SYDNEY – The Australian foreign affairs department (DFAT) 'Kokoda Initiative' has managed the Kokoda Trail through their surrogate Kokoda Track Authority for the past 11 years at a cost of more than $50 million (K105 million).
But in that time they have not been able to identify a single Papua New Guinean with the expertise to maintain the trail in a safe condition and protect the local environment.
Not a single one from PNG’s eight million citizens who include CEOs, professors, scientists, teachers, builders, pilots, doctors, geologists, anthropologists, conservationists, businessmen and expert bushmen as well as a host of professions and trades.
So the Kokoda Track Authority has reverted to a patronising colonial system of management by engaging Queensland park rangers as the new kiaps to do the job for them.
To add to the insult, the Authority is using local PNG rangers to show the new kiaps the trail so the kiaps can then tell the PNG rangers how to manage it - something they, their fathers and grandfathers have been doing for generations.
It will be interesting to see the reaction of Papua New Guinea’s leaders to the reintroduction of colonialism on the trail.