Wayne Wetherall – Kokoda Spirit Alert!

This paper exposes the evolution of Wayne Wetherall’s carefully crafted transition from an unknown suburban salesman without any military credentials to a self-proclaimed ‘world athletics champion‘, ‘explorer‘, ‘adventurer‘, ‘ historian‘, and ‘philanthropist.

It’s a compelling tale about ‘the man behind the myth‘ and a prescient warning to anybody considering any form of tour associated with Australia’s military history – particularly Kokoda, Sandakan, and Long Tan.

A review of Wetherall’s website claims since he first trekked across the Kokoda Trail in 2004 reveals that his reputation was built on a carefully crafted web of deception.

A four-day hearing in the Queensland Industrial Commission in 2021 exposed the dark side of his flawed character when it was revealed he had bullied, harrassed and intimidated female staff in his Australian office; targeted vulnerable female trekkers; solicited sexual favours from female staff in Port Moresby; fathered an illegitimate child in PNG; and exploited his guides and porters.

Extract of evidence in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission by a former female employee:

‘Okay. So there were many messages about Mr Wetherall and his girlfriends, and there were many messages of Mr Wetherall trying to get his girlfriends to engage in group sex with many men. There were many messages where Mr Wetherall would try and engage or coerce his current girlfriend into a gangrape situation with five or six men. There were just many messages where he insisted on – initially, (name omitted) a PNG staff member in – who lived in PNG. She was one of our staff and when he was going to PNG, messages would pop up when they were talking that he would insist that she meet him in his hotel room when he arrived, so that she could – she could perform fellatio on him. He wouldn’t use that terminology, and she – her payment for that would be something like a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red. There were – there was much talk about the fact that he would speak to whichever girlfriend it was at the time about how he loved cock. He would refer to – he would – the language was really vulgar and obscene and there’s pornographic – there were many messages, but there was also many photos, and the photos were very graphic of – of people’s – like, women’s vaginas and women’s – men’s penises, of dildoes, of Mr Wetherall performing fellatio on another man.

’‘I was sick. I – I was shocked. Really shocked. I was – it bothered me a lot. I was – I was sick in the stomach over it. I – it was unbelievable. I’d never seen anything quite like that, so, yeah, my reaction was absolutely shock and sickness and – I – I just couldn’t – part of my brain just thought it was a joke. I just didn’t – I couldn’t believe it. It made me physically unwell. Like I said – I think I said earlier, there was much talk about, you know, my supposed stomach cancer.

’‘Mr Wetherall constantly would try and reduce the wages of the PNG staff and porters and – and so – or their food allowance. We would do what we call trek expenses, so porters are allowed X amount of dollars to buy food for X amount of days on the Kokoda Track, and the way he would reduce his costs is always to take from the locals, whether it be their wages or their food supplements, and I – he would refer to me as either the Irish Union Rep or his Jiminy Cricket, because I would always fight to make sure that they – they didn’t have a pay increase, they just maintained what they should be getting by rights, because I felt that to reduce five kina from these people, which is probably $2.50 in our terms was a huge amount for them, and meant a lot to them and to us was nothing. So I would always try and keep him honest in that regard, and I guess . . .

’‘I’m a mother of four children, and I’ve just learnt you put one foot in front of the other. I was a stay at home mother for a long time, and it didn’t matter whether I was sick or not sick, if I had children that needed me, you just kept going, and I think I just had that mindset. You just got to keep going and put one foot in front of the other and I simply – until I broke down in Dr Harrison’s office, I really didn’t realise that I was struggling or not coping with what was going on in the office.’

The Brisbane Times reported the outcomes of the QIRC hearing on this link: Kokoda Tour Employee Wins Appeal over claims boss spat on her during outbursts. Transcripts of the QIRC hearings contain more salacious evidence about his modus operandi.

The exposure in the QIRC was certainly the antithesis of the ‘Kokoda Spirit’ Wayne Wetherall has so shamelessly promoted!

One of his former trek leaders, a decorated Vietnam Veteran, was the first to expose his flawed character back in 2011:

‘My anecdotal-based overview of WW, gained inter alia, from a number of reputable sources whose opinion and judgement I would trust, and over the past seven years, is that he is a bullshit merchant of some standing, whose principal position in life seems to be based on a carefully planned programme of self-aggrandisement and self-promotion. Notwithstanding his clever self-marketing skills, his trekking “exploits” both on and off the Track appears to me to lack any real credibility, He seems somehow to survive on a predetermined network of manipulative exploitation of, at best, half-truths, something akin to a shonky second-hand car salesman!!’[i]

According to two former female employees Wetherall displayed the traits of a narcissist with his self-centred, arrogant thinking and behaviour, a lack of empathy and consideration for others, and an excessive need for admiration.

He had an abundance of charm when he was in sales mode but would react with rage if his self-image was ever threatened or his views ever challenged.

He was an early practitioner of ‘click-bait marketing’ on social media platforms. He was quick to realise most prospective trekkers knew little about military history and even less about Papua New Guinea and trekking. This allowed him to make false claims and simply move on whenever they were exposed.

Wetherall’s first venture into PNG ended in tragedy after four Israelis were drowned on one of his whitewater rafting ventures.

He then turned his mind to creating a false persona to capitalise on the business opportunities presented by the emerging interest in trekking across the Kokoda Trail.

Wetherall initially built his ‘Kokoda’ reputation on claims of holding a world athletic record, an Australian athletics record, four NSW State records, a Trans-Tasman athletics championship; and 26 New South Wales athletic championships.

When these claims were challenged, he simply removed them from his website – and he moved on!

He then advised of the imminent arrival of his Kokoda Spirit book ‘In the footsteps of Hero’s-In the foot of my Brothers’ in 2006 to establish a false illusion of his military credentials. The book was never published. The announcement was eventually removed from his website after it had served its purpose – and he moved on!

To enhance his credibility with the veteran community he claimed to have assisted in ‘opening up’ Long Tan in Vietnam. He seemed to be unaware this had been achieved by the 6^th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment in 1969 when he was just four years of age – when this claim was challenged it was removed it from his website – and he moved on!

He then claimed to have established a ‘Spirit Foundation’ to support noble philanthropic ventures in PNG – when it was revealed no such foundation existed, he removed the claim from his website – and he moved on!

Over the next few years he went on to make spurious claims to have rediscovered Kokoda’s Forgotten Battlefields (which have never been forgotten) to enhance his status as a historian, and to have ‘discovered’ original sections of the trail to enhance his ‘explorer’ status. After it was revealed these claims could not be validated – he moved on!

Wetherall’s aggressive click-bait marketing strategies paid handsome dividends as Kokoda Spirit emerged as the leading tour company on the Kokoda Trail.

The internet archive ‘Wayback Machine’ provides a paper trail which tracks the evolution of Wayne Wetherall from an unknown suburban salesman to a self-proclaimed international ‘adventurer’, ‘explorer’, ‘historian‘ and ‘philanthropist’ which exposes the character of ‘the man behind the myth’. His journey is detailed in the following paper: ‘Wayne Wetherall – the Anithesis of the Kokoda Spirit’.