Moama Bowling Club is helping two local Year 11 students on their journey to Papua-New Guinea where they will join students from around the region and across regional Victoria to walk the Kokoda Trail.
St Jospeh’s College’s Cora Wilson and Layne Trevena have received Colin Sinclair Scholarships, sponsored by MBC, and will be heading to Port Moresby at the end of this month.
Until then both have been training flat out for the nine days of hard yakka ahead — scaling and descending the towering peaks of the Owen Stanley Range, where Australian soldiers stopped Japanese plans to occupy PNG and possibly invade Australia.
Moama Bowling Club sales and marketing manager George Santos says Cora and Layne — and the other students going with them — are “outstanding ambassadors for their families, their school and their community”.
George says MBC did not hesitate to get involved and support the inaugural Colin Sinclair Scholarships because it could see the value in having student leaders immersed in Australia’s history so the lessons learnt there are never forgotten.
He says during the interview process to select the scholarship recipients he was “incredibly impressed” at the calibre of applications and the awareness of the students.
“The only tough part of the interview was we were not able to give everyone a spot for the Kokoda this year and I would like to thank everyone who did apply and their schools for supporting them,” George added.
“We hope it all goes well once they start the trek and look forward to hearing back from the youngsters when they return.”
Cora Wilson says her family has a long and proud connection with Australia’s military history, with eight family members having fought at Gallipoli, Pozieres and Villers-Bretonneux.
Sadly she says two of them died in that war.
Her connection with New Guinea is more recent and equally tragic.
“My second cousin Raymond Henshaw, who enlisted in 1942, was a member of 58/59 Battalion and he fought in New Guinea until killed while on patrol at Bougainville just a few months before the end of the war,” Cora says.
“Kokoda represents a defining moment in our country’s military history and I believe holds a special place in the national consciousness,” she says.
Cora is also the recipient of Kwong Lee Dow scholars’ program, the Australian Defence Forces Long Tan Scholarship as well as the Bishop Joe Grech scholarship and Kildare Ministries student award.
“Growing up I have always challenged myself academically, but I feel this will be a challenge on a whole new level, making me push myself both physically and mentally and I am looking forward to it.”
Layne Trevena agrees the Kokoda story “has had a deep and significant impact on Australia, which stretches from 1942 to today”.
He says for him the ADF website sums it up perfectly: “The story of Kokoda is one of courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice”.
“The Australian soldiers saved and shaped the future of Australia as a nation and that is an amazing achievement,” Layne adds.
“While researching for my application I also discovered the story of Nathalia’s Robert Prentice, who died on the Kokoda on December 15 in 1942,” he says.
“His body now lies in the Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby and he puts a face on this remarkable chapter in our history.
“Before Robert went to Kokoda he was based in Darwin, where he was caught up in 50 of the 64 Japanese air raids against that city which found itself on the frontline and I am hoping to be able to visit his gravesite on behalf of his family and his community.”