23 March 2006
The spirit of Kiunga-Aiambak
The Kiunga-Aimbak “road”.
© Greenpeace
"At night you should not come here," says Jamie. "On this spot, where we are sitting, a man died. A tree fell on his head".
We are sitting on the feeding road to the infamous Kiunga-Aiambak project.
This 2-kilometre wide “road” was built by a logging company, Concord Pacific. It was really just an illegal logging project. After a protracted legal battle, the project was finally declared illegal, many years later.
Now, the bush is claiming the road back. The wooden bridges are falling apart and in places the “road” is just a pool of mud. Close to the Lake, the Kuni made a small attempt to control some of the invasive grass by setting it on fire, but it was all still so wet from the last rains, that it didn’t burn for long.
The road is still used by the people on the Lake to make their way to one of the two nearest towns - to collect their mail, for example. It's a one-day walk to Aiambak, which is about 45 kilometres away.
The sun is setting. "Come, let's go," says Jamie. "His spirit is still here."
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