Journey History

You have to understand the past before you can make sense of the future. True North Journeys takes you on an adventure of discovery where time has stood still. The pureness of the culture, ancient traditions practiced for thousands of years and the history of WW2 is everywhere. It all begins with just one step with some amazing moments of magic.

Escape from Rabaul

The 2/22nd Lark Force was sent to Rabaul on the Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain, PNG. This unit in conjunction with the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles made up of local Australian expat plantation owners and civilians were there to defend this area from an imminent Japanese invasion with obsolete planes and guns, the last major island base of the Central Western Pacific.

The combined units comprised of 1600 members which had no chance at all against the 15,000 Japanese soldiers who landed on the morning of the 23 Jan 1942. Within 2 hours of the Japanese landing, the Australian commanding officer gave the order, “everyman for himself”.

The Australian soldiers escaped to either the north or south coast. Those that went via the south coast were more exposed to the Japanese as they traveled over 120 km of crocodile swamps, mountainous terrain and high flowing rivers. This in conjunction with no food, malaria and being straffed by Japanese planes reduced the number of men each day.

“ Food was the most overwhelming thing. When you were literally starving, everybody would be talking about food. They couldn’t help it. They would talk about the lovely morning tea their wife or mother gave them. We came to an understanding that this wasn’t helping us starving. We would ask that everybody refrain from mentioning food under any condition. Do you know what… it was impossible. They still kept talking about food. ”

Bernie Gleeson – 2/22nd Lark Force Survivor 2006

A number of these men totaling approx 150 arrived at a place called Tol Plantation, Wide Bay. This location was their furthest potential rendezvous point. These men included civilians, general infantry and medical personnel. The Japanese landed 5 barges at this plantation for a ‘mop up’ operation. Within 2 days, all 150 men who had surrendered as prisoners of war to the Japanese were systematically beheaded, bayoneted, shot or all three. This incident is known as the Tol massacre and was the first Australian atrocity of WW2.

Six survivors of this massacre lived to tell the tale.

Three hundred of the original 1600 personnel of the 2/22nd Lark Force and NGVR made it back to Australia. There is currently only 23 of these survivors living today. The official government report on the Tol Massacre was only released in 1988 and to this day, is a very untold Australian story.

Baining Mountain People

Fire dancers are symbols of an ancient tradition. It’s a moment that captures the essence of ancient tribal culture. The Baining people have lived throughout the Gazelle peninsula on the northeastern tip of New Britain for thousands of years. There only form of transport is by walking through the dense jungle, hence the remoteness of the tribes.

The Baining culture is very warming and offer you everything when they have nothing to give. The welcoming sing songs, the willingness to make you feel as comfortable as possible really shows how easy life can be.

“I remember one moment where I needed a cooking pot and a young Baining boy ran as fast as he could to borrow a pot from another village. On return, he was so excited to allow me to use his pot.” TNJ Pathfinder.

As small family groups, the women tend to the gardens and the men are hunter and gatherers. Trade amongst other villagers is common and the making of art for the dance brings outline villagers together.
Baining art is presented in dramatic ceremonies representing the daytime/nighttime, male/female, and village aspects of Baining life. They celebrate the birth of their children, commemorate the dead and the initiation of both their young men and women into productive status.

The most prominent ceremony, the night dance, depicts male activities and the active jungle life. Large helmet masks and headdresses express the fruit of a male-orientated existence in the form of the hunter and gathered flora and fauna. The use of tail feathers attached to their skin with their bodies painted in white and the use of snakes during the night dance is something to be seen.Mental and physical preparation begins weeks in advance as young village men are mentored by elders to prepare for dancing through blazing fire. The sound of the music is hypnotic and powerful as all villagers join together for a joyous occasion.

This ceremony has been practiced and unchanged for thousands of years.

Rabaul

This small township has withstood the ravages of natural disasters, World War and several dominating cultures. Originally a small German colony, Rabaul became a cosmopolitan hub catering to European plantation owners, traders within the islands and a bustling Chinatown.

In the late 1800’s, a number of church religious denominations set up schools and missions which played an important role in the cultural development of new Britain. Today, families walk for many hours to attend their respective service. Attending a church service leaves you with a powerful sense of harmony and joy.

“ … the New Guinea people were still carrying and selling their pawpaws and coconuts, taro and pineapples, in coconut frond baskets. White men in tropical whites and their women in summer florals still strolled down the street past Chinese girls under sun shades. The usual slow bustle of a hot and steamy harbour town went on. But their were also the soliders. Everywhere there seemed to be men in khaki, young Australians in the streets, in the stores, along the harbour front . “

Margaret Reason, Whereabout Unknown, p 53.

The soliders may have gone however the Spirit of Rabaul lives on.

Simpson harbour is Rabaul most impressive feature and consequently became the Pacific base for the Japanese during World War 2. Tunnels and bunkers of the Japanese still prevail throughout the township as they were 65 years ago. As a first time visitor, you will notice the smell of sulphur and the deep red sunsets from ash of the active volcanoes. There are 6 volcanoes, active or inactive within 6 kilometers of the Rabual town centre. Famous tree line streets such as Mango Avenue and Malaguna Road were devastated by a number of volcanic eruptions, the most recent being in 1994 which partially destroyed the town.

Today, Rabaul is slowing rising from the ashes as second generation Australian expatriates are rebuilding their beloved township.

The Duke of York Islands

The Duke of York Islands lie in St George’s Channel between New Britain and New Ireland in what is known as the Bismarck Archipelago _ a region charted by explorer and buccaneer William Dampier in 1700 and rediscovered by European pearl, wood, copra and beche-de-mer traders in the early 1870s. The Germans arrived in earnest in 1874, setting up a commercial post on Mioko Island and another at Rabaul, followed by the Rev. Dr. Brown in 1875 and the celebrated American/Samoan trader and planter Emma Coe Forsyth (known locally as "Queen Emma"), who also established a base on Mioko in 1878/79.

The islands were annexed by Germany in 1884 and stayed under its control until WW1, when they came under Australian military rule. They were seized by the Japanese in the 1942 invasion of Rabaul and, after WW11, they settled into comparative obscurity as part of a UN Trust territory administered by Australia. They officially became part of PNG with that country’s independence in 1975.

Nowadays, the Duke of York’s few thousand inhabitants make a living primarily from copra and cocoa.

The society of Duke of York has religious and political as well as social objectives. It represents a rough sort of law and order through its presiding spirit Duk-Duk, a mysterious figure dressed in leaves to its waist, with a helmet like a gigantic candle-extinguisher made of network. Women and children were forbidden to look at this figure. The Dukduk society uses male duk duk and female tubuan masks. Both types are cone-shaped and are constructed of cane and fibre, with short, bushy capes of leaves. Traditionally the duk duk was taller than the tubuan and was faceless. The tubuan had circular eyes and a crescent-shaped mouth painted on a dark background.

Only males can become a Duk-Duk. The Duk-Duk can be seen as a piece of imposture, by which the older natives play upon the superstitions of the younger to secure the food they can no longer earn arrives regularly in a boat at night with the new moon, and receives the offerings of the natives. Women, who are entitled in New Britain to their own earnings and work harder than men, were the special victims of Duk-Duk, who levied blackmail upon them if they are about during its visits, generally timed to coincide with the hours at which the women are out in the fields and therefore cannot help seeing the figure.

The society has its secret signs and ritual, and festivals at which the presence of a stranger would have meant his death. Duk-Duk only appeared with the full moon. Justice was executed, fines extorted, taboos, feasts, taxes and all tribal matters are arranged by the Duk-Duk members, wearing hideous masks or chalk their faces.