Ivan Francis Champion

Ivan Francis Champion (9 March 1904 – 12 August 1989) was an Australian public servant in Papua New Guinea. He served as a member of the Legislative Council between 1951 and 1963.

Biography Champion was born in Port Moresby in 1904, the eldest son of Herbert William and Florence Louise May Mary Chester Champion (née Foran). His father served as Government Secretary of the Territory of Papua from 1913 to 1942. He attended Port Moresby European School from 1911 to 1914, Manly Public School in Sydney in 1915, and then the Southport School in Queensland from 1916 to 1922. he began working for Union Bank in Sydney. However, he was able to join the Papuan civil service following a 1923 meeting with Papua's Lieutenant-Governor Hubert Murray, becoming a cadet clerk the following May. In 1936 he led a mission to establish a patrol post at Lake Kutubu, where he remained as officer-in-charge from 1937 until January 1940. He was then appointed acting resident magistrate at Kikori, before being transferred to Misima later in the year. In 1941 he was transferred to Rigo and then back to Misima.

Following the Japanese invasion in January 1942, Champion joined the militia in February, before being appointed a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. He became commanding officer of HMAS Laurabada and helped evacuate soldiers from Jacquinot Bay in April 1942, earning a promotion to lieutenant in June. He then became commander of HMAS Paluma, surveying the north-eastern coast of Papua and dropping off coastwatchers at their stations. He was demobilised in October 1945 and rejoined the civil service as a district officer in Western District.

In 1946 Champion was appointed assistant director of the Department of District Services and Native Affairs, before serving as acting director from 1949. In 1951 he was in charge of the relief operations following a volcanic eruption at Mount Lamington. Later the same year he was appointed to the Legislative Council alongside his brother Claude. He became chief commissioner of the Native Land Commission in 1952, and was awarded an OBE in 1953. After becoming senior commissioner of the Land Titles Commission in 1963, he retired the following year. He then became commander of the Laurabada again, now a civil ship, and took up contracts surveying the coasts of Australia and Bangladesh. He moved to Brisbane, Banora Point and then Canberra, where he died in Woden Valley Hospital in August 1989.