The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
By now it is well worn, but the Kokoda Trail in Papua-New Guinea is as difficult now as it was in World War II...ask the members of this Australian Army civic action patrol. The patrol was headed for Efogi, half way along the famous Trail, last week. Many a pair of feet have laboured along its winding, climbing path, and these men find that boots were really made for trudging, not marching. The patrol was the second in a continuing programme of Army civic action along the Trail. The first patrol visited the nearby villages of Naure and Menari in December last year. The civil affairs programme is being carried out by the Papua-New Guinea Training Depot, the unit responsible for assisting villagers in this area of the Territory. The latest patrol was led by 2nd Lieutenant Patrick Savage, a National Serviceman of Elizabeth North, SA. Because of the emphasis on medical assistance to villagers it was accompanied by a Regular Army officer who is also a medical undergraduate, Lieutenant Laurie Doolan of Sassafras, Vic. Lt Doolan is a fourth year medical student at Monash University and is attached to the training depot during his annual vacation. There was no rest for the patrol once it arrived at Efogi and it was down to work for all concerned...from interpreter to Lt Doolan. It wasn't long before a crowd of interested villagers gathered around to watch Lt Doolan preparing his equipment and supplies and soon all was ready for the first patient. During the patrol's stay Lt Doolan treated many villagers of all ages suffering a variety of complaints. Future patrols will go out every two or three months and as well as giving medical aid, they will assist and advise villagers on a variety of community development projects. Their aim is to train the villagers to cope with their own problems and to carry out future projects themselves.
Civic action tasks are being undertaken on a grand scale by members of the Pacific Islands Regiment in the Lumi district of the Sepik in Papua-New Guinea. Road construction work is one of the projects
Soldiers of Australia's 5th Battalion, in South Vietnam last week, carried out a successful cordon and search operation in Phuoc Tuy Province, concentrating on the hamlet of Duc Trung, just north of t
Australian troops in South Vietnam are helping the villagers of Hoi My (Hoy Mee) to build a dam. The dam is to keep salt water out of the rice paddi. The Australians are providing equipment for the vi
The first project in a new phase of the pacification programme in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam was opened recently. Under the new programme units of the Task Force other than the Civil Affairs Un
The 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, last week staged its first civic action project in Vietnam. The village given help was Dat Do, 15 miles from the battalion's tentlines and until recently,
The village of Ngai Giao, seven miles north of the Australian Task Force Headquarters at Nui Dat, was devastated during heavy fighting between South Vietnamese soldiers and an estimated company of Vie
