The Rise, Fall and Future of Kokoda Tourism
The term ‘Kokoda Trail’ was recommended by the PNG Place Names Committee in the lead-up to Independence in 1972.
The recommendation was accepted and gazetted by the PNG Government on 12 October 1972.
For reasons unknown, the Australian Government refuses to recognise PNGs sovereign right to name their own geographic features – they prefer to use their own politically correct term, ‘Kokoda Track’.
This is a rejection of PNGs sovereign right to name their geographic features’.
They also refuse to accept the name of the official battle honour, ‘Kokoda Trail’, awarded to the Papuan Infantry Battalion and the nine Australian infantry battalions who fought in the Kokoda campaign in 1942 by the Commonwealth Battles Nomenclature Committee
There are no known records that officially recognise the term ‘Kokoda Track’.
