Jordan Brookers presentation to the Probus Club of Goulburn and District
16 Jul 2015
With an uncle, Ian Jeffrey as a club member, a grandfather and a grandmother as visitors to the club and her father as chief projectionist, it was quite a family affair when Jordan Brooker gave her presentation to the members of the Probus Club of Goulburn and District.
Jordan, a seventeen-year-old Trinity College student spoke about her trekking and camping experience along the Kokoda Trail. She first considered embarking on this adventure with her father some years ago but this was short circuited when she saw an advertisement in the paper for a Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge, specifically for year 11 students. Application completed, interviewed and accepted by the local RSL club board members it was time for the preparation of the trip. This consisted of the purchasing of gear and some training which included walks up Rocky Hill. There were to be two other Goulburn candidates doing the trek but one pulled out due to other commitments. Jordan learned the night before departure, the other girl was unable to come due to illness and this meant there was to be no one else on the trek whom she knew, which was a bit disconcerting.
Arrival in Port Moresby was a confronting experience due to the humidity and seeing the living conditions. There were two groups of twenty participants’ ages varying from sixteen to twenty three. Jordan found it was a challenge getting her backpack weight down to the recommended thirteen kilograms (without water). She was most impressed with the founder and operator of Adventure Kokoda, Charlie Lynn. His experience and dedication to the preservation of the wartime heritage of the Kokoda trail has to be admired. His initiatives with regard to training and the building of schools will be a legacy for many generations to come.
“Walking under the towering Kokoda Trail arch meant that we had finally begun our trek. Faced with the steepest decline, if you merely lost an inch of balance you’d go somersaulting, taking everyone in front with you”, Jordan said. The first day was a short one but generally they were 7:00am starts and occasionally finishing at 8:00pm in the rain and dark. There was rain for seven of the nine days. At times there were tears and vows never to come back again. “The physical and mental aspect of the trek forces you to open up and talk to people, just so you can ignore the voice in your head that tells you to stop walking”. Various people in the group had different experiences such as boots lost in the river, fatigue, conflicting personalities, badly infected feet and tummy bugs. “For the dawn service at Isurava, we all got up at 4:30am, when the fog was low among the trees, and we all faced the large pillars that have mateship, courage, sacrifice and endurance carved into them. A few of us said poems, listened to the national anthems of both countries and the ode that always makes me cry. That ceremony will stay with me forever, I feel privileged to have been there”. As well as the hard work of trekking, there were touch footy games, sight seeing, contact with the locals, traditional songs by the local women and children plus visits to battlefields and memorials and the many stories of bravery and hardships endured by the soldiers. “I couldn’t be more thankful to the RSL for offering this amazing trip because it truly does change perspectives, and offers an entirely new meaning to ANZAC Day and respecting the war time in general. My overall experience of the trek is summed up in this excerpt I wrote for the RSL: Throughout the whole experience, ‘mateship’ was the core value that dug the deepest hole and planted its perception of the trail into my mind. How these amazing soldiers who formed their own friendships, just as I did, had to watch as their best mates die, yet continued fighting, surrounded by the fallen, seems an unbearable task for which I can only applaud our men”.
Club member Ray Walters read a poem written by a soldier entitled ‘The Chocolate Soldier’ and presented Jordan with a copy.
Peter Simpson presented the thumbnail sketch outlining his forebears’ pioneering experience and spoke of his own work in agriculture along with some concerns about the ever continuing drive for more productivity.
For enquiries about joining Probus, contact Peter Jordan 4821 3875 or Mick McGhie 4821 3328.
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