By ILYA GRIDNEFF
THE gruelling “Golden Staircase” climbed by Aussie diggers on Kokoda Track during World War II has been rediscovered, a group of researchers has claimed.
Australian soldiers trudged up and down the muddy, metre-wide trail of man-made steps to face decisive battles at Imita Ridge, where they’d been ordered to repel the Japanese or die trying.
NSW Liberal MP and Kokoda enthusiast Charlie Lynn said he and a team of PNG locals made the discovery with the aid of global positioning satellite technology, World War II survey maps and local knowledge.
Time has destroyed the 2,000 wooden steps that presented exhausted soldiers with a final obstacle before heading into what commanders had ordered would be a do-or-die battle at Imita Ridge.
But Lynn says he’s convinced the site has been found, with several weapons pits found in the overgrown jungle, indicating a large body of men would have been present at the site.
“This is a very significant find,” Lynn said.
“The staircase was the last stand for the Aussies, where they prepared to fight to the death and when you see the terrain, it’s just incredible stuff.”
He said local knowledge passed down to his PNG guides supported his claim that the staircase site had been rediscovered.
The lay of the land, and readings taken from the World War II maps, together with GPS readings, also backed the claim, he said.
Kokoda Track historian Soc Kienzle – whose father Bert helped organise and maintain the lifeline provided by the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels – said he’d heard similar claims before.
“There’s been all sorts of varying claims, about varying tracks. I will check this out with my maps,” he said. “But I welcome anything Charlie does to reopen the original war trail.”
Kienzle said the staircase was a brutal part of the Kokoda legend.
“... each step became dug out from hundreds of thousands of boots going in there, so you had a pond of water held back by sticks,” he said. – AAP