I’m told you learnt the trumpet as a kid…

 I did. It started with my parents, really. Mum - back when she went to school - was a clarinet and saxophone player. She was a good musician and my dad’s always said one of his biggest regrets was not learning aninstrument from a young age. So they made that a big focus for us. My brother Josh and I both played the trumpet. Will went between a few things – he started with drums and ended up on trombone. And Lachie my youngest brother is currently learning the drums, which he’s enjoying. I really enjoyed learning trumpet, to be honest. It was fun, interesting. I didn’t mind it.

What did you enjoy about it, mastering something new?

When we first moved to Canberra I was in Year 6 and Mum always used to say that the wider variety of things you get involved in, the greater opportunity you give yourself to meet new people and make new friends. We moved around a lot when I was little, so coming to another new place, I knew that doing as many extracurricular activities as I could would help me settle in and make some friends. And everyone loves music. I think being knowledgeable on it is just another nice tool and skill to have in life. It was good fun.

Can you play Big, Big Sound?

I haven’t tried! That might be an idea for down the track.

You did a lot of other things at school, didn’t you? Tell me about your trip to Wadeye in the Northern Territory.

That was a service activity that we had access to at school. I went to Marist College in Canberra, and they placed a really big emphasis on the importance of service to the community. Every year they have immersion trips for the Year 11s. It would change, but some of the areas we went to were Wadeye, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands at some stage as well. Josh went to Cambodia last year on his trip. It basically gives you the opportunity to go and work out in the community, communities that are very different to what we experience in our everyday lives. Going to Wadeye, I felt to be honest like I was in a different country. It was Australia but it was a very remote part of Australia and it was eye opening to realise how big the country is and how different our lives are from people living in the same country as us.

What did you have to do in the lead-up?

We had to raise some money. And when we got there, we donated that money to the school that we worked in. We weren’t just going there and going around as tourists, we went and taught in the school there for the week and started to build some connections with some of the kids which was really good. We raised money beforehand just selling chocolates and that sort of thing, so that when we got there we could actually contribute.

So you were there for a week?

Yep, a week. I think there were eight of us, it wasn’t a massive group. And there was a selection process you had to go through first, the immersions weren’t just handed out, we had to apply for it and go through a process to be picked for it.

 Why were you so keen?

 It just interested me. We had three options in my year and all three would have been good. I just think the wider variety of things you can see in your life and the broader your horizons, it just gives you a lot of perspective on what is important, how we live and how other people live as well. It just makes you a better-rounded person because you’re experiencing things not everyone gets to experience and you’re getting to expose yourself to unique things so that you can have a better perspective on life. Like I said, it was just such a different part of Australia that I got to see. The community is Wadeye is only accessible during the dry season, in the wet season all the roads are flooded and you can only fly in or get in by boat. It’s an isolated community and just so different to what Canberra’s like or what Sydney is like. It’s really eye-opening.

What did you do for the week?

We spent a bit of our time teaching in the school, but we also had one of the community members take us out onto his land, his country, and he showed us around and taught us a lot of things. We went fishing with him, which was fun. They also have a footy oval there, so we went down and kicked the footy with the kids, played Jack in the Pack and kick-to-kick which they loved. It’s an interesting community because it was sort of like a meeting place, it’s in between a few different places and is a real meeting point, but the town itself isn’t massive.

 How did you go with the teaching?

That was another eye-opening part. We were teaching a lot of them English because English wasn’t necessarily their first language, they were speaking a lot of their own native languages. It was intriguing – weird, I suppose, having to try and think through this language that we speak every day and work out a way to actually teach it. It was a good challenge and an awesome experience all up, I’m really glad I did it.

 Did you get to travel overseas as well?

I did go to Italy. I learnt Italian at school, so I went on a study trip which was really good fun as well. We landed in Rome and went to a whole bunch of different places. We stayed in a place called Orvieto, where we did home stays. Me and another guy stayed with an Italian family for a few days which was good, and then we spent some time in Milan, Florence and a few other places. I stayed on afterwards as well, Mum came over and we went to Venice and then did Cinque Terra, which was amazing. It’s a beautiful country. To see what’s happened there in the last few weeks has been pretty shocking.

How challenging was the home stay for you?

It was interesting. They spoke a bit of English which helped, but we were encouraged to speak as much Italian as we could. It made for some funny moments, but we worked our way through it. There’s no better way to learn a language than to use it all day in that sort of environment, so it was good to be out of the comfort zone and tested like that. It was a great experience and I’m really lucky that my school gave me that opportunity along with everything else. Marist really pushed me to extend myself and find things I was interested in. I had a really good time there.