Trekkers recall attack

 AUSTRALIAN trekkers who survived an attack in Papua New Guinea say drug-fuelled bandits forced them to lie on the ground and then struck them with machetes. 

Two local porters were killed and several of the trekking group were injured when up to six bandits attacked them while they camped on the Black Cat trail in Morobe on Tuesday.

The seven Australians, a New Zealander and their Australian guide – Christie King, the only woman in the group – then walked for five-and-a-half hours to find help, using the same route their attackers had taken.

Survivors of the attack, who returned to Australia yesterday said the bandits, using machetes and armed with a rifle and a homemade gun, first attacked the PNG guides, killing two of them and injuring several others.

“The first thing they did was lay into the porters, basically hacking and slashing,” Melbourne resident Peter Stevens said.

“They killed one guy just about outright.”

He said he and the rest of the group were forced to lie on the ground as the armed men – numbering between three and six – ransacked their packs, stealing passports and other items.

“They then laid into us with bush knives, hitting us with the flats of the knives,” Stevens said.

“You can’t tell whether they’re going to hit you with the flat side.

“Some people were cut.”

He said two of the attackers were quite obviously on drugs.

“They did the most damage.”

Nick Bennett, from Mackay in Queensland, was struck on the head with a machete, but initially feared he had been shot.

“All I could really do was hold my head in my hands,” Mackay told the ABC.

“They came for money, then they brutalised the porters, that’s really what we’ve been witness to and experienced.”

He said he stuck his head out of his tent and was hit with the barrel of a gun.

“I could see one of the guys just attacking the porters with a bush knife and it was just a butchery.”

After the bandits, or raskols in Tok Pisin, left the group led by trek leader King decided to walk to the town of Wau for help.

It meant following in the same direction their attackers had taken, a move local officials have described as “pretty gutsy”.

“The porters were in no condition to move at that stage,” Stevens said.

“There were no lights and a couple of false alarms.

“We could smell the raskols’ marijuana ahead of us. We could see tracks on the path.”

He praised King’s bravery.

“King, the tour guide, was amazing. When the raskols demanded to speak to the boss man, Christie stood up.”

King, from Bathurst, is a trained nurse who now lives in PNG with her husband, Daniel, and their two children.

An experienced guide with PNG Trekking, King has completed the country’s major tracks several times and considers the Black Cat among her specialities.

Stevens said: “It was just one of those things. We were so worried about the porters.