The Prime Minister’s speech was delivered by Governor Mal Smith:

‘Distinguished Guests, Ladies, and Gentlemen,

‘Seventy years ago today Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour, Honolulu.

‘The attack triggered a military tsunami that spread across the Pacific and reached our shores in Rabaul six weeks later.

‘Papua New Guinea would never be the same again.

‘Although our Melanesian Island had been colonised by the Dutch, the British, the Germans and the Australians, few Papua New Guineans knew much about the world beyond our tribal borders in 1942.

‘We were not equipped for a war with modern weapons. We didn’t know anything about the new ‘invaders’ with guns, warships and planes from Japan, America and Australia.

‘It was not our war but we were quickly engulfed by it.

‘After the attack on Pearl Harbour the Japanese war machine swept across Asia and down the Pacific.

‘Rabaul and Kavieng were the first to fall in late January 1942.

‘By April 1942 they occupied Malaya, Singapore Island, Burma, Sumatra, Java, the 19 provinces of the Netherlands Indies, the Philippines, New Britain and the Northern Solomons. Wartime author Osmar White wrote: ‘A Japanese Churchill might have coined himself a phrase and said: ‘Never before in the field of human conflict has one nation acquired so vast an empire in so short a time – and at so small a cost’.

‘With these conquests the Japanese military were deemed to be invincible and they were coming our way.

‘The Australians had good reason to believe they would soon be invaded.  Bombing raids were conducted across their northern cities in Darwin, Broome and Townsville.  Ships were sunk off the West Australian coast and mini-submarines fired off torpedos in Sydney Harbour.

‘Warships from the Imperial Japanese Navy fought the American and Australian fleet in the battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Neither side could claim victory as they both returned to their home ports after the first ever naval battle where ships could not see each other.

‘In the following month the Japanese and American fleets fought a decisive sea battle near the Midway Islands.  The Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and two cruisers.  Their naval hierarchy resolved they could no longer contemplate a sea-borne invasion of Australia.

‘It was only then that the Japanese decided to investigate the possibility of an overland crossing from the north coast to our capital, Port Moresby.
Their only option was an overland advance across the Owen Stanley Ranges.

‘Japan’s strategic objective was to capture the arc of Islands to Australia’s immediate north and deny the Americans the opportunity to launch a counter attack from bases in Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.

‘Amphibious forces landed at Buna and Gona in early July and struck out along the road towards Kokoda. They made their first contact with lead elements of our Papuan Infantry Battalion and the Australian 39th Militia Battalion. That contact, on 23rd July is now commemorated as our national Remembrance Day.

‘Neither Australia nor Japan were prepared for the desperate jungle battles they were to fight across the rugged and remote Owen Stanley mountain ranges.  The only link between the village of Kokoda and the Sogeri Plateau was the old mail route which became known as the Kokoda Trail – a name that has since been gazetted by our Government and proudly emblazoned on the Battle Honours of our Papuan Infantry Battalion as well as the 10 Australian battalions who fought in the campaign.

‘I note there has been some debate over the name in recent years but I can advise that it has always been known as the Kokoda Trail here in Papua New Guinea and it is the name we prefer.

‘The Kokoda campaign began with the Japanese attacking the small Australian and Papuan force on the Kokoda plateau on 27 July 1942.  Over the following months desperate battles were fought at Isurava, Brigade Hill and Ioribaiwa Ridge before our troops rallied on the last line of defence at Imita Ridge and turned the tide as our troops pushed the Japanese back across the ranges.  The Japanese forced them to fight for every inch of the Trail as they prepared major defensive positions at Templeton’s Crossing and Eora Creek.

‘Our troops recaptured Kokoda on 2nd November 1942 and raised the Australian flag at a special ceremony with General George Vasey on the 3rd November.

‘Another bloody battle ensued at Oivi and Goiari before the Japanese were driven back across the Kumusi River on the 21st November to end the Kokoda campaign.

‘War historians agree that our victory in the Kokoda campaign would not have been possible without the support of our Papuan Infantry Battalion and 10,000 of our wartime carriers who were conscripted to carry urgent supplies forward and evacuate more than 700 sick and wounded soldiers back along the Trail.

‘The role of our Papuan soldiers in Kokoda and other campaigns has not been fully acknowledged.  Australians surrounded by the enemy were often led to safety by Papuans with an intimate knowledge of the jungle. Our soldiers in the Papuan Infantry Battalion were ferocious fighters who invoked fear into any Japanese patrols that ventured too far from their base. They were infinitely patient when hunting down Japanese where the loser was often the man who made the first move. They were ideal jungle fighters.

‘General Sir Thomas Blamey acknowledged the sacrifice of our wartime carriers when he wrote:

‘They carried stretchers through feet-deep mud with the wounded down slimy defiles, through jagged ridges and valleys, terrible, rugged terrain, mountains and jungles and through fast flowing streams and rivers, and mosquito-infested swamps and grassplains.
‘They were almost at the point of exhaustion, but they always kept two men awake at nights to take care of the patients, to wash their muddy limbs, to attend to their bandages and to give them their meals.

‘The work of these natives has been outstanding.  We owe them a lasting debt.’

The Regimental Medical Officer of the 2/16th Battalion, Captain Blue Steward observed their devotion to Australians in their care when he wrote:

‘Each time we watched them hoist the stretchers from the ground to their shoulders for another stint, we saw their strong leg, arm and back muscles rippling under their glossy black skins.  Manly and dignified, they felt proud of their responsibility to the wounded, and rarely faltered.  When they laid their charges down for the night they sought level ground on which to build a rough shelter of light poles and leaves.  With four men each side of a stretcher, they took it in turns to sleep and to watch, giving each wounded man whatever food, drink or comfort there might be.’

Their deeds have been immortalised in the famous poem ‘Fuzzy-Wuzzy Angels’ by a digger poet, Bert Beros.

The 70th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign is a timely reminder for us to ensure the service and sacrifice of our wartime carriers is never forgotten.

I therefore welcome the initiative of Network Kokoda, founded by Charlie Lynn to develop Community Learning Development Centres in honour of their legacy.  I have been told that Charlie has trekked Kokoda 61 times over the past 20 years and has developed a deep affinity with our people,
I also commend the Chief Executive of our national airline, Mr Wasantha Kumarasiri for his commitment to this important commemorative period.

There is a growing trend among young people from Australia, America, Japan and here in Papua New Guinea to learn more about the service and sacrifice of their forbears in their service to their respective nations.  The relics of their war are now rusting in peace in remote battlefields that have long since been reclaimed by the jungle.  They are cared for by local landowner custodians.

The interest generated by pioneering trek operators, Frank Taylor and Charlie Lynn, over the past 20 years has seen the emergence of a viable wartime trekking industry.  Over the past decade more than 30,000 Australians from all walks of life have trekked across the Kokoda Trail. They have injected more than K100 million into our economy and generated an enormous amount of positive publicity for our people and our country.

As a result the Kokoda Trail has achieved international acclaim as an adventure destination.  It is now a unique gateway for the development of a world class wartime tourism industry in Papua New Guinea.

Kokoda70 is a unique partnership, formed in the 70th anniversary year of the Kokoda battle designed to focus on tourism for the benefit of our people and economy. We have a beautiful country and the Kokoda Trail showcases our people and our unique environment, from the rainforests to the mountains. The Kokoda70 campaign has the capacity to open the door to many more tourists and ultimately create a better understanding of PNG in the wider world.

I therefore have much pleasure in officially launching ‘Kokoda70’.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

Over the past decade 30,000 Australians from all walks of life have taken up the challenge of trekking across the arduous trail that connects remote mountain villages between the north and south coast of the island nation.  Their reasons for trekking are varied. Most have an interest in the wartime history of the Kokoda campaign, some want to experience the rawness of village cultures and the pristine jungle environment while others do it simply ‘because it’s there’!

Whatever the reason the journey dispels many of the myths of travel to Papua New Guinea and opens eyes to opportunities for adventure travel within the land of the last adventure.  Over the years various writers have tried to caption the essence of the ‘PNG experience’. It has been referred to as the ‘land of a thousand cultures’ with a ‘Parliament  of a thousand tribes’. Others refer to it as the ‘land of the unexpected’.

Those who venture beyond the potpourri of cultures in shanty settlements around  the nation’s capital in Port Moresby are soon captured by the simple warmth,  innocence and curiosity of subsistence village cultures. But beneath the  surface in each of these villages are complex relationships between the lululai  (village chief), the pastor, one or more sorcerers, and a number of clan  leaders. These relationships are further complicated when a template comprising more  than 800 languages is superimposed over the island.  Seafaring coastal Papuans, Sepiks, mountain  Koiari, highlanders, lowlanders and islanders with a myriad of sub-groups with  strong bonds of mutual obligation that the western mind will never understand.

Wartime tourism leads people off the beaten track to remote areas where traditional  societies rely on subsistence agriculture to survive on a day-to-day  basis.  They live with interesting  rituals and meet strangers with suspicious curiosity.  Local guides and carriers engaged to lead  adventure tourists through these areas often bridge the cultural gap as the get  to know their group during their journey. They are masters of their local  environment and can educate their group members of the challenges their people  face and their emerging needs.

The first step in ensuring adventure tourism is developed on a sustainable  basis is to establish organisations and procedures that deliver shared benefits  to local communities.

Adventure tourists generally like to leave a footprint in traditional  societies. They are often willing to make a contribution to assist in meeting  immediate health needs or assisting with educational development.  The challenge for local communities is to  ensure any contributions received via these channels are used for their intended  purpose and that donors are kept appraised of the results.

This requires an independent organisational structure with the authority to  collect, distribute, monitor and report on all philanthropic donations.  A National Wartime History Corporation with a
charter to develop legislation with strict governance protocols would ensure  the potential of wartime tourism is realised.  Specialist subsidiary corporations could focus on the potential and
needs of particular areas – the Lark Force trek, the Kokoda Trail, the Kapa  Kapa Track, the Black Cat Track, Shaggy Ridge, Milne Bay, the Buna-Gona  Beach-Heads, Lae, Finchafen, Nadzab and Wewak are all capable of establishing  viable wartime tourism destinations.

PNG currently has a critical mass of 30,000 people who have experienced the  wonderful hospitality of Koiari and Orokaiva villagers; a spectacular jungle  environment; and an emotional historical journey.  Many would return if other wartime  destinations were properly developed and advertised.

Wartime tourism is itself a unique gateway to the development of a world class  adventure tourism industry in Papua New Guinea.  The challenge is to ensure proper management structures are put in place
to facilitate the entry of adventure tour operators and ensure local  communities receive shared benefits from the industry.

Interest in making the pilgrimage might be tapering off, but that gives us an opportunity to understand Kokoda in more complex ways, writes Professor Hank Nelson

On 18 November this year the paralympian and winner of the New York wheelchair marathon, Kurt Fearnley, completed ten days of crawling and sliding over the ninety-six kilometres of the Kokoda Track. Previously, the Track had been walked by Michael Milton, one-legged skier and cyclist; by ex-Cronulla rioters, to show them what it really meant to be Australian; and by grandmothers, school children, politicians and football teams and company executives who were on bonding exercises, taking an extreme test of physical endurance, trying to gain insight into the experiences of the troops who had faced the Japanese on the Track in 1942, responding to wild and varied mountain tropics or encountering carriers and villagers. In 2008 some 6000 trekkers passed the Isurava Monument, read the words inscribed on the grey stone blocks – Courage, Endurance, Mateship, Sacrifice – and, in many cases, paused at the rock where Bruce Kingsbury won a VC.

Just eight years ago, in 2000, fewer than a hundred tourists walked the Track. By 2005 nearly 2400 were taking the trek, now called a pilgrimage, and that number had doubled by 2007. From 2004 through to 2007 Australian publishers released books on Kokoda adding up to over 3000 pages. Peter Brune’s A Bastard of a Place (2003), Peter FitzSimons’s Kokoda (2004) and Paul Ham’s Kokoda (2004), were all big books and big sellers. Numerous journalists walked the Track and recorded their impressions; Kokoda was in documentaries and one feature film (Kokoda, 2006, directed by Alister Grieson) and on breakfast television. It seemed Australians had decided that Kokoda was for them the most significant event of the second world war, a place where Australians demonstrated those virtues that Australians want to believe they possess and the virtues that they hope others recognise in them. Just a few years before, when prime ministers Paul Keating and then John Howard visited Hellfire Pass and the public recognition of Sir Edward (“Weary”) Dunlop was at its height, it had looked like Changi, the Thai-Burma Railway and all the horror and defiance of the odds in the prisoner of war experience was going to dominate Australian popular memory of the war.

Australia has committed $16 million to securing a world heritage listing for the Track and providing services and economic opportunities for those living in the area. It has worked hard to gain the support of the government of Papua New Guinea to ensure effective administration and protection of the Track. But there is a chance that Australian enthusiasm for the Kokoda pilgrimage – and perhaps for the elevation of the Kokoda campaign in Australian history – has passed its peak. In 2009, the number of trekkers has dropped to just over 4000, well short of the expected figure of 7000 or 8000. There were real fears about the impact of 16,000 boots and tons of crap and toilet paper on pristine streams, rainforests and Koiari villagers’ homelands.

The recent decline in trekker numbers may be related to the deaths in 2009 of three Australian men and one woman on the Track. The men were aged fifty-five, thirty-eight and twenty-six; the woman, thirty-six: explanations about age, lack of fitness and previous signs of frailty were not obvious in most cases. The crash of a Twin Otter aircraft as it circled Kokoda, the death of all thirteen on board and the long and difficult recovery of the bodies was another reminder of the hazards of travelling in mountainous country, ill-served by administrative and technical safeguards. The high costs of trekking, the claims that the profits went to Australian companies who avoided paying Papua New Guinean taxes and the perception that locals could only participate as “bag carriers” may also have deterred well-intentioned pilgrims. A trekking package including flights from Sydney to Port Moresby might be advertised at around $4500, and for the young and adventurous that price covers many alternatives.

In July this year the first commemorative medal was handed out to surviving Fuzzy-Wuzzy Angels, another late and nominal recognition of their wartime services. But the inaugural Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel Day on 3 November passed in Port Moresby with no ceremonies. The culture and tourism minister, Charles Abel, explained that no money had been allocated for the occasion, but he hoped some would be found for next year. There was a small ceremony in Sydney.

Kokoda as a second world war battle will remain important in the histories of both Australia and Papua New Guinea. It seems likely that Australians will continue to give it greater importance because it is easily presented as the battle in which the Japanese ground forces came within sight of Port Moresby; because it was fought almost exclusively by Australian troops; because the AIF and the militia fought side by side; because the terrain and the performance of some men have given it an epic quality; and because it binds Australians and Papua New Guineans in a relationship that was new and admirable and requires no reference to colonial control and its associations.

If there is a slight tailing off in Australia’s increased interest in Kokoda as a battle, it will be because it has been burdened with exaggeration. Kokoda did not save Australia from invasion, or even Port Moresby from capture. The limited numbers, firepower and fitness of a Japanese force that had struggled across the Owen Stanley Ranges was not going to take Port Moresby unaided, as both the Australian and the Japanese commanders knew before the Japanese began their retreat in September 1942. Kokoda was not as important as Gaudalcanal in determining the direction of the war in the south and south-west Pacific; Guadalcanal involved more ships, aircraft and ground troops and consumed Japanese units from the three services that would otherwise have been used in Papua.

Amid the heightened interest in Kokoda, and more broadly in the war in Papua and New Guinea, one advance in the scholarly and popular flow of information has largely passed without notice: there is now much more readily available material in English about the Japanese forces. Of the popular histories directed at Australian readers, Paul Ham worked hard to find Japanese documents and record the reminiscences of Japanese ex-servicemen, but other less well-know publications have added most to accessible knowledge of the enemy. These include Steven Bullard’s translation of sections of the Japanese official history, Japanese Army Operations in the South Pacific Area: New Britain and Papua Campaigns, 1942–43 (2007), several books written jointly by Japanese and Australian authors, including From a Hostile Shore: Australia and Japan at War in New Guinea (2004), edited by Steven Bullard and Tamura Keiko, and unexpected books such as Charles Happell’s The Bone Man of Kokoda (2008).

The “Bone Man” is Kokichi Nishimura, who fought on Guam, at Salamuau in New Guinea, and on the Kokoda Track as a private in the 144th Regiment. One of the few men to be evacuated by ship at night from the Papuan coast, he spent several months in Lae before sailing for Rabaul and then Japan. He survived the sinking of his transport by American submarines and was posted to Burma at the end of 1943. He endured battle and another hazardous journey across seas then dominated by the Americans and was in a military hospital suffering from malaria when the war ended. But that war of brief early victories and pitiless defeats and suffering is covered by Happell in less than half the book. The rest of the book is about Nishimura’s success in civilian life and then his dedication to finding the remains of his Japanese comrades on Kokoda, bringing them back to Japan, and searching for their relatives. Nishimura has also invested much time and money in what have been largely fruitless attempts to repay those Papua New Guineans across whose lands he had fought. He might be exceptional in his obsessions, but through him Happell, an experienced journalist, provides some insights into and many hints at the beliefs of Japanese of Nishimura’s generation about the obligations of the soldier in battle and to dead comrades.

Several of the publications increasing awareness of the Japanese in the war owe direct or indirect debts to the Australia–Japan Research Project. Jointly sponsored by the Australian War Memorial and the Japanese embassy in Canberra, the project aims to provide material for researchers. One of its most recent online publications looks at the Japanese midget submarine attack in Sydney Harbour. With its rich range of comment and references, it provides evidence of the contrasting perceptions of the event then and now in Japan and Australia. The project is currently in recess and it is hoped that the Australian War Memorial resurrects it or a similar project.

Japanese survivors of the war have also published memoirs that intersect with Australian studies of Kokoda. In The Pacific War in Papua New Guinea: Memories and Realities (2006), which I edited with Yukio Toyoda, Hiromitsu Iwamoto surveyed some 471 books written by Japanese who fought in New Guinea. He found that those Japanese veterans who made broad judgments on the war emphasised the suffering and called for no repeat of such a terrible event; those few who expressed an opinion on responsibility for the war argued that war was forced upon Japan and that admissions of war guilt are an insult to the thousands of Japanese who died in the war. The 10 per cent of authors who wrote on Papua New Guineans said that most welcomed the Japanese and willingly cooperated with them. And when Japanese write on battles a surprising number are concerned with the air war – surprising given the few aircrew relative to ground forces and the fact that the Japanese army and naval air forces were effectively out of the war in New Guinea from early 1944. If there is a dominant popular Japanese image of the war in the area between Port Moresby and Buna it is not of troops slogging, ankle deep, crossing ridge after ridge in the Owen Stanleys and fighting a largely unseen and desperate enemy, but of Zero pilots high above the Owen Stanleys often displaying superior skill and flying superior aircraft. But apart from writings by the fighter pilot Saburo Sakai (Samurai!, with Martin Caidin and Fred Saito, first published in English in 1957), most of the many Japanese books on the war on Australian territory are both inaccessible and unknown to Australians.

One of the most recent and comprehensive attempts to present the Japanese experience to Australian readers is Craig Collie and Hajime Marutani’s The Path of Infinite Sorrow: The Japanese on the Kokoda Track (2009). Collie, a television producer, and Hajime, who worked as a translator on the Australia–Japan Research Project, came together on a two-hour documentary, Beyond Kokoda, by the Australian filmmakers Stig Schnell and Shaun Gibbons, which was first shown on the History Channel in 2008. Several of the Japanese ex-servicemen who spoke so movingly in the documentary are primary sources for The Path of Infinite Sorrow. Collie and Marutani have made good use of Allied Translator and Interpreter Section documents held in the Australian War Memorial. ATIS – the receivers, translators and commentators on documents collected from the Japanese – became a valuable source of intelligence from late September 1942 when the Australians began to advance. From the bodies of the dead and wounded and from prisoners and abandoned camps, the Australians collected diaries, letters and miscellaneous bits of paper – even a list of prices for officers and men visiting the comfort women in Rabaul. ATIS also provided translations of interviews with prisoners, many of whom spoke with a candour that surprised their interrogators. What was of immediate interest to military tacticians is now of value to scholars with a more leisurely timetable.

Other strengths of Collie and Marutani’s work are the accounts of the formation and training of Japanese units and the way individual soldiers are followed through recruitment to battle. The final weeks of the Japanese army in Papua are presented in all their horror, with cannibalism, the killing of the wounded and the sense of relief, guilt, nobility and desperate self-interest of those selected for, or able to secure their own, escape. The Japanese losses in Papua were appalling – over 12,000 died – and the Japanese official history quotes a battalion commander who said that the 41st Regiment lost over 2000. When it reassembled in Rabaul in 1943 there were only 200 survivors. But, as Collie and Marutani show, the survivors of Kokoda and Buna still had over two more years of war to endure. Of those whose fortunes have been traced in the book and were still alive in August 1945, one was in southern China, one had been in Burma and then transferred to Japan, one had been in Korea and then returned to Hiroshima (but by luck was not there on the day the city was incinerated) and some had died in the fighting in the Philippines. A pilot who had flown off the Buna airstrip ended the war escorting kamikaze pilots on their sacrificial missions.

One of the last scenes in The Path of Infinite Sorrow is of an elderly Japanese man who had fought as a private on Kokoda making a return visit to Papua New Guinea in 2005. He had with him 250 pairs of small straw sandals he had made. He cast some into the Kumusi River north of Kokoda and asked that others be left on the Track. He recalled that at the end of the Kokoda campaign many of the men were barefooted and he hoped to show the spirits of his comrades that he remembered them and that he brought them comfort. As with the story of Nishimura, this alerts us to other intensely felt ways of recalling a war and comrades in war.

The prose of Collie and Marutani makes for easy reading, although some of the battles are difficult to follow. And the ready clichés that might be acceptable in a quick newspaper article are out of place in a book. Just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Australia is said to be “not on Japan’s radar,” and when the Japanese do launch their assault the Americans are found to be “asleep at the wheel.” These are not only clichés but also distractions in a book on war. Also, there are too many minor errors of fact. The authors refer to Japan’s “two colonies, Korea and Formosa” after the first world war, which omits the German Micronesian colonies held by Japan under mandate from the League of Nations. It was the bases in Micronesia that placed Japanese forces close to Rabaul and allowed the Japanese to be in Rabaul before they had reached the south of the Malay Peninsula, let alone before the fall of Singapore. Collie and Marutani describe the region around Rabaul as being “made up of mountains and deep valleys, covered with dense jungle.” The “plains flooded” and there was much boggy marshland, they write. But Rabaul was the centre for the most concentrated area of roads and plantations in New Guinea; the volcanic soil was porous and there was often a scarcity of surface water.

The authors also claim that “two large anti-aircraft guns” were found damaged near Lakunai airfield. The two guns were found at Praed Point and they were intended for use against raiding ships, not aircraft. The Australians are said to have set up their defences of Rabaul “where the German troops landed in World War I.” But it was the Australians who landed and the Germans who were the defenders. At several points there are claims that the Australians had “automatic rifles.” The Australians carried .303 Lee-Enfield bolt action repeating rifles, which was not an automatic. When writing about the Papuan Infantry Battalion the writers assert that “in many cases, the Papuans had been pressed into joining the military by an authoritarian administration.” Papuans were conscripted to work as labourers; the soldiers were volunteers. On the Kokoda Track: “The Gap had been named by Allied HQ in Melbourne in the belief it was a narrow pass…” In fact “The Gap” had been named on published maps for forty years. The number of errors diminishes the value of the book, and the publishers, having failed to ensure adequate checking, should share responsibility.

The years of heightened interest in Kokoda had their slow beginning in 1992 when Paul Keating kissed the ground at Kokoda and, while not denigrating the legacy of Gallipoli, called for increased recognition of the battle where Australians fought “not in defence of the old world, but the new world. Their world.” In strange and largely uncommented bipartisanship, the boosting of Kokoda continued and increased under John Howard.

Now, during an apparent pause in enthusiasm for Kokoda, could be the time to separate Kokoda from the recent exaggerations that have been attached to it. These have magnified the importance of the Kokoda at the expense of Coral Sea, Midway, Milne Bay and Guadacanal. The age of the troops who fought the first battles has been understated, the numbers of casualties overstated and the extent of the Track and of the “Kokoda battles” have been extended from the Owers’ Corner at the southern end of the Track to Buna and the coast in the north. Australians could admit that some tactics were at fault, some Australian commanders did not perform well and some units were ill-trained, which showed up in battle. Australians could concede that most of the aircraft that gradually won dominance in the air over the Owen Stanleys were American and that the greater battle being fought by the Americans on Guadalcanal diverted Japanese men and resources from Papua. All that can be granted, and Kokoda remain significant. Now, too, is the time to exploit the information becoming available and locate Kokoda, not in Australian history alone, but in Australian, Japanese, Papua New Guinean and American history. •

Hank Nelson is Professor Emeritus of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University. Much of his writing has been on the histories of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the second world war.

The Government of Papua New Guinea will crack down on rogue tour operators on the Kokoda Track who are not paying taxes or taking proper safety percautions.

PNG’s Investment Promotion Authority has developed a code of conduct for foreign operators and is talking with them about increasing oversight and a licensing system.

Under PNG law, companies operating for more than 31 days are required to resister with the authority and pay taxes to the Government.

But the authority’s managing director, Ivan Pomelau, told the Herald that monitoring foreign companies to ensure they obtained proper work permits “is quited difficult to enforce given that PNG’s tourism industry is at its infant stage”.

He said a “lot of work needs to be done in terms of regulation and enforcement … [We have] been focusing our effort on marketing and promoting the destination rather than regulating the industry”.

The executive director of the Kokdoa Track Authority, Rod Hillman, said his body was considering a licensing system to help improve safety procedures and standards on the track.

“We’ve gone from 100 people walking along the track a year to a situation where we’ve got around 5000 people walking the track a year. As an industry grows, you want to increase the standard and make the experience for the trekker more reliable and safer experience. A way of doing that is coming in and start licensing operators.”

Mr Hillman said companies and trekking groups sign a code of conduct, but a licensing systems would give authorities the teeth to enforce standards.

“The main problems we’ve had is with independents – people walking without a tour operator. That’s where I’ve had the most troublesome weekends, waiting beside the radio trying to get people out of the track to safety.”

Jonathon Dart
Journalist, SMH

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.

Whilst Australia’s assistance for the Owen Stanley Ranges to be listed as a World Heritage Area is a noble cause our commitment to the preservation of the military heritage of the Kokoda campaign is misguided. It is therefore urgent that responsibility for the development of Kokoda as a military interpretive trail be re-allocated to the Office of Australian War Graves.

This will allow the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts to focus on its area of expertise in assisting the PNG Government to achieve a world heritage listing for the Owen Stanley Range.

In the meantime the Australian Government should immediately withdraw from any planned projects between Owers Corner and Kokoda.  Any assistance should be limited to training local communities in appropriate social and community development in partnership with the PNG Department of Community Services.

Australian assistance in the short term should be restricted to the upgrade of the road between Sogeri and Owers Corner to all-weather capability and the upgrade of the Kokoda Airfield to accommodate a Dash-8 aircraft.

Owers Corner Road

The road between Sogeri and Owers Corner is a disgrace and unsafe in the wet – which is most of the time. The recent expenditure of trekkers’ fees on urgent maintenance was a waste of money and akin to a misappropriation of these funds. If anybody is half-serious about sustainable tourism in PNG then the upgrade of this road should be an urgent priority.

Kokoda Airfield

At the other end of the trail the airfield at Kokoda is also a disgrace. The terminal consists of a concrete slab with a metal roof without walls. There is virtually no seating and no toilets. The paying customer, i.e. trekkers, deserve better.

Since 2001 more than 20 thousand Australians have invested around $100 million to trek across the Kokoda Trail. The GST element of these funds would be sufficient to upgrade the road between Sogeri and Owers Corner and the airfield at Kokoda to safe and respectable standard.

The villagers between Owers Corner and Kokoda are now earning more income than ever before. More than $1 million a year is received in wages and campsite fees. The next important step is to teach them how to work together for the greater benefit of their local communities. The proper PNG agency for this work is the PNG Department of Community Services but thus far they have never been consulted or approached.

There is scope for the villagers to increase their earning potential through the maintenance of the trail in preparation for each trekking season. Such maintenance should not be contracted out, as currently planned, because local people along the trail are more than capable of completing this type of work on their land.

In the last budget the Australian Government allocated $10 million to the Office of Australian War Graves for the development of an interpretative trail in France and Belgium to honour the sacrifice of our World War 1 veterans. The work will be completed in time for the centenary of our ANZAC landings on the Gallipoli peninsula.

The Office of Australian War Graves has a proud record in regard to the development and maintenance of our war graves in foreign lands. The expertise they have, and will further attain as a result of the latest budget allocation, should be applied to the Kokoda Trail which is our World War 11 equivalent.

Conclusion

More detail is available in the following submissions which have been largely ignored this far:
http://niusleta.kokodatreks.com/documents/StrategicPlanfortheKokodaTrailNoPics_000.pdf
http://niusleta.kokodatreks.com/documents/ADiscussionPaperontheKokodaEcoTrekkingIndustryNoPics.pdf
http://niusleta.kokodatreks.com/documents/KTAReportbyPaulMitchell17November2006.pdf
http://niusleta.kokodatreks.com/documents/ManagementFramework-KokodaTrackbyPaulMitchell.pdf
http://niusleta.kokodatreks.com/documents/KTADiscussionPaperbyWarrenBartlettNovember2007.pdf

Action Required

PNG Tourism should commission a research agency to determine why people trek Kokoda and what they would like to see in regard to the future development of the Kokoda Trail.

The PNG Kokoda Track Authority should be required to develop a proper management plan for trekking operations across the Kokoda Trail. This includes the certification of trek operators and campsites, the issue of trek permits, a medical insurance plan for PNG guides and carriers, the identification of landowners, a dispute resolution system, a website that allows for trekkers to provide comment on their experience, etc.

The PNG Central and Northern Provincial Governments should provide a plan for the upgrade of the road between Sogeri and Owers Corner and the Kokoda airfield.

The PNG Department of Community Services should prepare a plan for the development of Community Learning Development Centres in villages along the trail.

The Office of Australian War Graves should commission an interpretative memorial plan for the Kokoda Trail.

The impending LNG project in PNG, together with ongoing mining operations, will create heavy demands for airlines and hotels in Port Moresby. These are already at a premium during the trekking season. Kokoda trekkers (and other adventure tourism) needs should be addressed by PNG Tourism if they wish to develop the industry on a sustainable basis.

Recommendations

1. The Office of Australian War Graves be allocated responsibility for the development of an interpretative trail between Owers Corner and Kokoda.

2. The Australian Department of Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts continue to work in partnership with the PNG Department of Environment and Conservation to achieve a World Heritage listing for the wider Owen Stanley Ranges.

3. PNG Tourism commission a study into the capacity of local airlines and hotels to meet the demand of eco-tourism.

4. The PNG Department of Community Services develop plans for the development of Community Learning Development Centres in villages along the trail.

5. The PNG Kokoda Track Authority developing a proper management plan for the Kokoda trekking industry.

6. PNG Tourism and the PNG Department of Community Services facilitate workshops in selected villagers in Central and Northern Province to determine village community needs and develop short and long term plans.

The Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts was assigned responsibility for Australia’s role and responsibilities in regard to the ‘Joint Understanding’.

Whilst I believe the pursuit of a World Heritage listing is a noble goal it should not be at the expense of the historic military significance of the Kokoda Trail.

I believe the Kokoda Trail should be developed as a national memorial trail that reflects the military significance of the Kokoda campaign.

This should be separated from the feasibility study for a World Heritage nomination for the broader Owen Stanley Ranges and be reallocated to the Office of the Australian War Graves Commission.

Background

The Kokoda Trail had been virtually ignored by successive Australian governments since the end of the war in 1945. It was not until former Prime Minister Paul Keating attended the 50th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign in PNG in 1992 that it resonated again in our national consciousness.

Unfortunately the Department of Veterans Affairs had no vision and no plan for Kokoda at the time. On 18 February 2001 the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Bruce Scott MP, wrote: ‘It will come as no surprise to you then that the ‘Government Master Plan’ of which you inquire ‘for the development of the Kokoda Track as a national memorial park’ does not exist ‘.

In spite of this official apathy public awareness increased with the publication of a number of best-selling books on Kokoda and the screening of television features.

Villagers along the track soon began to agitate for increased benefits from the emerging trekking industry. Prior to 2002 they did not have a co-ordinated forum to express their concerns so they took direct action and blocked the track in various places.

During negotiations to re-open the track after a lengthy blockage at Kovello a trek permit system was implemented and a trek fee of PNGK200 was introduced. The purpose of the trek fee was to ensure that villagers received shared benefits from the emerging trekking industry.

The PNG Kokoda Track Authority was established in 2004 and an Australian expatriate and former Kiap, Mr Warren Bartlett, was appointed as Chief Executive on a salary of A$13,000. He was not allocated any staff.

A Board of Directors was appointed but they were not qualified for the role. The Board quickly became dysfunctional and more than a $1 million was misappropriated.

Neither the Australian nor PNG governments displayed any interest in the dysfunction of the Authority until a proposal to mine a section of the Kokoda Trail became public.

The resultant outcry caused an over-reaction from the Australian government. It was obviously decided that the best protection against any future applications to mine or log any part of the trail would be to have it listed as a World Heritage site.

The Heritage Division of the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts was allocated responsibility for working with the PNG Department of Environment and Conservation to bring this about.

A new Board was appointed by the PNG Government and Australian representatives from the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts were assigned to work with the Authority and the PNG Department of Environment and Conservation.

Joint Understanding

A Joint Understanding covering ‘both the sustainable development of communities along the Kokoda Track corridor, and protection and sustainable use of the natural and cultural resources of the broader Owen Stanley Ranges region’ was signed on 23 April 2008.

The first hint of our ‘big brother’ approach is our refusal to use the official name as recorded on the statute books of the PNG Government i.e. ‘The Kokoda Trail’ (PNG Government Gazette No. 88 of 12 October 1972, page 1362, column 2. Notice 1972/28 of the PNG Place Names Committee refers).

Of more concern is the fact that the Joint Understanding does not contain any references to the military significance of the Kokoda Trail. The words ‘Kokoda campaign – military history – memorials – battlesites – etc’ do not rate a mention in the entire document. I regard this as a serious omission.

Process

From my viewpoint – as a trek operator, a trek leader with 55 crossings of the trail over the past 18 years, the son of a New Guinea veteran, a Vietnam Veteran with 21 years army service, and one with a long term interest in the preservation of the military history of the Kokoda campaign – the process seems to be seriously flawed thus far.

There has obviously been a lot of activity at the departmental level as representatives have been assigned to PNG and others have flown into villages by chartered aircraft to familiarise themselves with their needs.

There has also been much talk – a conference with academics in Canberra, superficial meetings with trek operators, and discussions with other ‘stakeholders’. To date these have not yielded any identifiable outcomes along the track.

For example one of the objectives in the Joint Understanding was to ‘address immediate needs for the 2008 trekking season and create interim Kokoda Track management arrangements’.

I have trekked Kokoda six times since April 2008 and I can report that not a single outcome has been achieved in this regard – and we are now well into the 2009 trekking season!

Another objective was to conduct ‘an economic participation study to cover such options as agriculture, food services for trekkers, and participation in delivering development programs’.

Nothing has happened in this regard!

I have advised of the availability of an agricultural scientist who is fluent in Tok Pisin and Motu and has worked extensively in Melanesia. That person has written extensively on the needs of the Koiari and has previously worked for the (now-defunct) Koiari Development Corporation. He is currently living in semi-retirement in Australia and is willing and able to live in villages for extended periods of time to assist them with agricultural development and value-adding activities. He would also be able to provide valuable feedback on the cultural and environmental impact of the current trekking industry.

My requests to engage this person over the past 18 months have been ignored.

I understand AusAID has completed a survey of the Kokoda Trail but this has not been distributed to trek operators or villagers for comment. This is not conducive to an atmosphere of trust between the key stakeholders and the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts.

I could go on!

Outcomes

Whilst there has obviously been a great deal of departmental activity in regard to the Joint Understanding I can report that, after 15 months, there has not been a single outcome on the track. For example:

• There is no credible Trek Permit system in place
• There is no campsite booking system.
• There is no trek operator accreditation system.
• There is no standardised medical clearance form for trekkers.
• There is no co-ordinated system for medical evacuations in place.
• There is no campsite accreditation system in place.
• There is not a single environmental toilet between Owers Corner and Kokoda.
• There has been no attempt to identify clan leaders and landowners along the track.
• There has not been a single workshop in either the Koiari or Orokaiva areas on the track to identify villager needs.
• There is no minimum standard of pay and conditions for PNG trek guides and carriers.
• There is no training or development system in place to assist villagers to ‘value-add’ to the opportunities presented by trekkers passing through their villages.
• No action has been taken to identify (and make safe) unexploded ordnance along the trail.
• There is no plan to upgrade the road between Sogeri and Owers Corner to a safe all-weather standard.

The Australian Trekker

Australian trekkers make a significant commitment in both money and time when they decide to trek Kokoda. In return for this investment they need to be assured they will be safe and that they will learn about the military history of the Kokoda campaign; the culture of the Koiari and Orokaiva people along the track; and the physical environment.

They also expect to have hygienic toilet and ablution facilities at campsites along the trail.

Trekkers are the basic building block of a sustainable trekking industry along the Kokoda Trail. Without them there are no benefits for villagers to share. Unfortunately their needs have been ignored thus far.

The Koiari/Orokaiva Villager

The land in question is owned by traditional Koiari and Orokaiva landowners. The tracks connecting villages between Owers Corner and Kokoda have special significance to our military heritage because of the desperate campaign fought across it during the period 27 July to 2 November 1942.

Clans along the Kokoda Trail are the custodians of land sacred to our military heritage. They will protect and nurture our battlesites provided they receive benefits for doing so.

Villagers are currently missing out on significant potential earnings because they are yet to be taught the concept of ‘value-adding’.

Teaching them to wash and dry trekkers gear, brew coffee, bake scones and produce village billum bags is not PhD stuff. This year they will miss out on the opportunity to earn at least PNGK 1 million because of a lack of basic training in these areas.

The construction of interpretative memorials at significant sites on their land will also provide them with an incentive to further ‘value-add’ to a trekkers Kokoda experience.

Stakeholders

There are many people and organisations of goodwill who want to do good things as a result of their Kokoda experience.

If this is harnessed in a co-ordinated way the PNG government would not have to spend any funds along the trail for education or health services. This would allow them to work with Provincial and Local Level Governments to support Koiari and Orokaiva villages in remote areas off the trail.

Currently there is no plan – and there is no co-ordination. The end result is that inappropriate memorial structures have been erected; inappropriate structures have been build for health and education purposes; and village children are showing signs of tooth decay because of the amount of lollies handed out.

Two recent examples indicate the state of planning flux in the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts:

• During the last two weeks of this month a team from the Kokoda Track Foundation was dispatched to Kokoda to do a ‘livelihood study’ in villages along the track. It seems that the PNG Kokoda Track Authority did not know they were doing it until they arrived in country. The Kokoda Track Foundation is a registered charity – their lack of experience with villagers along the track means they were ill-equipped for the task. Nobody seems to have been consulted on the tender process, the terms of reference; or the desired outcomes for the study.

• On 31st March we received a request to assist a company who has been asked to tender for a ‘Condition Analysis’ of the 96 Km Kokoda Trail. We do not know if the tender refers to today’s popular eco-tourist track; the wartime trail, the original route of the 39th Battalion; the eastern side of the Yodda Valley where the 53rd Battalion fought; or the connecting tracks to and from Lake Myola 1 and 2. We do not know what the terms of reference are, or the required outcomes. The company has been given 5 days time to submit their tender!

These studies are a sham and are obviously motivated by the need to spend money before the end of the current financial year. Neither study is related to an assessment of the military heritage of the trail; the needs of the paying customer i.e. the trekker; or the needs of villagers who will shortly be getting fed up with the number of inexperienced and ill-informed consultants asking banal questions about their needs and lifestyles.

Non-government, community and charitable organisations not involved in trekking should also be encouraged to direct their goodwill to village areas remote from the Kokoda Trail as part of a strategy to ensure shared benefits are more widely spread.

The Kokoda Honeypot Effect

I first trekked Kokoda in 1991. In 1994 I submitted a paper on the need to develop Kokoda as a national memorial park. In 2000 I founded the Kokoda Track Foundation to develop a strategic plan for Kokoda. This was completed and presented to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and the Australian Minister for Veterans Affairs in 2006.

My purpose has always been to develop Kokoda as a model that could be used for other Pacific War battlesites in PNG – the Black Cat Track, Shaggy Ridge, Buna/Gona, Rabaul, etc.

Unfortunately everybody has flocked to Kokoda. There are now more than 30 trek operators and a myriad of other stakeholder organisations seeking to do ‘good things’ along the trail. It risks being overwhelmed with goodwill while nearby villages off the track are neglected. This has the potential to lead to dissent and disruption in the longer term. For example landowners on Mt Victoria are continually sabotaging the VHF communications tower.

We therefore need a strategic plan to get a proper balance in our approach to honouring the legacy of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and coastwatchers throughout New Guinea during the Pacific War.

Ministerial Responsibility

In the latest budget an amount of $10 million was allocated to the Office of Australian War Graves Commission for the development of an interpretative trail in France and Belgium to honour the sacrifice of our veterans in WW1.

The same approach needs to be adopted for Kokoda which is our interpretative trail for WW11.

Conclusion

Kokoda is a national shrine. The trail between Owers Corner and Kokoda contains battlesites sacred to our military heritage. The expertise gained by the Office of Australian War Graves in the development and management of the interpretive trail in France and Belgium should be applied to Kokoda.

The Office of Australian War Graves should establish a close partnership with the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts who administer the Act that has Kokoda listed as an Overseas Area of Special Significance. The Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts s also responsible for the broader long-term goal of working with the Government of PNG to achieve a World Heritage listing.

The Office of Australian War Graves should also work in partnership with PNG Tourism to develop models for visits and treks to other significant military historical sites throughout PNG.

Recommendation

I recommend that responsibility for the development of an interpretive trail between Owers Corner and Kokoda be transferred from the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts to the Office of Australian War Graves.

Charlie Lynn
Adventure Kokoda
PO Box 303
Camden
NSW 2570
charlie@kokodatreks.com.au

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.

Then came the war. Kokoda was the first pitched battle fought against the Japanese. It signaled the beginning of a campaign where Australia’s fate hung in the balance as our diggers fought a fanatical enemy, treacherous terrain, legions of deadly mites, malarial mosquitoes, venomous snakes – and cold fear.

But the enemy our commanders feared most was the ignorance of the armchair generals and bureaucrats. ‘Build a road!’ – ‘blow the Gap!’ – ‘die at Imita!’ – they bellowed from the safety of  cocooned offices in their parallel universe back in Australia.  They didn’t appreciate, from their limited knowledge of the ground and its intricacies, just what was needed to do the important job at hand.

Some things never change.

After decades of neglect by successive Australian Governments Kokoda is beginning to stir in our national consciousness. Political correctness, ridiculous OH&S laws and layers of social safety nets have all but transformed Australians into a risk averse society.  ‘Koko’ ‘da’ now presents an opportunity for them to pay respect to the lives of our diggers – and give some meaning to their own.

Australians from all walks of life now want to walk in the footsteps of the brave and ‘do it tough’ as a mark of respect to a generation who grew from the challenge of adversity. 

A common theme among those who take up the challenge is ‘to do it like our diggers did it!’  They don’t want environmental boardwalks – they want mud. They don’t want an eco-evangelical levitation – they want the historical hardship of the track. They don’t want to be clean and green – they want to be dirty and sweaty. They don’t want Kakadu – they want Kokoda!  The Trek gives participants that special feeling that they are treading sacred ground, not without good reason!

But Kokoda is in danger of being transformed into a monument to environmentalism rather than a living memorial to our diggers.  It shouldn’t be “fenced off” but used in the proper way that befits its dedication to the memory of the brave sacrifices of the Australian and New Guinea defenders who trod this track during WWII.  The custodians of our military history seem to have been sidelined in the process of developing the track between Owers Corner and Kokoda as a memorial trail .

In last year’s five page ‘Joint Understanding between PNG and Australia on the Kokoda Track (sic) and Owen Stanley Ranges’ the word ‘memorial’ or ‘battlesite’ is not mentioned – once!

The document is peppered with the new language of the global warmers – ‘carbon partnerships’, ‘national forest carbon accounting systems’, ‘future international emissions trading’, ‘REDD demonstration activities and global climate stability underpinning global eco-systems, etc. etc. etc’.

‘Military heritage’ has been replaced by ‘World heritage’.

The Joint Understanding commits to ‘deploying experts to the PNG Department of the Environment and Conservation to facilitate PNG Government processes to enable identification and consideration of a proposed World Heritage Site, etc. etc’. No mention is made of deploying military historians to identify battlesites sacred to our heritage, to dispatch bomb disposal experts to assess the dangers of unexploded ordnance along the track, or experts from our War Memorial to establish a similar institution in Port Moresby. The preservation of our joint military heritage does not rate a mention.

It is easy to interpret ‘joint understandings’ between Australia and PNG as a euphemism for ‘big brother’. It’s OK for Australia to send ‘experts’ to PNG but we continue to deny them access to our seasonal markets even though our farmers have desperate labour shortages. It is easier for a PNG citizen to get a casual job in London than in Brisbane. Proper ‘joint understandings’ don’t have one-way valves!

This fact is not lost on leaders in PNG.

Trekker numbers have grown exponentially over the years – from 76 in 2001 to more than 6000 in 2008. We watched as an inexperienced and unqualified authority was established to manage our sacred ground along the track. We watched as it morphed into a self-indulgent system of corruption. We have calculated the benefits to the PNG economy to be around $15 million dollars in 2008 but we shy away from the fact that very little reaches the villages along the track. It is little wonder that landowners are attracted to mining and forestry opportunities.

The Australian – PNG Joint Understanding committed to ‘addressing immediate needs for the 2008 trekking season and create interim Kokoda Track management arrangements’. This is the most important priority when the froth and bubble has been cleared from the document. But as thousands of Australians make the pilgrimage across the track we failed to meet this key commitment. Nothing happened.

And as we are now well into the 2009 trekking season and still nothing has happened!

Two trekkers have died. The track has been closed at Kovello. There is no proper trek permit system. There is no campsite booking system – or accreditation system. There is no need for a medical clearance. No need to submit a trek itinerary. No need for qualified expedition leaders. No requirement to carry satellite phones. No co-ordinated medical evacuation system. No minimum pay and conditions for PNG guides and trekkers. No community development program for villagers. Nothing.

Rumour has it that there is much feverish activity in the parallel universe of the Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts in Canberra. This activity is obviously directed towards the application for a World Heritage Listing for the area. 

It is time we said good bye to this well intentioned but misguided concept.

It’s time we refocused on the need to preserve and honour the military historical integrity of the Kokoda Trail. There are plenty of other areas in Papua New Guinea where eco-evangelists can get their rocks off. They should be encouraged to go and find them.

We need to take the following actions steps to ensure Kokoda takes its proper place as a jungle shrine. We need to understand that it is the most significant pilgrimage an Australian can make in search of the qualities that define our national character.

We need to ensure departments entrusted with the preservation of our military heritage such as the Australian War Graves Commission, the Australian War Memorial, Defence and our ex-Service community have input into assisting our Papua New Guinean cousins to care for our sacred sites from the Pacific War.

We need to demonstrate that villages along the Kokoda Trail, and other battlesites throughout Papua New Guinea, will have a sustainable economic future as a result of our emerging interest in the Pacific War. This is key to the future of the track!

Kokoda is a pilgrimage for those who had a relative serve in the war. It is a ‘rite of passage’ for young Australians from different lands and cultures. It is a bridge for those who want to learn more about our military history and our Melanesian neighbours.

In the recent budget the Government announced $10 million dollars to develop an interpretive trail in France and Belgium so that visitors to the area can understand the contribution and the sacrifice Australians made for freedom.

In the same budget absolutely nothing was allocated towards the development of an interpretive trail between Owers Corner and Kokoda!

For this reason alone the responsibility for the development of the Kokoda Trail as a National Memorial Trail should be transferred to the Australian War Graves Commission.

The Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts should continue with their assistance to achieve World Heritage listings in partnership with their Papua New Guinea counterparts. There is much to be done to provide a sustainable alternative to the ravages of the logging and mining industries in the country. A review of Ministerial Media Releases indicates that these areas are their raison d’être – of the 340 media releases issued over the past 12 months only one refers to Kokoda!

Now we understand why the words ‘military heritage’ and ‘memorials’ were not included in the Joint Understanding signed over 12 months ago.

Now we understand why nothing has been done – apart from a few smoke and mirror demonstrations – across the Kokoda Trail during the past two trekking seasons.

Now we understand why the responsibility for the preservation of our military heritage along the Kokoda Trail has not been given the due attention it urgently needs it must be reallocated to the Office of the Australian War Graves Commission as a matter of priority.

Lest we Forget!

Elders maintain their distance and examine trekkers with furrowed brows and quiet curiosity as they arrive, collapse, rest, hand out a few balloons, ask a few shallow questions, shake hands, and wave goodbye.  Most elders speak Motu, some speak Tok Pisin, but their English is often poor or non-existent.  This limits their communication to friendly smiles and a wave of the hand.  But mostly they just look.

Village children are not inhibited.  Their natural curiosity brings them into close contact with trekkers.  Their English is good enough for basic conversations and there is much giggling and game playing. 

Teenagers are half-way between.  They are shy but will come together to greet trekkers and can be easily convinced to sing.  Angelic voices in perfect harmony are much appreciated by trekkers who are usually too embarrassed to respond with anything more than a few bars of Waltzing Matilda!

The most moving demonstration of the depth of clan relationships is the mourning of the loss of a loved one.  Family and friends trek in from nearby villages and gather at the home of the deceased family.  The coffin is draped with a sheet, decorated with flowers and candles are placed on and around it.  The mother sits silently beside it.  The father sits with the men.  Kinfolk from the clan gather together and roll out a mat.  Then they sing.  The melancholy mood of the clan is uplifted in perfect harmony as the sound of beautiful hymns permeates through the darkness of the village. 

In the early hours of the morning the wailing begins.  Voices seem to be pleading with God to let him or her stay.  Women cry.  Men raise their voices in ever increasing crescendos.  Children weep openly and call out his or her name.  It is unsettling for the visitor who now feels like an intruder among the grieving.

Then all of a sudden it’s silent.  Deadly silent.  Nobody moves.  Bright stars one can almost touch are the only feature one can see in the silence of the darkness.

I am trekking with a group of young surfies from Cronulla, some young Muslims from Bankstown and a couple of young ‘angels’ from Port Moresby Grammar School.  They ask if it would be OK to say a prayer before we move off.  We pay our respects to the family and in turn a Christian blessing, an Arabic song and a Pidgin prayer gives comfort to the gathered clans.  If there is such a thing as the magic of human harmony we have just experienced it.  We are as one with each other and with the grieving clans in Efogi.

Our Koiari and Orokaiva guides come from villages along the track.  They have filtered among the gathering to share their grief.  They pick up our packs and silently move off behind us.

It is a poignant reminder of the comforting strength of family/clan life.  We now feel much closer to our guides and try to work out how best we can help them after we return to our homes in the land of plenty.

The villagers have been largely unaffected by the emerging interest in Kokoda and the increase in trekker numbers from a handful in the 1990s to around 6,000 in 2008.  They know there is a lot of money around somewhere.  They know the trekkers pay a fee of $100 each to trek Kokoda.  They wonder where it all goes to because virtually nothing gets through to them.  They would like to know who is coming to their village and when they will be arriving.  They would like to be able to ‘value add’ but they don’t know how – and nobody has turned up to teach them.  They would like help in improving their schools and their aid posts in a sustainable way.  But they have been left to their own resources and the first signs of discontent are becoming apparent.

As we become more familiar with them they become more approachable.  During our campfire chats they share their feelings through our guides.  They want the children in the village to go to school.  They want some medicine.  They would like a radio. 

Their demands are simple and achievable.  We have started a ‘Yumi Helpim Pikinnini’ program.  Our trekkers are provided with a list of school supplies, sporting gear, books that can be carried or flown into villages.  Each trek group is allocated a pre-designated village and when they arrive, all the gear is laid out and presented to the children.   This is the only way we can guarantee delivery in PNG!

Our trekkers love it because it makes them feel good.  The village children love it because they have a regular flow of school ‘presents’.  The elder like it because they see the beginning of shared benefits beginning to flow through.

PNG can be a difficult place to help.  They face insurmountable social challenges in the land of a thousand tribes.  They can be frustrating to deal with because they don’t see the value or urgency of things as we do (lucky them!).  Corruption (as we understand it) seems to be part of their DNA!

But earn their respect and you will not meet a more loyal, gentle, helpful and pleasant group of people on this planet.  They are the best trekking companions you will ever have in the jungle.  They are the most hospitable of hosts in their villages.  And they love and respect Australian trekkers today just as much as their fathers and grandfathers did yesterday.
It’s easy to keep going back – but we have to work harder and smarter in ensuring they receive shared benefits from the emerging trekking industry.

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.

Alfreda and Margaret have been back from the track a few weeks but it is obvious talking to them that surviving the Kokoda Track has done them a lot of good and when they tell their story, it is a fresh as if it was just yesterday. The power of that reality is that many more young people will be motivated and inspired. The crowning act of Alfreda and Margaret’s experience is the harnessing of youth power to direct change; the importance of it being that the future belongs to the youth. This is Alfreda and Margaret’s story of how they survived the Kokoda Track and become known as Charlie’s angels, completed with certificates to prove their conquest.

Their adventure lasted six days between April 02nd and 03rd May when 15 other young Australians calling themselves ‘Mateship Kokoda’ came up from Sydney. The Australian team was led by New South Wales MP and Adventure Kokoda legend Charlie Lynn. It included two other MPs; Scott Morrison and Jason Clare. The idea behind it was to heal the wounds of the Cronulla beach race riots.

Charlie Lynn sponsors Alfreda’s education so he included her in the tour and grabbing the opportunity the school picked Margaret to accompany her. Both girls are very personable, charming and charismatic which is not surprising especially when your dad works in a media organisation. Margaret’s late father John Aitsi worked for the Post Courier as a Company Secretary for many years and retired very recently. She is a bright spark so the school made an excellent choice by selecting her for the interaction with the Australian youths on the track. Pressed by the Australians to sing the national anthem, the two girls granted the wish, adding much nationalistic flavour to the walk. Feeling encouraged, Alfreda and Margaret also cited the pledge which amazed their Australian companions. To hear young voices singing the anthem and saying the pledge in the bush with a deep historic background seemed to turn nostalgia into fanfare and the girls felt it. “The feeling that overcome us was really special, quite unique and we felt really proud that moment to be Papua New Guineans and that this was our land where the history linked us to our future.”

They said they expected Kokoda Track to be remote and rugged but they did not expect the mountains to be so steep. “It was very challenging. Just learning history does not tell you about the physical side so you do not feel the hardship. So experiencing the physical side brought appreciation and we now fell very grateful to the fuzzy-wuzzy angels for what they did”.

We saw how very remote the villages are; they lack transportation, health and education. It was sad to see villages walking across those mountains in search of transport to come to the city.

We had very good porters who were willing to take all risks for us and they were the descendants of the fuzzy-wuzzy angels of World War 11 fame. Australians witnessed this at first hand and this is what defines Papua new Guineans. The popular view is that the world judges by the bad things that happen. But when you meet the people, you get a totally different picture and it happened on the track.

After 67 years, we walked the path the 39th battalion of the Australian Army took in 1942 and we were welcome with open arms by the villages. The way they sang songs and how they looked solemn and stood still touched everyone. We feel our school has made an important contribution to the future of the track because the Australians want to make more use of our school in their ‘Mateship Kokoda’ initiative.
We were asked by the visiting Australians about our feelings of the track and we said that the track should not be modernised; it should be the saved in its pristine state. We also said that the porters and guides should be insured and that they should carry two-way radios. The Australians said they would look into our recommendations.

It was the singing of the national anthem that earned them the tag: Charlie’s angels. But everyone agreed at the end of the journey that they had survived Kokoda.

The group was airlifted from Kokoda and had an audience with the Australian High Commissioner Chris Moraitis in Port Moresby during which Alfreda and Margaret’s recommendations were raised. A solemn visit to the Bomana War Cemetery and a camp at Sogeri sealed their conquest of the track and they split with a memorable meal at the Aviat Club.

Apart from the steep mountains, were there any other shocks? Margaret: when we got to Owers corner, the toilets were quite interesting. There was just a hole and you had to stand to do your business (giggle). The Aussies expected the road to be sealed. Here in the city we take things for granted; there are people out there who need it most, they are the people who need help. The climate was very pleasant. At Myola, I asked if the children were in the gardens. The villages were beautiful but the place seemed deserted; there was an aid post, though”.

To conclude their “Mateship Kokoda” connectedness the trek group were invited to Port Moresby Grammar School where a school assembly was not only designed to welcome back Margaret & Alfredah but to include their fellow trekkers from Australia in the Papua New Guinea way of education. Everyone had a fabulous time, especially when this involved the visitors dancing with the Pom Grammar Preps in doing the Margarema.

Sydney Drive-By Shootings

The Hon. CHARLIE LYNN: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Police, Minister for Lands, and Minister for Rural Affairs. Is he aware that Port Moresby is regarded as one of the most dangerous cities in our region? Is he also aware that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a longstanding travel alert on its website warning Australians of the dangers they face when travelling to Port Moresby? Is the Minister aware of recent media reports that there have been 80 drive-by shootings in Sydney this year? Is he also aware there have been no drive-by shootings in Port Moresby in that time? What action is the Minister taking or has taken to ensure that the Papua New Guinea National Government does not publish a travel alert for Sydney to warn Papua New Guinea citizens of the dangers they face in any planned visit to our once peaceful city?

The Hon. Greg Donnelly: Point of order: Mr President, members opposite would be well aware that on 12 March you gave a detailed ruling on the nature and formation of questions. The question is outside the purview of the Minister. It relates to matters under the control of the Commonwealth and therefore it should be ruled out of order.

The Hon. Duncan Gay: To the point of order: The Government almost on a daily basis, especially during Federal election campaigns, seems to wander across this area and blur the lines. It is up to the Minister how he answers the question.

The Hon. CHARLIE LYNN: Further to the point of order: Those of us in Australia who read the daily newspapers are aware of the dangers posed by drive-by shootings. That is why they have travel alerts to warn people—

The PRESIDENT: Order! Standing Order 64 (1) provides that questions may be put to Ministers relating to public affairs with which the Minister is officially connected. I fail to see how matters relating to a foreign government would come under the purview of a Minister in this House. The question is out of order.