The Kokoda Trail became the axis for the Japanese crossing of this mighty jungle range. The best description of the wartime track was given by Colonel Kingsley Norris (assistant director of medical services of the 7th Division) in September 1942, at the height of campaign:
Imagine an area of 100 miles (160 kilometres) in length. Crumple and fold this into a series of ridges, each rising higher and higher until 7,000 feet (2,100 metres) is reached, then declining in ridges to 3,000 feet (950 metres). Cover this thickly with jungle, short trees and tall trees, tangled with great entwining savage vines. Through the oppression of this density cut a little native track, two or three feet (60 or 90 centimetres) wide, up the ridges, over the spurs, round gorges and down across swiftly-flowing mountain streams. Where the track clambers up the mountain sides, cut steps - big steps, little steps, steep steps - or clear the soil from the tree roots.
Every few miles, bring the track through a small patch of sunlit kunai grass, or an old deserted native garden, and every seven or ten miles build a group of dilapidated grass huts - as homes - generally set in a fowl, offensive clearing. Every now and then, leave beside the track dumps of discarded, putrefying food, occasional dead bodies, and human foulings.
About midday and through the night, poor water over the forest so that the steps become broken, and a continual yellow stream flows downwards, and the few level areas become pools and puddles of putrid, black mud. In the high ridges above Myola, drip this water day and night over the track through a fetid forest grotesque with moss and glowing phosphorescent fungi. Such is the Kokoda Trail…
