About the Kokoda Track: 1942 and Today

A Kokoda timeline

Site Contents

• About the Kokoda Track: 1942 and Today
  • Overview
  • Why is the Kokoda track significant?
  • Topography of Kokoda
  • Kokoda today on video
  • Where does the track start and finish?
  • Track or trail?
  • A Kokoda timeline
  • History of the track before the war
  • Damien Parer
  • Seeing Kokoda the easy way
  • Bomana Cemetery
• The War in Papua: The Strategic Context
  • Overview
  • Japanese intelligence about the Kokoda track
  • Why was Port Moresby important?
  • Guadalcanal August 1942 - February 1943
  • The war in the air
  • The war at sea
• Four Peoples at War
  • Overview
  • The Australians
  • The New Guineans
  • The Americans
  • The Japanese
• Jungle Warfare
  • Overview
  • Tactics of jungle war
  • The problem of supply
  • Patrolling the jungle
  • Japanese artillery
  • Malaria and dysentery
• A Fighting Retreat
  • Overview
  • Japanese landing and advance to Kokoda
  • First engagement at Kokoda 28 July 1942
  • Second engagement at Kokoda 8 August 1942
• Into the Mountains
  • Overview
  • Falling back to Deniki
  • The stand at Isurava
  • From Eora to Templeton's Crossing
  • Disaster at Efogi 8 September 1942
  • Action at Ioribaiwa Ridge
• Milne Bay
  • Overview
  • Japanese landing and defeat at Milne Bay
• The Tide Turns
  • Overview
  • Australian advance to Eora
  • Retaking Kokoda
  • The decisive moment: Oivi-Gorari 10 November 1942
• The Japanese Besieged - the Battle of the Beachheads: Buna, Gona, Sanananda
  • Overview
  • The advance to the sea
  • The Battle of the Beachheads: November 1942
  • The Battle of the Beachheads: December 1942
  • The Battle of the Beachheads: January 1943
• Casualties
  • Overview
  • List of casualties for Kokoda, Milne Bay and Buna-Gona
• The Australian Veterans' Accounts
  • Kokoda Veterans' Video Interviews

Resources

• Flickr: Kokoda
• YouTube: Kokoda
• Google Maps: Kokoda
• FlashEarth: Kokoda
• Google weather: Port Moresby
• Weather Underground: Port Moresby
• Smartraveller: Travel advice

Feature: Bomana Cemetery

Just off the road from Port Moresby at the southern end of the Kokoda track is Bomana, the largest war cemetery in the Pacific. Established in 1942 it contains 3779 graves. There are 3069 known and 237 unknown Australians from the fighting in New Guinea together with 443 Allied soldiers sailors and airmen. more...

Wikimapia: Port Moresby Bomana War Cemetery

Feature: Video Interviews

Australian Kokoda veteran interviews: The interview excerpts here are drawn from over two thousand interviews with Australian war veterans conducted by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The project, called the Australians at War Film Archive, aims to provide a resource for all Australians and a permanent record for posterity.