Adventure Kokoda Blog

Adventure Kokoda led 720 Australians from all walks of life across the Kokoda Trail this year. Most were profoundly affected by the experience in a positive way and now have a deep affection for the country and its people.

We provided temporary work to 2,160 Koiari and Orokaiva guides and carriers who established a special relationship with the trekkers they supported during the trek.

In addition to this our trekkers donated almost 1400 new books to the Port Moresby Grammar School library.  We have also established a Kokoda Bursary Program at the school and provided them with an abundance of sporting gear and other items.  We also donated two computers to Tessie Soi’s PNG ‘Friends Foundation’ together with financial support for the wonderful work she does.  We have also provided some financial support to the Buk Bilong Pikannini program for children in the Tuberculosis Ward at the Port Moresby General Hospital.
Along the track our trekkers have donated approximately $50,000 in medical supplies to the Kokoda Memorial Hospital and more recently to the Sogeri Health Centre.  We also provide school books and sporting gear to villages along the track.

(more…)

A post by Sandy Lawson

In 2006, because tourist numbers on the Kokoda Track were rising rapidly, I outlined (on invitation) a proposal to animate community development. Based on local agriculture, it recognised that for tourism to be sustainable and welcome, it must engage the interest of the villagers along the historic trail. It must give them power as custodians of their land to explore new ways of using their land by carefully exploiting opportunities offered by a growing tourist industry. They must reap a real benefit.

We are now at the end of the 2008 tourist season. So what has happened? We have increasing numbers of tourists (currently in excess of 5 000) using the track each year; the number looks like stabilizing at about 5 500. We have sections of government departments concerned with management and governance issues. We have proposals for world heritage listing of the area. We have inter-governmental agreements and committes and task forces established to deliberate on the track. We have had forums, think tanks, reports and strategic plans.

We have had ‘needs surveys’ purporting to tell us what villagers need/want to make their lives better. Much of this information has been collected by teams bouncing from one village to the next in a helicopter, asking set questions and noting responses on forms which can then be collated and analysed. Given the backgound of the this adventure (Australia has money to give away), this kind of survey produces, not a real look at what is needed, but a “Christmas list” of desires produced short term, based on what the villagers think the interviewers might like to hear, and how much they think they can get. (more…)

The Federal Labor Governments announcement of a Guest Worker Scheme from Pacific nations is welcome news for neighbouring countries situated within our international area of responsibility. It is also good news for the horticultural industry that estimates up to $700 million worth of fresh produce is left to rot for the lack of reliable workers. This is almost double the value of our annual aid budget to PNG!The Rudd Government is to be congratulated for its re-engagement of the islands in the Pacific – particularly PNG – through the Pacific Partnership for Development and Security initiative. The Hon Duncan Kerr was a wise choice for the appointment of Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs in view of his previous experience as Dean at the Faculty of Law at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Kerr has given an assurance that the scheme will have legislative safeguards to protect guest workers from exploitation.

It is difficult to understand the Federal Oppositions objection to such a scheme. There is no doubt that Melanesia in general and PNG in particular were policy blind spots over the past decade. Responsibility for our region was sub-contracted to bureaucrats in AusAID and other NGOs while we tried to punch above our weight on the more appealing international circuit in London, Paris, Washington and New York. (more…)

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.

A provisional Board has met to consider the specific objectives of the trust, as well as its constitution and structure. The Trust is to be established as a Charitable Trust, raising funds through donations from individuals, companies and groups to meet its objectives. In focussing on pragmatic ways to provide a better future for the people of PNG, the Trust will partner with public and private sector organisations and community groups in Australia and PNG as appropriate.

Specific programs under consideration include the awarding of high school and graduate scholarships for PNG students, establishment of sister-school and sister-hospital relationships and the development of a memorial plan for the Kokoda Trail.

The Trust envisages a National Body with Chapters in each State with the opportunity for trekkers to organise their own clans in their own districts.

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.

The issue has never been resolved in Australia because of the risk of admitting some form of liability for further compensation.

This is a cop-out because the issue of compensation has been resolved between the two governments and any further claims will be managed and resolved by the PNG Government.

According to our official history of the war in the Pacific by Dudley McCarthy (Australia in the War 1939-1945, p116) the Australian New Guinea Army Unit (ANGAU) was authorised by the Australian government to provide for:

‘the conscription of whatever native labour might be required by the Services ….’

Rates of pay were to be determined and the Senior Military Officer or District Officer was empowered:

‘to have the natives so employed to enter into a contract with the Australian Government.’

It has been estimated that some 10,000 PNG nationals served as Carriers in support of the Australians during the Kokoda campaign and it is a matter of historical fact that we would not have been defeated without their assistance.

A further 42,000 are estimated to have been indentured to support Australian troops in the Milne Bay and the Buna/Gona campaigns. They were paid 10 shillings per month. (more…)