The grandson of an Australian soldier on Tuesday completed an arduous 1,000km journey through the top end, having taken 12 days to retrace the steps Albert Borella took to enlist in the first world war in 1915.
In his quest to join the armed forces, Borella, then 33, travelled from Tennant Creek to Darwin, from where he took a boat to Townsville as the Northern Territory did not allow enlistment.
He arrived the following month, enlisted and eventually found himself serving as an infantryman in Gallipoli and then on the western front. Borella was wounded, commissioned on the battlefield and then awarded the Victoria Cross in 1918 for leading a charge against a German position. He remains the Northern Territory’s only recipient of the medal.
A century later his grandson, Richard Borella, and his travelling companions, Tim George and Charlie Cloos, have travelled by foot, mailcart, train and horseback, taking the same journey across the Northern Territory. The trio was supported in their historical re-enactment by a team of support riders, cooks and military historian Tom Lewis.
On Tuesday they arrived at East Arm train station on a train from Pine Creek, 200km to the south. From there it was less than 20km to the finish at Stokes Hill wharf.
Standing with his horse, Bushranger, Borella told Guardian Australia shortly before reaching the wharf it had been “a long 12 days” but he had “mixed emotions about finishing.”
“I only knew about this story 12 months ago so to find that out and then find out about the ride, and then four or five weeks later get asked if I wanted to participate in it … it’s a bit of a decision, but then you sit back and think, well, my grandfather did this and it gives me the opportunity to experience some of the things he’s experienced.”
Despite it being Borella’s first time in the Northern Territory and taking place at the mercy of the desert heat and tropical humidity, he had no regrets.
“It was magnificent to meet all the people in towns along the way and the school kids and knowing they’re going to learn about the story and the story will live on,” he said.
Companion rider George said “some days had been right up there” in toughness. “It’s hot and walking there’s been more than one blister,” he told Guardian Australia.
He said he jumped at the chance to be involved and “experience and travel the way they did back in that era and engage in the community.”
Cloos said a highlight was meeting the schoolkids. “How happy they’d be to see you and ask you questions about what’s going on. It was a buzz for them and a buzz for me,” he said.
On Tuesday evening, Borella and his companion riders were met at the wharf by hundreds of supporters and members of the public. Army bands, a traveling Borella exhibit and dozens of people dressed in period costume had kept crowds entertained until the riders arrived.
Borella’s father Rowan – Albert Borella’s only surviving son – and his mother, Mary, addressed the gathered crowd.
“It’s been a little bit easier than what Dad had, I’m sure of that. We can’t be sure of what Dad had to face up to, but it was a lot harder and he had to do it all on his own,” Rowan told the crowd on Tuesday evening.
Rowan said he and Mary, who both travelled with the riders in their caravan, had a “wonderful team supporting us and we’ve had a wonderful time on the road.”
Richard and his parents then watched from the wharf as a boat – renamed the SS Aldenham for the event – took off in the direction of Townsville with an old suitcase of Borella’s.
Also speaking at the event hosted by journalist Ray Martin was the chief minister, Adam Giles, Victoria Cross recipient and Vietnam war veteran Keith Payne, and the parents of posthumous Victoria Cross recipient, Corporal Cameron Baird, who was killed in 2013.
The federal government spent $1.7m on the reenactment of Borella’s journey as part of the Anzac centenary commemorations. Giles also announced a new Darwin suburb would at some stage be named after Borella.
