‘Olgeta,

‘We met 31 years ago when you welcomed me into your villages on my first trek with Alex Rama in 1991. At the time you told me that few people trekked across the Trail – less than 100 each year – and you only made a few kina selling your vegetables at markets.

‘The following year Paul Keating put Kokoda on the map when he became the first Australian Prime Minister to visit the plateau since the war. He was moved by the experience and his words resonated throughout Australia.

‘The first 20 trekkers I led across the trail to honour the 50th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign in 1992 were also moved by the significance of the occasion; the traditional welcomes you provided; and the support of your guides and carriers.

‘Over the next couple of years more trekkers came and we started to get to know each other better.

‘Sadly, the interest created by the media during Keating’s historic visit – and the expectations they created – evaporated soon after he left.

‘Our next opportunity to showcase the Trail came with the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.

‘You will recall that we proposed the Olympic Torch be run across the trail on its way from Athens in Greece to Sydney. We knew it would take you less than 24 hours to get it across with the event being beamed to millions around the world.

‘Unfortunately, it was not to be – you were conned by the Sydney Olympic organizers who only allowed you to run it from Owers Corner to Port Moresby.

‘Governor Siembo felt so aggrieved he closed the Trail with a demand for compensation on your behalf. The Australian Government didn’t seem to care much as Kokoda was not on their radar at the time. However, the closure had a negative impact on your village economies as you had no income for many months.

‘I made a visit to Port Moresby to meet with Governor Siembo in Parliament House at Waigani to discuss the issue.

‘I was unable to meet the demands he made on your behalf however I suggested he could impose a fee on trekkers which could be held by a management body similar to how our we manage our National Parks in Australia. A fee would ensure your village communities received shared benefits from trekkers.

‘He agreed and the trail was reopened.

‘After we rediscovered the original battlesite of Isurava Prime Minister John Howard commissioned a memorial to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the campaign in 2002. This led to a continuing increase in the number of trekkers.

‘We then set about establishing a management body for the trail. You will recall that neither of our governments were much interested in supporting it at the time although Sir Peter Barter, your Minister for Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, did approve a Special Purpose Authority and a former kiap, Mr Warren Bartlett, was appointed to manage it with a part-time assistant.

‘Unfortunately, neither Government would provide any financial support at the time so our company, Adventure Kokoda, advanced K25,000 to Mr Bartlett to allow him to operate for the first few months until trek fees started to flow – we did this because we believed in the potential of the Kokoda Trail to be a world class pilgrimage destination – we have never wavered from this belief since then.

‘We copped a bit of flack for this at the time as other trek operators did not want to have to pay a fee but eventually, they were shamed into falling into line.

‘Trekker numbers continued to increase under Warren Bartlett’s management of the new Kokoda Track (Special Purpose) Authority – which became known as the KTA – and benefits were returned to your villages as agreed.

‘The discovery of a large gold and copper deposit on the southern slopes of the Trail emerged as a major threat to trekking when bulldozers appeared in the Ofi Creek area. Government intervention stopped the mine however it was soon to be replaced by another more insidious threat – Australian Government bureaucracy!

‘The sudden rush of environmental officials from Canberra was reminiscent of author Keith Wileys’ observation in his book, ‘Assignment in New Guinea’ in 1965‘:

‘In recent years the academics have discovered New Guinea. Grave, plump, portentous, they swarm north in their hundreds each winter, generally finishing somewhere near Goroka in the Eastern Highlands where at times they become so numerous that every bush and stone seems to conceal a lurking bureaucrat or anthropologist.  After a few weeks or a few months they return home to prepare brisk solutions for all the problems which beset the land.  Too often they see New Guinea coldly as an exercise in nation-building to be carried out as quickly as possible, with one eye on the taxpayer at home and the other on some ranting demagogue in the United Nations.

‘At times the maligned colonialists, who walked ever the country and fought for it, seem to come nearer the heart of the matter.  Stripped of slogans and self-interest, New Guinea emerges not as a ‘problem’; to be ‘solved’, or assessed , but simply as a land, wild and beautiful, worthy to be loved for its own sake; with a people, backward, kindly, and in need of help’ .

‘A similar analogy could be drawn today between bureaucrats on secure incomes and trek operators who accept risk to create economic opportunities.

‘Since Australian officials, flush with Government money, arrived to ‘help’ you in 2009 trekker number have declined by 46% – the management system they put in place has failed you – and the value of our shared wartime heritage has been relegated.

‘This has resulted in a collective loss of K49 million in foregone wages, campsite fees and village purchases since Australia assumed responsibility for your Trail 1n 2009.

‘So, after 100 treks over 31 years, I feel I need to make the following apologies to you in my capacity as the son of a digger who fought in New Guinea; as a Vietnam veteran; as a former Member of Parliament and as a pioneer of the Kokoda trekking industry:

  • ‘Mi sori that we refuse to acknowledge your sovereign right to name your own geographic features, and refuse to respect the name of the Battle Honour awarded to your Papuan Infantry Battalion, which is ‘Kokoda Trail’.
  • ‘Mi sori we have failed to engage an accredited Military Heritage Architect to develop a Master Heritage Interpretation Plan to commemorate our shared wartime heritage across the trail – because our shared wartime heritage is the primary motivation for people who come to trek it.
  • ‘Mi Sori we have not been able to restore any of the significant heritage sites across the Trail to enhance the value of the pilgrimage for your paying customers who choose to trek across it.
  • ‘Mi sori we failed to achieve any of the 5 key strategies or the 33 supporting objectives in your taxpayer-funded ‘Kokoda Trail Master Plan 2012-2015’.
  • ‘Mi sori the million-dollar Village Livelihood Project, developed in Canberra, without any consultation with you, failed to produce any fruit, vegetables or income earning opportunities for you.
  • ‘Mi Sori we have not conducted a single workshop in your villages to discuss your needs at the local level since we assumed responsibility for the Trail 13 years ago – it would have been a good way to get to know you better.
  • ‘Mi Sori we have not been able to assist you in building a single hygienic toilet anywhere across the trail to meet the needs of your paying customers i.e. trekkers.
  • ‘Mi sori we have failed to assist you to develop a system that allows trek operators to book campsites in advance.
  • ‘Mi sori we haven’t developed a Trek Itinerary Management System to advise you how many trekkers will be arriving at your village, and when, so you can prepare food and souvenirs to sell.
  • ‘Mi sori we have not taught you how to earn additional income from trekkers by providing local services to meet their needs.
  • ‘Mi sori we have failed to provide any funds to assist you in developing campsites that meet the needs of your paying customers.
  • ‘Mi sori we continue to import Queensland Park Rangers and pay them fat salaries and tax-free allowances instead of paying you to do the work you have been doing for generations i.e. keeping the Trail safe.
  • ‘Mi sori we have not been able to help you develop a system to stop the exploitation of your local guides and carriers by unscrupulous trek operators.
  • ‘Mi sori we have not been able to help you develop a system that provides for urgent medical evacuation from your villages to hospitals in Port Moresby.
  • ‘Mi sori that we have failed to honour the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign with any known plans to enhance the value of the pilgrimage for future trekkers.

‘Since the election of Prime Minister James Marape I have heard calls to ‘take back PNG’ from far and wide.

‘A good start for you, Olgeta, would be to show the Prime Minister how to do it by ‘taking back Kokoda’ – after all it’s your country – it’s your Trail – it’s your name – it’s a defining part or your history, and it’s a sacred link to our shared wartime heritage.

‘All you have to do to make it happen is get rid of foreign influence within the DFAT funded Kokoda Initiative-Conservation Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) alliance, transfer responsibility for the Trail from environment to tourism, and have it managed as a commercial enterprise for the economic benefit of your traditional landowner communities across the Trail – rather than for the benefit of aid -funded foreign environment officials, anthropologists, archeologists, and social engineers.

‘In the meantime, I thank you all sincerely for the most wonderful memories of my life and I look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure your legacy is never forgotten through the official establishment of Kokoda Day.

‘Lukim yu

Major Charlie Lynn OAM OL
Officer of Logohu‘

Adventure Kokoda Director Charlie Lynn inducted as an Officer of the Order of Logohu by the Government of Papua New Guinea
25 April 1992: 50th anniversary Anzac Dawn Service after trekking directly from Kokoda to Bomana War Cemetery via Owers Corner
Imita Ridge: Designated to be Australia’s last stand during the Kokoda campaign – ignored by the Australian funded ‘Kokoda Initiative’ over the past decade
Steps built by Australian engineers during the Kokoda campaign
Local villagers could be paid to rebuild steps to reconstruct this iconic image with the imposition of a PNGK100 ‘Trail Maintenance Levy’ on trekkers
The site of the biggest battle of the Kokoda campaign has been ignored by environment-DFAT officials over the past decade
Mortar position is owned by Naduri villagers who used to protect it and charge each trekker PNGK10 to visit it – they earned around PNGK40,000 (A$17,000) each year as a result
After Australian environment officials made the position ‘safe’ by locking the mortars in a wire cage the site is now ignored by trekkers – Naduri villagers are now PNGK40,000 per year poorer as a result (we don’t know who dragged the tail wing of a PNG plane to the site)
Local villagers could be easily employed to erect old tents to replicate the wartime hospital at Lake Myola
Hard to imagine why such a significant site has been ignored by environment-DFAT officials over the past decade
Iconic photo by Damien Parer – one of the most desperate of all scenes during the Kokoda campaign
Local villagers could easily be engaged to replicate the wartime village site.
Opening of the Isurava Memorial by Prime Ministers John Howard and Grand Chief, Sir Michael Somare to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Battle on 26 August 2002
Troops parading before Major General George Vasey as they raised the Australian flag on the Kokoda plateau on 3 November 1942
Hard to imagine why environment-DFAT officials have ignored the need to design a Commemorative Centre on the Kokoda plateau in view of its significance and its road access to the Popondetta airfield
Owers Corner: Managed by the DFAT-Kokoda Initiative
Politically correct interpretive panels display incorrect and irrelevant information
Not a single toilet along the Kokoda Trail meets the most basic of hygiene standards
Toilets are built by local campsite owners – no privacy and no protection against the smell
It is hard to imagine more disgusting toilets than these – hard to understand why Australia have not allocated some of the millions of Aid dollars they have spent on consultants towards meeting the needs of male and female taxpayers
Difficult to describe – beyond 3rd world!
Smell is atrocious – infestation is chronic – Australian taxpayer dollars at work!
Bomana War Cemetery managed by Department of Veterans Affairs
The Kokoda Trail