The Kokoda Trust is being formed to honour the legacy of the Australian and PNG soldiers, sailors, airmen, coastwatchers and carriers who served in PNG during the war in the Pacific 1942-1945. This will be achieved through the implementation of a number of programs designed to strengthen the relationship between Australia and PNG and provide on-going benefits in the fields of health, education and leadership. (more…)
The Kokoda campaign, along with other campaigns in Melanesia, has been ignored by successive Australian governments since the end of the Pacific War. A proposal to mine part of the Kokoda Trail caused them to focus attention on what is regarded as a neglected jungle shrine. (more…)
One of the most shameful omissions of successive Australian vernments since the end of the Pacific War has been their neglect to issue a civilian service medal to the New Guinea Carriers who were indentured to support Australian troops during our darkest hour in 1942. It is a fact that our troops would have been defeated in the Kokoda campaign without the support of these Carriers. (more…)
In August 1942 a battalion of 450 young ANZACS dug in around a remote jungle village high up in the Owen Stanley Ranges of New Guinea. They formed Australia’s ragged last line of defence against a seemingly invincible Japanese war machine which had swept unchecked through Asia and the Pacific.
The village was called Isurava. The narrow jungle track winding through it was called Kokoda! (more…)
Nobody knows what happened that day. Jethro was arming land-mines when they were hit. An explosion lifted him in the air and threw him onto his back. His mates in the squad were blasted but Jethro took the full brunt of the deadly mix of explosive powder and jagged shrapnel. (more…)
Sydney Morning Herald, November 25, 1995
Charlie Lynn’s holiday package includes a good measure of fear, exhaustion, injury and shock, which may be why Australia’s largest companies think he’s great. Marc Llewellyn reports:
THIRTEEN hours up a mountain and Xiaoling Liu is crawling on her hands and knees through the mud with a heavy rucksack on her back. The 42-year-old senior research scientist is almost blind from an insect bite which has left her face and body badly swollen. Both her ankles are twisted and she is close to giving up. (more…)