Track’s horror story unites the present
11 April 2022
GREGORY BABLIS
| Ples Singsing
TOL, NEW BRITAIN - The Lark Force Track is a little-known wartime walking trail with a big history.
Located in East New Britain Province, it runs from the Warongoi River in the north to Tol, Wide Bay, along the south coast.
The track is named after the 2/22 Lark Force Battalion, an Australian force sent to guard Rabaul and its important harbour.
But when the Imperial Japanese Army descended in January 1942, the small garrison was outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed.
The Australian soldiers were forced to escape across the Gazelle Peninsula in fragmented groups.
One group of about 200 soldiers decided to retreat from the Warongoi River and through the northern Mali Baining villages of Arabam, Reigel, Vaingait and Lamengi.
They crossed the rugged Baining Ranges, skirting Mt Bururimea, the highest peak in the province, and trekked to the Balus River, about four kilometers north of Tol Plantation.
On 4 February 1942, pursuing Japanese soldiers captured 158 Lark Force Battalion soldiers and some civilians between Tol and Masarau where they were massacred.
The massacre of these soldiers occurred after one of the great blunders of the Australian Army in World War II when they were not given timely reinforcement in Rabaul and no rescue was organised for them.
The route taken by the Lark Force soldiers is a traditional bush track used by the Bainings moving between villages in the north and south.
The German Catholic priest, Fr Alphonse Mayerhoffer, who was stationed at Lamengi pre-war, was providing support for Australian soldiers and it was he who pointed them to the track.
But the Lark Force Track hides yet another secret that only now local oral history has revealed.
Sometime between 1942 and 1945, Japanese soldiers also massacred Baining villagers at Vaingait.
The villagers were marched to the site and ordered to dig a tunnel into the side of a hill.
They were then told to hide in the tunnel for their own safety from the Allied Forces bombing raids.
A machine gun was placed at the mouth of the tunnel and used to slaughter the villagers.
A conservative number of the villagers killed is 200 but it is suggested that as many as 1,000 died.
Today, locals of Tol, Masarau, Marunga and the Mali Baining villages from Karong to Raigel have come together to acknowledge the history of the wartime track bookended by two brutal massacres – one of Australian soldiers at Toland one of Baining villagers.
Locals recognise the potential for this track to generate something of economic value through the tourism and trekking industries.
With the support of the National Museum & Art Gallery and the leadership of the Indigenous Baining authority, Qaqet Stewardship Council, chaired by Nicholas R Leo, locals have come together to begin revealing the secrets and stories of the events of World War II from a local perspective.
They plan to make the Lark Force Track a viable tourist track, firstly by mapping the route taken by the Australian soldiers massacred in Tol.
A 34 person team made up of locals from the Mengen, Sulka and Baining tribes recently completed a seven-day mapping expedition of the Track which runs a total of 61.4 kilometers from Arabam in the north to Tol in the south.
Baining landowners have also established called RAIMA (Raigel-Marunga), an entity which is envisaged to be the managing authority over the Lark Force Track.
The major sponsor for the important $15,000 project mapping exercise was Angela Pennefather of Melanesian Luxury Yachts and financial assistance was also received from other private sponsors including the Qaqet Stewardship Council.
I worked in Wide Bay in the East Pomio area as a pastor, living there for three years from 2006-08.
The area between the Wharangoi river and Tol is covered with rugged forest and is inhospitable terrain featuring torrential rain, mosquitoes and a myriad of other geographical and natural challenges including fast flowing rivers.
Previously, the only means of travel were by speedboat from Wide Bay and by plane. There was previously an airstrip at Tol.
To imagine the trek of the brave Lark Force soldiers is shuddering. It would have been very hard going from Wharangoi to Tol.
The idea to establish a tourist track through this area, long shut out from civilisation, is very commendable.
Posted by: Simon Davidson | 13 April 2022 at 09:52 AM
A most worthy initiative.
PNG is the custodian of much of the military history of the War in the Pacific.
There is great potential in the development of a wartime pilgrimage tourism industry encompassing Milne Bay, The Kokoda Trail, Rabaul, The Black Cat Track, Shaggy Ridge, etc. with markets in Australia, Japan and the United States.
Pilgrimage tourism is a gateway to adventure and cultural tourism throughout the last frontier in the land of the unexpected.
This is why it is important to get the management model of the Kokoda Trail right - the only way this will happen is for PNG to reclaim ownership of it and run it as a tourism resource on a commercial basis for the benefit of their traditional resource custodians rather than as an aid-funded socio-environmental product for the benefit of overpaid officials and consultants.
Posted by: Charlie Lynn | 12 April 2022 at 04:00 PM