On 19 September the 6th Division Headquarters opened in Port Moresby. Major-General Boase had expected to command it, but Blamey allocated it instead to Vasey. None of the division's usual major components were present: the 16th Brigade would not arrive until 21 September, the 17th Brigade was sailing to Milne Bay and the 19th was still in the Northern Territory. Instead the ‘6th Division’ temporarily constituted a mixed force of militia and American infantry, AIF and militia artillery, commandos and Bren carriers. This ephemeral agglomeration existed solely to protect Port Moresby. Its existence indicated the anxiety that operations on the Kokoda Track were causing the Allied command. Troops of the classic 6th Division would soon be spearheading those operations. One member described what followed as ‘the most bloody, exhausting and telling campaign of the whole series’.

The 16th Brigade landed at Port Moresby after an uncomfortable journey in vessels much less salubrious than the liners that had taken them to and from the Middle East. The Japanese advance had reached its limit at Ioribaiwa. In subsequent days, men under General Allen's 7th Division Headquarters pushed the Japanese back. The 16th Brigade came under Allen's command, but was only called forward from the Moresby defences to join the advance on 17 October. As it began moving up the track on 3 October,Photograph 8.1 was taken at Owers’ Corner. Here American General Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the South-West Pacific Area, and General Blamey are talking to men of the 2/3rd Battalion. The contrast between the generals’ khaki and the infantrymen's newly dyed jungle green uniforms is apparent even in a black and white photograph. Major Ian Hutchison (far left) had won an MC at Bardia, been wounded at Tobruk, was outstanding in Syria, and would later command the battalion. Lieutenant Frank Hoddinott, next to Hutchison, had received a DCM in Syria and would win an MC in the approaching campaign. During this fleeting visit from the senior commanders, MacArthur met Brigadier John Lloyd, now commanding 16th Brigade, and told him: ‘Lloyd, by some act of God, your brigade has been chosen for this job. The eyes of the western world are upon you.