Ray - Bilum Books

Ray O'Farrell

Ray O’Farrell’s teaching career began at Ballyfermot Vocational School in Dublin, Ireland. In 1971, he moved to Gill & Macmillan as Education Division Manager – responsible for the primary and secondary publishing.

In Australia, Ray has worked with Thomas Nelson (Senior Editor Education); Longman Cheshire, now Pearson, (Publisher then Publishing Director) and Oxford University Press (Publishing Director then Education Division Director).

Ray O’Farrell’s first visit to Papua New Guinea was in 1976. He fell in love with the country and its people. Ray has continued to visit and publish books for Papua New Guinea for over 45 years.

Summary of PNG Experience

1976 first visit to PNG to attend the First Independent PNG Writers Conference held at the University of Papua New Guinea and coordinated by Elton Brash and Nora Vagi Brash.
1978-1994 with Longman Cheshire (now Pearson). Visited PNG many times. Involved in publishing projects, such as Reading for Melanesia, Create and Communicate, Fundamental Science for Melanesia, Home Economics for Melanesia, Agriculture for Melanesia, Commerce for Melanesia, Illustrated Dictionary of Mathematics for Papua New Guinea.
1994-2014 with Oxford University Press. Involved in publishing projects such as PNG Mathematics for Grades 4, 5 and 6, PNG Primary School Atlas, PNG Secondary School Atlas, A History for our Times, Which Way Big Man? Reading for Pleasure series, and Oxford Dictionaries for Papua New Guinea. OBE-related publishing, with Irene Sawczak, in Mathematics, Language, Social Studies, Science, Making a Living, Personal Development, Business Studies. Also Save Buk for Grades 11 & 12: Accounting, Advanced Mathematics, Applied English, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, GeneralMathematics, Geography, History, ICT & Computer Studies, Language & Literature, Physics, Tourism Studies.
2014 to present with Bilum Books. Publishing high-quality books for teachers and students, especially in literacy, to raise the standards of education in Papua New Guinea.

In addition to his experience in Papua New Guinea, Ray’s career has included publishing books for several other countries: Ireland, the U.K., USA and Canada, New Zealand and Australia.