The track was first used by European miners in the 1890s to access the Yodda Kokoda goldfields. Between July 1942 and November 1942, a series of battles, afterwards called the
Kokoda Track campaign, was fought between the
Japanese and
Australian forces. This action was memorialised in the
newsreel documentary Kokoda Front Line!, filmed by cameraman
Damien Parer, which won
Australia's first
Academy Award for its director
Ken G. Hall in 1942. After the war, the track fell into disuse and disappeared in many places.
John Landy, the long-distance runner, set a record of four days for the crossing using carriers and guides during the 1950s. In 1964, Angus Henry, the art teacher at
Sogeri High School, with two of his students, John Kadiba and Misty Baloiloi, set a new record which was to stand until after the millennium by completing the journey in three and a quarter days without guides, carriers or any signposts or bridges. In 2006, the Owen Stanley Ranges and Kokoda Track was included on the Tentative List for World Heritage along with three other sites from PNG. The 1.5 million hectare property is a mixed cultural and natural site covering a significant proportion of the Owen Stanley Ranges and including the Kokoda Track, Managalas Plateau and Mount Victoria and Mount Albert Edward region. The World War II battle sites were a key reason for cultural listing along with the unique cultures of the Koiari peoples. The Owen Stanley Ranges, through which the Kokoda Track passes, is one of the most biologically important areas in the Asia Pacific with over 4000 plant species and many endemic bird and animal species.
The Kokoda Track Foundation, established in 2003, helps villages along the track with education and healthcare. There is a proposal to turn the track into an Australian heritage destination on a par with
ANZAC Cove at
Gallipoli. Creation of the heritage area, is in part a response to the issue of an Australian gold mining company wanting to mine on or near the track. , the idea was backed by the
Australian government and Papua New Guinea's foreign minister. The plan has the support of the local landowners and the Papua New Guinean government but has been criticised by trekking operators.
Popularity and deaths from Kokoda back to Port Moresby Since 2001, there has been a rapid increase in the number of people walking the track (see table at right). Six Australian trekkers have died from
hyponatremia while attempting to walk the track. Four of those deaths occurred in 2009, with two in the same week in April and another two 8 days apart in September and October. The deaths have sparked calls for mandatory fitness tests for all walkers before starting. As the trail's popularity increased, there were calls for more regulation of trek operators, with some operators taking as many as 150 walkers in a group. In response, the Kokoda Track Authority announced that from the beginning of 2010, tour operators would require a commercial licence. In August 2009, a group of trekkers were killed when their light plane,
Airlines PNG Flight 4684, crashed en route to Kokoda Station. All 13 people on board, including 9 Australian trekkers, were killed in the crash. In October 2009, Don Vale became the oldest Australian (at 83) to successfully complete the Kokoda Track. In November 2009, Australian paralympian
Kurt Fearnley (born without the lower section of his spine) completed the track, crawling north to south, in 11 days. A multiple paralympic gold medalist (T54 Marathon in Athens and Beijing), he used customized shin pads and wrist guards. His journey was to raise awareness of men's health issues and was inspired by the story of Corporal John Metson, who crawled the track for three weeks, refusing the assistance of a stretcher on the grounds it would burden his comrades. == Nomenclature ==