Great futures: Former state Member for Benalla Bill Sykes with this year’s Leigh Vial Scholarship recipients.
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Recently 11 school children from Papua New Guinea were awarded a Leigh Vial Scholarship, donated by Benalla’s Brian Vial, to enable them to complete their secondary school education.
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These children join 64 previous scholarship winners since 2014.
Many early recipients have now graduated from university and have jobs such as mining engineers, helping to grow PNG’s economy and benefit their communities and families.
Brian Vial funds the scholarships in memory of his uncle Leigh Vial, who was a patrol officer in PNG in the 1930s and served as a coast watcher in World War II.
Leigh was in Rabaul, PNG, when the Japanese invasion fleet was sighted.
He was directed to lead the RAAF ground crew and spare pilots over the range to the south coast where they were picked up by a flying boat.
On his return to Australia, Leigh was given leave, and then posted to Port Moresby.
Aerial observation showed another invasion fleet being prepared and the code-breakers identified Lae and the north coast as the likely landing point.
Leigh volunteered as a coast watcher to return with a radio to the steep hills overlooking the Lae airfield.
With local help, he selected a tall tree for observations over Lae.
When enemy bombers took off towards Port Moresby he radioed the Allied air force, which could then be overhead to incept them before they arrived.
Leigh was quickly given a commission in the RAAF, so that if he was captured he had military status.
Unfortunately, Leigh was killed in a plane crash but his memory lives on, with a street in the PNG town of Goroka named after him and his much-appreciated scholarships changing many lives.
Former state Member for Benalla Bill Sykes attended the scholarship presentation on behalf of Brian Vial earlier in 2023, as he was unable to make it.
“I was most impressed with the scholarship winners and all the children attending Goroka Grammar School,” Mr Sykes said.
“The children are polite, respectful and very keen to get educated to make a difference to PNG, their communities and their families.
“They aim very high — doctors, scientists, mining engineers, accountants and lawyers among the professions the children aspire to.”
The school was started more than 30 years ago by an English expat, Paddy Kelly, and now has over 600 students on three campuses.
The school is rated fifth in PNG for academic achievement. This is a credit to Mr Kelly, the excellent staff, parents and students — it’s the ‘village raising the child’ in practice.
“Unfortunately this situation is the exception rather than the norm in PNG,” Mr Sykes said.
“I met with the principal and parents at one primary school.
“The school looked basic but was clean and functional and there was educational material, mainly handwritten on butcher’s paper, on the classroom walls.
“I asked ‘how many computers do you have?’ The answer was none.
“I asked how many books they had. The answer, none.
“The principal showed me the empty bookshelves.”
This situation is what triggered Brian Vial to send boxes of books to these schools.
The gratitude of the children when they receive one box of books is overwhelming.
Smiles: Bill Sykes with students whose primary school sadly has no books.
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“I now help Brian with collecting books and with the help of Geraldine McCorkell, Rob MacLean and Katrina Bailey (and several op shops and local businesses) we have sent three pallets of books in the past 18 months,” Mr Sykes said.
“We will continue to collect and dispatch books and try to do our bit to brighten the future of the PNG pikininis.”
If you would like to help, second-hand children’s books can be left at state Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland’s office on Bridge St, or given directly to Mr Sykes, who can be contacted on 0427 624 989.
