Trek the Kokoda Trail Travel Blog

Archive for the ‘Kokoda Track Initiatives’ Category

A team of Doctors, in conjunction with the Kokoda Track Authority, have recently returned from the Kokoda Track with a wealth of research information.

Over 185 trekkers on Anzac Day treks  volunteered to give a blood sample to the research teams who were strategically placed  at Iorobaiwa and Isurava .

The study data is yet to be statistically analysed, but the general message to come from the study is in keeping with similar research in competitive endurance events. Put simply to drink when you feel thirsty. The Kokoda Track places the body under significant physiological stress and a consistent, sensible fluid intake is required. Trekkers need to avoid dehydration but must resist the temptation to force themselves to drink too much fluid while on the Track.

STOP PRESS: MARCH 2010. We are pleased to announce that AUSAID as part of the Kokoda Track Development Programme have allocated sufficient funds  and resources to ensure that this health Post will be built.  It is estimated that if all goes to plan the Health post will be built by the end of July 2010.

HOPE4HEALTH, Back Track Adventures and The Kokoda Track Foundation, officially launch their appeal to support a 2 staged campaign aimed at improving the long term health of people living along the Kokoda Track:

Stage 1 – Train 4 Health Workers
Stage 2 – Build the Naduri Health Centre

Stage 1 – Train 4 Health Workers

Each of the trainee Health Workers chosen to undertake the 2 year course, were specially selected from a large number of applicants based on a number of criteria including their academic record and references from their village leaders. Each candidate was personally interviewed  by representatives from the The Kokoda Track Foundation for the position.  They each have signed  contracts, committing to spend a minimum of 4 years working in their Home village as the Community Health Worker after they have completed their training. All the village members are aware of the contracts and their selected Health Workers commitment.

How can you help?

We need to fund their training. It’s going to cost AUD $2,000 per year, for 2 years (total AUD $4,000)  to train each of these Health Workers.

Each will be starting their 2 year full time training on February 8th 2010.  The Health Worker’s Certificate Course is a full time course conducted by the St Gerard’s Community Health Workers Training School in Port Moresby.  For only AUD$4,000, this small amount covers their full time board in Port Moresby, travel expenses to and from their village and all their stationery needs for their course.  The Kokoda Track Foundation have systems in place to monitor the trainees progress and account for all payments.

Click here to make a tax deductible donation, or call Jim Drapes on 1300 669 780.

Stage 2 – Build the Naduri Health Centre

We are hopeful that the Post will be completed in July, however the Health Post will only be functional with the support of sponsors and kind hearted  supporters.  To keep the centre ‘resourced’ with drugs and essential supplies will not be a simple and cost free exercise. The Hea th Workers needed to staff the Health post will not be fully trained for some time.

Back track representatives will be consulting with all interested parties over the next couple of months and an operational support plan will be formulated. If you have any ideas or wish to get involved as a sponsor please contact Jim at Back Track Adventures.

Visit the Kokoda Track Health Campaign website>

The inaugural meeting of the Kokoda Track Maintenance Committee was held in Port Moresby in November 2009.

The good news from the meeting is that initiatives will be in place very soon to ensure that the Kokoda Experience will be preserved for all Australians for all time.

The Kokoda Track Maintenance Committee was formed to define what it was that has drawn 20,000 trekkers to The Kokoda Track since 2001, and once defined, ensure that this experience – The Kokoda Experience, will be preserved.

The Committee consists of a small team of motivated, passionate trekking guides, historians, local Kokoda Track land owners and is chaired by the CEO of the Kokoda Track Authority.

All committee members have a long history of involvement with trekkers walking the Track and most importantly a desire to ensure that the magic experience that trekkers have while walking the Track, defined as the Kokoda Experience, is protected and maintained for ever. A Back Track director is a committee member.

The inaugural meeting, agreed, that a trekker will have had a true Kokoda Experience if on completion of their trek they have:

• An accurate understanding of the truly remarkable war time story of Australian mateship, courage, endurance and sacrifice. The epic story slowly unfolds each day as your Trek Guide relates the war stories on the exact locations where history was made.
• An appreciation and respect for the remarkable jungle eco system the Track encompasses. The plants, orchids, trees, the wildlife, birds, the creeks and rivers, nature in all its most beautiful jungle clothing. To live- eat, sleep and pass through this natural wonderland for 9 days while experiencing the sunrises, sunsets, the rain, the heat, the cool dark jungle is for most trekkers a once in a lifetime experience that is exhilarating and rejuvenating.
  Note: Currently the Kokoda Track and the entire Owen Stanley Ranges are considered so unique that they have been presented for listing as a World heritage area.
• An appreciation of the culture of Australia’s nearest neighbor. The Koiara and Orokaiva people who inhabit the 23 villages along the Track corridor are the direct decedents of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who carried to safety and cared for our wounded soldiers. Interacting with their culture in the villages and with your PNG trekking crew who live along the Track is a highlight of the Kokoda Experience.
• And last but definitely not least, the Kokoda experience is knowing that you have faced and conquered your own physical and mental challenge and with your fellow trekkers depart PNG having had a once in a lifetime experience – The Kokoda Experience.

In practice, the Kokoda Experience will be preserved by initiatives that will ensure:

• all the war time relics that remain along the Track and in the jungle and all important war time sites are preserved and protected.
• the jungle, trees, waterways, camp sites, tracks etc are preserved and where damaged, plans put in place to repair or rejuvenate. All future development should be environmentally sensitive and only enhance the jungle experience. A yardstick of our success will be when the “moss on the rocks” has rejuvenated at the Track crossing over Ofi Creek. The moss at that crossing has disappeared over the last few years due to environmental damage from trekking.
• all stakeholders including trekking companies, land owners and all the village people along the Track corridor understand that the financial benefits of the Kokoda Track Industry is dependent on total cooperation and understanding of the importance of maintaining the Kokoda Experience for trekkers.
• a licensing system is in place to ensure that trekking companies maintain a minimum standard and have correct insurance cover, provide all necessary safety and emergency equipment and have emergency evacuation procedures in place. The true Kokoda Experience must be a safe experience for all trekkers.
  Note:Though it will not be compulsory for trekking companies to have Australian Trek Leaders to obtain a license, the Kokoda Experience for all trekkers is greatly enhanced and safer by having a properly trained Australian Trek Leader accompany a trek Team.

Back Track Adventures is committed to the above initiatives and will be participating in every aspect of the plan to maintain the Kokoda Experience for all trekkers yet to trek the Kokoda Track.

Source: Government of Australia

The Australian Government has committed $1.8 million to fast-track a range of safety projects along the Kokoda Track.

Australian Heritage Minister, Peter Garrett, and Papua New Guinean Minister for Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Charles Abel, said this initial funding was the first part of a broader program of joint initiatives between the two governments.

The initial $1.8m will be used to undertake safety enhancements at airstrips –including Kokoda, improvements to communications along the Track and maintenance work on the Owers Corner Road.

Specific safety measures made possible by this funding are:

• Risk assessments and safety audits by PNG Civil Aviation Authority and CASA atKokoda, Manari, Kagi, Melei, Efogi and Naduri airstrips.

• Installing safety equipment, including windsocks, cones and markers and provision of

• maintenance equipment at the six airstrips.

• Building sheds, including installing weighing scales, at airstrips.

• Providing regular maintenance works – mowing, clearing drains and repairing potholes – at all six airstrips.

• Carrying out urgent repairs to Owers Corner Road, including grading, gravelling and

• installing new drainage.

• Upgrading Sogeri Bridge Road
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