Iron spikes from lookout tree on Kabakaul to Bita Paka Road : German Army, New Britain

Places	Oceania: Pacific Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, New Britain, Gazelle Peninsula, Rabaul Area, Bitapaka Oceania: Pacific Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, New Britain, Gazelle Peninsula, Rabaul Area, Kabakaul
Accession Number	RELAWM07859.002
Collection type	Heraldry
Object type	Heraldry
Physical description	Metal
Maker	Unknown
Date made	c 1900s
Conflict	First World War, 1914-1918

Description

Five iron spikes, each of varying widths and lengths. Each spike is of different lengths and diameters and all are quite roughly made. Some of the spikes have threading at one or both ends. Each spike has had one end beaten or ground to a four edged point.

History / Summary

Associated with the service of Brigadier General Evan Alexander Wisdom, who following the end of the First World War, successfully applied for the role of Administrator of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, based in Rabaul.

Wisdom collected these spikes from a tree that had been used by Native troops under German command as a look-out post to observe the Bitapaka-Kabakaul Road.

The men of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force had fought along this road in September 1914, becoming the first Australians to see action in the First World War. This location was also where the first Australian casualties of the war were sustained.