Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

“I'm sitting in the Papua New Guinean jungle on the Kokoda Track at the Isurava battlefield. This is a special Sunday for me. I am remembering my grandfather, (SX1405) J.D. McIntyre who fought with the 2/10th Battalion 2nd AIF at Buna and at other places north of the track.

I counted 97 of the battalion's veterans as they threw a poppy into his grave, almost a rifle company in strength, back on July 12, 1985, and they were still looking in good form. Hours earlier, the group had gathered outside the RSL at Stansbury, a small town on the Yorke Peninsula to escort the casket.

A dishevelled and frail veteran of the North African and Papua New Guinea campaigns emerged at the front with a bugle. All those years before, while taking cover together in a trench at Tobruk, he and my grandfather had sworn a promise on the eve of battle that if one of them died, the other would play The Last Post at his funeral. His mate turned up from North Queensland unannounced, having read the death notice, to fulfil his word.

I remember my grandfather telling me about New Guinea, that if the Japanese didn't get you, the jungle would. A total of 2019 of our boys died in that jungle and more than 3500 were wounded. Thousands more died of disease and illness or came home broken men, physically, emotionally or both.

All this week I have been walking in their footsteps from Owers' Corner through Bomana War Cemetery on day one, then through Iorabaiwa Ridge, Ofi Creek, through villages around the Brown River to Brigade Hill via Mission Ridge and Efogi Village. We have met the last surviving "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels", passed through "Bomber's Camp" - the crash site of a B-25 Mitchell bomber - and on to Kokoda Gap which, at 2190m, is the highest point on the track.

Tomorrow we will hold a dawn service to pay our respects to those who died during the four-day battle of Isurava. It is said that Australia's baptism as a nation took place on the beaches of Gallipoli in 1915. It seems to me that our confirmation as Australians occurred right here in this jungle, in this country, from July 1942 until January 1943.

It is good for the soul to be here. It has helped me understand the people of Papua New Guinea and it has helped me understand my grandfather and his mates. More so, it has helped me appreciate the suffering of the mothers, wives and loved ones. Most importantly, it has helped me understand why being an Australian - and a South Australian in particular - is a gift. What they fought for, we must uphold and continue to build.
I remember barbecues in my grandfather's backyard after Anzac Day marches with his mates with warmth and fondness.

Perhaps it was that spirit of mateship which spurred me on to a 24-year career in the army and to service through Parliament after. Some of us ask what it means to be an Australian. Some still seek new answers to define who we are and what we are as Australians. Others come to Kokoda and find a narrow overgrown track which both defines the question and provides the answer.”
Martin Hamilton-Smith
2011