DAVID HOWELL

As a life member of the 39th Battalion Association, I was proud to have been selected to lead both Prime Ministers of Papua New Guinea and Australia from Kokoda up to Isurava, along the Kokoda Track for the 2024 Anzac Day Dawn Service.

The planning involved bringing not one, but two, Prime Ministers and the Governor of Oro Province on a two-day trek was a difficult task. In addition, there were many other people involved from the Office of Australian War Graves, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Australian Defence Force, the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, Australian Federal Police, the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, the Australian High Commission, the office of both the Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and James Marape, not to mention all the media teams that were in the party.

In all, there were over 70 people plus the guides and porters’ team to feed and house. No mean feat when it comes to logistics. I was lucky to have a great support crew around me, being the Green Masin (the Kokoda Historical guides & carriers). In the week leading up to the trek, I positioned myself in Port Moresby where I started the process of gathering and packing all the stores including loan packs, sleeping bags, mats, tents etc. I had already pre-booked the Australian High Commission Hut at Isurava and managed to get a helicopter lift in with stores including extra rations if, on Anzac Day, the weather closed in and we had to stay an extra night.

Three days before the Prime Minister arrived at Kokoda, I assembled my team. The next day I was joined by members of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF). They were the advance party who would march a day ahead of the official party. Their duty was to provide security and to coordinate the logistics in preparation for the main party to arrive.

Meanwhile, Kokoda was coming alive with people from all over the districts. Bunting was being placed on specially made archways leading from the airstrip up to the Kokoda Plateau, school children were practising their singing and local dancing groups were rehearsing.

When the day arrived, both Prime Ministers landed at the Kokoda airstrip and made their way to the Bert Kienzle Museum at the Kokoda Plateau. Here I was able to tell the Australian PM about the service and sacrifice of both the Papuan Infantry Battalion (PIB) and 39th Battalion at the first and second battles of Kokoda. The PM had recently helped Jodie Belyea with her successful campaign in the Dunkley by-election in Melbourne. Jodie’s grandfather was Arthur ‘Judy’ Garland, who was one of Sam Templeton’s B Company platoon commanders, and who was among the first of the 39th men to face the Japanese at Kokoda.

After speeches, and hundreds of school children singing songs, including both the PNG and Australian National Anthems, the official party met their porters. One of my senior guides, Bella Donna, was introduced to our Australian Prime Minister. We weighed packs and had our permit checked by the rangers of the Kokoda Track Authority. Then we set off from the archway and headed off into the jungle.

Our first stop was the village of Kovello. On arrival, we were met by the first of many local villagers and children in their scouts’ uniforms with the sounds of ‘Oro Oro, Oro Kaiva’, their traditional welcome.

David Howell with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape

We then continued to the little hamlet of Hoi, where we were greeted by more singing. Pulling up a pew alongside the beautiful stream, we were served fresh fruit. For those who are not familiar with this part of the Kokoda Track, it is relatively flat, but the canopy is open. Having started at midday, the hot sun beating down, was the hardest part of the journey. However, this was all about to change. The climb up to Deniki challenges the fittest of trekkers. On the trek with us was the Australia High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Mr John Feakes, who had recently struggled with an ankle injury. However, John took off and set the pace, shortly followed by the two Prime Ministers who walked hand in hand. Both spoke of the great bonds between our two nations as they huffed and puffed their way up to Deniki.

With the first day of the trek complete, everyone settled in for their night’s rest. Coconut ginger chicken and rice was on the menu for the evening meal. As the main party broke bread, the media teams had their laptops and satellite phones set up and desperately writing and sending their content out. I was pleased that everyone had made it and most importantly were in high spirits.

The next morning as we looked down through the valley to Kokoda and the airfield below, I detailed the desperate struggle made by the withdrawing 39th Battalion after the second battle of Kokoda. Although I had told the story a hundred times before, I was proud to mention great heroes like Lance Corporal Sanopa leading Doug McClean out after the battle of Oivi, First World War veteran Jim Cowey with JD McKay and men of A Company trying to make their way back to Deniki and, of course, the heroic efforts of Don Simonson and his action for the Military Cross.

The two PMs in high spirits as they make their way up the Kokoda Track

While the initial climb up to Deniki was tough, the climb ahead was bigger. At one point our PM tripped, but Bella was there to catch him. The realisation that if something happened to either of the PMs on my watch set in. But after seven hours we made it to Isurava in preparation for Anzac Day. The camp had already been set up and we were glad to link up with the advance party. There were approximately 240 Australian trekkers, not to mention the hundreds of porters and guides also in residence. At one point the water pressure dropped. Our PM had not had a shower, so I looked around to see where I could find water. In the smaller lower campsite was 39th Battalion Association member and a great mate of the late George Cops, Mick O’Malley.

After a quick discussion with the PM’s security detail, I led him down to Mick’s campsite, where Mick and I and the PM sat together on a rough bush bench seat, reminiscing about the importance of Kokoda and what the future holds. It was a great moment for me and great to spend some time with our PM away from the media and entourage that had followed. In the morning at the Dawn Service, both Prime Ministers delivered a speech and Mick and I laid a wreath on behalf of the 39th.

As I sat in the helicopter flying back to Port Moresby, I realised how important the PM’s visit was and what it meant to both Australians and Papua New Guineans alike. When I returned to Australia, I read the Prime Minister’s words:

As an Australian, there are few experiences more humbling than to walk the Kokoda Track. To be in the place where Australians and Papua New Guineans faced a merciless invader and fought for the same thing: home.

This week I had the privilege of walking in the footsteps of those giants, and to do it in the spirit of friendship that was forged between our two peoples in those darkest of days. Joined by Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape, it was a trek like no other.

Starting at Kokoda itself, the welcome our party received at each village was so warm and uplifting. During our relatively short journey it was a pleasure to meet many Australians walking the entire Track in what has become an Aussie pilgrimage in memory and respect. It is a beautiful but challenging country, yet every step along the way I reflected on how easy our group had it.

Like so many Australians who have trod that sacred ground, I tried to imagine what it might have been like knowing there was a chance that any of those majestic trees might be hiding a sniper, or that every bed of long grass might reveal a terrible, sudden flash of bayonet. In 1942, in a place that now feels like paradise, 625 Australians were killed.

That is the great weight of history you feel on the Kokoda Track, that great artery of mud and suffering and perseverance that holds a place of such power in Australia’s shared memory—and PNG’s.

So many Papua New Guineans helped Australians—troops, coast watchers, shipping pilots, nurses and carers. Villagers who risked their lives. Stretcher bearers whose courage was matched only by their kindness. They were angels walking tall through the hell of war. Together with our extraordinary soldiers, they cemented the powerful bond and friendship between Australia and Papua New Guinea that lasts to this day. All this was on my mind when we reached Isurava, the scene of the battle that claimed the lives of 99 Australians and wounded another 111.

What a solemn privilege it was to join all the Australians and Papua New Guineans on that hallowed ground for the Anzac Day Dawn Service and utter the words: ‘Lest we forget’.

I will always treasure my time in PNG, from the friendship of Prime Minister Marape, who kept his promise to walk with me every step of the way, to the kind attention of every one of the porters who made it all possible. Not least Bella, who looked after me; I could not have done it without him.

PNG is our nearest of neighbours and our closest of friends. After this week, I am more confident than ever, we will keep walking together side by side towards a better future. 

Editor’s Note:

David Howell is a Melbourne-based author and Kokoda tour guide and historian specialising in the history of wartime New Guinea. David recently released a book, Kokoda Legend: Captain Sam Templeton, published by Big Sky Publishing.

Captain Sam Templeton was the first Australian officer to be captured by the Japanese in the Kokoda Campaign. After being interrogated by his captors he was executed on the battlefield. See Phil Ainsworth’s review of the book on page 15 of this issue.

Please note that due to usage of both ‘Kokoda Trail’ and ‘Kokoda Track’, where people have used one or the other, the journal will follow suit.

The two Prime Ministers laying a wreath at the 2024 Isurava Dawn Service