The story of Kokoda is second only to Gallipoli in the annals of Australia’s military history – but it’s been a slow awakening!

Since Prime Minister John Howard and PNGs Grand Chief, Sir Michael Somare, opened a solemn memorial at Isurava on the 60th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign in 2002, scores of books have been published, television documentaries produced, and more than 54,000 Australians from all walks of life have trekked across it.

The parts about the lost battlefield were interesting, unfortunately you have to wade through a blow-by-blow account of the author’s military service (and name dropping) first.

Enjoyed most of the book would’ve liked to read more about ” the lost battlefields” I felt this was a really important part of the story however it got glossed over where at times more emphasis was placed on individual characters.

An interesting tale which gives a brief history of Brian Freeman’s life before exploring the issues around the lost battlefield. Ghost written by Tony Park (his name should appear a little more obviously in the book and the acknowledgements) the style is easy to read and compelling. Rather not enough information about the actual battlefield and too much about Brian’s business dealings. Nonetheless an interesting book and a good expose of the difficulties of working in PNG and also with getting bureaucracies interested in history.

He gave it an indigenous name ‘Etoa‘ that nobody had ever heard of. Whilst DFATs desire to tell the PNG story is a noble cause it is 70 years too late for the Papuan veterans and wartime carriers, who were ignored for all those years, to provide personal accounts of their experiences as they have passed on. The fact that ‘Etoa‘ does not appear in any previous cultural or military history publications was not a concern as they preferred the fictional account of the battle and pressed on with their desire to promote it.

‘I recall when the documentary was first aired so many years ago, that Brian Freeman and Peter Cosgrove were filmed with two rusty, relic machine guns. The story was insinuating that these two weapons were found on the “Lost Battlefield”.

I immediately recognised both relic guns as having been removed from the privately owned museum at Alola Village. One of the guns was a Bren, but the other was a stand out …… it was a Type 92 machinegun, which was a Japanese copy under licence of the British Lewis gun usually mounted in aircraft (often seen on British WW1 fighters as the Lewis mounted on the top wing that was on a rail and pulled down from the top wing for reloading). This particular Japanese Type 92 had been recovered by the original owner of the museum, from the Japanese G4M bomber wreck on the high ridge between Isurava Battlefield and modern Isurava. So, a minor misrepresentation of the truth.’

‘The extent of the battlefield at Eora Creek which the Japanese defended in their withdrawal to the northern coast of Papua in 1942 is well recorded and not “forgotten”.

Many books portray the fighting there in detail, including an authoritative description in a publication by the Australian Army History Unit. Therefore, it is hard to understand why the battle is characterized in this way and described under a new name by the ABC. There are many other military sites on the Kokoda Trail which are more demanding of investigation than Eora Creek and receive no attention.’

The Japanese made the whole area a major defensive position during their retreat. The tired Japanese resisted determined frontal attacks by fresh Australian troops from 22 October for over a week. Australians advancing on the west bank of Eora Creek overcame the enemy eventually and when almost encircled, the Japanese hastily abandoned their positions retreating to Oivi and Goiari. Eora Creek village once the centre of much of the heavy fighting now lies abandoned. The crashing, haunting noise of the fast-flowing creek below brings vividly to mind the turmoil of battle, and the men who fought here so long ago.’

DFAT officials in PNG now seem to act as an unaccountable law unto themselves. Neither the Kokoda Initiative nor the PNG Kokoda Track Authority which they fund through the PNG Department of Environment, Conservation and Climate Change has ever published an annual financial report. As a result, key stakeholders have no idea where the money goes. Anecdotal evidence suggests most of it circulates in Port Moresby.

They also go out of their way to avoid working with the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Australian War Memorial regarding the protection and development of our shared wartime heritage across the Kokoda Trail.

In 2010 they reacted to a report of the discovery of a ‘lost battlefield’. But rather than engage the Department of Veterans Affairs which is responsible for both the Australian War Memorial and the Unrecovered War Casualties Unit – or any of the genuine military historians who lead treks across the Trail – they used an inner-circle of mates, consultants, and compliant eco-tour operators as their ‘experts’.

Since 2022 they have been trying to sneak a ‘Kokoda Track Management Authority’ environment bill through the PNG Parliament via a process which has the all the hallmarks of ‘foreign interference’. If they are successful the Kokoda Trail, which is PNGs most popular tourism destination, will be managed as an aid-funded environmental resource for the benefit of foreign anthropologists, archeologists, and environmentalists, rather than as a commercial enterprise for the benefit of subsistence villagers who own the land sacred to our shared military heritage.

Lest We Forget

1942 photograph of the Eora Creek ‘village pad’ by Damien Parer
View of Eora Creek ‘village pad’ from the ‘ground of tactical importance’ on Japanese defensive position overlooking the Trail
Telephotoe view of Eora Creek ‘village pad’ from the ‘ground of tactical importance’ on Japanese defensive position overlooking the Trail
The Eora Creek ‘village pad’ in 2010
Those Ragged Bloody Heroes by Peter Brune
Plaque at Eora Creek by Kokoda Historian, Frank Taylor