Main Bazaar road in May, 2013.

Old Government Office Building and Green Road

Main Bazaar road towards the Kemena River in 1975

Main Bazaar Road in 1975

Seen are students from BGSS (Bintulu Government Secondary School) walking along Main Bazaar road as part of the activities in conjunction with Prophet's Mohammad's Birthday celebration in 1975.  In the background is partly seen the low-lying areas along the banks of the Kemena River with very few building structures. 

View of Main Bazaar road today, 9 April'17. The picture shows the road leading out of town.

The twin market building in the background houses the 'Pasar Utama' and in the far background is seen a similar building that houses the 'Tamu'.  Both have the architectural look of local Melanau sun-hat called the 'Terendak'.

The architecture of the market was inspired from the local Melanau sun-hat called the "Terendak". The Main Bazaar road now functions as a four-lane one way street with ample car parking spaces on both sides. Towards the left of the picture is partly seen a large open space for public activities, show, fairs and public assembly area.  

From a lighthouse lookout to an LNG loading terminal

Tanjung Kidurong Lighthouse with bungalow for its care-takers.
Note the  design of the lighthouse as a skeletal tower.
This view is typical of the place during the 1960's - early 1970's.

An LNG (liquified natural gas )loading terminal built by the Bintulu Port Authority.  In the far background is the loading jetty for LPG ships.
Photo credits : Sarawak Tribune, 9 May,2003., Special Supplement on 'Opening of Petronas LNG Tiga'.

View of the lighthouse from a postcard of the 1960's.

Another view of the LNG loading terminal. In the background is the Bintulu Port area.
Photo credits : Petronas Brochure (2003), Petronas LNG Complex.

The Tanjung Kidurong  point refers to a location on the Sarawak coastline that is north of the Bintulu town.  More specifically in its vicinity are to be found today the Bintulu Port's LNG exporting terminal.  Throughout the 1960's till early 1970's the area was only accessible by sea. Historically, the Tanjung Kidurong point area belonged to the Sultan of Brunei but in 1861 it was bought from the Sultan at a cost of 6000 dollars by James Brooke, who later became the Rajah of Sarawak.  During the piracy days Tanjung Kidurong was  regularly visited by the pirates.  It was left to the British starting with James Brooke to end piracy along Sarawak's coast in order to advance the colonial trading and commercial interests.  It was a well-known fact that the court of the  Sultan of Brunei derived  considerable if not major part of its income from proceeds of the piratical activities of the Sultans's subjects.  However, in the piracy world of the 19th century, it was the Illanuns and Balinini who were the most feared pirates and they originated from the Sulu and Mindanao islands.  On the 12th of August,1869 the last of the Illanun pirates were defeated off the Tanjung Kidurong coast by the people of Bintulu without waiting for help from the Rajah Brooke.  Since the defeat of the Illanuns by the Bintulu people there were no further accounts of them daring to raid the Sarawak coastline.   In 1872, a lighthouse was established at the Kidurong point as recorded in the annals of the Sarawak Almanac.  Lighthouses are very important for safe navigation of the 750 km long Sarawak coastline that faces directly the South China Sea.  With the discovery of natural gas off the coast of Tanjung Kidurong in 1968 at the Central Luconia gas fields some 125 -250 km offshore and its processing onshore in 1983, an exporting terminal was required to ship the LNG overseas.  Thus the Bintulu Port built an LNG loading and exporting terminal within the immediate vicinity of the old lighthouse or Tanjung Kidurong point. The first or maiden LNG cargo left the Bintulu Port on 7 February,1983 and arrived at the Sodeguara terminal in Japan on 7 February,1983.

A group of visitors having a group photo taken while on a visit to the lighthouse.  They are seen with two lighthouse care-takers in front of the Tanjung Kidurong bungalow.
Photo credits : Ho Ah Choon, Sarawak in Pictures 1940's -1970's.

Tua Pek Kong attests to Chinese prosperity through four economic booms

Tua Pek Kong in the 70's
The main building was made of timber. The makeshift structure infront of the Tua Pek Kong ( in the background) was built to temporarily house social and other festivities related to the Chinese community culture and beliefs.

 The Chinese temple or 'Tua Pek Kong' when built was a very tiny timber structure.  In the 1970's its main building and roofing was made of timber.  The Tua Pek Kong is centrally situated at the heart of the old Bintulu town.  It was surrounded by Chinese shophouses.  The Tua Pek Kong is illustrative of the story of the prosperity, mainly economic which the Chinese community benefited from the four economic booms that pulled out  Bintulu from a sleepy town to an industrial city it is today.  With increasing prosperity more funds were available to carry out major re-building and renovations work.  Today the Tua Pek Kong is totally different from the days prior to the economic boom. The shophouses around it also followed suit and took on a modern look and design.  They are all now constructed with permanent building materials, principally brickworks, concrete columns and flooring with roofing tiles or aluminium roofing sheets.

A modern look to the Tua Pek Kong, in the Fourth Economic Boom (2010 - today)
Picture taken 25 Sept'14

The old Bintulu Airport building - 1990.

Bintulu Airport building main entrance as viewed from the car parking area
Picture taken in 1990

 The old Bintulu Airport was very unique because it was located right in the middle of the Bintulu town.  In 2003, its flight operations ceased and travel in and out of Bintulu by air was shifted to a new location some 23 kilometers away south of the existing town.  Despite its small size the building served Bintulu well during the first boom (1979-1983), second boom  (1998-2000) and third economic boom (2003-2009).  Currently Bintulu is in its fourth economic boom period (2010 - present) and the new airport seems to be meeting Bintulu's flight frequencies and aircrafts. 

Site of former Bintulu Airport building is empty.  In 2003, the airport operations using the old Bintulu airport ceased.  All commercial flights to and from Bintulu since then were moved to new Bintulu Airport site, some 23 kilometers south from the Bintulu town center.
Above picture taken on 21 September,2014.

 The old Bintulu airport is now used for various activities and functions like food and fun fairs, festivals and  exhibition arena.  Below are pictures showing passengers leaving the departure lounge and the bottom picture shows returning pilgrims from Mecca.

Passengers walking to tarmac from departure lounge, circa early 70's

Haj pilgrims being welcomed and paraded from tarmac to airport building,
circa early 70's

Old Bintulu airport building of the 1950's and 70's

Old Bintulu airport building in 1955
Picture Credit :  Ho Ah Choon, Sarawak in Pictures -1940's -70's, Sarawak Press Bhd, Kuching.
Picture shows passengers alighting from the plane and walking towards the old Bintulu airport building (of the 50's - 60's) which was basically wooden in structure, with grass-surface runway.

 In the 1968, Malaysia-Singapore Airlines introduced the 28-seater plane called Fokker Friendship or in short F 27.  The F27 served well the needs of Bintulu prior to its first economic boom (1979 -83), since traffic was not heavy.  The picture below shows the F27 plane at the tar-sealed tarmac.  However, with the influx of temporary workers, visitors, investors and businessmen etc. coming to town to partake in the  first boom, larger capacity planes were needed to meet the increasing traffic flow in and out of Bintulu.  Thus the F27 was replaced by F50 aircraft in 1981 as it could carry 62 passengers.  Bintulu old airport and building was closed in 2003.

View of Bintulu airport building, circa early 1970's - showing F27 parking at the tarmac.
Note the Fire Brigade or Bomba building at left, Main airport building and tower at center, and extreme right is the departure lounge.
This old Bintulu airport and building was closed in 2003 as it was replaced by a new airport and buildings some 23 km south of Bintulu town.

First Bus Station in Bintulu

MARA buses stationed infront of the old fish market, in the late 60's -70's
Behind is the row of wooden shophouses along the Main Bazaar road
Note: Picture shows the station in the early 70's.

 In the pre-boom period, Bintulu was a sleepy town which got its first bus service in the late 60's.   The Majlis Amanah Rakyat Malaysia, in short MARA, owned these buses.  The buses provided much needed public transportation for Bintulu to link it to Miri, some 200 kilometers away north of Bintulu, which was the capital of the Fourth Division.  In the early 1970's,  Bintulu was a sub-district in the division  and all government affairs were headquartered at Miri for final decision making.  This arrangement made very slow progress to the far away town of Bintulu.  In the 60's Bintulu was in the backwaters of development.  The picture above shows the bus station site located just in front of the old fish market.  At the picture below is seen the previous bus station site turned into a public car parking space.  The wooden shophouses were demolished to give way to concrete shophouses.  When not many people were able to buy cars in the  60's and 70's, the bus service was a real boon for the general public of Bintulu.  After a series of four economic booms, Bintulu population grew larger and many were well-off to afford their own cars.  Thus with more cars additional parking spaces were constructed within  the Bintulu town.  The car parking area as shown below is charged using the coupon system.  As at 9th July'14, the current rate is 50 sen per one hour of parking time.  

Note the Tanjung trees ( Mimusops elengi) planted for  shade and beautification of the town.
Photo taken : 7 July'14

The old fish market prior to the first boom

The fish market is partly seen at left of the picture.  At the right is partly seen makeshift stalls offering coffee, fast food and cakes, even 'Satay' dish.  Picture illustrates the fish market front area in the late 60's to 70's i.e. Pre-Boom period.

 Bintulu has been well-known for fresh fishes since time immemorial.  During the pre-boom period, it has a very small fish market sited on the river bank as in the picture above.  At high tide the river water would clear all rubbish below the market.  It would mean also that if you drop your coins, it would be impossible to search for them.  The front part of the market have vegetable growers selling their cultivated vegetables and were mainly Chinese farmers .  Pass them towards the river would be the fish mongers.  A jetty extends the area of the fish market to the river and level of the low tide some 20 meters away.

The old fish market site has given way to new fish market (partly seen at left).  The new fish market complex housed both a wet and dry market and food stalls.  At right is the 'Tamu' or jungle produce market.
Picture taken on 6 July'14

Just at the beginning of the first boom, the old fish market was unable to cope with the rising demand for vegetables. For a good year or two during the first boom, vegetables were flown from Sabah to help meet the demand in Bintulu.  The government of the day decided to 'import' many vegetable farmers from Sarikei and other places in Sibu to settle at Sungai Plan to start the vegetable growing project in Bintulu on a big scale. This project site was called 'Market Gardening' project by the BDA or Bintulu Development Authority.  The produce of the market gardening project farmers were sold at the old fish market being its main retail center.  The project and the market was helpful to meet the demand for vegetables during the first boom period (1979-85)

Law Gek Soon Road in the early 70's

Law Gek Soon Road - view towards the Kemena River, 1970's
Note the old fish market at the center far background.

 This is the general view of Bintulu in the early 70's.  It was a small and sleepy town.  It's status was  a mere sub-district of Miri Division.  It has started to have a bus service and a few cars, including a jeep as seen in the picture above.  The shophouses on both sides of Law Gek Soon Road were built using posts and beams of belian timber and roofing of belian shingles.  The road was named after Law Gek Soon who was the first government Chief Clerk of Bintulu.  The shopkeepers lived on the first floor of the shophouses.  The shop at the extreme  left corner of the row belonged to Tai Hua Hardware.  It was from this shop that I ordered my 'scrambler', and was the first 'scrambler' (Yamaha Trail 125cc) to be seen in Bintulu.  The early 70's were pre- economic boom period.  The picture below shows the place during the fourth boom.

Law Gek Soon Road - view towards the Kemena River,27 June'14
Period : Bintulu during Fourth economic boom.
Note the blue coloured building at far center of the picture.  It replaced the old fish market (partly seen in the very top picture)
The blue building is named 'Pasar Utama' which houses a wet and dry market on the ground floor and a food court at the first floor.

Limit of Bintulu town and the Kampung Dagang in 1976

Parking space for my sports car in 1976.
The place where I park the car is the start of the Malay and Melanau kampung areas in Bintulu town.  The kampung where we lived was  called 'Kampung Dagang' and was the first of the many kampungs located close to the Bintulu town.
The building partly seen at top of the picture is the Native rest house.

Picture of same location (as above) taken on 26 December, 2013.
The Kampung Dagang where our house was located was re-developed into a commercial shopping area.  The people from the Kampung  Dagang were re-settled in new areas still closer to town and rewarded with shareholdings in the new commercial shophouses.  The Main Bazaar road is seen at right of the picture.

Main Bazaar Road in 1975

Main Bazaar Road in 1975
Note the large green space between the two-way street.  Seen are the students of BGSS (Bintulu Government Secondary School) during the Prophet Mohammad's Birthday parade around the town.
The wooden shophouses are made of belian posts, beams and roofing of belian shingles.
Overhead electric posts are gradually replaced with underground cabling.

Main Bazaar Road today, 23 December, 2013.
The road is now turned into a 3-lane one-way street.
Permanent reinforced  concrete four storey buildings replaced old wooden shophouses and ample car parking spaces are provided on the roadsides.  Parking are now charged at hourly rate of 50 sen per hour.

Just years prior to the first boom, there were very few cars in town.  Students who studied at BGSS (Bintulu  Government Secondary School) would either take the bus or ride bicycles to school.  Many Malay and Melanau kampungs dotted the areas immediately around the town.  It was customary for the  Muslim students to celebrate the Prophet Mohammad's Birthday by parading around town (as seen in the top pix). Today the Main Bazaar Road is the main thoroughfare around town.

Bintulu town during the first boom (1979 -83)

 Bintulu was a sleepy fishing village and small town when  I grew up there in my teenage years. It was known mainly for its jungle products (rattan, damar etc.), sago, timber logs and sawn mangrove timber species (ramin), and the ever popular 'belacan' or shrimp paste.  The main town centre was located on the right bank of the Kemena river  as it reaches the South China Sea.  It enjoyed fresh sea breezes and wonderful views of the sunset. It has an airfield built in 1938 and was optimally used in the 60's right on till the 90's  before it was abandoned for a new airport in 2003.  The Malay and Melanau kampungs that surrounded the town area have tall coconut and betel nut trees over-topping the villages.  All these makes Bintulu a quaint, quiet and rustic place of the pre- boom years.

Bintulu town of the 50's -60's
Picture credit : Ho Ah Choon,Sarawak in Pictures - 1940's - 70's, Sarawak Press Bhd, Kuching.

Bintulu town centre - shows much development around the town area during the first boom years (1979 -1983)
Note the newly constructed commercial buildings mushrooming .
The hospital is seen at the bottom right of the picture.  In the 1980's the airport served well the growing needs of travel to and out of Bintulu expected of a booming town.
Picture credit : Peter Chay, Malaysia - Wonders and Contrasts, Foto Technik Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, 1986.

The sleepy image of Bintulu town gradually gave way to a bustling town with the discovery of natural gas and the development of the Bintulu deep water port at Kidurong, some 20 km away north from the town.  The town was slowly being provided with better urban facilities and amenities through the re-development of many of the readily available state land around town. For example the location of the BDA-Shahida commercial area (shown at the middle of the picture above) was previously the government offices and quarters area and only public football field site.  It is worthwhile to note too that due to the pressing needs of urban space, many kampungs located closer to the town were removed to make way for shophouses e.g Kampung Dagang later became Kampung Dagang Commercial Centre (shown as newly constructed commercial shophouses at top of the picture, fronting the river)

Old Bintulu food market and 'Tua Pek Kong' in 1972

Bintulu old food market (middle of picture) and 'Tua Pek Kong' (small building at top let of the picture)
Date of picture : 1972
Note the timber structure of all the shophouses and market buildings with roofing of belian shingles.
The river in the background is the Kemena river, flowing out to sea towards the right of the picture.

Picture shows the above same location taken on 27 September,2013.

There is a considerably big plot of land somewhere in the middle of Bintulu town which housed two structures in 1972.  At the top picture is shown the old food market and the 'Tua Pek Kong' - which is a small shrine housing a Chinese deity.  Today the plot of land has retained the 'Tua Pek Kong' which has been re-built in stages over the years .  In the picture above it is partly shown as the green tiled roofing structure on the former shrine site.  The old food market area has been turned into a small town garden.  Today all shophouses are of concrete structures and more permanent buildings are built around the town like the Main Market ( 'Pasar Utama' ) partly seen as a cone -shaped blue roofing structure above.

Map of Bintulu in the 1960's compared with 1980's

Map of Sarawak showing the 4 administrative divisions
Bintulu is in the Fourth Division of Sarawak
Source : Vernon Mullen (1967) The Story of Sarawak, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.

 In the 1960's Bintulu was just a remote district in the Fourth Division which was having its administrative headquarters at Miri.  Administratively it was under the control of Miri for much of the time it was under the colonial days or pre -1963 era.  The above map shows its location in a massive division and thus little could be done to develop it as resources were mainly directed at developing the headquarters of the 4th Division..i.e. Miri.  Bintulu was then in the backwaters of development.

Map of Bintulu District Area in 1981 showing the full area covered under the responsibility of BDA (Bintulu Development Authority)
The same boundary was used to demarcate the area of the Bintulu Division when Bintulu became a new division on 1st January, 1987.

However, Bintulu's fortunes changed in the late 1970's with the formation of Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) which spearheaded the development of the Bintulu region with its vast reserves of natural gas offshore.  1979 marked the beginning of the first boom in Bintulu.  With effect from 1st January 1981 the BDA designated area was extended to cover the whole of the Bintulu District Area, some 4,574 sq. miles of land mass.  In 1981, Bintulu had an estimated population of 58,000.  To enable Bintulu to move forward faster it was made into a Division on the 1st of January, 1987.

Keppel Road in 1979

Keppel Road in 1979

Keppel Road in 2013
Date taken : 23 September 2013

In the early late 60's and throughout the 1970's,  Keppel Road was very well-known for the site of the only bank in town called 'Standard Chartered'.  It was also popular as the site of the old food market.  In the top picture, the low-rise building at left (only roof shown) is the old food market.  Today the site is turned into a small town park.  The old wooden shophouses have been demolished and replaced by three-storey concrete shophouses. In 1979 the centre of the road was turned into car parking area and traffic was two-way.  Today the road is a four-lane single carriageway with parking lots located on the left side as we enter the town proper.  1979 is significant for Bintulu because it marked the start of the first economic boom.

Old Bintulu Library

Bintulu's only town library 1971 - 1988 ...before 1979, the library was owned by
the Bintulu District Council ( thus the name BDC library) The BDC building is seen at left in the background.
The pic above is taken in early 1980's when the library was run by the Bintulu Development Authoruty (BDA) staff and funds.

The former site of the library is turned into a car parking area.
Note the BDC buildng at left is still there in 2013 (partly hidden by the trees)
Pic taken on 19 September, 2013.

In the 1960's when Bintulu was a very small town, it had one public library located at the Bintulu Recreation Centre (BRC).  The library occupied a small space at the back of the BRC building.  In 1971 the local authority of Bintulu called the Bintulu District Council had sufficient funds to building a separate building as a public library.  The very top picture shows the BDC public library.  In Bintulu town there was another small building run by  the Council called the 'Reading Room' at Kampung Sinong to cater for the reading needs of the predominantly Melanau villagers of Kampung Dagang to Kampung Sebiew. 
In 1978 the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) was formed.  The BDA took over the library when the BDC was absorbed into BDA because the BDA's functions included municipal or local authority functions besides a planning and development agency for the Bintulu region or division.  The library was subsequently re-named BDA Public Library or "Perpustakaan Awam BDA" in Malay.  Soon after BDA's taking over of the library, the library was provided with air-conditoning amenities. In 1988 the library was demolished to make way for a public car parking area as in the bottom picture above. In 1988 the library was run by 8 staff and had about 20,000 book titles in various languages.  Upon demolishing the library was moved to the first floor of the former BDC building.  It remained at the BDC old building till 2001.  However, in  2002 the library was moved out of the old building to a new permanent, bigger and more modern public library situated near to the 'Dewan Suarah' about 2 kilometers away from the town.

Bintulu old food market - 1970's to early 1980's

The food market is at the right of the picture (late 1970's - early 1980's)

 There was a food market at the center of Bintulu town in the 1970's.  It served well the small population with coffee shops, eating stalls, vegetables and meat all under one roof.  Both halal and non-halal food were available (see pic above).  The visible signs of modernisation set in the form of concrete shophouses which ultimately replaced all wooden shophouses around the town. Roads had to be widened to allow for more vehicular traffic.  The Keppel road became a fully paved or tar-sealed two-way street.  Today there is absolutely not a single remnant of these old type wooden shophouses in Bintulu town.

Keppel road today with the site of old market turned into a landscaped area.
Date taken : 30 August'13

The old food market was gone in the 1980's to give way for more car parking spaces.  However, the site was permanently turned into a landscaped area in the late 1980's.  Today the Keppel Road fronting the site has been turned into a one-way street.

Bintulu town -1975

Date taken : 1975 ( Colour Photo)

View of Bintulu town shophouses along Main Bazaar road

In 1975 the shophouses that lined the Main Bazaar Road were of wooden structures with concrete floors. Almost all of the shopowners stay on the first floor. The posts of the buildings were of 'belian' timber just like the electrical posts across the street. The roofing material was of 'belian' shingles. Cars were few and bicycles were king of the road. Most villagers from the Malay kampungs closeby normally walk to town. The wooden belian bridge on the right of the picture connects the village road called ' Jalan Masjid' to the Main Bazaar road. The wooden building partly seen to the left was the 'Native Rest House' to accomodate rural natives who need to stay in town for the night while visiting the hospitals, government offices, schools, court cases, shopping for provisions, trading jungle produce products etc.,. In 1975 the Main Bazaar road was a two-way street with open space in between. In the above picture I'm with my nephew striking a pose next to my newly bought Yamaha motorcycle in front of our house.

Date taken : 29 November'10

Today the Main Bazzar Road and the Jalan Masjid are a one-way tar-sealed four-lane roads . Much have changed but the orientation and sub-division of the shophouses have not.

OKMS School - 1970's

Date taken : May 1976

The Orang Kaya Mohammad School (OKMS) in Bintulu is the first school run on a Malay medium of instruction in Bintulu. The above building showed how the school appeared from the the late 1950's to the 1970's era. I had the opportunity to study in this school for my first year primary school education in 1958. I recall at that time the classroom floor was concrete, the walls were wooden and the roofing was of 'belian' shingles. However I did not complete my primary schooling in OKMS and instead continued my second year schooling up till primary six (1959 -1963) at St. Anthony School which was an English medium primary school.

The name of the school derived from a well-known local Bintulu personality during the times of the Brunei Sultanate by the name of Mohammad bin Sungan. As representative of the Brunei rule in Bintulu he was able to ensure peace and smooth running of governance in Bintulu. As an honour of his abilities to lead the local peoples of Bintulu he was given the title " Orang Kaya Pemancha Mohammad" by the Brunei Sultanate.

Date taken : 29 Nov'10

( Digital by Sony cyber-shot)

A concrete double -storey building has taken up space from the original wooden structure site. This school remains the only school situated within the Bintulu town commercial area. From what was once a school serving the local Malay and Melanau community who lived in villages around the school area, today this school accomodates students from various ethnic groups especially the Ibans who have over the years taken up employment in the shophouses and other commercial outfits owned by the Chinese business community located in the Bintulu town area.