Author(s): Patrick Lindsay

War

In 1942 a small band of young Australian soldiers overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to preserve Australia's freedom along the Kokoda Track. The Battle for the Kokoda Track is Australia's Alamo. If Gallipoli symbolised the ANZAC spirit in WWI, then Kokoda is its WWII equivalent. In August 1942 Kokoda was a killing field. Seventy years on, it is hard to imagine what those young men endured for freedom but the journey gives some clues. The track plays a leading role in the story of Kokoda. It has a character of its own. It is one of the world's most fascinating locations - at once an alluring, challenging obstacle of compelling beauty and yet a foreboding, perilous microcosm of life at its rawest and most savage. In Kokoda Spirit, Patrick Lindsay takes us on a journey that explores the track as it is today and how it was seventy years ago. With his unique storytelling he reconnects us with the past while taking us on the gruelling journey that is Kokoda.