 The several months following the outbreak of war found Detzner on border survey work with his sergeant , Konradt , 25 police and 45 carriers , two servants and an interpreter in the high country between Mt Chapman , the Ono River , and Mt Lawson , that is to say along the territorial boundary between Australian @-@ governed Papua and German New Guinea . Eventually he sighted people he named Rockpapua or " skirted Papuans ' - these were Kamea people perhaps in the area south of Tekadu in the southernmost part of Morobe Province or the northern part of Gulf Province . On 11 November 1914 , one of the carriers , left with several others to rest at a temporary camp , arrived bearing a note from Frederick Chisholm , an Australian Patrol Officer , informing him of the state of war between Germany and Great Britain and requesting him to surrender at Nepa on the Lakekamu River , five days walk away . 
