Trek the Kokoda Trail Travel Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Kokoda Track Maintenance Committee’

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.

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

An enormous effort has been made around the Kokoda airstrip in March.  The entire airstrip has been slashed and mown, the new terminal area has been surveyed and cleared, 60 safety cones and 2 windsocks installed, and a signal circle cleared and painted.

The airstrip has now been cleared to the northern end of the market road. Part 2 of the safety package will see  the airstrip extended further, a new terminal building and apron and navigation and weather equipment installed later this year.

The Australian Government is providing another $3 million to improve safety along the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the money will be spent on several projects including improved navigation for flights in and out of Kokoda.

It will also provide for upgrades of roads and the Kokoda airstrip, as well as first aid training.

Earlier this month the Government spent $250,000 to improve the road that leads to the Kokoda Track.

Work on the safety upgrades began after 13 people, including nine Australians, were killed in a plane crash near Kokoda last August.

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.