15. The Eora Creek battlefield was discovered in New Guinea in 2010
Eora Creek was the site of two fierce battles between the Japanese on New Guinea and Australian troops, the first in August and September 1942, and the second the following month. In the first Australian forces were making a fighting withdrawal before the Japanese, who had landed in Papua earlier in the summer. The site of the two engagements was well known to historians and locals, but not until 2010 was an extension of the battlefield discovered by the western world. Well known to local natives, its existence had been kept quiet by them out of respect for the dead and fear of their spirits should the site where they fell be disturbed. The discovery included the remains of fallen soldiers of both sides of the war.
The Eora Creek battlefield was an extension of the fighting further downstream, where the Australians gained their first victory of the Kokoda Track campaign at the second of the two battles fought there. When it was discovered by a former Australian commando, it was reported that the field remained as it was when the fighting ceased, with human remains lying where they had fallen, though some obviously had been disturbed by wildlife. The scene was littered with weapons, military paraphernalia such as helmets and spent magazines, discarded weapons, unexploded hand grenades, and other indications of the savagery of the combat which took place there in 1942.
