Read some fascinating stories of individuals or units who have plaques are in our Memorial Rose Garden.

Most visitors and supporters of the Walkway are aware of the Memorail Centrepiece, the Ralph Honner Kokoda Education Centre and the 22 information stations along the Walkway. However, at the Walkway’s northern entrance (adjacent to the Concord Repatriation General Hospital) is the peaceful Memorial Rose Garden.

Here visitors can view over 500 memorial plaques, dedicated to individuals, battalions, and other support units, primarily involved in the New Guinea and Kokoda campaigns (and more generally who served in WW2). These plaques have usually been organised by veterans’ family members or friends, battalions/units and other organisations.

While brief in their inscriptions, many offer a window into the lives of those who served during the New Guinea/Kokoda campaigns.

These plaques are all listed (with their image, inscription and location) on the Walkway’s website. To promote the Memorial Rose Garden, and to highlight stories behind the individuals or groups, the Walkway is pleased to feature ‘Stories from the Plaques’. More stories will be added in the future.

The first tells of a young man (Joe Rorkin NX73811), born halfway around the world, who chose to fight for his adopted country, but that action lead to his untimely death. Read more about Joe’s story here.

We hope you enjoy this new feature, and we are sure they will give you a deeper appreciation of  those who have served our nation. Lest We Forget.