AAP closes chapter on 60 years in PNG NATIONAL newswire Australian Associated Press has closed its office in Papua New Guinea, ending a near 60-year permanent presence on the island nation. In announcing the closure on Thursday, AAP editor in chief Tony Gillies said coverage of Australia's northern neighbour would continue through a network of freelance reporters and photographers, while AAP staff will be on standby to enter PNG as news developments warrant. "Our decision to close our Port Moresby office was not taken lightly, particularly as it has been a part of AAP's news operation since the fifties," Mr Gillies said. But these are fast-changing times and we had to consider the best use of available resources to ensure we could continue to provide cost-effective news services to subscribers. PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was informed by letter before the decision was made known to AAP staff and subscribers, Mr Gillies said. "This is a significant development given the important role we've played in covering PNG for Australian audiences," Mr Gillies said. The Newswire's national desk will now instead monitor the news out of the region daily, and has scheduled regular trips to the country for news stories and features that are not time-critical. The bureau, in the capital Port Moresby, was set up as part of a network of pacific correspondents in the mid-1950s. The news agency's board minutes referencing AAP's US, London and Pacific Bureaux in 1956 noted the offices were created to "ensure readers were thoroughly informed on events which could mean for them war or peace, prosperity or want." Former editor in chief, Peter Brown, who was AAP's PNG correspondent from 1972 to 1975, said witnessing first-hand the pacific nation's transition from Australian colony to independent democracy was a privilege. It was a very exciting and rewarding time. To have travelled to every district with the new prime minister (Sir Michael Somare) while he explained how the new system worked," he said. For a city frequently listed by The Economist as among the least liveable and dangerous in the world, it was "safe as houses" in Brown's time. "The AAP house had no key to the front door, no fence," he said, a memory which stands in stark contrast to the razor-wire and gated compound-culture that has grown in PNG since independence. PNG is a nation in transition. Abundant natural resources and promising economic growth are punctuated by reports of shocking violence throughout the infrastructure poor country. In recent years the political battle for control of the nation's resources boom culminated in a failed mutiny by supporters of ousted PM Somare. The country is battling endemic crime, scant public healthcare and poor public service delivery. "PNG's potential has long been recognised, but I am not sure it has been realised," said Don Woolford, who began his five year posting for AAP in early 1968. But it was fascinating watching the place turn into a nation. "We didn't want to leave," Woolford said.