The 138 km Kokoda Trail, a 10 metre-wide corridor on either side of the tracks over which the Kokoda campaign was fought between Owers Corner and Kokoda in 1942, was officially gazetted by the PNG Government in 1972.

This blueprint concludes that the rapid increase in trekker numbers from 2004 overwhelmed the PNG management system which was under resourced and unable to cope with the diverse range of demands placed upon it.

After Canberra assumed responsibility for the management of the Trail under a Joint Agreement signed in 2008, environment issues relating to the protection of the Brown River Catchment Area along with a bid to assist PNG to obtain a World Heritage listing took priority over tourism management.

This resulted in a dramatic 42% fall in trekker numbers from 5621 in 2008 to 3308 in 2023!

Canberra’s emphasis on environment contradicted the earlier findings of an international Rapid Assessment and Prioritisation of Protected Area Management (RAPPAM) report in 2006 and was negated by the construction of the Chinese funded Edevu Hydro Power Project on the Brown River along with an expert report advising that the Kokoda Trail does not meet the criteria for a World Heritage listing.

In the meantime, while the Kokoda Trail emerged as PNGs most popular tourism destination based on its military heritage and the physical challenge it presented in the ‘land of the unexpected’, no management systems were ever put in place to support its potential as a world-class pilgrimage tourism destination for the economic benefit of their traditional landowner communities.

It’s now timely for the PNG Government to reclaim ownership of the Trail from the DFAT funded ‘Kokoda Initiative’ within the PNG Conservation Environmetn Protection Authority (CEPA) and formally return responsibility for its management back to the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture to enable his department to use the provisions of their Lands Act to acquire the gazetted boundaries of the Kokoda Trail as a National Tourism Asset.

This should coincide with the Australian Government assigning the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) as the lead agency to establish a Joint Agreement for Commemoration of our Shared Military Heritage with PNG and to develop a Military Heritage Master Plan for the Kokoda Trail.

The following blueprint is a legacy document based on my experiences leading 100 treks across the Kokoda Trail over the past 33 year’s; my 21 years’ service as a commissioned army officer; and my 40-year involvement running my own business.