Kokoda, Not Kava: Why Australian Youth Should Choose the Track Over the Typical Schoolies Binge

21 May 2025 6:01 PM

Kokoda, Not Kava: Why Australian Youth Should Choose the Track Over the Typical Schoolies Binge

By Aidan Grimes

Each year, thousands of Australian school leavers celebrate the end of exams with a ritual that has become synonymous with excess—week-long parties filled with alcohol, drugs, and risky behaviour. While the intent is to mark a transition, the tradition too often leads to hospital beds, criminal charges, regret, or worse. What if we could flip the narrative and offer something truly meaningful? What if schoolies wasn’t about numbing out—but waking up?

Enter the Kokoda Track.

A Rite of Passage Worthy of the Next Generation

Walking the Kokoda Track isn’t just an adventure—it’s a rite of passage steeped in real Australian history, hardship, and heroism. It’s 96 kilometres of rugged terrain that challenges your body, sharpens your mind, and strengthens your spirit. Along the way, young Australians walk in the footsteps of soldiers no older than themselves—diggers who fought not for glory, but for each other, and for our country’s freedom.

It’s here, in the muddy boots and early morning mist, that a new kind of schoolies tradition can be born.

From Escapism to Empowerment

Schoolies has become a form of escapism—drugs and alcohol filling the void where purpose and direction should be. Kokoda flips this on its head. It doesn’t offer escape—it demands presence. It calls young people into something real, raw, and unforgettable.

It teaches them:

• Courage in the face of exhaustion and fear.
• Mateship that’s deeper than any party bond.
• Sacrifice through shared hardship, not selfish indulgence.
• Endurance that doesn't fade with the sunrise but shapes character for life.

These values—etched into every slope and trench along the Track—aren’t abstract. They’re lived. And they stay with you.

 

 

Building Leaders, Not Just Leavers

In the jungle, there are no filters, no followers, and no escape from who you are. For many young people, Kokoda becomes a mirror that reflects strength they didn’t know they had. It strips away ego and entitlement and replaces it with resilience, humility, and a quiet confidence.

Teachers who’ve led students across the track often say they return home changed—more focused, more mature, and more aware of their place in the world. Parents say they finally see the adult in their child. That’s what a rite of passage should do.

A Legacy Worth Carrying

When our soldiers fought and died along the Kokoda Track in 1942, they weren’t much older than today’s school leavers. They didn’t have time for parties or the luxury of reckless abandon. They had each other. They had grit. They had purpose.

Walking Kokoda as a young Australian is not just a trek—it’s a tribute. It’s a way of saying: “I’m ready to step up. To learn. To lead. To honour the past by shaping a better future.”

Make It the New Tradition

Let’s stop selling young people short by offering them nothing more than cheap drinks and empty experiences. Let’s invite them into something bigger.

Let’s make walking Kokoda the new schoolies tradition—a rite of passage that elevates rather than erodes. Imagine a generation of young Australians returning not just tanned and tired, but transformed.

Because our future deserves better than hangovers. It deserves heroes.

Choose Kokoda. Choose character. Choose a schoolies you’ll remember forever.

#KokodaNotKava #RealSchoolies #RiteOfPassage #AustralianYouth #KokodaTrackAdventure