Bateau Bay Retired Uniting Minister Receives PNG’s Second Highest Honour

Retired Uniting Missionary Pastor, Rev. Neville Threlfall, has been awarded one of Papua New Guinea’s highest Honours, joining other esteemed recipients such as Queen Camilla and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, by being made a Companion of the Order of the Star of Melanesia.

The 92-year-old resident of Uniting Nareen Gardens Aged Care home at Bateau Bay made the PNG Government’s New Year Honours Awards List in 2020 but had to wait until recently to receive his award from the PNG High Commissioner to Australia due to the pandemic.

The award is in recognition of his dedicated and distinguished services to education and the community as a Methodist pastor between 1961-1980 in East and West New Britain and New Ireland provinces.

These services included; his work on the revised translation of the Bible, writing a history of the Methodist Mission and United Church, a history of the town of Rabaul, co-authoring Volcano Town, and the soon to be published Return to Volcano Town.

“I was thrilled to receive the award, surprised, but happy to have my own work, and that of my late wife Roma, who supported me in my pastoral work and my historical researching and writing about Papua New Guinea,” said Rev. Threlfall.

“My children were just small when we packed up and left for PNG in 1961 which was a huge responsibility at that time with many tropical diseases around and my wife had to home school them as well.

“I believe I was sent there by God to help the people of PNG; you need to be prepared to do whatever you are asked to do and go wherever you need to go. This often meant a lot of travel by sea in a canoe or dinghy along the remote coastal villages to spread and teach the word of Christianity.

“I was responsible for training local people to become leaders so that they could establish independent churches and not have to rely on us. This was not always easy as there was a lot of rivalry amongst villagers.”

He said one of his proudest memories is when a PNG Cabinet Minister wrote to him in 1975 to say 90 per cent of his country’s development as a nation was due to the ministrations of the Church.

Rev. Threfall was just 20 years old when he began pastoral work for the Methodist Church in regional areas of Western Australia, where he was born and grew up, before leaving for PNG a decade later.

When he finally returned to Australia in 1980, he still made frequent trips back to PNG, his last visit being in 2013.

The indomitable Rev. Threlfall now continues to take part in worship services at the Tumbi Umbi Uniting Church where he is still an active Minister.

“I’ve been a Minister for 72 years; I’d say I’m possibly the longest serving Minister in Australia.”

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