Tutor: Derek Cameron
This unit offers an analysis of the causes, course and consequences of the Kokoda Track campaign, including an evaluation of the controversies about personalities, strategy and tactics surrounding it. Its significance for later history and indeed whether or not we should talk of a "Battle for Australia" will also be explored. The course includes numerous exercises based on the sources and links to further information. By comparison with other campaigns in World War Two (such as the awesome armies involved in the titanic struggles in Russia), the opposing forces on the Kokoda Track were miniscule.
Venue: 97 Creek St
Thursday 9.30am - 10.45am. Classes start 29 January, finish 2 April.
Cost: $50 (prepaid), 10 weeks
Current Enrolments: 3 (capacity 9)
Mere numbers should not however be taken as a measure of a battle's significance. Further, as will be revealed, topography and climate played a large role in severely limiting the numbers of troops who could be moved, supplied and supported on the Track.
About the Tutor:
I'm a recently retired secondary school teacher with 42 years of service, with Modern History and latterly Legal Studies as my main teaching areas. My interest in Australian Military History was boosted on a personal level by both my father and father-in-law having fought in New Guinea, leading to my teaching the Battle for Australia unit (H39).My uncle in the RAAF was captured on Java and endured captivity, including Changi prison and the Burma Railway. Those events are symbols of the experience of Australian POWs and deserve to be part of our historical memory (H41).
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