Digger of Kokoda | GARDEN | Great Home Ideas

We help out a Digger with a few changes to his backyard

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It’s the 80th anniversary of the Cota campaign in World War II and being able to meet a veteran so he can tell us his story is pretty incredible but to be able to do something worthwhile for him well that’s even better so come on down Rich there’s

Two very important people that I’d like to introduce you to and then you’ll see a cast of thousands later but this is Charlie and this is Adam this is regu who is a living legend of the Kota Trail diggers wow awesome to met your Ed thank

You I’m very fortunate to still be here I we can tell Reggie you love gardening because this place is immaculate we’ve all noticed it but would you be offended if I said the house could do with just a little bit of a revamp out here no

Because at my age now I used to be able to do it allw but unfortunately I can’t now I’m being from getting up letters but I still do when there’s nobody around so sh shy I’m not sure r that you should be off on a ladder so I’m agreeing with

Everyone else who says that you shouldn’t but can maybe give Adam and Charlie an idea what are the things that you’re really passionate about keeping or or that you would like to see only the Roses okay anything else you can do what you like with it that’s the easiest

Way of putting it the roses are looking good out the front the roses have been there between 65 and 66 years wow they’re doing all right then I think they’re in the right spot yeah and what about uh the entrance here re how do you

Find getting up to your front door uh as I’m getting older higher yeah yeah so I think there’s definitely something we can do here yeah to make it a lot easier for you oh that that that’ be great yeah I’m grateful for anything you do so

You’re easy to keep happy then BR I am we can have some fun so R what we might do is lead these guys to rip into things to get started are you able to take me where you do your tours each day yeah we certainly

Will for sure yeah do you need to grab a jacket or anything I will like to get me a jacket if you don’t mind yeah please I don’t mind am I okay like this oh fine fine it’s all about you come on let’s go okay thank thank you thanks very much [Applause] Re volunteers and leads tours at the Kota track Memorial walkway in the Sydney suburb of Concord well R thank you for bringing me to the Kota track Memorial Walk This is actually a very peaceful beautiful place isn’t it it is it’s uh brings back sad memories for us CH but it’s just normal so re tell me your story then uh well to start with the Japanese had captured

Every is in the Southwest Pacific so the bottom half which was called papini was the only part they didn’t have now if they had captured that they would have they have brought their Fleet down into Port wsby Harbor that would have cut off all the supplies coming from America now

If they had done that austrilia was gone yeah and then the conditions on the Cota Trail like it was the it was horrendous wasn’t it can you describe what it was like when you first got the C Trail s it’s 25 mi from uh Port morby it’s all

Uphill when you’re going there and when you’re coming back it’s all downhill of course when it rains it rains in New Guinea three times a day soak and wet the whole time so you never dry never dry your shoes would be just falling to pieces your boots last 3 and A2 months rough

Wow and all the stitching just come UND done so then you walk up the golden staircase which is 2,200 steps to the side of the Mountain for us it’s it holds such an extraordinary place in our history but for you it must be so difficult just listening to the memories that you’ve got that horrific well I want everybody to know what they owe these people yeah you know not not not me I’ve got I’ve got

Enough out of life I’d like everybody to tweet each other the same I know it’s impossible but I mean what a nice world it would be that’s all I can say you’re able to honor them here when you when you take people around and you tell the

Stories of all the people all people fallen and lost along the way we lost 46,000 Australians during the second world war and 78,000 of the first world that’s a lot of people am I allowed to hug you yeah long as you don’t hug me too hard I’ll break I might

Hug you too hard but you’re amazing thank you very much joh that’s lovely of you honestly everyone needs to come here just to listen to you oh about that they do what better start charging they finally make some coin long the taxation doesn’t hear about

It so kiss so soft about I was strong now no I’m not I can never go back I can never go back thought I could and I got couldn’t bre through with the girl so high she will let go I to make this entrance a bit more user

Friendly for reg we’re going to be putting a deck down we’re going to break these up into two platforms the first one will come flush with the entrance which will bring us basically flush to the tiles here then we’ll have one step down and we’ll run a long platform all

The way to the end of the house the first thing I’m going to do is take these tiles off because our deck is going to be finishing at this height I want to remove the tiles and that will allow us to bag this brick wall I now over every now I

Got now I got a roide and I’m on a roll everybody want a body in and up the door you can see the joy these roses bring red so they’re definitely staining but this front wall it’s just so dated but don’t worry like the Roses I’m going to keep it for something [Applause] else we’re just setting the post for our fence and I’m actually using 90x 90 H4 treated pine that way we can use some sleepers on the front to retain the soil and retain regg’s roses once we’ve done that we’re going to be having a really

Nice picket on here it’s going to give it a contemporary look just make the front of the house look a lot [Applause] [Applause] nicer We’re helping out our new mate rge a 98-year-old Kota track Veteran by giving the front of his place a spruce up Charlie’s looking after reg’s prize garden and Adam is refreshing the front porch with the face SE we removed the old tiles and now he fixing this nasty tripping hazard in the

Path created by some pesky tree roots even run from your me running right back to you I’m Trying I really want to create a nice garden bed for reedge when he arrives home and something to look at through that window but currently it’s completely overgrown it’s taking all the light from inside the house so what I need to do is clear this bed out before I can get Planting When it comes to chopping down a tree on your property you really want to check with Council to make sure you’re allowed to do it this one far too close to the house it’s not particularly tall so we don’t need any Approvals well Charlie’s scratching his head and figuring out what the heck he’s doing I’m going to knock together the frame for reg’s new Deck for the deck frame I’m just using this 140x 45 treater Pine and we’ve just made a simple ladder frame now we’re going to utilize the brick wall on this side and attach to it there and then utilize a concrete here with some L brackets then I’ve got sirel he’s just

Putting down some treated pine Batts which will allow us to run that deck right up to the front door now this is a great way to cover up those old TI if you have them at your place and the structure is Sound so re tell me when you and Betty first saw this place so Betty and I been in this house for 66 years Goodness Me there’d be a lot of happy memories then oh there was we had some marvelous times here the two of us and the two sons and

We’re lucky I was going to ask you about her because you you fell in love with her young didn’t you I used to see this young lady uh riding down Wardell road which is a hill all the way down to the station and I said my mother I’m going

To marry that girl one day and my mother said to me R you’re an idiot get inside thanks Mom and that was it we just clicked this went on for a while andway she said to me when not I was halfway at the gate and she said if you

Don’t come back and kiss me don’t bother coming back at all I’ll find somebody else end the story the war broke out and things were really really bad yeah people don’t realize even I didn’t realize till I went away just how bad things were I suffered with

Malia all the time Betty must have been so thrilled to see you come home safely yes even though you came home yeah really really crook a lot of great memories though isn’t it it’s unbelievable marvelous memories yeah when having bad times they’re the ones that think of yeah not the nasty ones

No you got to look around and see the good ghosts in the house don’t you yeah all the good memories she’s still she’s still here do you know what I could sit here all day but you know who’s going to get really really mad with me what

Charlie and Adam if I don’t get out there and actually help them do some work in your yard I think I’ve got the best end of the deal here I think so and if you want to learn more about rage’s life look out for his soon to be release biography

How are you for height okay on the line I’m on the line you on the half yep to you a bit there we go with our post gone off we can now put our sleeper wall in we’re going to go too high and stagger the joints James is going to pre-drill

I’ll Come behind with a bugle and once that’s done we get onto our Rails So just like everything else in reg’s life he has maintained these awnings absolutely perfectly now the beauty of that is we can actually reuse them but give them a new lease on life and what’s the easiest way to do that inside or out at your place well it’s with a lick of

Paint so we’re actually going to use three different types of paints here and they’re actually going to tie back into the garden believe it or not so we’re going to use surf Mist on the Windows which is another white but it’s going to be a really fresh one and then on the

Awnings and all the the other trims we’re going to use Monument now if you haven’t seen Monument before it’s a dark charcoal gray so it is going to modernize this little old Cottage in no time at All so the third color that we’re going to introduce is cord bear so it’s kind of within the same tone of this it’s just got a little bit more green so it’ll actually pick up on some of the beautiful plantings that will be out there in the garden now we’re using this

Special brush this is a net brush that’s 22 they can go to 25 and basically that just means it’s a great big woolly brush so when we load this up with paint it will when we put it onto the Wall go into all of these little divots and holes all all

Is all is dream for the rails on our post I’ve just done a really simple checkout and then that way when they go in it’ll be nice and flush and when we put our pickets on they’ll all line up with our sleepers this might be a little bit tight use the Persuader is a F line to complete the deck area and complement Charlie’s fence I’m going to be building a screen that way when you’re walking up to the front door you don’t see the air conditioning unit the first thing I’m doing is making a 90 mil frame and then I’ll be

Infilling it with some thinner battens now everything’s prepainted which means I simply need to mark it out and screw it together using some bugle screws the tip here is to create a template because I want the gaps to start off smaller and then fan out bigger you’ll see what I

Mean once it’s together stay strong until the battle is won we fight All for the pickets for the front fence I’m using this Timber it’s 66x 30 and I’m placing it on edge just like this this gives us a nice contemporary look and defines the front of the house it also gives us a really nice backdrop for the roses from inside the house now I’m

Just using a block to space it out and then I will use a nail gun to fix it off and then we’ll go back and screw from the back so the front stays nice and clean I’ll tell you what gy it is good to see this red Brit getting covered up

Nothing against red bricks but to be honest I love the contrast of the new paint color with the monument and you got to remember we’re going to be doing all of the red bricks below here and your front facade so it’s really going to Anchor the whole house that’s right

So that means I need to hurry up and get this render finish I didn’t want to say such a diplomatic way of saying It we’ve been making over reges front garden one of the last diggers from the track and it’s coming up pretty good and you know how you’re like television royalty as far as horard culture and Landscaping it’s very kind of you you’re actually not the only royalty to have

Been in this front garden my mother’s been here well kind of the Queen mom I don’t know if that’s your mom but how’s this in 1958 the Queen mom came out to a and she picked reg’s Garden to come and do a visit to return serviceman and the

Whole neighborhood came out to see her like was a big deal how cool is that that’s pretty cool what do you think the Queen mom would say about this I think she’d probably want to see to stay that deep I think she would kind of standing out little at

The moment isn’t it I’ll start here I’ll take the Sunny Spot you can have the Shady spot oh see the Queen mom would like you yeah I know are we just doing one coat or two we will probably do two I’d say cuz it will look very blue after one coat

Yeah I get you I get you For the decking board we’re going with a composite board the color is Alpine Ash the best thing about this is It’s maintenance free so the only thing Reg has to worry about is just having a nice stroll to his front door to put him in place we’re using these hidden fixings

Now they also double up and create the spacing as well that’s going to stop the board from Sliding sh sh the trick when you’re laying these boards is you want to start with your first one nice and straight that way when you put your Clips in you know that every board after that is going to be straight the only thing you need to

Remember is that you start the screw on an angle that way it pulls everything in nice and Tight don’t you Ever to to finish off our front garden bed I’m adding in some plants now Reggie have some patunas here but really they’re quite high maintenance you need to dead head them you need to keep the water up to them so I’m going for low maintenance and I’m using this this is

Euphobia Diamond Frost now I really love this cuz once it’s established it’s not going to need much water and it’s got these flowers on it for about 11 maybe 12 months of the year round I also love the style of it it really suits the Roses behind me I’ve also put in a

Garden bed now when re comes to his brand new letter box I want him something nice to look at so we’ve got bankia Integra Folia when this is in flower all the birds will flock to it and it will finish off the front garden just perfectly my face when you’re

I what I wanted but you got me all on my own I ain’t got no worries never think about you I don’t even know what I’m talking About to finish off our bankia bed I’m using a combination of lamandre Tanika cuz it’s bulletproof and then this great little gravila which is just going to form a ground cover to fill in the rest of the space finally my height comes into some use apart from in supermarkets and on

Airplanes taking suitcases out of the overhead luggage that looks great what a difference is a little cut of paint makes oh that finishes it off Nicely Perfect Look at that it gets rid of the step at this front door so rege just has a flat plane to walk here into his front yard so Charlie tell me about this little selection of natives that you’ve got you like it I like it a lot it’s like a

Little birthday party here in the front yard but with some birthday candle Banky I like the way you do that Jo very clever so we’ve got a nice gravila here which is going to get up and give us lovely flows right by the front door there’s a tea tree over there which is

Going to screen out that house and just a really nice mix of kisin gilas some lamandas kangaroo pores but I also like the grasses that you’ve got in there this is a native called panicum heavy metal and in Autumn it gets this really nice red color to the leaves okay and so

That’ll be a really nice accent to the Garden then come spring you chop it down and you get all this lovely fresh growth so I like it you’ve got all your different layers and little colors the look at endrum are gorgeous by the way they’re nice color aren’t they yeah they

Are they’re beautiful I can’t tell you what variety it is Harley Quinn there you go my plants well that’s enough laughing I’ve got a wide load coming through look like you got a heavy load it is heavy Adam that looks fantastic works yeah it really does well to try

And hide that air conditioning unit so we started tight here and I’ve just fan it out there we’re looking yep good R yep nice hey ad as I do this mulching could you do me a favor and pops and pots under the window oh I certainly can can I finish sweeping

First looks done to me me let’s kid Me so we can’t wait to hear what you think Adam and Charlie again Rich how you going good to see you man yeah lovely what do you think of this wow look like I’m speechless we smartened up the front with a new fence but we definitely kept

All your lovely roses behind for you lovely thank you ever so much for that I noticed you put all the lovely plants in between as well yeah so they’re going to fill in and spill over the front and they flow for most of the year round so you really don’t have to

Do anything with those just leave them be we got a beautiful feature tree out here at the front as well yeah unbelievable what what’s it called Silver what uh that’s a bankia bankia integrifolia so that’s going to get lovely flowers on it bring the birds in all right gorgeous yeah just

Unbelievable and the post will be happy a to put the letters in with there cook but yeah look it’s absolutely beautiful like a bre at and tears be with it that’s that’s not kidding so thank you one all for what you’ve done for me I’m very grateful you’ve only

Seen the street it’s not just a front front Prince re it’s show you more of the house you have than go down on the bre use a grab R here re I certainly will help you out a little bit different wow I just I just can’t I’m not kidding I can’t

Fa that’s a good response it’s a good response look it’s absolutely beautiful you know I used to struggle getting up here I’m not kidding you sometimes I I have to go around the back way because I couldn’t get up here I know it s stupid

But it was no well that was a whole idea re is just to create these Landings and make them a lot longer so it’s more of a stral to take and only one step to then get up to this ground floor level that’s fantastic never had anything like it

Before beautifully beautifully done to everybody things that you’ve done for me I would have dreamt of been able to do it I wouldn’t have had enough money period that’s the easiest way to put I mean this home it’s been such a huge part of your life for so long and it’s

Just so lovely for us to be able to freshen it up I I I wish Betty could have seen it so do I I think she would have loved it she would have for sure yeah uh even when you’re gone I’ll be still stand here looking at it because I

Just can’t believe it’s done well it’s been an absolute pleasure to to do this for you reg really is the least we can do yeah thank you for having us it’s been a real honor to actually be here and spend time with you you are a true

Gentleman in every single aspect of the word how much that going to cost me he reckons every time every time he to aent all right I’ll get this one for you [Laughter] rich