Transcript
BRADLEY WOOD: Because it was a top secret base, obviously they didn't want information leaking out about what was actually installed here until recently. Those files have been starting to come to light and we are learning more every month and every year about what actually took place here. It was absolutly huge. The infrastructure here was more of a logistics supply base, R and R base, as well as a hospital base, supporting the battles that were taking place in the Coral Sea and in Solomon Islands. But even after the war the information stayed under secret files and it is actually amazing. There was a floating dry dock that could left out battleships and aircraft carriers completely out of the water and redo their anti-fouling, redo their anodes and damage that may have took place and put them back in the water again and when you think about that it is absolutely huge.
JAMIE TAHANA: What do you plan to do with the former base?
BW: There is many other places that have been left behind like the airstrips and hospital bases, what's left of them, and we intend to have the museum as like a base where people can come to, see all the details and archives and photographs of what actually took place here and when they want to and if they wish to, they can go out and visit some of these sites around the southeast corner of Santo. The main town of Luganville has a number of warehouses and shops which still use the old quonset hut which is a semi circular building which is what our architect has used as the basis for the design of the museum.
JT: What relationship do the locals have with this? I mean, clearly they would have been there around the time.
BW: It's now going up 75 years after the war so a lot of the original people, ni-Vanuatuans that would have been involved in it, most of them have passed on since then. There is certainly a lot of stories that we are definitely recording as many of those stories as possible but that is part of the reason for the museum is to actually bring to light back to the people here of what actually took place here because a lot of them are unaware of what happened because history, time has moved on.
JT: When do you hope to actually develop the museum?
BW: Okay, the project has been going five years now and we're right at the stage now that we have got the land, we have got our concept designs, we have got out logos, we have got our mission of what we are wanting to achieve and now we are starting on the fund-raising side of the project.
JT: For the collections and the information and all that stuff, where are you getting that from? Do you have government help? Are the US putting in or anything like that?
BW: Yeah, we have got a lot of archives of photographs and documents of what took place here already and we have got a lot more information that is coming by very interested people which are getting involved. It is amazing how much is coming in just by private assistance.
