SWAN Hill’s Billy O’Toole is ready for the gruelling physical challenge of the 96km Kokoda Trail, but in the same breath knows the mental battle is a completely different scenario.
The St Mary MacKillop College student will join four other students from the Murray Plains electorate next week as part of the Colin Sinclair Scholarship.
All five recipients are part of a program set up by The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, after his trip to Kokoda last year.
When they arrive in Papua New Guinea they will join 15 other regional Victorian students from similar programs being run by The Nationals in other electorates.
Billy told The Guardian it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
”I found out about the opportunity in the school newsletter and mum got me onto it,” he said, sitting in the shadows of the Swan Hill War Memorial.
“I had to do a bit of research to apply, basically why it was meaningful to Australia.”
Billy said he was “up for the challenge”, with his football and basketball aiding his efforts to be track ready.
“The biggest challenge will be the mental side of it,” he said. “I feel like I’m there physically but will see how I go mentally.
“Waking up everyday doing the same thing. You can’t stop until you get to the end.”
Billy’s father, Luke, was so impressed by a recent presentation in Moama – the challenge and the videos shown on the night of previous tours – he signed on the spot to also be part of the trip, making him the second father to enlist, following Rochester’s Oakley Tarrant, whose father, Patrick, will also be going.
Mr Walsh, who is planning to return to Kokoda in 2025 with the next group of students, said he was delighted with the engagement of this year’s group and the support of their families, who attended the briefing with them.
He said he rated his first walk as one of the great experiences of his life.
“It is an incredible journey, you get to meet some amazing people and see and do things you would never expect to be a part of your life,” he said. “It is something you will never forget – especially that first hot bath or shower once you get back to your hotel and home after the trek.
“It was great to have Billy as part of the Swan Hill Anzac Day Service this year and even though I know public speaking isn’t his favourite pastime, we all look forward to his account of his trip at a future service, maybe Remembrance Day, or Anzac Day next year in his hometown.”
Member for East Gippsland Tim Bull, who is a veteran of three walks with students, and will be one of the tour leaders this year, said it was important the students realised it wasn’t just an overseas holiday.
“We are going to honour the memory of the many, too many, young Australians who went there and died there and that is why we are running these scholarships,” he said.
“These young men made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedom we have come to expect.
“It is our hope the young people we take with us will come home and share their time in PNG, what they have learnt from it and encourage others to try it as well – when I told the kids about soldiers.”
This trail through the jungles of Papua New Guinea was the site of much suffering during the Second World War. It was some of the most desperate and vicious encountered by Australian troops.
The Battle of Kokoda was a four-month struggle that began with the Japanese landing in Papua in July 1942.
The Japanese strategy was to take Port Moresby via a track over the Owen Stanley Range.
Although the successful capture of Port Moresby was never going to be precursor to an invasion of Australia, victory on the Kokoda Trail did ensure that Allied bases in northern Australia, vital in the coming counter-offensive against the Japanese, would not be seriously threatened by air attack.
About 625 Australians were killed along the Kokoda Trail and more than 1600 were wounded. Casualties due to sickness exceeded 4000.
