 More problematically , Detzner had no documentation of his findings . As he explained in his many speeches , although he had kept notebooks with drawings of plants , animals , maps , and people , and journals recounting his day – to – day experiences , some of his notebooks and journals had been destroyed by the Australians as they over – ran his hiding places ; others , which he had buried to keep them from being destroyed , had rotted beyond repair in the jungle humidity . He implied that what remained of his notes had been confiscated when he surrendered . Detzner 's narrative also was rife with contradictions and omissions : Detzner named few villages or streams and stated that the valleys he discovered were thinly populated , whereas they actually contained large populations , at least by New Guinea standards . He also stated that the highest point in the range was 3 @,@ 600 meters ( 11 @,@ 800 ft ) , a 1 @,@ 200 @-@ meter ( 3 @,@ 900 ft ) miscalculation , which , for a mapmaker and a surveyor , needed to be explained . 
