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Kokoda Reunion Dinner: Parliament House, Melbourne - Friday 28 March 2008 | |
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Our 2008 Kokoda Reunion Dinner will be held in the Queens Hall, Parliament House,
 Spring Street, Melbourne, at 6.30 PM on Friday, 28 March 2008.The dinner will be a 'Salute to the 39th'. Kokoda veterans from the 39th Militia Battalion and 2/14th AIF Battalion will attend as our special guests. Our special guest speaker for the evening will be Lieutenant Colonel 'Kanga' Moore, a Kokoda veteran and President of the 39th Battalion Association. Victorian MP, Gary Blackwood (an experienced Kokoda trekker and great supporter) has kindly offered to host the function. You can contact Gary or his staff on 03 5623 1960 if you require any further information. The cost of the function is $160 per person. You can book tables of 10 for your reunion groups. All funds raised from the evening will be donated to The Kokoda Trust for distribution to village schools and health centres in 2008. Cheques should be made payable to 'The Kokoda Health and Education Fund' and posted to: Gary Blackwood MP Member for Narracan 3/24 Mason Street Warragul Vic 3820 Please click here to print off your RSVP Form |
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Golden Staircase - we found it! | |
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Diggers descriptions of the climb up the 'Golden Staircase' towards Imita Ridge never seemed to gel with the actual climb on today's trek route.  Last November I met up with a team of our PNG trek leaders, Patrick, Wahu Womara, Joe Adoa, Elijah Billy, Robin Guia, Auda Gudoi, Stanley Elodo, Joe Wea. Leonard and Joe Wuena and we went in search of the original route over Imita Ridge. Our readings took us to the east of a knoll and parallel to the Goldie River for awhile. We eventually picked up the the spur at the base of Imita Ridge which led us up a narrow ridge to the north-east. Even with my GPS and all of the boys cutting with their machetes we we still finished up in re-entrants a couple of times. We will never fully understand the desperation our diggers faced in this environment when they were forced off the track and cut-off for weeks on end. I was grateful to have our GPS satellite technology combined with the natural bushcraft of our boys and their razor sharp machetes. It was a special to be with them in this environment. Toward the top of the ridge we were confronted with some magnificent rock formations. Standing at least 20 storeys high they would have been a formidable obstacle to the advancing Japanese. The track around them was a challenge as we were forced to crawl on a number of occasions. We then discovered numerous weapon pits - undisturbed for 65 years - as the track turns to the west near the summit. We eventually crossed the current track at Imita Gap - after what we had endured to get to the top via the original route the boys dubbed this the 'tourist track'! The wartime track continues to the west for a few hundred metres before swinging down another steep spur towards Imita Creek and the base of Ioribaiwa Ridge. There is no trace of the 'log stairs' depicted in the wartime photo however it is easy to understand why General 'Tubby' Allen allowed Brigadier Eather to withdraw to the safety of the ridge to reconsolidate his Brigade before commencing the advanced to drive the Japanese back along the track. Imita Ridge would have been an impenetrable obstacle for the Japanese - it would have been our Thermopalae. They would never have been able to breach the sheer rock face to the east and west of the gap. The location of the weapon pits indicate that the Australian soldiers dug in on the ridge would have been more than ready to repel them. Adventure Kokoda treks will now be using the wartime track via the original 'golden staircase' - it's a bit longer and a lot tougher but trekkers will have a much better appreciation of what our diggers had to endure when they reach the 'gap' at the top of Imita from now on. |
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Miss World Australia to trek Kokoda | |
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Australia's 2007 Miss World entrant, Caroline Pemberton is a remarkable young lady. Whilst she was a high achiever at school (UAI 98.25) she was influenced by the  exploits of her younger brother Rex who became the youngest Australian to ever climb Mt Everest. Caroline couldn't allow her little brother to tackle such a challenge without a dedicated supporter so she trekked to the Base Camp at Mt Everest while he went on to conquer the world's highest mountain. She spent six weeks with the Sherpa's at Base Camp during her brothers epic climb. Caroline is currently a 2nd year Psychology student at the University of New South Wales and helps her brother Rex with PR. Rex did not stop with his conquest of Mt Everest - he went onto become the youngest Australian to climb the seven summits of the world - you can read more about his remarkable achievements at www.rexpemberton.com Caroline is committed to humanitarian work and has been appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF as well as being named the International Patron for Wakisa, an Ambassador for the Red Cross and an ambassador for Life Education. She has also travelled to Timor to work in an orphanage with with Father Chris Riley's Youth Off The Streets kids last year.  Caroline and Charlie were guest speakers for a Western Sydney schools forum at Bankstown recently. When she heard the presentation on Kokoda she volunteered for our Anzac trek. Hopefully she will become an ambassador for our Kokoda Trust! We will make sure she gets a special 'sing-sing' from the kids at Naduri. You can read more on Caroline's achievements at www.carolinepemberton.com.au NSW Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrel is also joining us for our Anzac trek. We are resisting the suggestion to refer to it as 'the beauty and the best' trek'! Barry will be trekking with his 14 year old son, Tom. |
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Kokoda Women-On-The-March | |
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Deanna Zacek conceived the idea of selecting ten women to trek across the Kokoda Trail as part of a special documentary.  She named her project 'Kokoda Women-on-the-March, set up a website at
www.kokodawomenonthemarch.com and was literally bowled over with thousands of responses from around Australia. Deanna enlisted the support of Gary Wagner, a Boot Camp instructor from Melbourne, to assist with the assessments. The first one was held in Melbourne on 5th January and 230 applicants turned up to be put through a gruelling fitness assessment. All of them were still keen to do it at the end of the day. The event was broadcast nationally by Channel 7 and Foxtel. Ross Wilkinson, who trekked with Adventure Kokoda last year has volunteered to be Deanna's research consultant and interviews have been conducted with Stan Bissett, Major-General David McLachlan, Peter Fitzsimons, Kokoda veterans and trekkers to capture the spirit of Kokoda for the documentary.  The Kokoda Women-on-the-March team will be the first group to trek over the famous 'Golden Staircase on Imita Ridge and other sections of the wartime track that have recently been discovered. Deanna is looking for sponsors to assist with meeting the costs of the documentary and the logistics involved in supporting the Women-On-The-March team as they attempt to become the first group to cross the original wartime track since 1942. Please contact Deanna on 0435 001 626 or send her an email at deanna@artemismarketingsolutions.com |
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Youth-Off-The-Streets On Kokoda | |
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Each year Adventure Kokoda sponsors two young people from Father Chris Riley's Youth Off The Streets centre at  Macquarie Fields. These young blokes were involved in the Macquarie Fields riots and were on the wrong side of the law before Father Chris moved in to help. The Macquarie Fields Police have also been proactive in running camps and working much closer with them.After our first trek Chris Standing was selected by Father Chris to attend the Prime Ministers Roundtable for Youth in Canberra. Both he and his trekking mate, Peter Phillips are now working as youth leaders in Macquarie Fields for Father Chris. The letter we received from Chris and Peter was more than full payment for their trek. They were followed on our next trek by Koro Pera and Phillip Hoang. They were outstanding young individuals and bonded exceptionally well with our PNG boys - especially when they wanted a smoke! Phillip is now a trainee youth worker with Father Chris and Koro is working for his father. We have another two, yet to be selected, joining our Anzac trek on 24 April this year. Kokoda is about the ability of the human spirit to conquer adversity and these boys are leaning to apply these lessons as young leaders back in their community which has had more than its share of trouble since it was established as a housing commission area. |
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5144 Trek Kokoda in 2007 | |
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Trekker numbers across Kokoda continue to increase as can be seen from the following table: . 2001: 76 . 2002: 365 . 2003: 1074 . 2004: 1584 . 2005: 2374 . 2006: 3723 . 2007: 5144 The operation of the track as a sustainable eco-trekking destination is not possible without a proper management structure that meets the needs of trekkers (hygenic toilets/ablution facitlies, personal safety, minimal environmental and cultural impact, recognition of battlesites, etc) and the needs of villagers (income opportunities, assistance with schools and health centres, employment opportunities as trek guides, etc). If the Australian and PNG Governments do not address these issues as a matter of urgency prior to the commencement of the 2008 trekking season (in April) there is a risk that the fledgling eco-trekking industry based on one of our most important icons will self-destruct. This would be tragic if it were allowed to happen. Lukim yu nekstaim niusleta, Hepi Trekking   |
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