2022 $1 80th Anniversary of The Kokoda Trail Campaign PNC

They Japanese on the north coast at Gona and Buna on 21 July 1942, launching a campaign across the mountainous Owen Stanley Range to Port Moresby in the south. Australian and Papuan troops had already mobilised, but the Japanese claimed the village of Kokoda on the north-eastern slope of the range on 29 July, and prevailed when our troops sought to retake the village. Reinforcements were brought in and a series of pitched battles were waged along the steep, narrow trail heading south through brutal terrain. The Japanese came close to Port Moresby, to Imita Ridge, before being ordered to withdraw on 24 September.