PNG: Kokoda's famous 'golden staircase' rediscovered
Updated
The famous 'golden staircase' used by Australian soldiers during World War Two to reach the Imita Ridge on the Kokoda track in Papua New Guinea, has been rediscovered. New South Wales Liberal politician and Kokoda enthusiast, Charlie Lynn, says terrain along the current day Kokoda track did not match descriptions Australian soldiers or diggers gave of the golden staircase. Late last year he got together with a group of men from landowning groups around Imita to solve the mystery.
Presenter: Jemima Garrett
Speakers: Charlie Lynn, New South Wales Liberal Party politician
LYNN: Well, it was a combination of very good GPS technology and local knowledge from my guides who are the sons of the landowners in that area.
GARRETT: The 'golden staircase' has a fierce reputation for the steepness and difficulty of the terrain. What did you find?
LYNN: Well it does, and that's why on the current trek never made sense to me, because what I experienced with the current trek and what I read about with the diggers were two different things. And I can understand why they don't go that way anymore, because it's very steep, it's very rugged. It would have been the first day or the introduction to the trek for the diggers and I think that's why it's been so difficult for them.
GARRETT: Sixty five years on, you weren't able to find any of the wooden stairs that were there during World War Two. How do you know you found the site of the 'golden staircase'?
LYNN: Well, I had a GSP with me and I had maps from army survey maps from just after the war and the readings I was getting were plotting right on what the map says, the grid references and also the lay of the land. When your going up there, there's only one spur there and it's the only way you can go, because it falls down steeply on either side.
GARRETT: And I understand you found a number of old ammunition dumps to. Tell us about that?
LYNN: Well, our weapon pits, when we got to the top and we were heading sort of to the northeast and there were these absolutely massive rock formations and there are no formations like this anywhere along the track. And we sort of swung to west and as it turned to the west, I noticed, I looked over and all these weapon pits were there. And of course there was a brigade there ready for the final defence of the Kokoda campaign and so there would have been three battalions worth of soldiers there and the weapon pits indicate that there was a large body of men.
GARRETT: So just how important was this site to the whole battle to turn back the Japanese forces on the Kokoda Track?
LYNN: Well, this was the place the Imita was the place that they were told to fight to the last man. They were to fight to the death there and one politician suggested that General Blaney should go up there with them and die with them. So it was considered to be the final obstacle to the Japanese objective of capturing Port Moresby. So it was a very, very important feature.
GARRETT: Most of the party that rediscovered the 'golden staircase' were local landowners. What significance did the find have for them?
LYNN: They were very excited about it. They realise that nobody had been over that ground probably since not long after the war, because it's all overgrown and so they felt it was a very, very significant find both from our view point of identifying the actual war time track and preserving it and from the view point of understanding the significance of it to us.
GARRETT: And in fact, you mentioned that they could feel the spirits even, because you had been hit by some storms?
LYNN: We were hit with two savage storms over the two days we were going up there and in fact it was so bad, we had to make camp. And when we were coming out on the last day, and the boys didn't say anything about this. But when we were coming back on the last day, the weather was much finer and I said to them this is good fortune for us to get through there. No, what happened was that the we disturbed the spirits, because nobody had been there for so long and that was the spiritual reaction to our presence. But they said next time we come back, the spirits will recognise us and we won't get those storms.
GARRETT: You've been involved with a lot of groups trekking Kokoda. Now the first group to take this new arduous route up the 'golden staircase' will be women. How did that come about?
LYNN: Well, there's an organisation called Women on the March, a woman Deanne Satek who put together an idea that a group of women should do it and they've had applications from thousands of women around Australia. They had a selection process down in Melbourne for about 250 turned up and I think they've got others in Sydney and Brisbane and are going to select ten representing I suppose different perspectives. They've asked me if I would take them over there and that will be. We'll actually be following that route, so it will be the first group to follow it.
