The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway is a walking track and war memorial located in the suburb of Concord West, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located along Brays Bay on the Parramatta River, and is a unique tribute to the Australian troops who fought in the World War II Papua-New Guinea campaign of July 1942 till December 1943.
The Walkway serves as a focal point for local, state and national representatives to honour the service of those who fought in Papua New Guinea, and to ensure the service and sacrifices of those individuals (including the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and other Papuans who assisted the Australians) is passed on to current and future generations, particularly school children through a comprehensive schools visitation program. [1]
Construction of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway commenced in 1994 and was designed by DM Taylor Landscape Architect Pty Ltd. [2] The Walkway is a joint partnership between the Concord Repatriation General Hospital, the now City of Canada Bay Council, the NSW Returned and Services League (RSL) and the Concord Rotary Club. The Walkway was opened on 3 October 1996 by the then Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon Bruce Scott MP.
On Victory in the Pacific (VP) Day 14 August 2009 the Ralph Honner Kokoda Education Centre was opened by the then Premier of NSW, the Hon. Nathan Rees. [3]
The current patron of the Walkway is His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. [4]
The Walkway consists of more than 800 metres of pathway, starting from Concord Repatriation General Hospital to Rhodes railway station. [5] Along the Walkway visitors will see 22 information stations, each describing a significant place or engagement of the campaign together with photographs and maps which outline how the campaign was fought. QR codes on each station allow visitors to supplement their knowledge through further details on the webpage for each Station.
The Ralph Honner Kokoda Educational Centre (named after the commanding officer of the 39th Battalion which fought in the campaign) is also located on the route of the Walkway where school students and other visitors can further study the events during the Papua-New Guinea campaign. In November 2022 a digital honour roll was launched, featuring the names of the approximately 620 Australians killed in the Kokoda campaign. The roll is permanently projected onto the windows of the Education Centre.
The main entrance to the Walkway is through the Memorial Rose Garden, and features two semi-circular memorial walls amongst a bed of roses. Over 500 plaques dedicated to the memory of individuals or specific units who primarily served in the war (especially the Kokoda campaign) are mounted on the surrounding walls. The Walkway is linked to the Memorial Rose Garden by the Bruce Kingsbury V.C. Path. Private Kingsbury was also commemorated in November 2022 with the unveiling of the Private Bruce Kingsbury VC Memorial Garden (and deck), which is adjacent to the Education Centre.
At the centre of the Walkway is a series of granite walls on which images of the New Guinea campaign have been sandblasted. This Centrepiece forms the actual memorial where commemorative events occur. A cascading waterfall alongside the granite walls also forms a part of the Centrepiece.
Lush tropical vegetation environment has been planted, simulating the conditions of the original Kokoda Track.
Included in the Walkway grounds is an area where visitors can have refreshments, including a barbecue.
The Walkway is supported by donations and volunteers from individuals, local and other community groups, numerous sub-branches of the NSW Returned and Services League (RSL), and financial support from Local, State and Commonwealth governments. The Friends of Kokoda program is another support program for the Walkway. [6] [7]
A primary purpose of the Walkway is to educate current and future generations of the service of Australians in World War II, focusing on the South West Pacific, including New Guinea and the Kokoda Track campaign.
The Walkway hosts over 4500 school children each year, with structured visitations where groups are accompanied by volunteer guides with extensive knowledge of the campaign. This program is supplemented by a series of educational material available for schools. [8] [9]
On Kokoda Day 3 November 2021 a Virtual Reality (VR) program located in the Ralph Honner Kokoda Education Centre was launched. [10]
This VR program allows students to imagine they are on the Kokoda Track, with first hand accounts and historical documentary scenes adding to the experience. An Augmented Reality application allows the students to gain further information as they visit each of the stations along the Walkway.
Each year, the Walkway hosts a number of commemorative events, all of which can be attended by members of the public.
The main events are:
The Walkway acknowledges Remembrance Day (11 November) in an informal manner on the day, rather than with an organised service. Other anniversaries are commemorated in a similar manner with the laying of poppies or wreaths at the Memorial Centrepiece.
The KTMW Board of Directors which oversees the operation of the Walkway has a number of plans to further promote the knowledge and understanding of the significance of the Kokoda campaign, as well as to enhance the experience of visitors, including:
Rhodes is an Inner West suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rhodes is located 12 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. It was formerly part of Concord Municipality until a merger with Drummoyne Council to form Canada Bay in December 2000. People from Rhodes are colloquially known as Rhoders or Rhodesiens.
The Kokoda Track or Trail is a single-file foot thoroughfare that runs 96 kilometres (60 mi) overland – 60 kilometres (37 mi) in a straight line – through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The track was the location of the 1942 World War II battle between Japanese and Allied – primarily Australian – forces in what was then the Australian territory of Papua.
Maroubra Force was the name given to the ad hoc Australian infantry force that defended Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from the Japanese, and was involved in the Kokoda Track Campaign of the Pacific War, World War II. The force was established by the Allies under the codename "Maroubra", referring to the troops in the forward area, it was one of many units forming the body of the New Guinea Force, the main Allied army formation in the South West Pacific Area during 1942.
Bruce Steel Kingsbury, VC was an Australian soldier of the Second World War. Serving initially in the Middle East, he later gained renown for his actions during the Battle of Isurava, one of many battles forming the Kokoda Track Campaign in the south-east of the island of New Guinea, then part of the Australian Territory of Papua. His bravery during the battle was recognised with the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. The first serviceman to receive the VC for actions on Australian territory, Kingsbury was a member of the 2/14th Infantry Battalion.
Kokoda is a station town in the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea. It is famous as the northern end of the Kokoda Track, site of the eponymous Kokoda Track campaign of World War II. In that campaign, it had strategic significance because it had the only airfield along the Track. In the decades preceding, it had been a foothills settlement near the gold fields.
Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels was the name given by Australian soldiers to Papua New Guinean war carriers who, during World War II, were recruited or forced into service to bring supplies up to the front and carry injured Australian troops down the Kokoda trail during the Kokoda Campaign. "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" was originally used by British soldiers in the 19th century as a name for Hadendoa warriors on the Red Sea coast of the Sudan, and referred to their elaborate butter-matted hairstyles.
The Kokoda Track campaign or Kokoda Trail campaign was part of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign consisted of a series of battles fought between July and November 1942 in what was then the Australian Territory of Papua. It was primarily a land battle, between the Japanese South Seas Detachment under Major General Tomitarō Horii and Australian and Papuan land forces under command of New Guinea Force. The Japanese objective was to seize Port Moresby by an overland advance from the north coast, following the Kokoda Track over the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range, as part of a strategy to isolate Australia from the United States.
The Territory of New Guinea was an Australian-administered United Nations trust territory on the island of New Guinea from 1914 until 1975. In 1949, the Territory and the Territory of Papua were established in an administrative union by the name of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. That administrative union was renamed as Papua New Guinea in 1971. Notwithstanding that it was part of an administrative union, the Territory of New Guinea at all times retained a distinct legal status and identity until the advent of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.
Lieutenant Colonel Hyacinth Ralph Honner DSO, MC, known as Ralph Honner, was a distinguished Australian soldier during the Second World War. He is considered particularly notable for his leadership during the Kokoda Track Campaign, during which he commanded the 39th Battalion, which fought a series of delaying actions as the Japanese advanced towards Port Moresby. In 1943 Honner was wounded during the fighting in the Ramu and Markham Valleys and, as a result, was discharged from the Army in early 1945. In his later life, he worked as an administrator on the War Pensions Assessment Appeal Tribunal. He was also President of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1961 to 1963, and served as the Australian ambassador to Ireland between 1969 and 1972. He died in 1994, aged 89.
Charlie John Stuart Lynn is a former Australian politician who served as a Liberal Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1995 and 2015.
Honner Force was the name given to an ad hoc composite Australian Army force of approximately 500 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner, which served in the New Guinea campaign in 1942 in World War II.
Sohe District is a district of the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Kokoda. The population was 86,547 at the 2011 census.
The 2/14th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army that served during World War II. Part of the 21st Brigade, 7th Division, the battalion was raised from Second Australian Imperial Force volunteers drawn mainly from the state of Victoria. After completing training in Australia in 1940, the battalion deployed to the Middle East where it was stationed in Egypt and Palestine before it saw action against the Vichy French in Syria in June and July 1941, in a short lived campaign. Garrison duties in Lebanon followed before the battalion was withdrawn to Australia in early 1942 as Australian forces were concentrated in the Pacific to respond to the threat posed by Japan's entry into the war.
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Grimsley King, DSO was an officer of the Australian Army during the Second World War.
Colin Arthur Still ARAIA, was an Australian architect from Watsons Bay, Sydney. As part of his involvement with the ARAIA he was Vice President and Chair of the Environment committee. He was also an active artist, and finalist in several Wynne Prize landscape competitions.
The Kokoda Track Foundation (KTF) is an international aid organisation working in Papua New Guinea. The foundation was established in 2003 and supports the indigenous people of that country. The Foundation provides education, health, and community service programmes such as disaster relief, microbusiness promotion and sustainable ecotourism.
Meri Toksave is a youth-led, non-profit, non-governmental organisation that designs and delivers programmes and partnerships for the promotion and protection of human rights, the empowerment of women and girls, the advancement of gender equality, and the prevention and elimination of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea.
The Road to Kokoda is a 1942 Australian documentary. Much of the footage shot by Australian war photographer Damien Parer (1912–1944) also appears in Kokoda Front Line!.
Captain Herbert Thomson "Bert" Kienzle was an Australian soldier and plantation owner from the Territory of Papua. He is notable for his contribution as officer in charge of native labour supporting Australian forces fighting along the Kokoda Track. He identified and named the dry lake beds, Myola, that were to become an important supply dropping area and staging point during the Kokoda Track campaign. In later life, he was recognised for his contribution to the development of Papua New Guinea.
The cuisine of Papua New Guinea are the traditional varied foods found in the eastern part of the New Guinea island. Approximately 80% of the population is reliant on subsistence agriculture, so a large percentage of food energy and protein consumed in Papua New Guinea is produced locally, while the balance is imported. The staple foods in Papua New Guinea includes root crops, bananas, and sago. Papua New Guinea's diet is largely vegetarian, especially in the Gulf and Highlands regions.
Coordinates: 33°50′05″S151°05′28″E / 33.834695°S 151.09108°E