Australian Bronze Commemorative Plaques

Home > Australia > Owers' Corner - (Sogeri)

PLAQUE NO. 98 ... OWERS' CORNER - (SOGERI)

Owers' Corner was the start of the Kokoda Trail and from here Australian soldiers caught their first glimpse of the daunting Owen Stanley mountain range. Across these mountains the Japanese army had advanced, halted only when it reached Ioribaiwa ridge, 9 kilometres from here.

A rough ascending road from Port Moresby ended at Sogeri and from there a crude, rutted track led to Owers' Corner. At Owers' Corner the Salvation Army centre provided tea and biscuits to the troops and the Papuan carriers moving forward.

Nearby at Sogeri were large supply bases and an Australian 1200-bed hospital which extended two kilometres along the road. In four months, during the height of the battle, this hospital handled 10,000 casualties.

We strongly recommend the use of Internet Explorer 5.x or Netscape 5.x®
which support JavaScript implementations. Click on the underlined text to download.