“Turkey made a, frankly, hilarious report on North Korea to which Mali is strongly opposed.” 

The delegate went onto explain how collapse of the regime would destabilise the region. 

The speech did not occur in New York, but in Axedale and the delegate was 17-year-old Alice Lamont from Footscray.

Ms Lamont was one of 36 students from across Rotary’s 9800 District to descend on Camp Getaway this weekend for the annual Model United Nations Assembly. 

Grouped into pairs representing their schools, the students were assigned a nation to represent and tasked with forming blocs and arguing resolutions. 

Bendigo Sandhurst youth director Martin Ruffell said the conference was designed to broaden the perspectives of Victorian youth. 

“It gets the students talking about international issues and understanding that it is a much bigger world and there and there are other things to consider,” Mr Ruffell said. 

It was the fifth year the event had been held at Camp Getaway but last year Bendigo could not muster any representatives. 

This year Bendigo Senior Secondary College fronted two teams. 

BSSC’s Kelly Phan and Casey Barczynski represented Afghanistan – adorned with traditional garb loaned from the local Afghan community. 

“We’ll be arguing for resolution 31,” Ms Phan explained as the assembly was adjourned and the nations formed into their regional and strategic blocs. 

The proposed resolution would limit the veto power of permanent members of the Security Council by requiring the support of another permanent member or two other member nations. 

“Russia has been vetoing every effort to promote peace in our region so it’s important we change how the Security Council works.”  

The 9800 District runs in a wedge from the southern suburbs of Melbourne to Echuca-Moama, as far west as Dalesford.

Bendigo’s other team was Anna Tchernomoroff and Brandon Eriksson representing Indonesia. 

The winning team from the weekend will earn a spot in the MUNA final in August. 

The final will be held in the old Parliament House, now the Museum of Australian Democracy, in Canberra. 

Cooking up an Axedale kitchen 

Rotary’s Camp Getaway is booked out most weekends with events ranging from church reunions to pagan festivals, disabled riding retreats to mock UN General Assemblies. 

But there is one group which cannot make use of the facilities – state schools. 

That’s because the kitchen isn’t up to scratch to receive an Australian Camps Association accreditation. 

So for the last 18 months a small army of volunteers from across the state, like Leon Scott, have been pitching in to build a whole new one. 

“It’ll be good as can be got,” the Eaglehawk Rotary Club man said. 

“And you can quote me on that.” 

The new facility will be up to the standards of a commercial kitchen. Mr Scott reckons it should be done by Christmas.

“He didn’t tell you which Christmas though,” Paul Kirkpatrick said. 

The duo of jokers were part of a crew which used this weekend’s Model United Nations Assembly as a chance to chip away at the long-running project.