Eric Winn reckons he's been to Kokoda around 60 times, but never before has he taken a one tonne generator with him.
The co-founder of the Kokoda Memorial Foundation has
organised a shipping container to transport the generator, plus a whole
lot more, from where it is presently sitting outside his workshop in
Paget to the hospital of the famous town in Papua New Guinea.
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| A one tonne generator, 55 bicycles, 1500 pairs of glasses, 20 cartons of medical supplies, clothes and cooking utensils will soon make their way from Paget to Papua New Guinea. ( - ABC Multiplatform) |
Mr Winn says the generator being used at the hospital at the moment is around 20 years old.
"At the moment the generator runs four hours a night, it starts at six and finishes at 10 and if anything happens after that they have to do it by candle light or by torch," says Mr Winn.
"So one of our members down on the Sunshine Coast, Glen Thompson, got a generator donated so then we got a container donated, brought it up here and loaded it up."
Mr Winn says the really difficult part will be getting the container from the port to the hospital.
"There's a palm oil company at Kokoda and they have a low loader so they'll put the generator on the low loader and they'll probably take five to eight hours to get up there to ... the main track... but then we've got to get the container from there into the base hospital."
He says if there is no heavy machinery available in the town, the container will have to be moved using man power.
"The Egyptians did it, the Romans did it, we'll put some steel underneath it and drag it!"
Also in the container are clothes, cooking utensils, medical supplies, glasses and 55 bicycles all of which have been donated by individuals and groups across the region.
"Proserpine hospital donated a lot of medical supplies which we're taking up, there are probably 20 cartons that we've got in there of supplies.
"And we've had lots of support from the CWA (Country Women's Association) up at Seaforth, they've been fantastic!"
As for the bicycles, they are going to help set up Kokoda's first bicycle hire business.
"So what they're going to do is they're going to repair them... and they're also going to hire them out."The biggest problem is that they have no tools and no ability to repair them so a couple of the guys that are coming up this trip and a few that are coming up next trip will teach the boys how to actually repair them.
"A lot of the bikes have racks on them. Where they women would walk two to five kilometres to go to the market, they'll be able to ride with their gear on the back."
"Taking motor vehicles up there is just a waste of time. The trucks keep breaking down, the road destroys them so you take up something that they can physically repair without us being there.
"And the aim of this is to make them self sustainable."
The container will ship out next week and Mr Winn and nine other volunteers will follow in September.
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