Sandakan Death March

Sandakan Death March

Our treks across the Sandakan Death March route, faithfully as close as possible follow the original route.

Our treks are based on research from the premier and respected authorities on the Sandakan Death March, Don Wall and Dr Kevin Smith and by Wayne Wetherall an expert trekker and passionate adventurer who along with his Borneo Partner Jerome Robles have uncovered what they believe to be the missing links and lost sections of the “Death March Track” of Sandakan.

Wayne Wetherall, Managing Director of trekking company Kokoda Spirit and Sandakan Spirit has walked the Sandakan Death March Track many times and has been very fortunate to meet a number of the old local people from Borneo and hear first hand and record their experiences of the Sandakan Death Marches.

Our trek and route is based on information from the official Office of War Graves, grave recovery map, information obtained from the National Archives and Australian War Memorial, Department of Army report on Major Jacksons Borneo Mission, Report by Major R.E Steele, WO. W. Wallace and Sgt R.J Kennedy and translations of Japanese war records.

Some of the most compelling intelligence that we have gathered has come from the local people along the track including the Village Chiefs of Taviu, Mankadai and Miruru.

During these investigations we were able to interview a number of first hand witnesses to the Death March route including two local men who were forced to be carriers along the route.

One of our most amazing discoveries was a Javanese man who was conscripted into the Japanese Army as a prisoner guard; his story of the Sandakan Death March is both barbaric and breathtaking.

We avoid using “short cut”,“eco” or alternative tracks that are logistically easier to ensure you see the real Borneo, the real Sandakan Death March Route.

We use a variety of accommodation on our treks including camping next to Rainforest Rivers and staying in traditional Dusun Villages along the way, this gives you a great chance to embrace the traditional culture and mix with the locals and hear firsthand the stories of their forefathers.

One of the most acclaimed authorities on the Sandakan Death March route is Dr Kevin Smith. Kevin is the Author of Borneo- Australia’s Proud but Tragic Heritage and Escapes and Incursions and Stories From Sandakan: 2/18th Battalion.

The other authority on the Sandakan Death March and Sandakan POW camp is WW2 Veteran and POW Don Wall.

Don wrote his first book Kill the Prisoners way back in 1988 and his revised fourth edition in 1995.

Don had the full co-operation during his research of Sandakan Death March survivors Keith Botterill, Owen Campbell and Nelson Short. These in-depth discussions covered all aspects of the events of prisoner of war life in Sandakan.

Don also had full access and permission to use the private records of Lt. Col. H.W.S Jackson, MBE (Ret.) in particular records of the recovery of remains, his first hand knowledge of the people of Borneo, those that witnessed the prisoners on the marches and those who saved the lives of the six survivors.

Do not be mislead in believing that there has only been one book written or authority on Sandakan and the Sandakan Death March.

Dear Wayne

You might find the following comments useful.

It is pleasing to see Wayne Wetherall's trek route taking in the very toughest section of the track that was walked by prisoners of war all those years ago between Sandakan and Ranau.

That is the section that travelled north of the Tovio River near Taviu to Mankadai through the Maitland Ranges and then onto Miru. From Miru the track climbed precipitously to the very high razor-backed ridge of the Maitland Range, and on through Maringan before it descended to Lolosing and onto Tampias.

Prewar, of course, the route from Ranau to Sandakan came down to Tampias as a pony trail, from where the travel was down the Liwagu River by boat into Labuk Bay and around to Sandakan or by boat to Beluran where a foot trail to Sandakan was picked up.

On that Taviu to Tampias section alone, approximately fifty of our Australian prisoners of war perished, their names documented in an Appendix to Lynette Silver's own book.

Most of those fifty were on the first march to Ranau, and died in February 1945.

Most of those who perished on the second march to Ranau are shown in that Appendix as having met their fates on the ECR - the East Coast Residency, which takes in the whole area covered by the march from Sandakan to Ranau. On the Taviu to Tampias section these soldiers died in June 1945. There were British deaths as well on both marches.

Your clients who walk that authentic Miruru (Milulu and Miru also used)-Menkadait, Lolosing track must be proudly yet sadly conscious that they walk in the faltering steps of heroes, men already tragically weakened by their ordeals.. A Japanese officer described the ordeals of that track to Miru: " . . . before Milulu we met a heavy rain and the path along the cliff was washed away everywhere. We fell down and crawled up the cliffs several times."

Nelson Short, one of the four survivors from Ranau, described in interview his own experience of the steep valley sides that they had to traverse. “I went over the top of a cliff. I fell and rolled down and down. I thought I was never going to stop. I had a - - was carrying a little mat with me and I come to rest on this rock and it saved my life. I crawled back up again and got back onto the march with them, but there were some terrible - - the precipices you know, little paths you had to go around, and everything were shocking - - shocking country through there."

Just a day or so later, climbing up the mountain beyond Miru called for unbelievable reserves of strength. In my book I have described that climb in the following terms:

“Clinging to the stems of shrubby bushes and liana vines, getting a good foot grip before hauling themselves up one more step, avoiding the spiny rattans and the evil barbs of one or two other bushes, resting whenever they could against the uphill side of an occasional huge tree trunk, panting and gulping for air, each man fought his own way slowly upwards to the top of the razor-back ridge."

Be proud of your venture, Wayne. In enabling young Australians and others to experience that track you greatly honour the memory of all who passed that way in 1945.

My kind regards to you.

Kevin Smith – Sandakan Death March Author


Borneo- Australia’s Proud but Tragic Heritage


Escapes and Incursions


Stories From Sandakan: 2/18th Battalion

Note from Wayne Wetherall

(Please note the actual Villages of Mankadai, Milulu and Miruru are actual post war Villagers and were not on the actual track or route during the March. The Sandakan Death March Track avoided Villages. The names of the Villages are mentioned to show and describe the general area that the track passed through.)

Sandakan and the Sandakan Death Marches is one of the most tragic Australian stories of World War Two.

The Sandakan Death March is also one of our most heroic.

The POW’s at Sandakan and along the Sandakan Death Marches under the Japanese experienced continual privation, hard labour, brutality, appalling living Conditions and Death.

POW’s were bashed by the guards, suffered from starvation and resultant killer diseases and sometimes murder.

Despite appalling conditions at Sandakan and along the Sandakan Death March route, the prisoners never gave up. Their heroism, their determination and their indomitable spirit are testimony to the strength of the human spirit and an inspiration to all.

Of the 2434 prisoners incarcerated at Sandakan, 1787 were Australian. The remaining 641 were British. The six Australians who escaped from the Sandakan Death March were the sole survivors.

The story of the Sandakan Death Marches and the Sandakan POW camp is a tragedy of massive proportions.

This is not a pleasant story, but a story of unwavering Australian Spirit and stoic courage and mateship beyond all conceivable human limits.

During this time the family and friends of these incarcerated men waited three and a half long years to find out some news about their loved ones taken prisoner by the Japanese.

In 1945 the Australian Army restricted information about the suffering and atrocious conditions of these POWs to protect the feelings of the next-of-kin. For over 30 years this information was suppressed and still 66 years on the information regarding this tragedy was vague or little understood.

What is also not so well known that while there were only six survivors of the three Sandakan Death Marches the inconvenient facts are that of the 2,030 Australian Prisoners sent to Borneo, 218 survived to go home after the war and here was around 90 escapes or attempted escapes from Borneo of which 21 survived to go home.

Over the past two journeys Wayne and Jerome and his team of local Dusun’s, who are direct descendents of the carriers and villagers along the track have meticulously, using the latest in GPS mapping technology and old fashion hard work we were able to faithfully piece together as close as what they believe to be the original route.

Trekking the Sandakan Death March route with us is an experience not just a holiday. We see things as an explorer, historian and adventurer.

When you trek the Sandakan Death March with Sandakan Spirit, you're participating in a personal discovery experience; you are truly living and participating in an historic and monumental Borneo adventure.

After sixty six years, you too can now walk the Sandakan Death March track in the footsteps of the Sandakan Death March heroes.

http://www.kokodaspirit.com/
http://www.sandakandeathmarch.com.au/