a founding member the Pangu Pati, "the first real political party in Papua New Guinea", which went on to become one of the country's main political parties. In the 1968 general election, he was elected to the House of Assembly as MP for Kainantu. He became the first Speaker of the National Parliament, until the 1977 general election, in which he retained his seat in Parliament but was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Michael Somare. He retained the position in Cabinet under Prime Minister Julius Chan from 1980 to 1982.

Komuniti Kaunsil Bisnis, Kainantu owns Farmset Limited and has 200 employees, 10 branches, headquarters in Goroka and a distribution network that spreads beyond PNG to other markets in the south-west Pacific.

Personal life

Barry's love affair with PNG was both physical and spiritual. Nine of his 12 children were born to Papua New Guinean mothers. Friends say the unofficial count is 16.

His first wife, with whom he had three children, was Australian; his other wives were Papua New Guinean. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1984 New Year Honours.