On this day in 1960, this newspaper reported that loka (heavy tides) had caused widespread damage to villages along Nadroga’s coast.
With the damages being big, it still did not deter the people of Malevu from winning the model village competition sponsored by the Fiji Visitors Bureau, with the co-operation of the Fijian Office.
The Buli Baravi (Peceli S Baroka) said the loka had hit Malevu about 4am on December 30.
The village, at the worst stage, was under about 3ft of water.
Two bure were badly damaged and months of hard work – gardening, general cleaning up and the repairing of houses, in preparation for the final judging earlier this month – went with the loka into the sea.
Peceli said that about 10am the same day the villagers set about cleaning up the mess under his supervision.
What had been left of the two damaged bure was dismantled.
The thatch was thrown away or burnt, and the posts were neatly stacked in a corner of the village.
Debris was cleared away and the womenfolk busied themselves replanting the gardens, which had all been washed away.
About three weeks later everything was back to normal. Gardens, planted predominantly with Hawaiian roses, were flourishing, so was the grass in the village itself which had been withered by salt water when it invaded the village.
The turaga-ni-koro (village headman), Uraia Loaloa was the man behind the village effort.
He worked tirelessly with the villagers to reach the 200 pounds prize.
When he received the first prize for 200 pounds from the Secretary for Fijian Affairs, Mr A.C Reid, he received it with an air of pride. The village which had been left in chaos by the loka six weeks earlier had worked hard to achieve the goal.
Malevu is in the district of Baravi, in the province of Nadroga and is about 75 miles from Suva on the Queens Rd. In 1960, it consisted of about 13 houses and its population was about 50. It had its own village shop, a village credit union and a large Methodist church, which stood on a small hill.
