Latest News

By Crystelle Coulon - North Shore Times (December 6, 2007)

NORTHS and Central Coast Rays rugby star Al Manning has returned from his homeland of Papua New Guinea where he and best mate Kori Chan were surveying World War II tracks.

Manning and Chan, who run travel tour business South Sea Horizons, spent three weeks in Rabaul setting up what Manning believes will be Papua New Guinea's next major wilderness walk with a rich wartime history.

"I think it's important to recapture the story about the heroic Australian soldiers of World War II and their intriguing escape out of Rabaul,'' Manning said.

The local tribe and clan members who inhabit the track and surrounding areas were more than welcoming to the duo, performing a cultural show upon their arrival.

"We met with all the clans and set up a land owners trust, as this is a 100 per cent community developed initiative,'' Manning said.

"While we were there we conducted an awareness program to talk about the project and help people to understand how they would be involved. It was widely-received by everyone with more than 500 people turning up.''

Now Manning is back in Sydney, the next step in their project is registering the land owners trust and finalising a project development plan for the track.

"Once that's done, we'll start inviting professionals from Australia - corporate people and schools - who are interested in walking the track,'' Manning said.

"We are hoping to create a corporate development initiative whereby the tour package they purchase will go towards helping fund the development of the track. It'll sort of be like a volunteer program where they can participate in helping to develop the site and facilities along the way.''

There are three different tracks that will be covered, all coming under the title of the "Lark Force Wilderness Track."

Over the next two weeks an information page will be available on South Sea Horizons' website www.southseahorizons.com

For more information email enquiries@southseahorizons.com