The Kokoda Track is 100 kilometres long, beginning at Owens' Corner near Port Moresby, traversing the steep Owen Stanley Range and ending at the small town of Kokoda, north of the mountains.  The track was created by native villagers and is the main route of transport and communications through the mountains.  It was the site of fierce battles in WWII between the Australians and the Japanese and resulted in 625 Australians being killed and over 1000 wounded

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The Japanese landed near Gona on the north coast of Papua on 21 July 1942. In the next two months they drove the Australians and their Papuan allies back over the mountains towards Port Moresby, the Japanese objective. Port Moresby was vital to the defence of Australia. If they took Port Moresby the Japanese planned to begin a bombing offensive against north Queensland and, had they decided to invade Australia, the invasion would have been launched from Port Moresby. None of this came to pass. The Japanese approached to within 40 kilometres of their objective but the tide turned in September. Then the Australians, in a series of costly engagements, pushed the Japanese back the way they had come. By mid-November the Japanese were forced to abandon their plan to take Port Moresby. They retired to their north coast strongholds at Buna, Gona and Sanananda.

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The Kokoda track region appears much as it did in 1942 when the Australian soldiers fought there. Along the track, trenches and rusted weapons can still be seen. There are almost none of the facilities a tourist might expect to find: no electricity, no shops, and each madly rushing stream is crossed by means of a simple log bridge. Following in the steps of the Australian soldiers remains a physically challenging task.