Pora was the son of an Australian patrol officer, Dal (Dalkeith) Chambers, who was officer-in-charge at Mount Hagen, and of Rok, who came from the Yamuga tribe of that area.
After the war, Chambers returned to search for his child but Pora was apparently hidden from him, his mother having subsequently married.
The name of “Schmidt”, used by Pora, was apparently in honour of a Lutheran missionary who had taught him to read and write and not, as suggested by some, the name of his father.
Returning to the Reserve Bank after graduation, Pora was later employed as the clerk of the Mount Hagen town council.
[citation needed] Pora and his wife began business activities during their courting years at Dobel which was a swamp that would become a coffee plantation.
His tenure coincided with the civil war in Bougainville, which led to the closure of the Panguna mine and significant loss of revenue to the government of Papua New Guinea.
In the 2002 national election his loss was attributed by supporters to the disappearance of ballot boxes from areas loyal to Pora and they were threatening to take violent action.
A convoy of people from Enga headed to Mount Hagen in order to exact revenge but were met by Pora and the victim’s father and persuaded not to take the violent action they had planned.
[3][5] In the last 10 years of his life, Pora retired from work and business and lived in a suburb of PNG's capital, Port Moresby.