The year 12 student will undertake the 10-day walk as the first recipient of the Kane’s Kokoda Challenge scholarship, named in the honour of his late father Kane Vandenberg, a navy officer who died aged 46 during the Defence Mountain Bike Championship at Mt Stromlo in October 2013.

The annual scholarship has been set up by the Nowra RSL Sub-Branch.

“The aim is to sponsor a young person under 25 and provide them with an opportunity they might not otherwise get,” said sub-branch secretary Rick Meehan.

“It is also a way for the RSL to honour and remember Kane.

“It is so fitting the first name on the Kane Vandenberg Memorial Board in the RSL hall will be a Vandenberg.”

The 18-year-old has been training four times a week for a number of months to prepare for what he knows will be a tough trek.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” he said.

During his many training walks he has carried a weighted pack and tackled a number of hills in West Nowra to replicate the workload he will experience during the trek.

A keen historian, who wants to join the army, Lachlan has already toured a number of World War I sites on the Western Front in France and Belgium, and visited Gallipoli.

“I have read a lot about Kokoda and to be able to go there and see what our servicemen went through and faced will be special,” he said.

“Experiencing the terrain, the endless walking, the weather will be confronting but also a great experience.

“Being able to do it through my dad’s scholarship will be special.”

The tour is organised through the RSL and Services Club Association, with the sub-branch’s scholarship replicating a similar award by the Shoalhaven Ex-Servicemen’s Club, which sends a staff member on the tour each year.

Mr Meehan said applications for next year’s scholarship would be advertised, with a special selection committee, including Kane’s widow Margaret, to decide on the final recipient.