By Keith Fraser, Tamborine Mountain RSL Sub Branch
Tamborine Mountain State High School will, again, enter 17 teams in the 2026 National Kokoda Challenge, which will be held on July 18 and 19.
Queensland’s Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge, which hosts the only 96-kilometre event, replicates the length of the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea on which WWII battles were conducted by the gallant 39th Militia and 2nd /14th Infantry Battalions of the 1st Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to repel invasion of Australia.
Commencing at Mudgeeraba Bowls Club the non-stop overnight trek, which must be completed in less than 39 hours, transits bushland and tracks in the Gold Coast hinterland in a circular route finishing at the Nerang Velodrome.
Other distance events are conducted over 30 and 48 kilometres.
Owing to its military links with the historic Kokoda Track, the Tamborine Mountain RSL Sub Branch sponsors one of the 96-kilometre challenge teams, which this year is Who Put That Hill There?. The team members are Year 10, 11 and 12 students Wesley and Edmund Blythe, Amelie Zarins, Xander Barnes and William Cartmill
Teams comprise up to five members with team members encouraged to think up a team name.
In appreciation of the RSL’s sponsorship, on Sunday April 19 at a Gallery Walk display table, team members sold commemorative badges and poppies in readiness for ANZAC Day.
