Our Spirit Blog - Kokoda Track - News Article

I’ve seen transformations. Lives redefined. Young men and women rediscover their inner strength. Veterans find healing. Everyday people step into a part of themselves they didn’t know existed.

We’ve normalised a “rite of passage” that too often ends in ambulances, arrests, and anxiety.

What if we changed the tradition?

The Kokoda Track isn’t just a trek—it’s a transformation.

At 17 or 18, our diggers stood shoulder to shoulder to defend our freedom. Now, our youth can walk in their footsteps—not just to honour them, but to find themselves.

Schoolies doesn’t have to mean numbing out. It can mean stepping up.

In an age where comfort is abundant and hardship can feel like a distant memory, it’s more important than ever that young Australians reconnect with the foundations of their freedom.

In towns and cities across Australia, a quiet frustration is simmering among our young people. They’ve done everything society asked of them—studied hard, earned their degrees, taken on debt in pursuit of education—only to graduate into a job market that is too often closed to them. The promise of opportunity has been replaced with unpaid internships, insecure contracts, or the slow grind of applications that go nowhere. Many are living back at home, disillusioned, wondering what happened to the

Over the past few weeks, as the Federal election campaigns have ramped up, I’ve had conversations with people from all walks of life—quiet, hardworking Australians who have always believed in doing the right thing. People who once wore their sense of duty like a badge of honour. People who’ve served, contributed, raised families, paid their taxes, built communities. But now? They’re telling me they don’t want to vote.