Kokoda Trip In June this year the College conducted its inaugural trip to trek the Kokoda Track. 27 members of the St Joseph’s College community including 16 students, 2 staff and a mixture of mums, dads, siblings and a grandfather underwent 6 weeks of training in preparation for the trip. The Wednesday morning sessions at 6am and weekend hikes were all worth it once we were confronted with our first hill climb out of Kokoda Village. Despite the steep ascent we were all happy to finally be on our way as mechanical issues with the troop carriers had put us a day behind and had meant that a number of the group had only slept for a couple of hours the night before. The first hill paved the way for many others just like it and it wasn’t long before the terrain began to claim victims with falls and broken walking poles a common occurrence. By the time we reached Kagi Village for our rest day the group was looking forward to some R & R with the locals. This consisted of challenging our Porters to games of touch rugby, soccer, tug of war and volleyball. We were also fortunate to meet with two Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels one at the ripe old age of 110. All members of the group successfully completed the trek and were truly moved by the experience.
At Brigade Hill Meeting Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels at Kagi village
While our walk was physically challenging at times it was put into perspective by the amazing stories of the Australian soldiers’ experience against the Japanese in WWII. We visited many significant sites, saw ammunition dumps and experienced some of the best scenery in the world. While the trek was exhausting, the camaraderie that developed within the group made for an amazing experience that included many laughs along the way. Michael O’Malley’s company Australian Kokoda Tours conducted the trip and arranged all the preparatory training. Michael himself has trekked Kokoda in excess of 20 times and imparted his extensive knowledge of the Kokoda campaign along the way ensuring all of us were able to marvel at the efforts of those who fought there. The elation at reaching our finish line at Owers Corner was quickly tempered with our visit to the Bomana War Cemetery and viewing the thousands of graves of soldiers not much older than our students on the trip, many still marked simply as ‘Unknown Soldier’. All participants on the trip thoroughly enjoyed the experience and will certainly remember it for the rest of their lives. Paul Clohesy - Deputy Principal
Finally after 7 mentally challenging days of walking we reached the arches signifying the end of the gruelling track.We were flooded with feelings of relief and sadness for all the soldiers who never made it out of the notorious track.We all came out a lot wiser and better people for the experience. Matthew Caldow Year 11
Bomana War Cemetery At the finish of the track
97
