Series 459 - Robert Kent Wilson research papers, correspondence and publications on economic development and industrialisation in Papua New Guinea

Robert Kent Wilson carried out long-term research on village industries and industrial development in Papua New Guinea. He served as a Royal Air Force pilot during the Second World War and went to the United States in 1952 on a study scholarship. He held a Master of Arts degree from London University and a PhD from the Australian National University. He became lecturer in charge of economic geography at the University of Melbourne. Wilson developed an interest in Papua New Guinea social structures on his first visit there, to New Ireland, in 1954. After 1960, he studied cottage industries, in particular those goods suitable for export and for the home market. In 1966 and 1967 he worked with the Papua New Guinea Research Unit based in Port Moresby surveying several village industries including timber milling, furniture, building materials, bakeries, pottery, matting and hand weaving. In 1972 he was a member of the group appointed by the Australian Minister for External Territories to inquire into measures to assist the less developed areas of Papua New Guinea.