Photo: Adventure Kokoda / Charlie Lynn / Facebook
The Kokoda Trail, the route used by Australian troops in the Second World War in Papua New Guinea, and the site of many fierce battles, remains shut down by landowners.
The trek, the biggest single attraction in PNG tourism, was shut down last week in a protest by landowners, unhappy they have not received grants promised since Kokoda was relaunched about 15 years ago.
Initially groups were stuck on the trail, but our correspondent understands they have been able to walk out or have been airlifted.
Other groups have had to cancel their plans to undertake the trek.
The Post-Courier reports the Mt Kodu landowners from Naoro Village in Central Province, through their Kodu Resource Owners Association, have said the trail will stay closed until the Government responds positively to their petition and settles their outstanding commitment.
The petition wants a rewriting of the memorandum of agreement signed more than 16 years ago.
The newspaper quotes the Association chair, Sam Dabave, saying the people are also disappointed and frustrated that they have had to forgo a multibillion-dollar mine development at Mt Kodu, because it might have compromised the environmental integrity associated with Kokoda.
RNZ Pacific's PNG correspondent, Scott Waide, said the landowners are demanding 40 million kina or just under ten-million-US-dollars from the Government in missed payments, going back to 2008.
"There's a lot of discussion happening behind the scenes, including a statement by the Police Minister.
"There's people negotiating to have it reopened. The issue at hand is the landowner's dissatisfaction at the benefits they're getting from the trail.
"A lot of them feel that there's a lot of traffic, tourism traffic, that goes through that area. They get very little from it."
He said a lot of people have lost money.
"There's a significant amount of money lost. And a lot of that money goes to Australian tourist operators who sell packages online.
"Some of the packages amount to anything between A$2000 and A$5000 for a group or for individual travel. There's a lot of associated costs as well. So yes, a lot of money would have been lost in the last seven days."
Waide said a long-term approach is needed to resolve the issue.
"If you travel along the Kokoda trail, at least in Kokoda itself, there's very little in terms of physical development. Kokoda is a small government station and has been for a very long time. The road conditions leading to Kokoda are very bad."
Education and health care facilities in the region are very poor, while there is a long-standing desire for a road to cross the mountain from Central Province to Oro Province, with a possible route that could run close to parts of the Kokoda trail.
