The Kokoda Trail is as important a part of Australia’s history as Gallipoli, and is a pilgrimage that thousands of Australians make, but few will have completed the trail as many times as Brian Freeman. The former Special Forces soldier has set records running the 96 kilometre trail and led dozens of treks along it as part of his adventure trekking company.
After years of friendship with local villagers, Brian was entrusted with a secret that had been hidden from outsiders since 1942, only passed down among the villagers, from generation to generation. The long-kept secret was the location of a lost World War Two battlefield where Australian and Japanese forces engaged in what was one of the bloodiest engagements of the campaign, after inaccurate mapping of the area, post-war, the battlefield was forgotten and lost to the jungle.
The battlefield is littered with relics of the war
Knowing that such a revelation would command tremendous interest and require careful management, the villagers’ decided to divulge details of the site to Brian, the first westerner to hear of its existence in decades. He authenticated and mapped the lost battlefield with archaeologists and helped set up a trust to act as guardian for the special site.
Part fascinating military history, part gripping archaeology mystery, part exciting adventure The Lost Battlefield of Kokoda is the story of the trail on which fierce and bloody warfare was waged between the Japanese and Australian forces, how the important battleground was forgotten, and finally found.
