PNG Med J 2002 Mar-Jun;45(1-2):128-133 Sexually transmitted infections: a medical anthropological study from the Tari Research Unit 1990-1991

In 1988-1989 the people of Tari were caught up in more social change than they had ever before experienced. The gold rush on nearby Mount Kare had brought transitory and unprecedented wealth to a small number of the Huli people, as an estimated 100 million kina passed through the town in less than two years. The prices of food and other consumer goods on the gold field were highly inflated (for example a kilo of rice was K3, a bottle of beer was K5 and a chicken was K20); drinking parties, commercial sex and short-lived trucks had consumed most of the newfound wealth. By 1990, the gold rush had left few visible signs; very little business investment had occurred and the thousands who had lived and worked for months in the mud, enduring an inadequate diet and suffering in the cold, had little to show for their pains. A legacy of disease, however, had more long-lasting consequences