ourspirit.com.au
Campfire Academy™: A Rite of Passage for School Leavers
A modern rite of passage — forged through challenge, guided by wisdom, and celebrated with joy. A transformative journey from adolescence to adulthood.
Begin Your Journey
The Gap Modern Society Has Created
What's Missing
Young people today face a critical transition gap. They graduate from school, but modern society offers no meaningful bridge to adulthood. Entertainment replaces challenge. Celebration replaces transformation.
The result: disconnected transitions, risk-heavy behaviour, and missed opportunities for growth. Adolescents seeking escape rather than purpose.
What We Restore
Campfire Academy™ bridges this gap with challenge that builds character, guidance that develops wisdom, and celebration that honors transformation.
This is not another adventure holiday. It's a rite of passage — a story participants carry for life.
Our Vision: Australia's Most Sought-After School Leaver Experience
Parents Trust
Professional expertise in counselling, exercise physiology, and expedition management ensures safety and emotional integration.
Participants Value for Life
A transformative journey that becomes a defining story — not just a memory, but a foundation for adulthood.
Communities Recognise
A formative milestone that honors history, culture, and the transition to responsible, connected young adults.
The Journey: Three Transformative Phases
Each phase builds upon the last, creating a complete rite of passage from preparation through challenge to celebration.
Phase 1: Preparation
Mental readiness, physical conditioning, and cultural context before departure. Establishing psychological safety and intention.
Phase 2: The Rite of Passage
Walking the Kokoda Track — sustained physical challenge, shared responsibility, and daily reflection in real-world conditions.
Phase 3: Integration & Celebration
Private island experience with cultural immersion, ceremony, and joy grounded in meaning and achievement.
Phase 1: Preparation — Building the Foundation
Before the Track
Participants engage in structured preparation that establishes psychological safety, accountability, and clear intention. This phase is essential for transformation.
  • Mental readiness and emotional regulation techniques
  • Physical conditioning and load management protocols
  • Group norms, responsibility, and self-leadership development
  • Historical and cultural context of Kokoda and PNG
Phase 2: The Kokoda Track — The Initiation
The Kokoda Track becomes the initiation phase — a sustained physical and psychological challenge that teaches through lived experience. Heat, terrain, fatigue, and discomfort create the conditions for transformation.
1
Sustained Physical Challenge
Days of walking through demanding terrain build adaptive capacity and resilience under load.
2
Shared Responsibility
Interdependence teaches connection, communication, and respectful leadership within a group.
3
Daily Reflection
Facilitated "campfire" conversations lead to a personal life plan and identity development.
The Campfire Academy™ Curriculum
Learning is embedded into lived experience, not delivered through lectures. Qualified facilitators guide participants through five core themes using counselling, exercise physiology, and military history expertise.
Resilience & Adaptive Capacity
Understanding stress, fatigue, and recovery — and how to function effectively under sustained load.
Decision-Making Under Pressure
How choices change when tired, emotional, or uncomfortable — and how to make better ones.
Identity & Responsibility
Moving from "being looked after" to taking full responsibility for self and others.
Connection & Communication
Building trust, empathy, and respectful leadership through shared challenge and vulnerability.
Respect for History & Service
Learning Kokoda's military history as a lesson in endurance, sacrifice, and teamwork.
Phase 3: Integration & Celebration — The Release
Earning the Right
Upon completing Kokoda, participants earn the right to transition into celebration. This is the release phase of the rite of passage: after challenge comes celebration, after responsibility comes expression.
Private island experience designed for:
  • Cultural immersion with local PNG communities
  • Music, storytelling, dance, and ceremony
  • Facilitated reflection on the journey completed
  • Space for joy, freedom, and connection — safely held

Alcohol-moderated or alcohol-free by design. Supervised without being restrictive. Structured without feeling controlled. Participants arrive as young adults marking a transition, not adolescents seeking escape.
Why This Matters Now
What's Been Lost
Meaningful rites of passage replaced with unsupervised celebration. Disconnected transitions. Missed opportunities for guided transformation.
What We Restore
Challenge with purpose. Guidance with respect. Celebration with meaning. A story participants carry for life.
This experience becomes a defining story — not just a memory, but a foundation for the rest of their lives.
Safety, Credibility & Trust
Campfire Academy™ is underpinned by professional expertise, not enthusiasm alone. This is a program parents trust, schools respect, and participants aspire to earn.
Counselling Qualifications
Emotional safety and integration through qualified facilitation
Exercise Physiology
Physical load and recovery managed correctly and safely
Military History Expertise
Kokoda treated with reverence and accurate context
Expedition Management
Logistics, safety, and flow professionally executed
Medical Support
Comprehensive safety protocols and emergency response
Ethical Cultural Engagement
Strong relationships with PNG communities built on respect
www.ourspirit.com.au