The Jungle Was Our Home

There are spoilers below - but I am assuming there are few copies of this available, and not many people are likely to read it.


As this book commences, Joan Gerstad arrives in New Guinea, to marry her Norwegian husband, Chris. There he looks after a series of islands, managing the copra production. For him, it is one of the lesser isolated postings he has experienced, for her it is very isolated. It is 1938.

While she knows her husband, it does not appear she knows him well. Her age is not disclosed, but there is a naivety which suggests she isn't very old. There are misunderstandings, jokes which fall flat on both sides.

Malaria and Dengue Fever are a constant threat, injury could be deadly. Contact is regular, but infrequent. Over the next few months they have visitors and pay visits to other plantation overseers.

Soon after she discovers she is pregnant, they are transferred to a more remote area, near the Sepik River. Rather than tell her husband and risk being left behind, she fails to mention it to her husband, and they set up their new home. After visiting neighbours, Joan falls ill, and announces her pregnancy. She then departs on a supply ship for the nearest town, and on to another with a doctor. Unfortunately it is a still birth.

When Joan again finds herself pregnant, she is sent to Australia to her family to give the best chance to the baby. On her return Chris has taken up his own land, up an isolated river, and had made a clearing and started a house. He is taking timber from the jungle for sale, and growing cocoa. With baby in tow, she is deposited at a nearby homestead, where she is to stay while Chris completes the house. Their hard life is troubled with problems. Chris gets an infection from coral cuts in his shoulder, and catches malaria. Rats, cockroaches and weather effect their property, and Chris is washed out to sea in a storm when the engine on their small pinnace fails. And, all the while their baby is malarial, and constantly at risk.

Eventually, they decide that the baby must be taken out to medical care. On reaching the town, they find that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbour, and women and children are to be evacuated. It is late December 1941. Chris returns to Australia a year later.

While the author is undoubtedly made of sterner stuff than the initial few chapters suggest (where she is naive and probably terrified), there is also cause for concern about the couples lack of consideration for their situation. To bring with them a child to their plantation, with practically no medical care, little assistance and in such isolation makes very little sense.

The writing is fairly easy, and pace isn't an issue in this quick moving story - there is little downtime in moving from event to event.

3 stars.