Kokoda has claimed more Australian lives this year than Afghanistan.
During the last week two trekkers died on the Kokoda Trail, a couple more were evacuated by helicopter and fourteen went down with food poisoning. Yesterday a campsite that took years to build at Ofi Creek was burned to the ground over an argument between two landowners. (more…)
Five Australians have now died on the Kokoda Trail in recent years. Many more have been evacuated because they were not physically capable of completing the arduous and hazardous trek across the Owen Stanley Ranges in Papua New Guinea.
We do not the cause of death of those who died. We do not know how many have been evacuated, or why, because nobody keeps any records. (more…)
There is an urgent need for a re-assessment of Australia’s role in the protection of our military heritage along the Kokoda Trail.
The construction of conventional buildings at Owers Corner and steel wire rope swing bridges across creeks at significant battlesites is akin to desecration of the most significant symbol of our involvement in New Guinea during the Pacific War. (more…)
The Kokoda Track Authority has advised of a plan to construct permanent swing bridges with cables and metal thread with constructed anchor points capable of taking up to 8 – 10 persons at Eora Creek Crossing, (Dump 1) Eora Creek, Efogi River (between Naduri and Efogi 2), Elomi Creek (between Efogi 1 and Efogi 2), Ofi Creek and Goldie River.
I do not know where these ‘plans’ are coming from but I do know they are being done without any consultation at all with the paying customer i.e. the trekker.
The research we have conducted with a significant number of people who have trekked with Adventure Kokoda over the past 18 years indicates that they want the track left alone. They want to trek in the footsteps of our diggers as they did it. They do not want boardwalks and bridges. (more…)
A post by Charlie Lynn:
I appreciate the work that has been done along the Kokoda Trail in regard to providing educational and health support for villagers. Whilst nobody can argue about meeting these important needs I have serious reservations about the process used in determining who should be responsible for the work; the priorities/partnerships associated with it; and the ongoing lack of effective management for trekking operations across the Kokoda Trail. (more…)
A recent proposal to mine part of the Kokoda Trail caused a public outcry that resulted in the Australian government entering into a ‘Joint Understanding’ with the PNG Government to protect the track and its environs from possible mining or logging activity. Among the objectives is an agreement is to assist the PNG Government in undertaking a feasibility study for a possible World Heritage nomination. (more…)
Kokoda is a powerful word. According to the Orokaiva ‘koko’ means place of skulls – ‘da’ is village. The combination of syllables conjures up thoughts of ‘ adventure’ – mystery – danger’ in the minds of sedentary beings.
And no wonder. Orokaiva warriors fearlessly resisted incursions into the Yodda valley when gold was discovered in the late 19th Century. Many early explorers and missionaries ended up in village cooking pots as they were stalked in the remote jungle-clad mountain ranges. (more…)
From Scot Morrison’s Blog – Federal Member for Cook
Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free. These words have never meant more to me than when walking the Kokoda Trail, with my parliamentary colleagues, Labor MP Jason Clare and trek leader Charlie Lynn MLC, as part of our 2009 Kokoda Mateship Trek. (more…)
Article in PNG Post Courier by Barney Orere
Port Moresby Grammar School grade 12 students, Alfreda Nakue and Margaret Aitsi, have a different view of the Kokoda Trail from what history teaches them. Having walked the track recently, both girls say their real life experience of the track has given history a different dimension where they can relate more meaningfully. (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…)