Twitter brings Kokoda Track campaign to life

A historian and filmmaker is hoping to attract new and young audiences to the story of the Kokoda Track using social media.

 

Historian Patrick Lindsay has been retelling the story of the Kokoda Track campaign in real time using social networking site Twitter.

 

In 1942 the Papua New Guinea Campaign became the main focus of the Australian military efforts in World War 2, with real concerns that if they did not turn the Japanese back, the Australian mainland would be invaded.

 

 

At the time Australia's main infantry force were deployed in the Middle East, fighting with the British, with the territory of Papua defended by militia and conscript forces.

 

It's now over 70 years since the Papua campaign began, and while walking the Kokoda Track has become a rite of passage for many young Australians, how the battles unfolded, the background of many of the young men taking part and the impact on locals are not as well known.

 

Mr Lindsay told Radio Australia that for a younger generation used to getting information in small bite sized portions, social media platforms like Twitter are a great way to bring the campaign to life.

 

"The thing I'm trying to bring across that the revisionist historians would have us believe that we were never really in great danger in Australia and you can always look back with 20-20 hindsight and make it whatever you like," he said.

 

"The reality on the ground in Australia and in PNG was that everyone was expecting there could be an invasion at any time and the same with the Japanese soldiers.

 

Mr Lindsay has also launched an app 'Kokoda', to tell the story of the campaign.

 

"You click in to the various places along this map, and the story of what happened there unfolds and it incorporates video, so you've got...interview grabs from the diggers, so they're actually telling their own stories," he said.

 

"We've got 3D interactive maps, so you can get a feel for the terrain, which is some of the toughest terrain in the world.

 

Mr Lindsay says the response to the web site and the app have been positive, and not just from the younger generations.

 

"We went up only in November, I went up with five of the diggers for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the recapture of Kokoda and they were absolutely blown away when they saw the app.

 

"These guys, if they had been around today, they would have been loving all of this sort of stuff."

 

Click Here to visit the Twitter page.

 

NS-13