Adventure Kokoda Blog

Major Matthew Vine, Second-in-Command of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, was guest speaker at the official Remembrance Day Service held at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, Sydney.  The service was attended by the Governor, Her Excellency, Marie Bashir; the Premier of New South Wales, The Hon Barry O’Farrell, the President of the RSL, Mr Don Rowe AM and representatives from the armed services, ex-service organisations, the consular corps and schools.

Major Vine:

The 19^th Century poet Tennyson wrote: ’Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is but to do and die’.

When the call for volunteers went out a nation answered.

The nation was new and the nation was bold.

The people were toughened by the unforgiving land and forged in a bond of nationality.

The threat was not to them directly and indeed the call came from a land far away. (more…)

Lynette Silver is Australia’s most authoritive historian on the Sandakan Death March.  She is the author of the acclaimed book ‘Sandakan – a conspiracy of silence’ and numerous papers on the Death March.  Her investigative research exposed two of the most outrageous imposters in recent years, Rex Crane and Marcel Caux.

She is now investigating claims made by Wayne Wetherall, owner of Kokoda Spirit and Sandakan Spirit. She has recently filed this report:

‘In 2010, Wayne Wetherall, an Australian tour operator, undertook a trek along the 1945 POW death march track in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, with TYK Adventure Tours, a small company owned by a local man Tham Yau Kong. After recording the route on a GPS, Wetherall announced that he intended to conduct his own treks. In order to promote and attract business he then registered, as his internet domain name, a name that was identical (apart from a hyphen) to that used by TYK since 2005. He also downloaded, without permission, historical material copyrighted exclusively to me, onto his own website. (more…)

I enjoyed immensly Rowan Tracey’s essay in the June issue (United Service 61 (2) 24-29,2010).  Tracey strongly supports what I and Brigadier Casrey have been saying for years.  What is more, he presents his material so logically and progressively that it leaves little room to disagree with his conclusions.  Three facts are significant here:

. The Kokoda Trail campaign has never been properly analysed from the viewpoint of  ground and tactics.

. There was never any ill-feeling by Allen towards Blamey.  Blamey’s ADC told me  that Blamey visited Allen in Darwin as soon as he could and they spent until dawn yarning in a convivial way.

.  Rowell was the first of the war’s senior officers to come out to present himself in the best possible light.  Blamey declined to write his memoirs for the noble reason that the war was over and he had no wish to damage any of those who fought.

There are three types of military historians: journalist historians, who show little respect for the facts in order to tell a good story; academic historians, who have the time and facilities to unearth new and valuable information, but mainly at the political and strategic levels; and soldier historians, who are the only ones one can trust at the tactical level, for they have been taught to understand the key factor – ground.  Peter Pedersen of the Australian War Memorial is one I have always admired for the latter quality, and now we have Rowan Tracey, who I hope goes on to write further.

Major-General G. L. Maitland AO OBE FRD ED (Retd)
North Turramurra
2 July 2010

Rowan Tracey’s article can be read at:  http://blog.kokodatreks.com/2010/07/21/conflict-in-command-during-the-kokoda-campaign-of-1942-did-general-blamey-deserve-the-blame-2/

The following Eology for Stan Bisset MC OAM MID was given by John Davis at Albert Park on 21 October 2010:

The last time I saw Stan was on the 20th of September; and he was, as usual, hungry for news about the Camp and Power House; his eyes always lit up just at the mention. (more…)

The dramatic downturn in Kokoda trekker numbers, around 54 per cent in 2010, is causing some trek operators to compensate by overloading their PNG support crews. A recent backpack weight check at Owers Corner found that some porters were burdened with backpacks weighing up to 31 kg. The Ranger conducting the check said others were weighing in at up to 36 kg. This far exceeds the recommended weight of 20 kg in the KTA Code of Conduct for trek operators.

This exploitation of local carriers would not have been allowed in 1942 and it should not be allowed today. (more…)

The PNG Government has officially proclaimed Kokoda Day as 3 November – the anniversary of the day the Australian flag was raised on the Kokoda plateau.  The day will be dedicated to the PNG War Carriers (of ‘fuzzy-wuzzy angel fame).  The inagural Kokoda Day ceremony will be held in Kokoda on 3 November 2010. 

The proclamation was the result of a proposal submitted by Charlie Lynn of Adventure Kokoda.  Charlie made the following speech to the NSW Parliament on 2 May 2006: (more…)

When I first trekked Kokoda in 1991 I was both surprised and disappointed at the neglect of such an important part of our military heritage. The track bypassed the famous ‘Golden Staircase’ on Imita Ridge; major battlesites had been reclaimed by the jungle; ordnance from the campaign lay rusting in the mud, no official monuments or memorials had been erected; and the people who had supported us so selflessly during our hour of need had been forgotten.

It was evident that the Kokoda Trail had been ignored by successive Australian Governments since the end of the Pacific War in 1945. (more…)

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has unveiled a new website containing details and photos of overseas war memorials dedicated to Australian service personnel.

The Overseas Memorials Search website allows viewers to access details and photographs of over 110 official and privately constructed overseas memorials honouring Australian service.

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Alan Griffin said the website would make planning a visit to an overseas memorial easier for Australians. (more…)

Macleay Argus by Luke Horton

SIX days into walking Kokoda Olivia Pratley had had enough.

Physically she was being worked harder than ever before.

Mentally and emotionally, she was struggling being away from her beloved family in a foreign country amidst some of the most remote – and technologically isolated – terrain on earth. (more…)

Despite the deaths Australians are drawn to take the challenge, writes Erik Jensen from the Sydney Morning Herald, who has just completed the RSL Services Clubs Kokoda Youth Challenge with Adventure Kokoda .

There are not the words in Koiari to ask about Kokoda’s spirit. That is an Australian construct, and a reasonably modern one: the sort that made Paul Keating bend down and kiss the earth at Kokoda in 1992, that wrote the word ”mateship” on the memorial built there a decade later, and sends almost 6000 Australians down the track each year. (more…)