Maroubra Force South Seas Detachment The First Battle of Eora Creek–Templeton's Crossing was fought from 31 August 1942 to 5 September 1942.

Forming part of the Kokoda Track campaign of the Second World War, the battle involved military forces from Australia, supported by the United States, fighting against Japanese troops from Major General Tomitaro Horii's South Seas Detachment who had landed in Papua in mid-1942, with the intent of capturing Port Moresby.

On 21 July 1942, Japanese forces landed on the northern Papuan coast around Buna and Gona, as part of a plan to capture the strategically important town of Port Moresby via an overland advance along the Kokoda Track following the failure of a seaborne attempt at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May.

[1] After minor skirmishes with small groups of Australian and Papuan forces around Awala, Australian resistance along the track grew and throughout July and August a number of battles were fought along the Kokoda Track as the Japanese advanced force, Colonel Yosuke Yokoyama's 15th Independent Engineer Regiment, advanced steadily south towards their objective on the southern coast.

[2] Following a confusing see-saw encounter, Kokoda fell to the Japanese in early August,[3] This was followed by heavy fighting around Deniki.

After that, the main body of Japanese troops, Major General Tomitaro Horii's South Seas Detachment, began to arrive from Rabaul.

The first major battle of the campaign took place around Isurava later in the month as the veteran Australian 21st Brigade, under Brigadier Arnold Potts, reinforced the Militia troops of Maroubra Force who had been holding the line to that point.

[17] Arriving about midday 1 September, the 2/16th Infantry Battalion adopted a defensive position on a bald spur on the southern side of the creek that overlooked the crossing and village.

The battalion withdrew through the reserve, to a position on a high point of the track about 0.62 miles (1 km) north of Templeton's Crossing.

[28] Along Mission Ridge and around Brigade Hill, the Australians attempted to hold the Japanese, but were defeated and forced to break track and withdraw through the scrub when the 144th Infantry Regiment managed to fix the forward Australian troops along Mission Ridge, and nearly outflank the second line of defence further back on Brigade Hill.

Before this climactic battle could take place though; the Japanese reached the limit of their supply line and the strategic situation elsewhere in the Pacific – specifically the defeats around Milne Bay and on Guadalcanal[30] – resulted in the tide shifting towards the Australians, as the Japanese commander, Horii, received orders to assume a defensive posture rather than continuing the drive on Port Moresby.

[32] On 28 September, the Australians retook the abandoned trenches on Ioribaiwa and for the next two weeks, the Japanese were able to avoid contact as they fell back towards northwards towards a new defensive line.

[33] Amidst pressure from the upper echelons of the Allied high command to increase the pace of their advance northwards in pursuit of the withdrawing Japanese, in mid-October, the Australians reached Eora Creek and Templeton's Crossing,[34] which was held by the "Stanley Detachment" of the 144th Infantry Regiment.