Were Kokoda Track "Deserters" Killed?

A long time after the Kokoda Track campaign I came across some information which I believe sheds some light on how Papuan labour behaved during those days.

I was acting as District Officer when 1 had before me the case of a Mekeo charged with having attempted to murder an elderly Koiari man with an axe. The murder attempt had been made in hospital at Gemo, Port Moresby, where the Mekeo had been an orderly. The Mekeo had happened to see the old man in the ward, had stopped suddenly, rushed outside, come back with an axe and attacked him.

The Mekeo told me in Motu that he had been a carrier on the Kokoda Track in 1942 when he decided, with seven others, to desert.

They had met up with inland Koiari people, who had promised to provide them with food and directions to the coast. When they were off their guard they had been attacked by the Koiaris with spears and all had been killed except him. He escaped to the coast after being befriended by a village constable.

He had seen red when he had recognised the elderly Koiari patient as the man who had planned the ambush.

This case was of particular interest to me because I think it might explain the fate of other coastal carriers who deserted on the Kokoda

Track and were never heard of again.

—TG.