Author: Charlie

Funding Proposal for a Kokoda Trail Military Heritage Master Plan

Funding Proposal for a Kokoda Trail Military Heritage Master Plan

Posted by | May 15, 2024 | , | 1

Michael Pender, an accredited Military Heritage Architect from HPA Projects was commissioned by Network Kokoda to develop a Master Plan for the Kokoda Trail for the 70th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign in 2012.

The plan has been ignored by the DFAT Kokoda Initiative in PNG as they regarded the development of a World Heritage Listing for the Owen Stanley Ranges as a priority.

Since then, a 2015 report from an Australian expert on World Heritage listings, Dr Peter Hitchcock AM and Dr Jennifer Gabriel concluded that the Kokoda Trail does not meet the criteria for a World Heritage listing.

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Conflict in command during the Kokoda campaign of 1942: did General Blamey deserve the blame?

Conflict in command during the Kokoda campaign of 1942: did General Blamey deserve the blame?

Posted by | May 14, 2024 | , | 8

General Sir Thomas Blamey was commander-in-chief of the Australian Military Forces during World War II. Tough and decisive, he did not resile from sacking ineffective senior commanders when the situation demanded. He has been widely criticised by more recent historians for his role in the sackings of Lieutenant-General S. F. Rowell, Major-General A. S. Allen and Brigadier A. W. Potts during the Kokoda Campaign of 1942. Lieutenant Colonel Rowan Tracey, a Trek Leader with Adventure Kokoda examines each sacking and concludes that Blamey’s actions in each case were justified in a paper published by the Royal United Services Institute, Volume 61, 2010.

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Albo ‘Off-Track’ Trek on Kokoda

Albo ‘Off-Track’ Trek on Kokoda

Posted by | May 5, 2024 | | 3

The DFAT-PNG strategy to shield Prime Ministers’ Albanese and Marape from their failures to manage Kokoda tourism over the past 15 years was evident in their choice of a reinvented ‘military history advisor’ to accompany them and the route they chose.

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