When Eden Beaumont arrives in Papua-New Guinea to begin the Kokoda Trail, he will be carrying a heavy responsibility.
The Rochester Secondary College Year 11 student’s connection with Australia’s role in the Pacific theatre is without parallel — his great-uncle was Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, a legend in our military history.
As a student from Rochester, he will also be representing local families whose sons, husbands, brothers and fathers fought on the Kokoda and did not come home.
The Colin Sinclair Kokoda Scholarship recipient — one of five in Murray Plains — will be representing the Sinclair family.
Eden is joining State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh and other scholarship recipients on the trail.
He expects his visit to Bomana War Cemetery at the end of the walk will be an emotional one.
He will not just visit the grave of Lieutenant Colonel Colin Sinclair but will also represent his region at the graves of Francis McFadzean, Stan Snow and Bevan Thomas.
It is a walk he could not make without the generous support of the sponsors behind the scholarship program — especially Moama RSL, Rochester Rotary Club, Rich River Golf Club, Freemasons Foundation Victoria and Tiverton Agricultural Impact Fund.
“As a member of B-Company in the 39th Battalion, Colin was among the first Australian troops to journey across the trail to confront the Japanese at Kokoda,” Eden said.
“B-Company withdrew to Deniki, where the other companies of the 39th had arrived and then fought at the battle of Isurava, where he was reported as missing in action.
“But in the following weeks, a number of the ‘missing’ would make their way back to their units through the jungle, although many were never seen again — either killed in action, caught and executed by the Japanese, or simply succumbing to wounds, to the jungle and to hunger.”
Lt Col Sinclair appeared to have been one of the lucky ones and, four days later, was able to rejoin his unit.
But that wasn’t to last.
“Sent to the battle of the northern beaches, he suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen and legs and then contracted dengue fever, dying on December 19, 1942,” Eden said.
“He was just 28 years old.”
Lt Col Sinclair’s cousin Ronald, from Moama, also served in the 39th and he returned home.
Eden said Stan Snow was a corporal in the 2/33rd Battalion and was killed at Jackson airfield on September 11, 1943. He is also buried in Bomana War Cemetery.
Although he was born in England, he emigrated to Australia and was employed as a barman at the Victoria Hotel in Rochester when he enlisted, aged 28.
“Stan served in Palestine and the Middle East before heading to New Guinea and he was waiting to fly out of Jackson airfield when a bomb-laden US B24 Liberator crashed into the battalion’s trucks, killing 60 and injuring a further 92,” Eden said.
“It was an incredibly tragic end to so many lives, in a time of war, and Francis McFadzean was killed in the same accident.
“He had grown up in the Nanneella area and gone to Nanneella Estate School, and his life ended before he ever really got to live it. This crash would be the 2/33’s greatest loss of life for the entire war.”
Rochester’s Bevan Thomas was a private in the 2/14th. He was killed at the battle of Isurava on August 29, 1942, and also lies in the Bomana War Cemetery.
He was an unmarried labourer who served in the Middle East and, after a short stint at home, arrived in Port Moresby on August 12. Less than three weeks later, he was dead.
“Almost immediately after arriving in Papua New Guinea he was sent on to the trail to support the 39th and when they reached Isurava, they found themselves instantly in battle with the Japanese,” Eden said.
“He fell the day the Japanese pushed through the Australian defences and forced their withdrawal back towards Port Moresby. And he was just 22, not that much older than me.
“It will be my privilege and honour to visit and remember all these men for the people of Rochester and district.”