St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

The death of Mavis Parkinson dismayed her family who were inclined to blame Bishop Strong for urging the missionaries to remain in Papua. As with the death of Edith Cavell during the First World War (section 5), the fact that Parkinson was a woman added to the sense of horror over her execution. But Mavis had personally told the Bishop that she did not want to leave, despite the possible consequences. And the Anglican missionaries in Papua and New Guinea were not alone in their fate. More than 300 church workers of various Christian denominations were killed during the Japanese occupation of both territories. Australian and American forces eventually cleared the occupiers from Papua and New Guinea in a campaign that lasted from 1942 to the Japanese surrender in 1945. There were many fierce battles in the campaign, including the infamous engagement along the 96 kilometre-long Kokoda Track in Papua where Australians fended-off the Japanese with great fortitude and endurance, fighting in thick jungle in tropical humidity, mud and heavy rain. Another decisive engagement was the Battle of Milne Bay where Australian troops and aircraft with American support pushed back a bold Japanese seaborne assault. The victory was notable for denting the reputation of Japanese soldiers as ‘supermen’. Between December 1942 and January 1943, in bitter, deadly fighting, Australian and United States troops also retook the coastal villages of Gona and Buna, the area where most of the Anglican missionaries had died some months earlier. The fighting had been particuarly intense around the Gona Mission which, after the death of Mavis Parkinson and Sister Hayman, the Japanese had transformed into a heavily fortified encampment, even using the decomposing bodies of their own dead soldiers to construct earthworks. But, after prolonged fighting in appalling conditions and heavy casualties on both sides, the Mission was eventually retaken.

Relief map of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea, extending to the Solomon Islands to the south-east of Bougainville. In addition to many hotly-contested footholds on the northern coast of New Guinea, the Japanese forces had a major air and naval base at Rabaul.

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Bismarck Sea

New Ireland

Rabaul

NEW GUINEA

Madang

New Britain

Bougainville

Lae

Salamaua

PAPUA

Solomon Sea

Gona

Kokoda

Buna

Sangara

PORT MORESBY

Guadalcanal 685 miles / 1100 km

Milne Bay

Townsville 680 miles / 1095 km BRISBANE

71

1300 miles / 2100 km