World Heritage move not war history, says track fan

THE Kokoda Track should be removed from the development of the Owen Stanley Ranges into a World Heritage listing because military heritage is not a consideration for a World Heritage listing, a businessman says.
That “joint understanding” by Australia and Papua New Guinea does not capture anything to protect military heritage along the Kokoda Track, said Major Charlie Lynn, pictured, a retired Australian serviceman who runs Adventure Kokoda.
“Kokoda Trail is about the military heritage between Papua New Guinea and Australia,” he said.
“However, in the joint understanding, military heritage is not a consideration for a World Heritage listing. It only talks about environment conservation and climate change projects and therefore Kokoda Trail should be removed from that joint understanding.”
The agreement between Papua New Guinea and Australia says: “The Owen Stanley Ranges are one of PNG’s major carbon stores and will be assessed along with other locations as potential sites for demonstration of reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation activities within the Papua New Guinea-Australia forest carbon partnership.”
Said Lynn: “So there’s nothing about military heritage being captured here and so the Kokoda Trial needs to be removed from the joint understanding.”
He said the call made by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to review the management of the Kokoda Track industry was timely and he was willing to help the government with the review and help develop a better model for Kokoda.
Managing the Kokoda Track within a conservation and environment protection framework is bureaucratic and not commercial, Lynn said.
He sees a need “to establish an independent and professional body to manage” the track, including the setting up of a Kokoda Trail Management Authority to run and develop the track into a world-class wartime tourism attraction.