Kokopda Trail closed to trekkers???

Is there anyone out there with firsthand knowledge of this situation? I read in an Australian Newspaper that the villagers had said that there would be no trekkers permitted on the trail while they are in the midst of some dispute with the ozzie government. Also noted that the report said this is just before the 'trekking season' gets underway a month from now....was under the impression that people were doing the trek year round.is there a 'season?" and what makes it so?

Thanks in advance to TT'rs for the best info around.

The dispute is over the renewal of a mining licence for a company called Frontier Minerals (or something like that). They have had an exploartion licence and want to renew it and then go onto an open cut mining operation. If approved it would mean that part of the Kokoda Track would be mined. Accordingly the Aussie government is opposed to that as is the PNG Government, at the moment.

The villagers 'position is that they want services (schools, aid posts and transport) so that they can improve thier lives, and they see the royalties from mining doing this. They say, rightly, that while trekking is good, it brings in only a little income to the local people who act as carriers, as most of the money paid by trekkers goes to the tour operators, hotels and airline companies. Carriers get paid about K50-60 per day, about AUD20.

The villagers involved are only one group of landowners along the track, so only that part of the track is 'closed'. There are lots of alternative routes so treks could still get through. It needs to be understood that many parts of the current day track are not part of the original track, so another small diversion (in my mind) will not make a significant difdference to the experience.

Land ownership and the delivery of basic services is a very complex issue in PNG and there is not enough space on TT to go into all sides of the policitcs.

The months of November to March are the wet season. That is why the trekking season is roughyly March to October, with June, July August being the best months as it is more likely to be dry then.

There is no official trekking season and the Kokoda track authority will issue permits year round. What is often described as the trecking season would be better described as the comfortable trecking season, however you never know what the weather will do in PNG.

Bear in mind that PNG is full of large rivers and they become huge duing the wet season so crossing them can be difficult but also a great and memorable experience. The Brown river in particular was fast flowing, over 2m deep and involved smimming across and making it to the other side about 150m downstream. As for the packs these were placed on a raft and dissapeared out of sight with the locals who were swimming them across, but they made it in the end, and dry too.

I did the treck on the 3rd of January this year and it was great not to see any other groups on the track. Also there was very little mud even though there was water everywhere, maybe because there weren't many people to churn up the track.