Year 10

1000 Steps Excursions

On Friday April 1st one hundred and fifty Year 10 students accompanied by ten staff headed to Ferntree Gully to tackle the famous 1000 Steps as a pre-Anzac Day memorial, and a chance to consider links with their studies in History, Geography and Health. By undertaking this challenging walk, students were also provided an opportunity to reflect on the efforts of the Australian soldiers at Kokoda during the Second World War. Unfortunately, due to the storms in November, the official trail is closed so we instead walked to One Tree Hill along the Lyre Bird Trail. This is a 4.8 kilometre walk from start to finish along a steep and beautiful trail.

 The 1000 Steps is Melbourne’s most popular bushwalk and is a memorial to the Australian involvement in Papua New Guinea during World War 2 and in particular the Kokoda Track. This experience uses this historical context to highlight the way Australian soldiers worked together, to eventually hold back the Japanese advance on Australia. Our Year 10 students examined the importance of working with a range of people towards a common goal. This highlighted for our Year 10 group, the principles of the ANZAC spirit of endurance, courage, ingenuity, good humour, larrikinism, and mateship.

Prior to the students tackling the walk, the Ranger from Parks Victoria at the 1000 Steps conducted a full Anzac Day ceremony to honour the efforts of the three Australian Infantry Battalions that participated in the defence of Papua New Guinea. The ceremony ended with the playing of the Last Post and a presentation by the Ranger on Kokoda.  Members of our Year 10 Leadership team participated in the ceremony by reading poems, laying wreaths and raising the flag.

Fair to say the students loved the challenge of walking the steep trail through the gorgeous rainforest and upon their return from the beautiful path, were treated to a scrumptious barbeque picnic lunch. This was expertly prepared by Year 10 History teachers Ann Vassos and Barabra Carydis along with Year 10 students John Omenoba and Mataan Farah. A special thanks is extended to all four people for working hard to make sure everybody was very well fed on the day.

All in all the day was a great triumph for our Year 10 students bringing to life their classroom studies against the backdrop of our beautiful Australian bushland.

Rick Manning 

(on behalf of the KLA Humanities staff & the Year 10 Student Management team)