Improvised medal : Lieutenant Lynda White, Peace Monitoring Group

Unofficial improvised medal made from a Papua New Guinea 1 kina coin suspended from a bar shaped from stainless steel. The medal hangs on a ribbon made from a strip of nylon webbing. A smaller horizontal strip of blue fabric bearing a thin stripe drawn in green ink is sewn to the nylon ribbon.

Lynda White enlisted in the Australian Army on 1 January 1998 as a direct entry officer with prior nursing qualifications. After completing pre-deployment training in Sydney, White deployed as a member of the Peace Monitoring Group (PMG), Bougainville on 1 June.

The PMG played an important role in facilitating the peace process between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, by monitoring the ceasefire, increasing awareness of the peace process and providing a neutral presence to assist the discussion of important issues regarding the future of Bougainville. On her arrival White began her four month assignment running the operating theatre at the PMG’s tent hospital located at the Loloho Wharf. A lot of White’s work involved working with locals and ranged from providing midwifery services, treating gunshot wounds and draining abscesses.

As one of only two operating theatre staff White was required to remain on call for the duration of her rotation and only seldom allowed to leave the compound. This limiting lifestyle coupled with primitive living conditions resulted in this improvised medal being made and presented to White to signify her efforts in enduring her deployment to Bougainville. White returned to Australia on 9 October 1998.