The 1000 Steps Kokoda Track Memorial Walk is a place of personal endurance and fitness. Nestled at the start of the Dandenong Tourist Road in Upper Ferntree Gully, this is not a climb for the faint of heart. If you want to test how fit you are body and soul this path will show you the way.
This 290 metre ascent of the Ferntree Gully National Park represents the real Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea during the last years of World War II, the soldiers who fought, endured, suffered and died to keep the Japanese from Australian shores. Plaques along the trail depict the journey of the soldiers and locals, a monument to conscripted Australians and the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, thousands of Papua New Guinean and Australian people dragged into a war that was not theirs, but who stood up and fought for the prevailing ideals of courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice. These ‘1000 steps’ represent the ‘Golden Staircase’, a name given by the soldiers to the 96 kilometre 2000 steps cut into the track that finishes high at the Owen Stanley Range at Kokoda Station.
This concrete climb through the forest along a peaceful meandering stream is not literally 1000 steps, around 740-750 I believe, but the footsteps in between and the initial climb to the the base of the steps is more than enough to satisfy your Fitbit, Android or Apple accessory. Wearing every day black jeans and kicks seemed in huge contrast to the leisure wear and walking (or running) Nike commercial on the path. 
It would seem over the last handful of years the the 1000 Steps has become increasingly crowded, perhaps it is the emergence of social media platforms and the trend of posting selfies on the track that suggest an ever growing popularity, perhaps before social media it was a place to go to demonstrate quiet determination and to reflect at a place of grief and remembrance. I found it to have an air of competitiveness, to go slow on the stairs, to catch your breath and enjoy the scenery seemed out of step with the current day usage of the track. No one seemed to stop and read the plaques that dot the stairs. For me it was important to read each one, while also a convenient excuse to stop and let my legs catch up.
I love this place, but I agree it’s a bit crowded and very competitive. I find walking the other tracks (the lyrebird track etc) is a much better exercise, both literally and figuratively. Some of the tracks take you way back into central Ferntree Gully, or up further into Ferny Creek, and there are many adventures to be had along the way.