Kokoda Spirit and the Kokoda Track

Company History

Kokoda Spirit is Australia and PNG’s most respected and professional company trekking the Kokoda Track.

The Kokoda Track is one of the World’s great adventures. Kokoda is a living breathing, pulsating and evolving Track. It is surrounded by seemingly impenetrable jungle, pristine rivers and stunning waterfalls that cut deep into the brooding mist covered mountains then sweep down into beautiful, lush green mystical valleys.

Kokoda Spirit is a specialised Australian adventure trekking company taking school groups, sporting teams, corporate groups and individuals across the famous an iconic Kokoda Track. Kokoda Spirit carries a full 10 Million dollars in Public Liability Insurance and has a comprehensive Risk Management Plan. Kokoda Spirit and it's Director Wayne Wetherall carries full Personal Indemnity. 

Kokoda Spirit is a Registered Business in Australia and PNG and operates under the laws of both countries. Kokoda Spirit complies with all licence requirements for it's operations including the Commercial Kokoda Track Operators Licence. All our travel arrangements are completed through Spirit Holidays - Travel Agents Licence TAG 1611. Kokoda Spirit's Managing Director Wayne Wetherall was part of the Foundation Committee that designed and implemented the trekking companies Code of Conduct. Wayne is also a Foundation member of the Kokoda Track Maintenance Advisory Committee.

Trekking Kokoda with Kokoda Spirit is an experience not just a holiday; we trek with the perspective and knowledge of a historian and the passion and excitement of an explorer on a monumental adventure! We trek Kokoda, as it should be, with respect to those that fought on it, and with respect to the customs and beliefs of the landowners, villagers and people of PNG.

Kokoda Spirit was formed by husband and wife team Wayne and Michelle Wetherall in 2004.

Wayne had recently returned from trips to both Vietnam and PNG including the famous and enormously challenging Kokoda Track. These two trips were the impetus for the birth of Kokoda Spirit. Wayne and Michelle had a dream to share the story of the courageous and heroic diggers on the Kokoda Track with fellow Australians.

Kokoda Spirit is passionate and committed to the legacy and Spirit that our Australian soldiers and their Papuan New Guinea brothers have left for us on the Kokoda Track.

The story of the Australian Diggers and their Papuan New Guinea brothers on the Kokoda Track has become folklore, an Australian legend.

The Courage, Endurance, Mateship and Sacrifice shown by our boys have made them and the Kokoda Track an Australian Icon.

Wayne Wetherall Managing Director of Kokoda Spirit has had the privilege and opportunity to soak up the history and experience firsthand from some of the Kokoda Track Veterans including, Stan Bisset 2/14th Battalion, Cecil Driscoll, Alan “Kanga” Moore, Ted Stuart and the son of Captain Sam Templeton, Reg Templeton from the 39th Battalion and Keith Norrish, Bill Graydon, Jim Mackenzie, Jim Moir and Pel Williams of the 2/16th Battalion. Wayne has also been invited to speak in front of the Kokoda Veterans at their annual association dinners.

He has also made three trips to Japan to interview Japanese Veterans and meet with the 15th Independent Engineers association and representatives of the 144th Regiment association and to research their Regimental history on the track. He has also interviewed Kokichi Nishimura “The Bone Man of Kokoda” on three occasions, and Major Horie, Staff Officer 18th Imperial Japanese Army on two occasions.

In January 2010, Wayne and the Kokoda Spirit team invited and escorted Kokichi Nishimura “The Bone Man of Kokoda” on a eight day fact finding tour of the Kokoda, Oivi, Gorari, Awala and northern beaches battlefields, including Nisimura’s landing place of Basabua, Giruwa, Buna, Gona and Popendetta.

Kokoda Spirit’s Wayne Wetherall and his team have been responsible for discovering some of the great mysteries associated with the Kokoda Track, including the lost and forgotten battlefields of Oivi, Gorari and Awala. These are the original and first battlefields that the 39th Battalion first engaged the Japanese and defined the course of history of the Kokoda campaign.

Wayne and the Kokoda Spirit team recently unlocked the 68 year old mystery of the disappearance of Captain Sam Templeton. Captain Sam Templeton was the first Commander to lead the 39th Battalion across the Kokoda Track; he was also the first commander to engage the Japanese in Battle and also became the first Australian Commander to die in the Kokoda Campaign.

Kokoda Spirit recently discovered sections of the original Wartime Kokoda Track. This section of the original Kokoda Trail track had been hidden under 68 years of dense jungle growth. After extensive research of old survey maps, WW11 maps, and an extensive helicopter survey, Wayne finally cut and trekked through the Jungle to discover sections of the original "Golden Stairs" across Imita Ridge not seen since the bloody battles of 1942.

The team also uncovered and trekked a forgotten second "Kokoda Trail" near Nauro used on the Kokoda Track to out flank the Japanese.

They also discovered and reopened the pre-war mail route from Kagi over the top of Mt Bellamy across Eora Creek and into Templeton’s Crossing. This was the walking track used by B Company of the 39th Battalion on the original crossing of the Kokoda Trail. I walked a section of this track late last year and along with what the boys have told me on their latest adventure it is an exciting and tough walk. This discovery finally allows the thousands of trekkers who trek the Kokoda Track each year to walk in the original footsteps of heroes.

Kokoda Spirit and Wayne Wetherall are always at the forefront of new adventures in PNG.

In 2008 we uncovered the remains of four full Japanese Skeletons on the Kokoda Track and worked closely with the Japanese Government on their repatriation back to Japan in 2009.
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