So why am I doing the Kokoda Track?

I will give more detail as time goes on, but first I will give a very brief overview of what I am doing and why?
There is an organisation in Australia called Mates in Construction (MIC).  As I have said I will give more info later but essentially MIC was established to try and highlight, discuss and inform workers of the unacceptable and disproportionately high levels of suicide in the construction industry. My union, the ETU, along with other unions and employers, have decided to support MIC and have them run an initial 1 hour  induction course on sites, which is followed by two other tiers of training for those who want to become connectors to help workers in need.  The workers are not trying to give the assistance but rather be able to direct workers to where they can get help or assistance.

Along with other branches of the ETU. The WA branch made a decision to become a sponsor and promoter of MIC.

I had agreed to attend a fundraising function in Perth in April this year.  Two days before attending the MIC fundraiser I attended the funeral of a young apprentice who tragically took his own life.

At the fundraiser the question of taking part in the Kokoda Track was raised.  It was pointed out that this event would be timed to coincide with International Suicide Prevention Day.

I thought about becoming involved but had some reservations, not so much about my physical ability, although I knew that it would mean heaps of training, but more about potential consequences to my health, i.e. Malaria.

I checked things out and although I know that there are no guarantees, if you take the right precautions things should be fine.  Note: should be fine.

A brief intro to Kokoda:

The Kokoda track or trail is in Papua New Guinea, which at the time of the second world war a territory of Australia.

“What made this campaign uniquely grim was the proximity of the fighting and extraordinary terrain over which the two armies clashed. It was indeed, at the time, a ‘knife fight out of the stone age’, as historian Eric Bergerud wrote. The Kokoda campaign is distinguished for three other reasons: it was the first land defeat of the Japanese Imperial Army; it marked the start of the great roll-back of the Japanese troops from the southernmost point of the Pacific empire; and it was the battle that saved Australia from certain isolation – and possible invasion, as it was perceived at the time – in the Pacific War .”  (Paul Ham, Kokoda, 2005, p. xi)