Marist College Bendigo students mark Kokoda Trail anniversary for Remembrance Day

A total of 641 crosses, representing the lives lost along the Kokoda Trail during WWII 80 years ago, were planted on a hill in the middle of the Maiden Gully campus.

These tributes were constructed by the VCAL or applied learning students for years 11 and 12 who used their planning, welding, table saw and artistic skills to put together the memorial.

Next year's school captain Zac Justice and applied learning captain Dayten Uerata were also on hand to lead the junior school memorial service.

VCAL students took time to teach the younger students about the history of Kokoda, so everyone could understand how to pay tribute to those who died.

Grade three student Ryder Cavalier said his classmates had learnt a lot about the soldiers and their experience.

"They told us about the Kokoda track and how it was all muddy and filled with diseases and a lot of people died," he said.

"We made a poppy and then we had a piece of paper (with the name of a soldier who died) and we made a thank-you card saying, 'thank you for helping us'."

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His classmate Ethan Van Den Aarsen said the students learnt a lot of soldiers had to go to a war even though they weren't trained, while Emilia Wilkin said if the soldiers hadn't fought, she and her classmates "wouldn't be standing here today".

Macki Murphy's favourite part of the service was the trumpet playing the Last Post and, as she is learning the instrument, hoped she might one day play the stirring melody.

VCAL teacher Anna Coloe said the project had been the culmination of a year-long conversation with the humanities department.

"Then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger," she said.

"We thought we were only going to focus on Victorian people who had died in Kokoda and then it just exploded into 'let's do the 641 who died on the Kokoda track'.

"It's just really great. I'm tired and I think kids are tired, but to tie in the (junior school children) so the whole school could be part of it was great."

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Ms Coloe said the similar ages of some of the soldiers was also a moving and solemn connection for the students.

"Kids could see that they were 17 years old, and that's how old they would be," she said.

One of the special guests was Kym Levett from the Military Museum in Pall Mall.

A retired secondary teacher, Mr Levett remarked how great it was to see the whole school remembering the fallen.

"I volunteer at the Military Museum twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays and I'm also a member of the RSL, but I'm not ex service," Mr Levett said.

"I think it's important because it's that next generation that's now recognised the service of men and women who have served in all conflicts, and the torch has been passed on to the next generations.

"From a history teacher's point of view it's now part of the curriculum. Where the students are covering Australia and conflict as part of their curriculum, schools are now recognising that it's important to have something that remembers the service that was given.

"The fact that students are involved in leading the the preparation of the services was great."

Like some students and teachers, Mr Levett said he had multiple personal connections to wartime service, with two grandfathers and four great uncles serving in the First World War, and another uncle in the Second World War.

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