PNGVR ANNUAL CAMPS
During PNGVR’s formative years there were no Battalion Annual Camps. Each Company held its weekend bivouacs and in 1958 A Coy, Lae, held an Easter Camp at Siar Plantation, Madang, where training consisted of weapons firing, patrolling and minor tactics exercises. Some native foods were used to supplement the evening meals cooked by the ARA staff.
In 1958 the PNGVR and PIR (Pacific Islands Regiment) also began combined exercises for the first time. For seven days men from HQ Coy, PNGVR, Port Moresby, took part with elements of the PIR in an arduous series of bush patrols, field exercises and weapons firing at the Goldie River Training Area. Another combined PNGVR/PIR group ‘went bush’ patrolling the wild country around the Kokoda Track.