Flight to Kokoda

The amount of freight carried by aircraft in Papua and New Guinea (which in those days were separate territories) was greater than in any other country. This remarkable statistic was the result of the rich gold discoveries which had been made in the ranges of those territories and the absence of any roads through the jungles which covered them. Most supplies and every piece of equipment and furniture which could not be carried over the mountain trails by Papuans and New Guineans was transported to and from the goldfields by aircraft such as the tri-motor Fokker flown by Norm Fader. All of the mining machinery was carried to the goldfields by air transport. The furniture of the families who lived on the goldfields was transported inland by air. The saga of aviation in Papua-New Guinea is a remarkable story. The weather was a crucial factor in this aerial activity. Flights mostly took place in the forenoon because the crude mountain airstrips were often inaccessible in the afternoon because the airstrips, and the jagged mountains which surrounded them, were covered by overcast low cloud.

My flight with Norm Fader was short but spectacular. We left early in the morning when only a few clouds dotted the densely wooded craggy Owen Stanley Range, flew through a gap in the range between two 13,000 foot (4km) peaks and dropped down to a short sloping unsealed airstrip in the narrow Kokoda valley. After the human and other cargo had been unloaded the cabin was piled high with cargo for the return journey. We roared down what seemed to be a far-too-short runway to climb steeply out of the narrow valley, back through the gap and down through rapidly-growing cumulus clouds to Port Moresby. Aids to navigation in Norm's tri-motor Fokker consisted of an airspeed indicator, altimeter, compass and turn and bank indicator. No radar or other ground-based navigation aids were available at that time. Obviously a knowledge of cloud conditions was important for survival of pilots navigating through the narrow mountain passes in the jungle clad Owen Stanley Range.

Bureau of Meteorology