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Tony's Trek 2026: Paddling for Awareness
Next year our Chair, Tony Pearce, will embark on an unsupported, solo 2,400 kilometer paddle down the Murray River to raise awareness of the profound mental health challenges faced by our emergency workers, and to acknowledge the impact of that on their families.
Murray River Paddle to Support Emergency Workers’ Mental Health will begin mid April 2026.
Following the success of Tony’s Trek – One Step at a time in 2023 and Tony’s Trek – Side by Side 2024 in Nepal, I am proud to announce that I will begin Tony’s Trek 2026 – Paddle for Awareness on 12 April 2026.
This is an unsupported, solo 2,400 kilometer paddle down the Murray River. My aim is to raise awareness of the profound mental health challenges faced by our emergency workers, and to acknowledge the impact of that on their families.
Starting in Bringenbrong New South Wales and finishing at the mouth of the Murray at Goolwa in South Australia, I expect this journey to take approximately 60 days, Along the way I will take every opportunity to shine a light on the often hidden and unrecognised toll that emergency work takes on those who serve our community because the statistics are damning, and we must do better.
According to a study led by Beyond Blue:
1 in 3 emergency service workers experience high or very high psychological distress.
The majority of all mental injury WorkCover claims come from emergency services workers.
Only 37% emergency workers with a mental injury claim are back at work in 6 months which is below the scheme average.
And more emergency workers than ever before are unable to return to work at all.
This solo journey down the mighty Murray River will be both a physical and mental challenge for me, and this is my way of acknowledging the daily challenges faced by our emergency workers.
Along the way, I will connect with local communities, share stories of lived experience and resilience, which will undoubtedly highlight the need for robust mental health resources and support systems. Along the way I hope to raise vital funds for the Emergency Services Foundation to do its important work of developing evidence informed programs that enhance and promote wellbeing for our emergency services personnel.
In 2023, Tony’s Trek raised vital funds to help deliver a pilot residential wellbeing program, and in 2024 funds raised went towards the development of a new Lived Experience program.
In 2026 I hope to raise funds to help maintain the momentum of the highly effective Residential Wellbeing Program, so even more people can benefit.
I invite you to come on this journey with me by offering your support—whether by following my progress, spreading the message, or contributing to the cause.
As part of the Tony’s Trek 2026 – Paddle for Awareness fundraising campaign, we are proud to make available a strictly limited number of Emergency Services Foundation Commemorative teddy bears. The bears were commissioned to both celebrate the ESF’s 25th anniversary, but also to commemorate our origin, the devastating 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. As many would know, 75 people died in these fires, including 47 in Victoria of which 14 were Country Fire Authority volunteers. Many positive things came out of the destruction of Ash Wednesday, including the creation of the Emergency Services Foundation.
These beautiful plush teddy bears stand 47cm tall and their tunic is the double-breasted British Lancer style used by firefighters from the 1890s until the late 1980s and worn during the Ash Wednesday fires. The number ‘83’ on the tunic remembers the tragedy of Ash Wednesday and the many people who lost their lives. On the sleeve is a set of chevrons, each one representing five years’ service and the circle indicating that our bear can drive a fire engine. One red and one yellow collar recognises the roles of the MFB and CFA at that time. The helmet insignia ‘ESF’ represents the Foundation, with the axe and turnkey as genuine replicas recreated in miniature for this unique, limited edition bear. Each bear comes with a numbered tag of authenticity and arrives in a specially created presentation box.
The cost of this beautiful commemorative ESF Teddy Bear is only $52.00 which includes boxed postage to anywhere in Australia. They will make a lovely Xmas or special event gift and are an absolute must for collectors of Teddy Bears. Your purchase will be going towards supporting Tony on his 2,400km paddle, and importantly, helping ESF to improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes for Victorian emergency workers.
Better together. That’s what we aim to be.
The Emergency Services Foundation (ESF) is proud to announce a new partnership with Safe Steps to pilot a DFV Support Network in 2025.
This free program is open to all Victorian volunteer emergency service/ management volunteer leaders.
The independent evaluation of ESF’s Residential Wellbeing Program pilot, overseen by Phoenix Australia and Findex, is now available. The findings show the program is immensely impactful from both a personal and organisational perspective.
