Posts Tagged ‘kokoda history’
PNG, a forgotten Neighbour
October 15th, 2010 | Author: Jim the Backpacker
The following article is a reprint of a story by Richard Marles in The Punch. The Punch is available online for every Australian who likes debate. Go to www.thepunch.com.au. I endorse the comments and statements made by Richard Marles. All Australians should be paying more attention to our nearest neighbour, friend and ally.
PNG has a population of 6.3 million. It is one of Australia’s two really large recipients of aid.
PNG, just up the road
We are its largest trading partner. It is our 19th. It’s about 400 times closer to us than New Zealand.
Yet for some reason our media and public discourse doesn’t seem to rate the importance of Papua New Guinea. On this website a search on Papua New Guinea yields 23 hits compared to 35 for Spain, 76 for South Africa and 94 for Iran.
For much of the twentieth century Australia had responsibility for the administration of some or all of PNG. Aside from the historical connection that establishes, at a human level it now means that almost everyone knows someone who has spent time in PNG.
Battles have been fought on PNG’s soil which go to the core of the Australian identity.
With the exceptions of New Zealand and the UK there is no other country in the world with which Australia has such a deep historical and social connection.
With that connection PNG deserves our attention. PNG deserves to be understood. And the bilateral relationship at a government level deserves all the public scrutiny that great matters of policy need.
There is much in this relationship that is worth talking about.
Australian aid in recent years has provided 539,000 primary school text books around the country. It has been part of a push which has seen an increase in the rates of primary school participation from 41.5 to 56.9%.
60% of the programme to combat the spread of HIV is funded by Ausaid with more than 6,000 people having been supported by antiretroviral therapy by the end of last year.
More than 2000km of roads are being maintained with the support of Australia, providing invaluable infrastructure. This includes the Lae-Goroka road: the busiest highway in PNG.
But, of course, the expenditure of $470million in aid must come with an obligation to ensure that Australian taxpayers are getting value for money and that Papua New Guineans are seeing real benefits. Both Governments have commissioned an independent review of our aid partnership which is an intelligent document (http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/PNGAustralianAidReview.pdf) that will ultimately see the spread of our aid narrow and a greater emphasis on grass roots service delivery. We have agreed to consider an Economic Cooperation Agreement – an important step to changing the paradigm of a relationship previously based on aid.
A sign of this change is PNG’s resources boom and in particular the Exxon-Mobil LNG project.
This is a US $15 billion project that at the height if its construction will employ 12,000 people and increase PNG’s GDP by up to 20%.
In its own right the LNG project has the potential to transform the country.
Already it’s transforming our bilateral relationship. Australia has extended a US$500million loan facility to the project: not as an act of aid but rather a commercial decision in the Australian national interest. Australian companies have won A$1.3billion worth of contracts in the construction of the project with many more opportunities still to come.
A project of this size generates its own gravity. It needs, for example, the same number of truck drivers as there are in the whole of PNG. Thankfully Exxon-Mobil appears to be approaching this with a view to training more truck drivers rather than simply poaching all the existing ones.
Yet it highlights that if the LNG project is not done right it could be as much of a curse for PNG as a blessing.
The resources boom has seen PNG’s GDP grow by 5.5% last year and an expected 7.5% in 2010. These are numbers that would be the envy of any country in the developed world.
But it is essential for PNG that the growth in this wealth is translated into real prosperity for ordinary Papua New Guineans. It is a challenge which will be difficult to meet and in this regard Australia has a role to stand by PNG as a friend and to lend a hand.
PNG has an emerging economy, an emerging population and is already a significant emerging nation in the Pacific.
Australia welcomes this. It is in our interest to have another large partner to help us and the region assert our position in the world. And as a close friend we will stand side by side with PNG to help it meet its national aspirations.
With so much going on in our northern neighbour now is the time for the Australian media to emerge with a rightful degree of attention to Papua New Guinea.
Stan Bisset Legend of Kokoda has passed away
October 6th, 2010 | Author: Jim the Backpacker
It is with great sadness that we note the passing away of Stan Bisset, aged 98 years of age.
In the weeks, months and years to come, many new stories will be written about this wonderful man, his life, his exploits. All the men who fought along the Kokoda Track were brave, heroic men, but at anytime in lifes journey where ever a group of men are gathered together, some will always stand taller than the others. Stan was such a man.
All who have had the pleasure of knowing Stan were enriched by the experience. He will be missed, but will always remain an inspiration to everyone who truly values mateship, endurance, courage and sacrifice.
For all of us at Back Track, our office staff and field guides, we will always have a special spot within are hearts for Stan. He was an inspiration and our hero. He will always remain so.
We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife Gloria, their 4 children Jim, Sally,Holly and Tom, step daughter Ros and his four grandchildren.
Lest we forget.
Kokoda Track – “even better now”
September 29th, 2010 | Author: Jim the Backpacker
As our trekking season nears the end for 2010, we implore all potential trekkers to book now with us if they wish to be on the Track for Anzac day 2011. We have 3 treks fully booked for Anzac day and have just opened a fourth and last Team and already this new departure is half full. Dont miss out, book now.
On Tuesday the 28th, I was at Brisbane Airport to welcome home Team 13. While talking with the trekkers who had just had a wonderful trek, I was delighted to hear them speaking with such high praise for the organisation along the Track. Campsites were clean, village welcomes were enthusiastic and friendly and ongoing maintenance all along the Track was clearly visible as were the newly appointed Track Rangers. It was pleasing to hear trekkers talking about the “professionalism” of the entire Track operation.
This is what we want to hear. Many years ago, it was easy for the media to pick faults with PNG infrastructure and to highlight social problems and carry all these issues over to the newly developing Kokda Track Tourism industry. The Kokoda Track was subjected to sensationalised negative stories.
But in recent times, Tour Operators, the Kokoda Track Authority and the local people living all along the Track have been working very hard improving trekkers facilities, Track maintenance, safety issues and public relations.
The kokoda Track is destined to become one of the great walks of the world.
Anzac Day on the Kokoda Track
September 3rd, 2010 | Author: Jim the Backpacker
With so much interest in our war history and so many Australians wishing to visit the battle fields where our soldiers fought and died, Back Track has a number of new trips that cater for this interest.
Celebrating Anzac Day on the 25 April 2011 on the Kokoda Track is an option we have available. We have 4 Teams all converging on the remote sacred summit of Brigade Hill on the eve of Anzac Day in 2011. Here we will all camp and at dawn on Anzac Day, we will all get together for a special Anzac Day ceremony. After the ceremony each team will continue on with their trek team and complete the Track.
If you would like to be part of something special for Anzac Day we welcome you to join us.
The Kokoda Track maintenance Committee
August 31st, 2010 | Author: Jim the Backpacker
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 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.
For more detailed information visit our dedicated Kokoda website: trekkokoda.com.au