Gallipoli tourism numbers are UP – Kokoda tourism numbers are DOWN!
Gallipoli, which is 15,374 Km from Sydney, is managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) – this year more than 10,000 Australians are expected to attend the Anzac Dawn Service on 25 April.
Kokoda, which is just 2,742 km from Sydney, is managed by the Department of Climate Change – this year less that 500 Australians are expected to travel to PNG to attend the Anzac Dawn Service.
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As PNG approaches its 50th year of Independence it is timely to look at the transition from...
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Julius Wargirai was hired as ‘Acting CEO’ of the PNG Kokoda Track Authority (KTA) in a neo-colonial process orchestrated by DFAT PNG – it was a process that would not escape the attention of watchdog agencies in Australia! His engagement as ‘interim CEO’ prevented more qualified, but independently minded executives, from being engaged to manage the Kokoda Trail for PNGs economic benefit.
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The colourful line-up at Owers Corner for the Kokoda Initiative announcement of a ‘Kokoda Sanitation Project’ on February 6, indicates this decision originated from Port Moresby based ‘swivel-chair managers’ linked to computer screens.
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TPA CEO, Eric Mossman-Uvovo has signed a death warrant for pilgrimage tourism across the Kokoda Trail.
The proposal for a new Kokoda Track Management Authority (KTMA) was secretly drafted in Canberra by a foreign official under the cover of Covid.
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The 138 km Kokoda Trail, a 10 metre-wide corridor on either side of the tracks over which the...
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Peter Garrett, lead singer for ‘Midnight Oil’, is a well meaning environmentalist – but he can afford to be with a net worth of around $10 million (PNGK25 million).
Not so the woman sitting in her small hut in the Nauro swamp area alongside her young son with a net worth of a few kilos of ‘kai kai’ (sweet potato), some taro, corn and an assortment of local fruit!
Garrett is also a former Minister for Environment under the Rudd Labor government – he didn’t waste any time forcing his extreme environmental agenda on indigenous communities in the Cape York Peninsula area and along the Kokoda Trail.
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NG is now the only country in the world which allows its most popular tourism destination to be managed as an environment park controlled by foreign aid-funded environment officials, consultants, anthropologists, archeologists, and social engineers rather than as a tourism enterprise for the economic benefit of traditional landowner communities!
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Over the past 32 years I have led 101 expeditions across the Kokoda Trail. During this time I have also travelled to Canberra to brief eight of the 11 Ministers for Veterans Affairs and three of the Ministers for International Aid and the Pacific, on the need to protect our shared military heritage across the Kokoda Trail.
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I know I’m old school – a boomer from a bygone era who grew up surrounded by men who had fought in...
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These papers, submissions and articles in the following blogs encapsulate my 32-year involvement with the Kokoda Trail in particular, and PNG in general. During this time, I was able to lead 101 expeditions across the Trail and share the experience with more than 2,000 wonderful Australians from all walks of life.
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Under Australian management since 2009 trekker numbers have declined by 42% resulting in a direct annual loss of $1.2 million (K3.1 million) for village communities across the Trail.
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