Cowra Xbox 360 Road Trip

by Hep

At 1.50 am on August 5, 1944, the largest Prisoner of War breakout in modern military history occurred at Cowra. More than 1000 Japanese prisoners launched a mass 'suicide attack' on their guards, Australian soldiers of the 22nd Garrison. To the Japanese, the disgrace of capture could finally be overcome by dying in armed battle.

Armed with crude weapons, four groups each of approximately 300 Japanese threw themselves on to barbed wire fences and into the firing line of Vickers machine guns. Protected only by baseball mitts, blankets and coats and using their comrades as a human bridge to cross the tangled barbed wire, more than 350 Japanese clawed their way to freedom.

All escapees were captured during the following week as they hid out in local farms, slowly starving themselves as there is simply nowhere to run out in the middle of nowhere. A total of 107 POWs were wounded, 231 prisoners died along with four Australian soldiers. Cowra is full of history. So what does Xbox have to do with Cowra? Well this weekend I took a road trip to Cowra approx 4 hours west from Sydney, with a population of about 9500 people, the town while small in numbers is high in spirits. Travelling on long and windy roads in the Xbox mobile we were set out of a weekend of fun with some less fortunate kids then those who find themselves lucky enough to live in the big city.  We often take for granted how fortunate we are and if there was ever a better time to reflect it was going to be a day out with the kids in Cowra.

This trip wasn’t about marketing to the masses, it wasn’t about seeling Xbox consoles, it was just about giving the kids a chance to play an Xbox 360 with their friends on some pretty cool looking LCD’s which are a rare find in Cowra.

Setting off at 6am I was on my way. I had with me just a handful of Xbox 360’s and a few Samsung 26” LCD TV’s, a few copies of Halo 3 and some of my own games to let the kids play, oh and a mission to make sure these kids had a weekend to remember. Adam Colemane was the organiser; he runs a youth group on Friday nights at the local church with his wife and had asked Xbox for some help to lift the spirits of the kids in town. The town hasn’t got a great deal of things for the kids to do and unfortunately can sometimes head these kids down the wrong path. Suicide and drugs is often an issue in towns like Cowra where the youth suicide rates are high. Adam however does his best to keep the youth entertained and they are very grateful and well mannered when any opportunity presents itself to them. A town without someone like Adam would be a gloomy place to live for these kids and his efforts should not go forgotten along with his very helpful wife Apryl Colemane.

I arrived at the Cowra PCYC at 10am and was welcomed by the kids running after the Xbox four wheel drive. They were happy to see me, offering to help me bring everything inside and again showing they had really good manners as well. We set everything up onto the LCD’s and projected the screens onto the walls using two projectors so the other kids could watch while games were being played. We played Halo 3 in a round robin up until about 1pm at which time Adam had kindly cooked up a sausage sizzle for all the kids. We took a break and got straight back into it after lunch. Heading into the afternoon we had found our top 4 teams. Team Pro, 3 Seconds of Silence, the Blue Team and the SG1. A tough finals would follow with the final results being Pro Team in 1st, Blue Team in second, 3 Seconds of Silence in 3rd and SG1 coming in 4th. These guys will walk away with a few prizes from Xbox for their good fair play.

After the finals were played out I turned the Halo consoles over to a few other games I had brought with me. I shot hoops with the kids for a good hour while some of the others played the Xbox 360’s. Often being asked all sorts of questions about what games I liked on the Xbox 360 and what my best score was etc. These kids were excited to talk to someone who loved games as much as they did and I loved talking to them. They were all polite and well mannered and that won’t go unforgotten. I made a heap of new friends this weekend and I enjoyed doing it, something Xbox is good at doing, bringing people together.

It was then home time come 5pm, my beautiful wife Peta and I packed our bags and waved goodbye to go see more of the town, we learnt a bit about its history and saw the local Japanese gardens which were beautiful. We took some photos and then headed back on the long road home. Glancing out the window often reflecting on what a great country we live in.

Good stuff Cowra, you do NSW proud and your town has some great people, a great place to visit for anyone. It was great to walk away with smiles on everyone’s faces. Looking forward to bumping into you again sometime in the future.