Bomana War Cemetery

We flew into Port Moresby on Monday evening. Lori was only on the ground for about 18 hours and then she was back on a plane to Singapore. It's unusual for me to be here when Lori isn't. Normally I don't like to take our vehicle and driver outside of the city in case Lori needs to go to a meeting or the courthouse, but since she wasn't here, I decided to get out and explore a bit.

There is a Commonwealth War Cemetery about 19 km north of Port Moresby in Bomana. There are over 3800 graves and the majority are of Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen who died during the Second World War between 1942 and 1945 in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. There are some British soldiers and about 700 unknown soldiers as well.

I have visited several Commonwealth War Cemeteries in France and Holland and I'm always struck by how visually beautiful they are but incredibly sad at the same time. As I walked through the rows of headstones I was surprised to discover how old the troops were when they died. Many of them were in their 30's and some in their 40's. I was told that many of the troops who were sent to PNG to defend it from the Japanese were reservists, which would explain the ages.

db