Tony Pearce with representatives from Moira Shire Council, Victorian Council of Churches and local emergency services at the Cobram Civic Centre on Tuesday, April 21.
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Marathon fundraiser Tony Pearce stopped in Cobram last month as part of his 2400km solo kayak journey down the Murray River in support of emergency services mental health.
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Mr Pearce arrived in Cobram on Tuesday, April 21, where he was welcomed by representatives of the Victorian Council of Churches.
The VCC, which donated $2000 to the trek, joined Moira Shire Council in hosting him at the Cobram Civic Centre, where he spoke with emergency services personnel about his mission.
Mr Pearce is paddling from Bringenbrong in NSW to Goolwa in South Australia as part of his 2026 ‘Paddle for Awareness’ challenge.
The challenge aims to highlight the mental health pressures faced by emergency workers and their families, while raising $50,000 for the Emergency Services Foundation.
Moira Shire Council chair administrator Graeme Emonson with fundraising trekker Tony Pearce, council administrator Susan Benedyka, and VCC Emergency Ministries chief executive Edmund Murphy.
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Tony’s Trek is an annual endurance event led by Mr Pearce, the immediate past chair and current non-executive director of the ESF, with all funds supporting the foundation’s mental health programs.
Since 2023, his treks have taken him across Victoria, including communities impacted by the Black Summer bushfires, as well as along the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea and to Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal.
The 2026 trek will take around 50 days, with Mr Pearce averaging 50km a day and sleeping each night in a one-person tent on the riverbank.
He will stop at towns along the Murray River for community events involving emergency services organisations, local government and residents.
The aim of the trek is to raise awareness of the mental health challenges faced by emergency workers and their families, and to raise $50,000 to fund an additional ESF Residential Wellbeing Program for emergency workers in the early stages of their mental health journey.
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