WEBVTT - Are we forgetting Kokoda? 0:00:05.030 --> 0:00:07.750 From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. 0:00:07.850 --> 0:00:16.010 It's Friday, October 16, 2026. Labor voters are more likely 0:00:16.030 --> 0:00:19.420 than coalition supporters to have a personal stake in a trust. 0:00:19.860 --> 0:00:22.640 And that's bad news for Jim Chalmers, who's trying to 0:00:22.739 --> 0:00:27.120 calm a backlash over his 30% minimum tax on all 0:00:27.300 --> 0:00:35.769 trust income. That fresh analysis is live now at theaustralian.com.au. Fear, 0:00:35.990 --> 0:00:41.290 exhaustion and elation combine on the 96-kilometre Kokoda Track, where 0:00:41.390 --> 0:00:45.349 trekkers honour one of our greatest military victories. But is 0:00:45.430 --> 0:00:50.220 this ultimate immersive experience being forgotten by Australians as tourist 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.800 numbers dwindle and Papua New Guinea is gripped by extreme 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:58.139 poverty and violence? Our own John Ferguson reports, fresh from 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:02.660 his own Kokoda adventure, and five kilos lighter than when 0:01:02.700 --> 0:01:03.260 he set out. 0:01:12.459 --> 0:01:18.330 Rain, sheeting down, every day, monotonously, falling from the tropic 0:01:18.390 --> 0:01:21.449 skies as if the clouds had burst, turning the track 0:01:21.490 --> 0:01:26.060 into a quagmire, adding a thousandfold to their difficulties. These 0:01:26.180 --> 0:01:28.819 are grim pictures. 0:01:28.860 --> 0:01:33.910 Kokoda 1942. This newsreel by legendary Australian photojournalist Damien Parra 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.990 won an Academy Award and it shows the horrific conditions 0:01:38.350 --> 0:01:41.410 where a young Australian fighting force tried to repel a 0:01:41.770 --> 0:01:45.090 vastly better armed and trained Japanese army. 0:01:45.110 --> 0:01:49.150 If only everybody in Australia could realise that this country 0:01:49.170 --> 0:01:52.309 is in peril, that the Japanese are a well-equipped and 0:01:52.330 --> 0:01:55.970 dangerous enemy, we might forget about the trivial things... and 0:01:55.990 --> 0:01:58.410 go ahead with the job of licking them. 0:02:00.690 --> 0:02:03.750 John Ferguson is an associate editor with The Australian, and 0:02:04.030 --> 0:02:06.950 he's recently returned from the scene of one of the 0:02:07.030 --> 0:02:11.340 most important battles in Australia's military history. It's not dissimilar 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.000 from Anzac Cove or Gallipoli. It's the Battle of Isurava 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.320 in Papua New Guinea, part of the Kokoda Track campaign, 0:02:18.419 --> 0:02:23.040 where a small force of Australians repelled Japanese forces. The 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.510 Battle of Isurava was actually a defeat. in August 1942, 0:02:26.510 --> 0:02:30.820 where the Australians had to retreat. But the lessons learned 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:35.040 there and the evocative nature of what happened have shaped 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.040 Australian military strategy for the rest of World War II 0:02:38.220 --> 0:02:41.120 and the decades since. John, what's it like now? What 0:02:41.180 --> 0:02:42.549 is this arrival like to look at? 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.280 It's a very beautiful part of PNG. It's at the 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:52.960 Kokoda end of the Kokoda Track. It's probably our Equal 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:58.160 most important site for military history, I would argue, for 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:02.620 Australia because of, as you pointed out, it slowed the Japanese, 0:03:02.940 --> 0:03:07.280 I suppose, advance and enabled our forces to regroup. 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:12.060 You've just walked the Kokoda Track. What was that experience 0:03:12.139 --> 0:03:14.600 like and were you thinking about the actions of those 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:16.060 young men while you were walking? 0:03:16.500 --> 0:03:19.220 Claire, it's really interesting. It's quite an emotional trip. It 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:25.410 took nine days. walked with about 18 scholarship winners, Year 0:03:25.410 --> 0:03:28.450 11 children from country Victoria, and you walk the history. 0:03:29.010 --> 0:03:33.690 Everywhere you go, you can't avoid seeing and hearing about 0:03:33.850 --> 0:03:39.790 what happened. And obviously a centrepiece of the whole 1942 0:03:39.790 --> 0:03:43.530 battles in PNG was just the tough conditions. And when 0:03:43.570 --> 0:03:47.700 you walk the Kokoda Track, you get an absolute, clear 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:52.090 understanding of the physical nature and the difficult conditions upon which, 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.090 you know, the soldiers fought, effectively saving Australia from an invasion. 0:03:57.110 --> 0:04:03.570 So it's an extraordinary part of Australian military history. When 0:04:03.590 --> 0:04:07.130 we walked it probably about eight weeks ago, PNG was 0:04:07.290 --> 0:04:09.230 in the middle of a drought, so it was actually 0:04:09.270 --> 0:04:12.790 quite dry. So we had quite a bit of luck, 0:04:12.890 --> 0:04:17.060 but you can't escape the terrain like it's really tough 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.600 it's up and down it's a goat track it's very 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:25.160 steep the soldiers they had clearly the added problem of 0:04:25.220 --> 0:04:30.000 carrying 30 kilograms of weight guns as the crow flies 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.780 it's 96 kilometers but it's actually the walk we did 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:37.760 was more than 130. It was interesting talking to the 0:04:37.779 --> 0:04:42.300 scholarship winners they had developed certainly by the end a 0:04:42.339 --> 0:04:47.370 deep empathy for what the Australians went through and, of course, 0:04:47.390 --> 0:04:51.750 what are known as the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, the local 0:04:52.270 --> 0:04:56.680 PNG people who basically had such a massive role in 0:04:57.060 --> 0:04:58.600 helping the Australian troops. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.800 You're a pretty fit bloke. You're a mountain biker. You're 0:05:01.820 --> 0:05:03.600 a walker. How did you find it physically? 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.159 I trained really hard for it. You know, if anyone 0:05:07.180 --> 0:05:10.770 who's listening to this has ambitions of walking the track, 0:05:10.790 --> 0:05:14.060 you have to train hard. Age, I don't think up 0:05:14.100 --> 0:05:16.620 to a certain point is a barrier, but if you 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:18.420 haven't done the work, then it's going to be really, 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:23.940 really painful. In fact, completely unenjoyable, you know, 29 degrees, 0:05:24.100 --> 0:05:27.679 lots of humidity. Most people go, they will strike mud 0:05:27.940 --> 0:05:31.740 if it rains and that then becomes dangerous and slippery. 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.620 You know, there are places where, you know, not many, 0:05:34.740 --> 0:05:37.080 just a couple, two or three that if you fall off, 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.640 you're not going to come back. So it is a 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.850 mental challenge as well. It's interesting talking to you now. 0:05:43.870 --> 0:05:46.830 I feel a little bit emotional about it. Certainly when 0:05:46.870 --> 0:05:50.429 we got to Isharava, the stories there that we talked about, 0:05:50.490 --> 0:05:53.810 people who died and brothers who were there together and 0:05:53.890 --> 0:05:57.180 didn't make it. And it just makes it really real. 0:05:57.270 --> 0:06:00.240 But because you put in so much effort to get there, 0:06:00.260 --> 0:06:02.480 I think it adds to the experience. 0:06:04.610 --> 0:06:07.849 When you're going through a physically arduous experience like that, 0:06:08.110 --> 0:06:11.770 your emotions are heightened too and probably your sense of fear. 0:06:11.910 --> 0:06:15.390 Did you feel fear about falling from high places and 0:06:16.930 --> 0:06:17.790 what was in the jungle? 0:06:19.210 --> 0:06:22.730 Look, I was absolutely fine. I don't like heights and 0:06:23.190 --> 0:06:26.010 there's a sort of a track just the other side 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:31.180 of Brigade Hill which goes down into what is basically 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.500 an abyss. It's very narrow and you have to grab 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.070 a chain and you know, rowdy is if you sleep, 0:06:36.089 --> 0:06:40.150 you're cooked. So that triggered, let's just say, a deeply 0:06:40.210 --> 0:06:42.810 unpleasant feeling that lasted for the rest of the trip 0:06:43.350 --> 0:06:45.590 of falling off the edge, which I just don't like. 0:06:45.630 --> 0:06:47.390 But again, that's also part of it too. I was 0:06:47.420 --> 0:06:49.820 quite proud of myself that you just got to keep going. 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.480 When you do these trips, you have to go with 0:06:53.020 --> 0:06:57.440 a licensed operator. And my porter was very, carrier was, 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.660 they're very onto things. They know when The old white 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.860 fella from a Melbourne office is not travelling that well. 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:09.140 So Willie Benjamin was his name, terrific bloke. And I 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:10.980 developed a bond with him as well. And that's a 0:07:11.020 --> 0:07:14.140 very nice thing because you get to learn about life 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.260 in PNG and PNG is very close to being a 0:07:18.300 --> 0:07:21.440 failed state. As we kind of know, but it's only 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.850 when you look at it and you see the level 0:07:23.870 --> 0:07:28.250 of poverty and the dysfunction and you can only imagine 0:07:28.270 --> 0:07:31.970 the corruption that that is centred on PNG. And it's 0:07:32.030 --> 0:07:35.490 right on Australia's doorstep. So I think journalists owe it 0:07:35.550 --> 0:07:39.030 to the community to be writing a lot more about PNG, 0:07:39.110 --> 0:07:39.370 I think. 0:07:41.470 --> 0:07:44.610 Papua New Guinea will enter the NRL competition in a 0:07:44.610 --> 0:07:49.050 $ 600 million expansion to rugby league. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese 0:07:49.090 --> 0:07:51.630 is backing a 10-year funding plan for PNG. 0:07:52.310 --> 0:07:54.869 Australia is throwing a huge amount of money at Papua 0:07:54.890 --> 0:07:57.130 New Guinea. We're contributing to the start of a rugby 0:07:57.170 --> 0:07:59.900 league team there that's all part of our soft diplomacy 0:07:59.920 --> 0:08:01.860 in the Pacific to try to ward off China. 0:08:02.460 --> 0:08:07.880 These treaties represent one of the most significant endeavours Australia 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:12.050 has ever undertaken in our history with any country. 0:08:12.290 --> 0:08:15.510 The agreement sets out to better integrate the Australian and 0:08:15.550 --> 0:08:19.250 Papua New Guinea Defence Forces and even allows each to 0:08:19.310 --> 0:08:21.429 recruit troops from the other countries. 0:08:22.250 --> 0:08:25.570 We're also spending quite a lot of taxpayers' money on Kokoda. 0:08:25.610 --> 0:08:28.670 But is that money getting to where it should be getting? 0:08:28.730 --> 0:08:31.930 And is the track being upkept as it should be, John? 0:08:32.530 --> 0:08:36.490 Yeah, well, so Charlie Lynn, the former Liberal MP, is 0:08:37.110 --> 0:08:41.740 a really big figure in bringing Kokoda back. He's very 0:08:41.820 --> 0:08:46.060 critical of the lack of resources, and I tend to 0:08:46.100 --> 0:08:48.600 agree with him. I think a lot more can be 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.960 done for the villages, but also to make Kokoda and 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:59.620 other places in PNG accessible, and particularly there's a dearth 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.400 of military history when you pass through a lot of 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.000 really significant areas. It's run by the Kokoda Track Authority, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.550 which is PNG run, but I think it's very clear 0:09:10.590 --> 0:09:14.930 that more could be done to make the experience, I suppose, 0:09:15.050 --> 0:09:20.849 achievable but also intellectually stimulating and informative for One of 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.370 the issues that Mr. Lin talks about is the drop 0:09:24.450 --> 0:09:28.929 in demand, the lower numbers of trekkers since that peak 0:09:29.510 --> 0:09:33.770 in 2008. So that becomes quite interesting, doesn't it? Because 0:09:34.590 --> 0:09:38.250 are we in a phase now where those great parts 0:09:38.290 --> 0:09:42.089 of our history, such as Kokoda and Gallipoli, and maybe 0:09:42.130 --> 0:09:44.290 even the Western Front, which is a bit more accessible, 0:09:44.390 --> 0:09:47.730 but are we entering a period where there's going to 0:09:47.770 --> 0:09:50.760 be less interest and How do we as a country 0:09:51.260 --> 0:09:55.050 make sure that we can educate younger people about the 0:09:55.090 --> 0:09:58.110 importance and then give them the opportunity to go to 0:09:58.150 --> 0:10:02.140 these places and feel what it was like or see 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.780 what it was like for soldiers from World War I 0:10:04.820 --> 0:10:07.939 and World War II. Over time, the next 20 years, 0:10:07.940 --> 0:10:12.110 25 years, who's going to be prosecuting the arguments for 0:10:12.150 --> 0:10:17.429 remembering what these soldiers did, what they suffered for? It's 0:10:17.450 --> 0:10:20.790 a pretty important issue. National question, isn't it, Claire? 0:10:21.410 --> 0:10:23.390 Yeah, I mean, it's on us, of course, isn't it? 0:10:23.490 --> 0:10:26.650 And I've thought that about, you know, the Gallipoli Peninsula 0:10:26.830 --> 0:10:28.790 or other places, as you say, on the Western Front. 0:10:28.970 --> 0:10:32.050 You know, there are museums and there are kind of 0:10:32.110 --> 0:10:34.670 displays and there are statues and so on, but there's 0:10:34.740 --> 0:10:39.180 nothing as immersive as, you know, spending 10 days living 0:10:39.220 --> 0:10:43.960 in fear of falling and worrying about your safety and 0:10:44.100 --> 0:10:47.580 going through a gastro. I mean, that is the ultimate experience, 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:47.880 isn't it? 0:10:48.660 --> 0:10:50.959 Oh, look, I think it is. Like I found it 0:10:51.260 --> 0:10:55.140 so immersive. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who 0:10:55.179 --> 0:10:59.870 wants to test themselves physically, but also play a role 0:11:00.250 --> 0:11:06.550 in supporting the history and the efforts of those in 1942. 0:11:06.550 --> 0:11:09.050 I was also impressed to note that you lost five kilos, John. 0:11:09.090 --> 0:11:11.729 Who needs Ozempic when you can just go and thrash 0:11:11.750 --> 0:11:13.350 yourself to death on the Kokoda track? 0:11:13.780 --> 0:11:15.840 Yeah, just go and get gastro and walk the Kokoda 0:11:15.900 --> 0:11:18.680 track and you'll lose five. Unfortunately, I put three back on. 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.300 You have to go back. 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:22.760 Yes, exactly. 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:23.780 Thank you, John, very much. 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:25.120 Thank you, Claire. 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.300 John Ferguson is an associate editor with The Australian. You 0:11:33.340 --> 0:11:36.540 can read about his Kokoda experience in The Australian's weekend 0:11:36.580 --> 0:11:39.020 magazine and at theaustralian.com.au.