Qualla: Kokoda Track Campaign

Kokoda Track Campaign: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hugh W. Groser, Public domain. Historian Peter Brune called it "one of the most ludicrous orders ever given": build an overland road from Port Moresby to Kokoda. By the end of September 1942, nearly three months after the order was issued, Lieutenant Bert Kienzle's team had completed just over eleven kilometres of it. The rest of the 96-kilometre Kokoda Track remained what it had always been: a foot path threaded through jungle, climbing ridges, dropping into rivers, rising into cloud, then dropping again. Up to 5,000 metres of elevation gain and loss along the way. No wheels. No roads. Everything that fought on that track had to be carried on somebody's back. And somebody meant, overwhelmingly, Papuan men who had been conscripted to carry it.

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Image: Hugh W. Groser | Public domain

Kokoda Track Campaign: The Mountains Will Beat Them

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Army Center of Military History, Public domain. When Major General Basil Morris handed over command of New Guinea Force to Lieutenant General Sydney Rowell in August 1942, he offered a blunt summary: "The mountains will beat the Nips and we must be careful they don't beat us." He was right about both halves. Japanese soldiers ...

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Image: U.S. Army Center of Military History | Public domain

Kokoda Track Campaign: The Men Who Carried It

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anotherclown, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 15 June 1942, Morris issued the Employment of Natives Order, a document that conscripted Papuan labour under wartime regulations. By August, 1,600 Papuan carriers were supporting Potts's 21st Brigade forward of Myola. Author Paul Ham estimates the total who worked the track at...

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Image: Anotherclown | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kokoda Track Campaign: Fighting Up and Fighting Back

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anotherclown, CC BY-SA 3.0. The campaign had two phases, and they mirrored each other. From 21 July, when Japanese forces landed at Gona, through mid-September, the Australians fell back: Awala, Gorari, Oivi, Kokoda, Deniki, Isurava, Eora, Brigade Hill, Ioribaiwa. At each stage, outnumbered militia from the...

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Image: Anotherclown | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kokoda Track Campaign: The Generals' War

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Damien Parer [attrib.], Public domain. Behind the men on the track was a wholly separate battle being fought in offices in Brisbane and Port Moresby. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander Southwest Pacific, had a low opinion of Australian troops and told Washington so. General Sir Thomas Blamey, commander of Al...

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Image: Damien Parer [attrib.] | Public domain

Kokoda Track Campaign: A Legend That Needed Editing

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Karl Munzel, CC BY-SA 3.0. Australia has mythologised Kokoda as a Thermopylae, a thin line of young men holding a narrow pass against overwhelming odds. The numbers do not quite support that shape of story. At Isurava, the 2,290 Australian defenders faced 2,130 Japanese attackers; by the time of Brigade Hi...

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Image: Karl Munzel | CC BY-SA 3.0