New website to honour heroes of the Kokoda Track
Eighty years ago today, soldiers of the 7th Division of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force raised the Australian flag in the village of Kokoda, marking the end of the fierce battles along the famous track – now commemorated as Kokoda Day.
More than three months earlier, Japanese forces began a major push south from their bases on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) with the aim of capturing strategically important Port Moresby. To do this they had to traverse the Owen Stanley Range, rugged mountains which are crossed only by a few foot tracks – one of which is the Kokoda Track – now synonymous with some of the most gruelling and fierce fighting undertaken by Australians in the Second Word War.
The Australians, at first comprising a militia battalion along with the Papuan Infantry Battalion, fought desperately to slow, halt and eventually push back the Japanese advance over the Owen Stanley Range. More than 600 Australians were killed over the course of the Kokoda battles, more than 1,600 were wounded, and some 4,000 were afflicted by illness.
Assisting the troops were local civilians who became known affectionately as the ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’. They carried supplies, built bases, airfields and other wartime infrastructure, and evacuated the sick and wounded from the fighting zones. In their honour, in Papua New Guinea Kokoda Day is commemorated as ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels Day’.
To help remember those who served, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs has launched a new website – the Papua New Guinea Virtual Remembrance Trails: https://www.pngremembrancetrail.gov.au/
The website is another way for Australians to discover and connect with the experiences and sacrifices of veterans. It uses a ‘trail-like’ approach of step-by-step discovery to tell the story of the Second World War in PNG through seven trails, including the Kokoda Track campaign, which ended 80 years ago today.
The steps of the trails follow the course of the war through Papua and New Guinea chronologically, geographically and thematically. They combine written, audio-visual and geospatial content to provide a multi-layered journey of exploration. There are also background sections on PNG wartime themes and guidance for teachers on how the resources fit into the Australian Curriculum.
On this day, we pause to reflect on the courage and sacrifice of the Australians and their Papua New Guinean comrades as they fought along the Kokoda Track to defend Port Moresby.
Kokoda Track, Papua, 1942. Two members of the 2/4th Field Ambulance and three Papuan carriers pause for a rest on a section of the jungle track from Myola to Eora Creek