S. Warren Carey: New Guinea oil explorer (1934-1942)

Samuel Warren Carey (1911–2002), Professor of Geology at the University of Tasmania from 1946 until 1976, was recognised internationally as a controversial extrovert in global tectonics. He joined Oil Search Ltd, and then the Australasian Petroleum Company working as a field geologist in New Guinea from 1934 until 1942. Carey and his colleagues carried out a heroic campaign of geology-based field exploration under the most difficult of conditions. Although their work did not find commercial hydrocarbons it paved the way for PNG’s current hydrocarbon industry. While his post-World War Two work is well documented through his publications and the reminiscences of those who worked with and were taught by him, his pioneering work as an explorer in the inhospitable environment of New Guinea before he took up his post in Tasmania is less well known and the subject of this paper.