25 Apr 2007

Thousands turn out in PNG to mark ANZAC day

1:38 pm on 25 April 2007

In Papua New Guinea thousands of people including hundreds of Kokoda Track walkers have attended a dawn Anzac Day service at the Bomana War Cemetery near Port Moresby.

Candles, a school choir and a PNG Defence Force honour guard featured in the service held on a slope above rows of white tombstones marking the graves of Australians and other Allied troops who died in PNG during World War II.

The service was attended by PNG Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane, Australian High Commissioner Chris Moraitis, other diplomats, Australian and PNG war veterans and a good portion of Port Moresby's Australian and New Zealand expatriate population.

Meanwhile, more than 200 Australian trekkers attended a dawn service on the Kokoda Track, at the Isurava Memorial, after they timed their walk to be there for Anzac Day.

The track was the scene of bloody fighting between Australian and Japanese soldiers in 1942 and is becoming increasingly popular with Australian trekkers.