Abstract
I was raised on a farm so at an early age I was tending stock, building fences, and all the other things involved in running a farm. There is nothing like digging post holes along a new fence line to get you interested in soils. I was thus in the field long before I learnt about geography. Fieldwork is important for geographers for at least two reasons. First, it provides the basic spatial data for testing hypotheses, and is the basis for many of the data manipulations now allowed by remote sensing and geographic information systems. Second, at least in my experience, it is fun, it gets you out of the office, and rubs your nose in the messiness of the real world. I learnt this while doing my BA and MA at the University of Auckland, but it really came home to me when I took on a PhD at the Australian National University that involved fieldwork in the middle of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlands. Figure 1 provides a geographical context.
Recommended Citation
Pain, Colin
(2021)
"Living in Grass Houses – Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea,"
The Geographical Bulletin: Vol. 62:
Iss.
2, Article 12.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/thegeographicalbulletin/vol62/iss2/12