WHEN Ben Starick steps onto the Mornington Peninsula coastline on Friday 22 May, it will be a walk 30 years in the making. He’ll mark one kilometre for every year since losing his younger brother Joel to suicide. Joel was just 16.
Ben, now 48, was a teenager in Swan Hill when Joel died in 1996. “There was no warning, no goodbye. Just a phone call that split life into before and after,” he said.
Three decades on, he will walk the 30km route at Coastrek Mornington Peninsula the day after what would have been Joel’s 47th birthday – a detail not lost on him when his lifelong friend, Shannon Stacey, first extended the invitation.
“When Shannon told me the date of the walk, I realised it’s the day after my brother Joel’s birthday,” Ben said.
“I said I would really love to do the walk and particularly honour and remember him.”
Ben and Shannon’s team, Team Shananigans, got behind Joel’s story as the event drew closer. Each of the four members will wear a t-shirt bearing the words: You are enough.
“Those simple words mean so much,” Ben said. “Because you are.”
Ben said grief had changed shape over the years rather than diminished. His eldest son Jake recently turned 17 – the same age Joel was about to reach when he died.
“I don’t think it will ever go away. It just changes like the waves,” Ben said.
“I’ve found being more vocal about the circumstances of how he died, and remembering him, really helpful for me.”
He also reflected on what might have been different had services like Beyond Blue’s 24/7 Support Line existed in regional Victoria in 1996.
“I just wonder if they were around when Joel was in the position that he was, if he would still be here today,” he said.
Funds raised through Coastrek go directly to Beyond Blue’s free support service, which now fields more than 800 contacts a day – one every two minutes. Demand has surged 12 per cent in the past year alone.
Ben sees the walk as serving two purposes. “One is obviously the fundraising for Beyond Blue, but also for me the strongest aspect is the awareness of mental health – being active, being able to talk about these situations, being more honest, being connected. Just lending an ear to people and picking up on cues.”
This year’s Mornington Peninsula event is particularly significant for Coastrek itself. It’s officially the organisation’s 50th ever, with more than 3,000 trekkers expected across 20km, 30km and 50km routes from Cape Schanck to Point Nepean, aiming to raise $1.6m for Beyond Blue.
Founder Di Westaway, who received an OAM in 2020 for services to women’s sport and charitable initiatives, said she never anticipated the scale of what that first walk would become.
“We’ve watched women transform their physical and mental wellbeing, build confidence, overcome enormous personal challenges and raise millions for causes that matter deeply to them,” said Westaway.
For Ben, the peninsula’s coastline adds its own meaning to the day. He runs regularly near water at his home in Strathmore, following the Moonee Ponds Creek.
“I love that connection to water, and being outside,” he said.
Coastrek Mornington Peninsula takes place on Friday 22 May. To support and donate to Beyond Blue visit Donate Coastrek Mornington Peninsula (bit.ly/MCT26donate) or visit coastrek.com.au for more information.
First published in the Mornington News – 19 May 2026
