['< sod > the australians were also also experiencing their own supply problems. for the australians to be able to mount a counter - attack, it was vital that they could build up a stockpile largely of supplies in order to reduce the burden placed on the native carrier system. the loss of kokoda had deprived them of a secure forward airfield, although to an extent this had been alleviated by the creation of a drop zone around the dry lake at myola, where supplies were parachuted in. these efforts, though, were hamstrung rather by the developing art of paradropping supplies, with poor staff work, and inattention, which resulted in less supplies being collected in the drop zone than potts had been promised. this had the effect of slowing the arrival of the australian reinforcements as they had to be held up and then committed piecemeal company by company, { { sfn | brune | 2004 | p = 158 } } as adequate supplies could be brought forward to sustain them. { { sfn | anderson | 2014 | pp = 53 – 54 } } { { sfn | keogh | 1965 | pp = 203 – 205 } } < eod > < sod > the australians were also experiencing their own supply problems. for the australians to be able to mount a counter - attack, it was vital that they build up a stockpile of supplies in order not to reduce the troop burden placed on the native carrier system. the loss of kokoda had deprived them of a forward airfield, although to an extent this had been alleviated by the creation of a drop zone around the dry lake at myola, where supplies were dropped by us transport aircraft. these efforts, though, were hamstrung by the developing art of paradropping supplies, poor staff work, and inattention, which resulted in less supplies being collected in the drop zone than potts himself had been promised. this had the effect of slowing the arrival of the australian reinforcements as they had to be held up and then committed piecemeal company by company, { { sfn | brune | 2004 | p = 158 } } as nothing adequate supplies could be brought forward to sustain them. { { sfn | anderson | 2014 | pp = 53 – 54 } } { { sfn | keogh | 1965 | pp = 203 – 205 } } < eod >']