Indigenous kids from Lockhart Secondary in Cape York are visiting Melbourne to learn about our cafe culture to take it back and open a cafe in their community. Gene Kapaufs from Advieh cafe in Seddon gave Shenika Rocky, 16, Claudia Hudson, 16, and Leah Warradoo, 16 a lesson.

Indigenous kids from Lockhart Secondary in Cape York are visiting Melbourne to learn about our cafe culture to take it back and open a cafe in their community. Gene Kapaufs from Advieh cafe in Seddon gave Shenika Rocky, 16, Claudia Hudson, 16, and Leah Warradoo, 16 a lesson. Photo: Penny Stephens



From Lockhart River to Melbourne's latte belt seems a long way to come for a decent coffee, but this is an expedition with grander purpose in mind than simply discovering a great long black.


For 12 kids from Lockhart State School, this 3500-kilometre journey has been about broadening horizons, building new friendships and tapping into a culture - specifically, cafe culture - that they hope to utilise at home in their community, the northern most town on the eastern tip of Australia, population roughly 600.


In inner-west Seddon on Thursday, the kids fanned out across four of the suburb's hippest cafes, where the owners and baristas had agreed to show them the ropes - how a cafe is run, how a good coffee is made, even how to perform the delicate behind-the-counter experience they call "coffee art".


Shenika Rocky, 16, Claudia Hudson, 16, and Leah Warradoo, 16 get a lesson in Melbourne coffee culture.

Shenika Rocky, 16, Claudia Hudson, 16, and Leah Warradoo, 16 get a lesson in Melbourne coffee culture. Photo: Penny Stephens



There were obvious nerves, as well as smiles and a gleam of triumph in the eye when they achieved something approaching success in creating a heart-decorated latte from scratch at Advieh cafe in Victoria Street, under the expert and enthusiastic guidance of owner Gene Kapaufs. "It's so cool," said Claudia Hudson, 16. "I reckon if I practise one day I can be as good as him."