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I was saddened to hear of the passing of Mr Stan Bisset, a true Australian hero.

Harry (my brother), Dad and I met Mr. Bisset a few weeks back when we went and had afternoon tea with Stan and his wife Gloria in Coolum.

Mr. Bisset then arranged for Harry and I and our Kokoda Challenge team to go along to the 2/14th Battalion reunion in Brisbane, which was an enormous thrill for us all.

Mr Bisset was a remarkable Australian and the nation is poorer for his loss.

Vale Mr. Bisset.

Jack

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Mr Hogan, one of the teachers at my school (Elanora High), has worked very hard over the past few years to get a very popular program going revolving around tackling the grueling 96 km Kokoda Challenge for charity here on the Gold Coast.

This year the school had 3 teams of 4 students and a teacher competing in the full distance (96 km) (I think there were 66 school teams in total) and quite a number of teams doing the half Kokoda.

I was in one of those 3 teams tackling the 96 km track along with:

• my brother Harry,
• friends Ryan and Nathan and
• Mr Hogan.

We Won & Broke The Old Record

We were lucky enough to have everything go right for us – including having an incredible Support Crew of parents and brothers and sisters – and were able to achieve our 2 goals for the trek:

• be the first school team to finish, and
• break the old record of 19 hours and 36 minutes (we beat it by 21 minutes).

We were awarded the Stan Bisset Cup for being the first school team.

Thanks to Mr Hogan, teachers, our Support Crew and the other Elanora High lads who we walked/ran with for most of the way.

An incredible achievement by all teams to finish.

Met Stan Bisset MC OAM MID

Harry and I read up on Mr Bisset – he’s a Kokoda Hero, a recipient of the Military Cross and Order of Australia Medal and Australia’s oldest living Wallaby (Australia’s Rugby team players).

We found out he lives on the Sunshine Coast and called to see if he’d like a visit from a couple of lads who are very proud to have won the Cup named in his honour.

Mr Bisset and his lovely wife Gloria made us feel very welcome and were a real joy to chat with.

Harry and I feel very honoured to have met such an inspirational and giving person.

Mr Stan Bisset and I

Jack

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In January I walked the South Coast Track with my dad, brother and uncle.  It’s a brilliant 84 km wilderness walk over 7 days.

I’d heard the Melaleuca flights were amazing – incredible flight over the wilderness to a gravel airstrip in the middle of nowhere.

Dad has put up a web site about the trip that has over 180 photos, some video and lots more – check it out at www.southcoasttrack.com.au.

I also did my first flight solo on May 17.  Mum and dad came down to Gold Coast Airport to watch and took some video of my landing.

The track was very muddy in parts

My brother Harry picked the wrong place to step

Thanks

Jack

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I will be heading to New York in September 2010 after being lucky enough to be awarded a $5,200 RSL Youth Development Grant announced last week.  Thanks!

My friends at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Australia have arranged for me to spend 2 weeks with Big Brothers Big Sisters New York to work with the charity and see how they do things in the Big Apple.

Regards

Jack

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Howdy

Quick update on things.

Jack received a bit of press a few weeks ago to promote the Pride of Australia Awards.  Check the article here.

Jack has also just been nominated for the Gold Coast Honours Award – the Gold Coast Bulletin had an article in Saturday’s newspaper about him and said some very kind things.

Click the article to make it larger.

Click for larger image.

Cheers

Brendon

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Tuesday November 25, 2008

I just realised some of the chronological order is difficult to find on the site.  Here’s the ride in order:

Adventure Begins
Good Luck Message
Day 1 – Tailwinds
Day 2 – More than planned
Day 3 – Rolling Plains of WA
Day 4 – Kalgoorlie
Day 5 – Tough Day
Day 6 – Norseman to Balladonia
Day 7 – Massive Day Gets Us Ahead
Day 8 – Past Madura
Day 9 – Crossing the border
Day 10 – Into SA
Day 11 – To Penong
Day 12 – Hardest Ride Ever
Day 13 – To Minnipa
Day 14 – Reducing tomorrow’s ride
Day 15 – 120 km to Port Augusta
Day 16 – An Incredible Day
Day 17 – Australia Bites Back
Day 18 – Broken Hill Birthday Boy
Day 19 – Broken Hill Flying
Day 20 – Pushing Hard
Day 21 – Lunch Update
Day 22 – Heat, Flies & Exhaustion
Day 23 – Stormy Morning, Hot Afternoon
Day 24 – Cycling Hell to Heaven to Hell
Day 25 – Dodging Snakes, Kangaroos & More
Day 26 – Wet & Wild 101 km
Day 27 – 120 kms of Downhill
Day 28 – 130 km Lumpy Ride
Day 29 – The Kyogle Ranges
Day 30 – It’s Here….Coming To The End
End – Done!

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Sunday, October 26, 2008

Ange is a wonderful and very dear friend of ours who was part of the support team from Perth all the way to Ceduna.

We love Ange!

But then we found this bit of video as we were editing some video today.  Mmmmmmmmm!

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Friday, October 24, 2008

Mum, Dad and I went along to the Pride of Australia awards today and had a great time.

I was nominated in the Young Aussie section and made the final 3.  I met Nicole Reggett and her mum Donna (they were sitting at our table) – Nicole was nominated in the Young Aussie section too after doing tons of things to help others.

Nicole was announced as the winner which was really great.  It was really good to be nominated with her.

Congratulations Nicole!

Nicole and Jack at the Pride of Australia Awards

Jack

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