Last week a number of teachers and students from the Albion Park ~ Oak Flats area of the Illawarra visited the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway in Sydney. We were guest of the Albion Park RSL Sub Branch. The Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) serves the interests of its members, veterans, the ex-service community and members of the Australian Defence Force.
The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway is an interesting memorial. It remembers the bravery of the Australian troops who fought through appalling conditions and against superior enemy numbers in the Papua-New Guinea campaign of July 1942-January 1943. The Australians inflicted defeat on the Japanese Imperial Army with US support. The fighting took place along the Kokoda Track.
The walkway consists of a series of stations along an 800 metre walk. Each station documents an event during the campaign. There is also a larger memorial complete with a water feature and five startling images from the campaign that have been sandblasted into the walls of the memorial.
There were guides from the RSL that took small groups of three or so teachers and students from station to station. Our guides were Charlie and Lloyd. Both men had fought in the campaign and were now in their eighties. The oldest guide was 91 years of age. It was both amazing and moving to meet some of the men that were in the historical photographs displayed at the memorial.
The day was most informative and despite the heat a good day was had by all. The RSL provided lunch for all of the teachers and students as well as providing coach transport to and from the venue. They were excellent hosts.
Looking towards the main memorial
Part of the main memorial
A section of the memorial walkway
One of the stations
A selection of the indivdual memorials at the Rose Garden
The walkway is supported with an excellent web site that provides additional detail and photographs for each of the stations on the walkway. There is also a selection of oral histories with both archival and recent recordings of the ‘diggers’ on the track.
The web site constitutes an excellent resource for teachers and students of both Australian history and the history of the Pacific campaigns during the Second World War. Students undertaking Stage 5 history in NSW would particularly find this site useful as they explore the role played by Australia during the Second World War.
Links:
The Kokoda Track at www.anzacday.org.au
The Kokoda Trail at www.diggerhistory.info
The Kokoda Track Campaign at wikipedia
