Crashed Nomad
Sorry, but that was definitely taken in 1978/79. I took those photos myself, and I was on duty when it happened.
We left PNG to return home to Perth in early 79.
No photoshopping either.
Got me stumped mate.
It has the later radar nose (but early 79 could have been the first of the converted ones - which did not crash at Nadzab) but more importantly I never saw a PNGDF Nomad without markings. It wasn't as though we had a huge fleet and several units operating them to lose track of aircraft - by the time I left at the end of 1980 we only had 3 Nomads (more came later) and I flew each of them probably once a week on average.
Unlike the poor GA blokes who were forced out to Nadzab for operations and only allowed back in to Lae for servicing, in 1980 we were still operating full time out of LAE and PNGDF ATS operations did not shift to Nadzab (in tents) until shortly after then. This unsatisfactory arrangement ended with the move to POM. We did use Nadzab for training occasionally, mainly instrument approaches, but not daily.
There was definitely a Nomad crash at Nadzab after I left (probably this one?) and another into the hills south of Vanimo.
Maybe my memory is shot but something is wrong with the timing and aircraft markings in the photo.