Remembering the landing at Mono: John McKinnon describes a visit to Mono Island, the scene of an important New Zealand action during the Second World War in which his father took part.

• Author: McKinnon, John

My visit to Mono took most of Monday, 27 October 2008, the actual date of the 65th anniversary of the landing of the New Zealand 3rd Division's 8th Brigade on Mono. We left Honiara about 8 am. 'We' was me, Dennis Porteous from the New Zealand High Commission (whose father was serving in the RNZAF in the Pacific at the same time), Jonathan Austin from RAMSI (the Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands), Bede Fahey and Aaron Nuku from the NZDF contingent in RAMSI, and Karl Wright-St Clair, the head of the New Zealand Police detachment in RAMSI. A journalist from Sol TV 1, Dot Wickham, whose grandfather Fred was a coastwatcher and BSI Defence Force warrant officer in the Second World War, and her cameraman, Walford Pii, accompanied us.

The flight in a Twin Otter, took just under two hours, flying out from Guadalcanal, across New Georgia and Vella Lavella (the site of the previous 3rd Division landing) to Mono. You have to struggle to find Mono on the map: it is small, and quite close to the large Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville, so a large scale map is required. It is in fact two islands, Mono itself and Stirling, plus some islets in the harbour, Blanche Harbour, which divides them. Collectively they are known as the Treasury Islands.

Mono context

Mono Island is about 14.5 by eight kilometres. It is not as high as I expected (it looks like a perfect cone on maps), a rather flat top (355 metres), heavily wooded, except around the only village, Falimai, which is on a spit leading into the harbour. I do not know if previously there were more villages, but I suspect not, given the topography. There are no inhabitants on Stifling; all are on Mono.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Mono language is Austronesian, part of the language family that includes Maori and extends from Madagascar to Easter Island. Its closest relatives, not surprisingly, are in the neighbouring Shortland Islands. The people, racially, are Melanesian, very similar to the people of Bougainville and the other parts of the Western province of Solomon Islands. Crops grown are roots such as sweet potato and potato, there are chickens and pigs, fish abound, including crayfish, but other meat comes canned.

There is no telephone or any modern form of communication except radiophones. Most power is from kerosene, although there are some generators. Despite there only being 1000 people, there are numerous Christian denominations, including United, Methodist and Seventh Day...