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Our Spirit

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23.01.2022 When you feel like you need a bit of inspiration ..... have a look at this!!!...

21.01.2022 Not many left now...... Rip: Ray Gentles NX 192727 " Mice of Moresby" Passed away peacefully Sydney 25 July 2020 aged 97 years ... A Veteran of the Papua and Beach heads campaign. Always came out to meet my Anzac Day groups passing on his memories and stories.......

19.01.2022 This was a challenge we put together a few years ago. When i found out that there was a thing called a cochlear implant that could help kids hear...well we walked, kayaked and cycled the whole of Tassie over 5 days to raise 250k to help fund them..

19.01.2022 This is so true....its one of the lowest paid jobs and they are really doing it tough right now..no one predicted the pandemic and no insurance covered it. The most common complaint is that ..Some people that are in fulltime, safe employment, have just no idea of what this industry is dealing with right now...the demands that are being made... We are all in this together... WE ARE NOT!!!

08.01.2022 Kokoda Veteran Bill Grayden AM celebrates his century today ...this much-respected WWII hero (and WA's longest-serving parliamentarian, at 43 years) Mr Grayden - also one of the few survivors of the famous bayonet charge at the Battle of Brigade Hill in Sept 1942.. Happy Birthday mate!!!!!

07.01.2022 Smoky was found in a foxhole in New Guinea in Feb 1944. The American thought she must have been a Japanese soldier's dog, but when he took her to a POW camp, they found out she didn't understand commands in Japanese or English. The soldier sold Smoky to Cpl. William Wynne of Cleveland OH for 2 dollars Australian. Over the next two years Wynne carried Smoky in his backpack, fought in the jungles of Rock Island and New Guinea, flew 12 air/sea rescue, She survived 150 air raids ...on New Guinea and made it through a typhoon at Okinawa, made a combat jump in Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, in a parachute made for her. She would warn G.I's of incoming artillery and was dubbed the "angel from a foxhole." Early in retaking the Philippines combat engineers were setting up a telegraph line to an airfield. The joints collapsed filling them in with sand. Cpl. Wynne knew that Smoky could climb through the pipe with a new line and that is what she did. Smoky's work saved approximately 250 ground crewmen from having to move around and keep operational 40 fighters and reconnaissance planes, while a construction detail dug up the taxiway, placing the men and the planes in danger from enemy bombings. What would have been a dangerous three-day digging task to place the wire was instead completed in minutes. In her down time she preformed tricks with the Special Services to improve the moral of the troops and visited hospitals in Australia and Korea. Visiting with the sick and wounded, she became the first recorded "therapy dog". After the war she became a sensation back int the states, had a live TV show, and often visited Veterans hospitals. Smoky's work as a therapy dog continued for 12 years. Wynne had Smokey 14 years before she passed away. He buried her in a 30 caliber ammo box in Rocky River Reservation, Ohio. Smoky, the smallest war hero weighing in at 4 lbs even and standing 7 inches Read the book "Yorkie Doodle Dandy" (1996) by William Wynne!

06.01.2022 This is great news https://www.abc.net.au//review-into-teddy-sheean-/12340798

06.01.2022 About time....common sense prevails..

05.01.2022 Today is Remembrance Day and normally I would be on the Kokoda Track as I have for the past 24 yearsbut unfortunately due to COVID, this is not happening. Inst...ead I have spent the past 3 weeks working on a farm in Narrabri helping with the harvest. In that time of solitude in a tractor in paddocks as long as 6km it has allowed me time to reflect on some of the parralells with the Kokoda track. You see most people don’t know exactly how hard our farmers have had it for the past few years with drought, bushfire, COVID etc,. indeed, most haven’t had a decent crop for 4 years. This year with the abundance of rain it seems to be a good crop that will hopefully pay off some of the mounting debt. What has really hit home to me is the pride that they take in their crop and the comparisons with others in the area. They handle the grain as if they were holding a baby. I look at their faces and I can see clearly etched in them a book, and if you take the time to read it, a clear window into our past. Every ridgeline has its story, every stare has its memory. When we talk about Kokoda, we talk about the incredible resilience of the Diggers on the ground who with little High Command support had to quickly learn to adapt to the challenges of the environment and to the far superior trained enemy. Nowadays we love to label things and now we call it the art of being present as if it is a new skill to be learned, when clearly we have demonstrated it for generations (but if there is a dollar in it). I watch the farmers here and see them endure the incredible challenges that no one can plan for , those challenges come from everywhere and many formats, just when you think you have it nailed, a curved one arrives. So, I see them out here constantly being present and having to adjust (now labelled ..pivot) and to adapt in the moment. On top of all this is the market expectations, ie what we, the consumer wants to see, I see this in PNG a lot when trekkers go to buy bananas and see the colour of the skin is green, we automatically think they are not ripe, but upon eating them they are soft and nutritious. We have been conditioned to believe that our forced ripened fruit needs to be a certain colour before we would purchase. Apples is anther example, if it is not shiny ie waxed we wont touch it!!.... Here at this farm they have grown our own Aussie super food in faba beans, a bean that has 26% protein but yet because of the drought the size of the bean is a little smaller than usual, so guess what? Yep they get knocked back!!, paddocks of this super food will become animal feed, not because of the lack of quality but because to the consumer. Yes, you and I, they don’t look right. So, after tending this time consuming crop, it gets knocked back, so the farmer loses out. But do you hear them complain? No, instead (resilience) they roll up their sleeves and roll with the punches. The Grandfather who started this now 22k acre property came out from Ireland and tilled the land, often with his bare hands to scrape out a living. He brought with him methods from Ireland that were tried and tested for many generations, to become the food bowl that it is today. One man and his brother!!!... (immigrants) Now as I sit in my air conditioned, GPS driven tractor I can’t help but reflect on what it was like for him, with his open tractor with no suspension etc as he slaved away on the land with a burning desire and belief he could make this work. Well with enormous perseverance and every label you can think of, he achieved it. All those labels that we now live our life with, were evident in our Diggers in every campaign that they fought, if those labels had not been ingrained in them, then perhaps we would all be speaking a different language today. SO, today I will remember the Diggers, who many were farmers before and after, and pray that we never lose that pioneering spirit because if we do, the labellers will continue to inundate you with more labels. LEST WE FORGET their story

04.01.2022 It is with great sadness that Sister Margaret (konehe) a great friend and an incredible person who continued to do amazing things at Kokoda Hospital despite many challenges has passed away. I've known her for more than 20 years as we continued to deliver medical supplies on each of our treks. Sister Margaret leaves an enormous legacy and Kokoda has lost a true hero in so many ways. I have lost a great friend, but as i know she would want..we will continue to honour her name as she too becomes a big part of the Kokoda history..Ni Munanna....

04.01.2022 Over the years we have been asked to capture and present some of the real stories that have emerged from the "Kokoda Track" experience, we start here with a 16min podcast.....

02.01.2022 More than 50,000 military dogs served in World War I. They proved just how valuable canines can be on the battlefield and beyond. Red Cross dogs or mercy dogs performed one of the most dangerous tasks on the battlefield: finding and assisting the wounded in the no-man’s land between the trenches. These ambulance dogs carried medical packs that men could use to treat themselves if they were able. Dogs would carry a wounded soldier’s cap back to the medics and then bring the ...medics to him. Compassionate canines even sat with the dying to comfort them. Unfortunately, medics and their dogs were often killed in the line of duty. The casualty rate among dogs was so high that many units stopped using them. Ambulance dogs were highly effective on the Eastern front, though. During the Russian retreat, medical dogs reportedly saved thousands of German lives. See more