Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels Day

Discussion in 'War Against Japan' started by spider, Nov 8, 2010.

  1. spider

    spider Very Senior Member

    3 Nov 2010 – Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels Day
    The significant contribution of Papua New Guinean “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels” during the Second World War was acknowledged in Kokoda at a medallion ceremony. The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Warren Snowdon was represented at the ceremony by Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, His Excellency Ian Kemish AM, who presented commemorative medallions to six recipients.
    Media Release (PDF 300Kb) (RTF 552Kb) | Medallion Image | Audio Clips | Background
     

    Attached Files:

    CL1 likes this.
  2. Cobber

    Cobber Senior Member

    Great stuff; These people did such remarkable work for the Aussies especially on the Kokoda Track, where medivac was extremely difficult. IMHO The truely were 'Angels of Mercy".
     
    BarbaraWT likes this.
  3. spider

    spider Very Senior Member

    STORY: STUART CARLESS
    19 Jan, 2011 10:58 AM
    LOCAL residents are being urged to throw their support behind plans to construct a community hall in Kokoda village, Papua New Guinea.Mollymook resident Milton Lay said the project had initially been planned as part of the Shoalhaven Youth Kokoda Trek, coordinated by the former Shoalhaven Area Consultative Committee.
    Circumstances prevented the hall component proceeding at the time but a number of people - including Mr Lay - are now in a position to proceed with raising the necessary funds to make the community hall a reality.
    The project is being carried out under the banner of the Kokoda Track Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to improve the lives and livelihoods of the communities along and around the Kokoda Track.
    The Foundation is a registered charity and works across the areas of education, health, community development and microbusiness and aims to repay the selfless help given to Australian soldiers during WWII by the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels' by helping to improve the lives and futures of their descendants.
    Mr Lay, a member of the project's steering community, said approximately $70,000 would be needed to construct the community hall.
    It will be supplied in kit form with iron roof and rain water tanks and will be constructed by a group of Australian volunteers over an eight to 10 day period, hopefully by July/August this year.
    Mr Lay said the hall would be used for community purposes and would also be used by village women for making and selling of their crafts, for cooking classes and also for educational purposes.
    It will be constructed in a part of the village that currently has no rainwater storage facility or community meeting centre.
    The volunteers involved in the project will pay their own travel costs to PNG.
    Mr Lay hopes there will be an on-going connection between the community hall project and the Shoalhaven region.
    He said the project could be visited each year by participants in the Shoalhaven Youth Kokoda Experience, coordinated by Shoalhaven City Council's youth development officer.
    Mr Lay said future trekking groups from the Shoalhaven would also be encouraged to visit the community hall and possibly undertake maintenance if required.
    A village representative, interviewed by Queensland ABC journalist Meecham Philpott in December last year, said residents were "very thankful" for the project and that it would serve the community for many years to come.
    Mr Lay - whose father served on the Kokoda Track in 1942 - has worked on a number of volunteer projects in Papua New Guinea.
    Other members of the project steering committee include Ulladulla resident Eric Ashby, a retired builder and Vietnam veteran.
    HOW TO HELP:
    Donations can be made:
    By CHEQUE - Cheques should be made out to 'The Kokoda Track Foundation Ltd' and sent to executive director Dr Genevieve Nelson at PO Box 1674, North Sydney, NSW, 2059.
    By DIRECT DEPOSIT - at any branch of the ANZ Bank, Account: The Kokoda Track Foundation Ltd, BSB 012 361, account 483162855.
    By CREDIT CARD - Call Gen Nelson on (02) 9252 2992 or 0412 869 210 to pay with a credit card or visit The Kokoda Track Foundation to pay online


    Help not forgotten - Local News - News - General - Milton Ulladulla Times


     
  4. spider

    spider Very Senior Member

    PNG VOYAGERS TO SEEK AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP AGAIN
    Makeshift flotilla turned back last year[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
    [FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
    MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, March 4, 2011) – Australian immigration officials are advising a group of Papua New Guineans to scrap their plan to try to travel to Australia illegally in a few weeks time. More than 100 Papuans will make the perilous journey to draw attention to their call to be granted Australian citizenship. The trip's organiser says among them will be two fuzzy-wuzzy angels, who helped Australian soldiers during World War II. Late last year, a similar flotilla, carrying a similar number of people, tried to cross the Torres Strait in small boats. Most of the dinghies were picked up by immigration officials or turned back to Papua New Guinea.. One craft carrying 10 people managed to land on Cape York before those on board were arrested . The group's organiser, Johnathan Baure, says it is only a matter of weeks before the group makes another attempt. "We have already more, more dinghies and even canoes," he told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific program. "There were two other guys who are going to go on this trip now, and they are fuzzy-wuzzy angels."[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
     
  5. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

  6. Cobber

    Cobber Senior Member

    Do these people want the PNG population to be given Australian citizenship or are they just asking for a select group to be given citizenship?

    Many people just concentrate on the medivac work conducted by the PNG people.
    They also carried heavy loads of Ammo & other essential supplies to the forward areas of operations from Port Moresby. They then with little or no rest and minimal food would take wounded men out. They were truly amazing people and still are today.

    With out these people the Australians would of probably been incapable of any serious offensive operations on the Kokoda Track. With air resupply they did not receive anywhere close to the amount of supplies needed and just because GHQ Port Moresby said X amount of supplies were sent did not mean that the troops received such a amount as we know with or with out parachutes (almost exclusively with out chutes) many of the supplie crates broke open on contact with ground or were lost for good in the jungle or landed too close to the enemy. Also similar with he PNG carriers although they carried a much as possible they were of course only human and not all supplies made it to the front line.
     
  7. spider

    spider Very Senior Member

    They are Papuans, the lower portion of PNG, not from the old mandated territory.

    They are claiming they were denied Australian citizenship on Independence, when they were Australian citizens in an Australian territory..........they have a point.
     
  8. spider

    spider Very Senior Member

    Liam Fox, Port Moresby
    Last Updated: 1 hour 1 minute ago
    The daughter of a Queensland World War II soldier has thanked the family of a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel who carried her father to safety along PNG's Kokoda Track nearly 70 years ago.

    In 1942, four locals carried Private Daniel Fewtrell for four days to safety after he was shot in the head during the Kokoda campaign.

    One of them was Edmund Aritu, and on Sunday his wife, Elizabeth, was one of 13 people to receive a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel commemorative medallion.

    Also in attendance was Private Fewtrell's daughter, Caroline, who, in a twist of fate, works at Queensland's Parliament House with Mr Aritu's daughter, Monica.

    "I wouldn't be here and my whole family - because dad had 11 children - we wouldn't be here except for Monica's dad," said Caroline.

    So far, the Australian Government has handed out 34 commemorative medallions to Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels or their families.


    [​IMG]

    A ceremony has been held in Papua New Guinea to recognise the contribution of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. [ABC]
    VIDEO from Australia Network News

    Ceremony recognises Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

    Created: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:26:10 GMT+1000
     
  9. Assam

    Assam Senior Member

    They have to be cracking jokes don't they?????

    Unless repealed, the Papua Act 1905 ceded the administrative rights to Australia, not the ownership.
    The area of Papua was annexed in 1888 & was called British New Guinea until the Papua Act of 1905, that gave Australia the Administrative power of the protectorate but ownership was still with Britain.

    New Guinea (German NG as we know it) was annexed in 1884 & sovereign rights to the German New Guinea Company was granted. Australia only got to administer it after it was ceded from the treaty of Versailles until the Japanese Invasion when the Australian Military assumed control of the region.

    If technically the Papua act enforced British rule under an Australian Administration & there was no further act to cede total possession to Australia these people are blowing it in the wind

    Regards

    Simon
     
  10. adam elliott

    adam elliott Junior Member

    Good to re-call that the administrations of New Guinea and Papua were combined in 1942 to emerge as the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit - ANGAU.

    ANGAU was responsible to recruit, clothe, feed, provide medical care, pay and repatriate all locally recruited labour who worked alongside the Australian and American military. Many former PNG residents were recruited into ANGAU as were many Australian military who showed a flair or interest in working with the locals.

    No question the food and pay etc was basic but it was not ad hoc and they had some great characters - like Doc Vernon - advocating from within the ANGAU on their behalf.

    Third Force - Australian Army History Unit - ARMY

    The people around Daru who come in flotillas to Australia are upset that no-one asked them whether they wanted Australian or PNG citizenship in 1975. John Baure's group wants the right to settle in Australia, because he believes he and his children are entitled to better medical and education services and employment. Mostly though people from that small part of PNG travel to Australia to attend clinics, especially for TB, or go shopping. Recently there were a number of drug resistant TB cases presenting and medical staff had a concern that this TB would spread through the top end. Incrementally now Australian authorities are working to cut access by improving border patrols and funding clinics in PNG. But the situation wont go away as the people there must have a similar right as the traditional border crossers netween West Papua and PNG and PNG and western Solomons.
     
  11. Assam

    Assam Senior Member

    I had 1 uncle in ANGAU & the other in NGVR they both did a good job. ANGAU Uncle had to apply for his WW1 medals to be replaced as the Japs over ran their Plantation & the medals went MIA, after the war they went back to the plantation until he saw the writing on the wall in the early '60's & moved back down. The other Uncle stayed on & was a District Officer.

    Regards

    Simon
     
  12. spider

    spider Very Senior Member

    Thursday, 3 November 2011
    VA096
    FUZZY WUZZY ANGELS RECOGNISED IN PORT MORESBY

    Australians are today being encouraged to remember the invaluable contribution of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels to the Second World War effort in Papua New Guinea, and their role in saving the lives of many Australian soldiers, on Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’ Day, 3 November.
    Tomorrow the Australian High Commissioner, His Excellency Ian Kemish AM, will recognise the efforts of nine Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels with commemorative medallions at the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby, on behalf of the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Warren Snowdon.
    Mr Snowdon said the commemorative medallion has honoured the significant contribution of 68 Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels since it was first awarded in 2009, including their vital role in helping halt the Japanese advance.
    “The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel Commemorative Medallion is a symbol of Australia’s appreciation of the Papua New Guinean civilians, who provided great care and assistance to Australian troops during the Second World War,” he said.
    “Many Australians survived the Kokoda campaign due to the compassion and strength shown by the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, and their families, and we are forever thankful to these people.”
    The Australian Government has also announced the restoration of the Returned Services League Cenotaph in Rabaul, commemorating the seamen, soldiers and airmen who fought there during both World Wars.
    The focal point of the local Anzac Day Dawn Service each year, the Cenotaph was constructed in 1963 but was damaged by volcanic ash during an eruption of the Rabaul Volcano in September 1994. The ash remains today.
    To restore the Cenotaph, the Australian Government will provide $17,000 under the Overseas Privately-Constructed Memorial Restoration Program.
    Mr Snowdon said Rabaul was a site of great significance during both the First and the Second World Wars, firstly as part of German New Guinea and secondly the site of the Japanese invasion.
    “It also served as the departure point of the Montevideo Maru, whose sinking on 1 July 1942 represents the single greatest maritime tragedy in Australia’s history, with some 1,050 Australian prisoners of war and civilians lost,” he said.
    “Sadly many Australian and Allied lives were lost in New Britain and Papua New Guinea during these conflicts. It is important to preserve this Cenotaph so it can continue to serve as a lasting tribute and reminder of their sacrifice.”
    Background on Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels:

    An estimated 50,000 Papuan and New Guinea civilians assisted Australians during the Second World War by carrying supplies, building bases, airfields and other wartime infrastructure, and evacuating the sick and wounded from fighting zones.
    They also helped Australian soldiers trek through the jungles of the Owen Stanley Ranges, including the infamous Kokoda track.
    More than 600 Australians were killed and over 1000 wounded during the Kokoda campaign.
    First awarded in 2009, the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel Commemorative Medallion features an image of a blinded and barefoot Private George Whittington being helped along by Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel Raphael Oimbari.
    The image came from a photograph taken on Christmas Day 1942 near Buna on the Papua New Guinea north coast.
    For more information on the medallion visit www.dva.gov.au/fwacm.
    An image of the medallion and historical images of Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels are available at www.dva.gov.au/media. Images of the medallion presentation in Papua New Guinea will be available mid-afternoon on Friday, 4 November - Email dvamedia@dva.gov.au for access.
     
  13. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    The people of PNG gave an enormous amount of help to the Allied war effort: as porters, laborers, scouts, intelligence agents, and soldiers as well. The Australian Army History Series volume The Third Force covers their contributions and the work of ANGAU in great detail. I don't think victory in SWPA would have been possible without the aid of the PNG people.
     

Share This Page