Bloody Ridge declared free of illegal settlers

The campaign to reclaim the Solomon Islands’ only national park began a year ago with an intensive community outreach programme involving the Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Lands and local community policing.

Bloody Ridge National Park is now finally free of illegal settlers.

Seven years after the park was declared a national park, a team from the MCT Tourism Department confirmed on Monday morning, June 24, that the last settlers had been evacuated.

The integrity of this historic battlefield can now be protected and work can begin on developing Bloody Ridge into a world-class heritage site and tourist attraction.

Guadalcanal played a major role in World War II’s Pacific campaign. The Battle of Bloody Ridge was a battle between Japanese and American ground forces from September 12 to 14, 1942, as part of a Japanese offensive to retake Henderson Field, which had been captured by U.S. Marines on August 7. In a series of fierce attacks, the Japanese nearly broke through the U.S. defenses, putting the Allied forces on the brink of collapse.

Guadalcanal became a turning point in the Pacific War, and due to the importance of Bloody Ridge, the Solomon Islands government declared it a national park.

The park was declared inaugurated on August 7, 2017, marking the 75th anniversary of the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II. The park currently covers approximately 40 hectares on government-owned land south of Henderson, Guadalcanal Province, 13 km drive east of downtown Honiara.

The site has been legally registered since the early 20th century and has been owned by the government since independence in 1978. The MCT took the lead in establishing a protected area at the Bloody Ridge battlefield, encouraged by renowned local historian John Innes and others.

There were no settlers in the area at the time. In 2016, the government acquired the land by paying to early release the lease held by Levers, and in 2017 the park was declared official. The settlers now began to rapidly expand southward from the Henderson area. Although the area had considerable knowledge of the park’s construction, most of the illegal settlers moved into the park within a year of the announcement. It is believed that the settlers were motivated to do so by the belief that they would be compensated to leave the park.

The MCT conducted numerous publicity campaigns and issued notices to evacuate the park, but to no avail. The area is known for being unsafe, and cars parked at Bloody Ridge are often vandalized or broken into. On one occasion, a guided tour group was robbed in broad daylight. Monuments installed there by Japanese and American veterans were vandalized, and some had to be moved to Honiara.

Several events occurred between 2020 and 2023 that delayed the Bloody Ridge project, most notably the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in severe restrictions on domestic and international travel.

The November 2021 riots resulted in government officials being reluctant to travel east of Honiara for security reasons. In 2022, the budget was frozen and in 2023, most activity was focused on Pacific Games-related events.

These events combined meant that Bloody Ridge made little progress for several years. This encouraged illegal settlers living in the park to establish more permanent settlements. In addition, new people continued to arrive and settle in and around the park.

Realizing that the park might be lost entirely if no drastic measures were taken, the MCT consulted with the Guadalcanal Police, provincial authorities, the Department of Lands, and the Attorney General’s Office on next steps. The MCT was told that compensation should not be offered because the government would never agree to reward illegal settlers in this way.

Government-supported resettlement of illegal settlers was not an option, either, as this would have encouraged others to settle on government land. The Bloody Ridge development team launched an intense publicity campaign. The goal of the campaign was to make it clear to settlers beyond a reasonable doubt that development of the park was going to take place. It was also important to make everyone understand that the government owned the land, and where the boundaries were.

The Bloody Ridge Community Task Force’s Community Policing Unit has been a very important partner in this process. This group of volunteers has accompanied the MCT team in the community, initially as security guards, but has become a true supporter of the project.

Land officers assisted in showing the community the boundaries and indicating which structures were located within the park. The Title Registrar provided certified copies of the relevant land titles and shared them with the community.

In large signs, community meetings, and personal interviews, MCT staff repeated this message until no one could claim ignorance of the process. The next step in the process was to survey and document every person living in the park. Once the survey was complete, the team viewed the settlers as individuals rather than a large, anonymous group.

The survey found that:

• Eleven dwellings were found in the park, along with a number of garden sheds.
• There are 44 settlers living permanently in the park.
• The buildings were constructed between 2016 and 2023. Most were completed when the park was declared in 2017. Five buildings were less than a year old.
• All settlers knew they lived within the boundaries of Bloody Ridge National Park.

Once the team was satisfied that everyone in the community was fully aware of the administration’s tenure and plans for the area, the Attorney General’s Office issued a 30-day eviction order on April 5.

Counselors from the Attorney General’s Office personally visited each settler home and calmly and professionally explained the consequences of non-compliance. The process was videotaped, which proved very useful. In the month leading up to the final day, the MCT conducted weekly compliance checks and constantly reminded settlers how many days were left until the legal process began.

On May 5, the 30-day notice period ended and 9 of the 11 settler families voluntarily evacuated. The last two holdouts required several follow-up visits from the MCT before they also finally gave up and left. On Monday, June 24, Bloody Ridge National Park was finally declared free of illegal undocumented settlers. The MCT and the AG’s office expressed their gratitude to these settlers for respecting the eviction order and peacefully evacuating the park.

Land Commissioner Alan McNeill said:

“Evicting illegal squatters from government land is never a simple matter. I am impressed by how the Ministry of Culture and Tourism managed to evict the illegal squatters from the Bloody Ridge National Park area without resorting to force or compensation. I congratulate the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for taking the time and effort to meet with the residents of the area and explain the national and historical significance of the site, which resulted in their voluntary departure from the area.”

Cleanup work is currently underway to remove trash and construction materials left behind by settlers. The short-term goal is to restore the park to its natural state during the war before developing it as a heritage site and tourist attraction.

Bunyan Sivoro, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, elaborated on the ministry’s vision for the park:

“Now that we have regained control of the park, there is still a lot to do. We don’t want to close the park off to preserve the historic site. It should be a place to understand the important role the Solomon Islands played in World War II history.”

“We want it to be both a tourist attraction for visitors and a place of learning and contemplation for Solomon Islanders. I would like to see Bloody Ridge visited by everyone who passes through Honiara, as well as every local school in and around Honiara. Firstly, we need to ensure the safety of the park, and we want to do this through community engagement. Over time, the role should evolve from basic security to a true park ranger. The ranger will look after the park, its heritage, the environment, and the visitors. We will need visitor facilities such as toilets, shelters, rest areas and car parks. Over time, we hope to develop walking trails with informative interpretation that tell the story of the actual battle. Once all of this is in place, we hope to establish a National WWII Museum on site. Ultimately, we want Bloody Ridge to be the number one WWII attraction in the Pacific.”

Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism