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Tham Yau Kong has spent years main politicians, diplomats and veterans alongside the Sandakan-Ranau demise march path utilizing a hand-drawn mud map.
The Malaysian tour information has now been given an honorary Medal of the Order of Australia for his work in holding alive the reminiscence of the sacrifice of Australian prisoners of warfare.
Between 1942 and 1945 nearly 2500 prisoners of warfare tragically died in Sabah, Malaysia and greater than 1000 misplaced their lives on the notorious demise marches.
About 1800 of the POWs have been Australian.
Mr Tham, a extremely revered tour information and professional jungle trekker, has been integral to shining a light-weight on the bravery and endurance of the POWs, solely six of whom survived the ordeal.
He self-funded a rediscovery trek of the Sandakan-Ranau demise march and helped set up a number of memorials alongside the route.
In 2006, the Australian Protection Pressure acknowledged the significance of what Mr Tham had achieved by sending a delegation to be the primary Australians to stroll throughout the “misplaced” part of the observe since 1947.
Because the first trek, Mr Tham introduced the demise march story to a wider viewers by establishing a biking route alongside the decrease a part of the observe, creating packages geared toward college students and repeatedly lecturing native guides within the significance of bringing the warfare historical past to Australians and Malaysians prefer it.
Amongst these to have taken half in his excursions are former prime minister Scott Morrison, Labor frontbencher Jason Clare and former impartial MP Rob Oakeshott.
Mr Clare instructed AAP not sufficient Australians knew the story of what occurred at Sandakan.
“It’s the worst atrocity in Australian army historical past,” he stated.
“It is a horror story, gut-wrenching horror. It is exhausting to inform, however it must be instructed.
“It is folks like Mr Yau Kong Tham who’re telling this story, making certain that extra folks know what occurred right here.
“He’s holding the reminiscence of those males alive. I pay tribute to Mr Tham and congratulate him on this well-deserved recognition.”
Mr Tham earlier this 12 months obtained an MBE for his work in elevating historic consciousness.
The Labuan-born engineer started work as a tour government in 1990, having been concerned in out of doors journey expeditions since his early 20s.
-AAP
