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…)
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…)
The Sydney Morning Herald.
May 25-31, 1998
Torrential Rain, mud slides and a 10-day trek – unorthodox methods for building self-esteem, but it worked for a group of troubled teenagers. Judy Adamson reports:
The rain is pouring onto the darkened jungle in heavy sheets. It’s three hours into a 10-day walk on the Kokoda Track and already Elizabeth, of the 10 disadvantaged teenagers involved, is exhausted and quietly weeping as she sits huddled in her rain jacket. (more…)
WE ARE indeed a strange collection of life’s assorted gathered here so far from home, checking our packs, checking out each other. Among us are the media’s most unfit, a professional fisherman, a surgeon-cum-ardent bushwalker, a marathon runner and a 70-year-old war veteran. We are on a pilgrimage for which, it turns out, we are largely unprepared (more…)
The Bulletin with Newsweek
May 1992
Leeches. Malaria. Blisters. Tinea. Treacherous creek crossings on narrow logs in the dark … writer Helen Pitt and photographer Valerie Martin (both 163cm and 59kg), with 18 other Australians, retrace the Kokoda Track nearly 50 years after the World War 11 battles. (more…)