GRANDEUR OF EORA CREEK GORGE

When first trekking Kokoda, I had the same feeling as the first
time I ventured on to Sydney Harbour.

As a boy from the Queensland bush, I saw Sydney harbour as
a small stretch of water. I could picture Governor Phillip on a
sandy cove dropping anchor. But when I got there, it was quite
massive. Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour Bridge and panorama
to Sydney heads was massive.

That is how I feel about Eora Creek that leads down to Kokoda
Plateau. It brings out the geographer in me as I gaze across the
plateau and see A horizon line at the foot of the mountains up
Yodda valley and around past the Eora Creek ridgelines.

I remember this area is on a massive tectonic plate that extends
down to Antarctica, across to Afghanistan and pushed against
the Pacific plate at the network of fault lines that marks out part
of the Pacific ring of fire. Pressure of this plate may have partly
caused uplift of the Himalayas.

Plate Tectonics : Tectonic Plates Plate Tectonics: A whole new
way of looking at your planet ... The other three are oceanic plates:
the Pacific, Nazca, and Cocos. The relative small size of
...www.platetectonics.com/book/page_2.asp - Cached - Similar

The Kokoda plateau was once under sea and slowly pushed inch
by inch and eon by eon. Owen Stanley Range had highest ridges
and mountains as islands. Take Bellamy Island for example now
Mt Bellamy.

Eora Creek Gorge was a massive inlet down from Lake Myola.
Eons ago, an ocean liner could anchor off Isurava battlefield.

We can see uplift all the way up the range to West Papua and
beyond. The Torricelli, Victor Emmanuel and the Finisterre
Ranges were islands. Markham valley brings a such a sense
of grandeur as a massive strait between two islands. Fly River
and Sepik River plains were shallow seas.

Driving Markham Valley highway, I would look into the space
between ranges and picture the surface of the ocean. I would
imagine an ocean liner sinking above me and dropping to the
sea bed among the cattle grazing on what was the ocean floor.
The valley could have held the ships of the world.

There are large limestone caves in the Southern Highlands
all the way to Biak Island where the Japanese were caught
by Americans concealed underground.  Treks are planned
into the Southern Highlands caves by the landowner who
owns Gale Lodge in Port Moresby.

Geographical history explains landslides up the Markham

Valley as sides of the ranges used to be sandy sea shore.

Fossilized sea shells are found Chimbu valley. Brain coral

remains in the mountains behind Lae and along top sides

of the Markham valley around the Kassam Pass.

We see the massive panorama on the Port Moresby side

as we travel up past the Rouna Falls. Enormous pressures

caused large lodes of conglomerate rock. There was quite

enormous pressure upward and downwards.

Eora Creek Gorge is enormous if we think of the battle of

1942. Ridge lines open wide at Isurava but narrow enough

to cross in short time at Eora Creek camp. Trekkers start

on one ridge line and cross to the other. A track follows

Abuari ridge line from Eora Creek camp.

Eora Ck starts in Lake Myola as a beautiful, pristine narrow

stretch of calm water that traverses the lake, moving down

the gorge becoming more fierce as it drops down to below

Abuari. Trout are fished in the creek on Lake Myola down

to Eora Creek camp.

At Isurava /Abuari, the gorge drops for about 2 Sydney
Harbour Bridge That is terrain that the 53^rd battalion and
2/16th had to scale down and up.

Reports are eruption of Mt Lamington in 1953 caused shore
line to drop which we are told has covered defensive positions
of the Japanese at Buna, Gona and Sanananda.

How do we picture uplift of this island? Take a carpet. Anchor
the top section as the Pacific plate anchors the Australia plate.

Push the carpet as the Antarctic plate pushes. A kink appears
that is lifted higher as we push. Over eons, that is the island
on which the Owen Stanleys stands.

Volcanic history can be seen in a thick layer of latosolic clay
covering the Owen Stanley Range and much of the earth.

It seems Lakes Myola may have been extinct volcanoes

that gathered daily rain and filled with sand, vegetation

and soil from the mountains. The lakes may be massive
peat bogs.

Latosolic clay protects earth like cushions, minimizing the
erosion and damage from pounding of countless boots. We
see the depth of the clay in the camping area at Eora Creek
camp.

The mineralogy of eight latosolic and related soils from Papua New ...
The mineralogy of eight latosolic and related soils from Papua,
New Guinea. Geoderma, 8: 191-205. The clay, fine-silt and
sand-mineral fractions of eight...
..linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/... - Similar

Over centuries, the level of land on which villages stand has
dropped as the clay is worn down. We see this at Kagi and
Naduri.

So too sections of track have eroded down in a saddle back
effect and dropped to the lattice work of tree roots. Erosion
can be caused by the daily rains that hit the canopy and run
down the trunks of trees.

It is a trekking pleasure to walk the side-track from Myola
to the main track on the way to Templetons Crossing. It is
still covered by a wall to wall carpet of mulch with bacteria
busy decomposing all material.

But depth of gun pits dug on the track by soldiers shows that
erosion has not been great over 70 years. Perhaps gun pits
would have been just a little deeper.

This area is a massive class room study for school groups that
trek Kokoda. The earth is just a speck in the grandeur of the
galaxy and universe. But let us be content with the grandeur
of Eora Creek gorge and clouds that mount the giant funnel
every afternoon and fog that pushes into Lake Myola in the
mornings.

Bruce Copeland BA BEdSt.