Adventure Kokoda Blog

Adventure Kokoda is a proud sponsor of the RSL Anzac Art Awards announced by NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and NSW RSL President, Mr Don Rowe AM in Sydney last Friday.

The awards comprise a colouring and art competition for all NSW School students.

Primary students from year 1 to year 6 can select one of the 10 stencils on the website abd creatively colour it in.  They then get enlist the help of mum or dad to photograph it and submit it to the website entry page for this section.

Secondary students from year 7 to year 12 are required to submit a sketch or painting on a theme advised by the RSL.  This year the award theme is ‘The Poppy’.  They then submit a photograph to the relevant section on the website.  Original artworks will be submitted to the RSL in late November for final judging.

Adventure Kokoda is sponsoring the NSW Premier’s Kokoda Anzac Art Award with an Anzac Medal and a trek across the Kokoda Trail for the winner.

Click here to view the webiste for the RSL Anzac Art Awards (more…)

 ’The acceptance of the official name of the Kokoda Trail is a keenly contested point of debate in Australia.  Does it belong to the nation which retains sovereign ownership of the land between McDonald’s Corner and Kokoda i.e. Papua New Guinea?  Or to the 10 Australian Battalions and the Papuan Infantry Battalion whose battle honours are emblazoned with the name ‘Kokoda Trail’?  Or to modern day commentators who dislike the name ‘trail’ because of its American connotation?’

During the 50th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign, Prime Minister Paul Keating, kissed the ground at Kokoda and awakened Australians to the significance of the Kokoda campaign.  His action generated much talkback noise about whether it was a ‘trail’ or a ‘track’.  The noise increased as anti-American sentiment grew amongst the commentariat after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  The voices eventually prevailed and, on the 60th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign, Prime Ministers’ John Howard and Sir Michael Somare opened the Isurava Memorial which had the word ‘Kokoda Track’ embedded into it.

This was in spite of the fact that all signage between McDonald’s Corner and Kokoda since the end of the war has referred to the ‘Kokoda Trail’.

The 70th anniversary offers an opportunity for a sober review of the debate. (more…)