Patrol Officer (Kiap) Removes Two Guns
via Tony Summers of  Sunbury, Australia

A friend I work with was a Patrol officer (Kiap) in PNG for a number of years and was reportedly the first to relocate the swamp ghost in the early 1970's. His regular patrol circuit was around a number of villages around the swamp and village elders related stories of the wartime wreck to him and the crew who emerged from the swamp. 

On one of the patrols they entered the swamp and located the wreck, which at that time still contained it's establishment of machine guns and ammunition.  An interesting point is that the linked ammunition belts contained rounds that were date stamped from 1937 onwards.

He recovered two of the machine guns and some belts of ammunition which were later taken to Australia when he returned to live in that country.  A number of years later his property was broken into and robbed and a machine gun was stolen.  The Police caught the thief who admitted what was stolen and the ex PNG Patrol officer was charged by the Police and convicted in court of unlawful possession of a machinegun.  The Police were seeking a court order confiscating the machine guns and for them to be destroyed.  Subsequently the ex PNG Patrol officer sort and received permission from the court to have the weapon/s (I cannot remember if it was one or both) donated to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia.

I have seen documentation and photographs relating to his matter including, pictures of a light helicopter on the wing of the swamp ghost, newspaper clippings of the court case and the letter of receipt from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. I have no knowledge of what happened to the remainder of the aircrafts weapons.