General News
20 April, 2022
RSL clubs set for Anzac Day services
COMMUNITIES across the nation will pay respects to those who served their nation during Anzac Day services on Monday.
COMMUNITIES across the nation will pay respects to those who served their nation during Anzac Day services on Monday.
Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military conflict fought by Australian and New Zealand defence personnel at Gallipoli in the World War I.
Mortlake RSL president Merv Hampson said a busy morning was planned for those attending services in the Mortlake area.
“The Mortlake RSL travels to Ellerslie and attends the service there at 9am,” he said.
“They have a good service down there."
“Then we will be marching from the post office (Corner of Webster and Dunlop Streets) down Dunlop Street to the war memorialfrom 10am."
“After the service we will go up to the Mortlake RSL Hall for morning tea.”
Mr Hampson said all are welcome to attend the march and the service to commemorate one of the most important dates on the Australian calendar.
“In my opinion, Anzac Day is the most important day in the year for Australia,”he said.
“It’s a very important day and we must never let it slip.”
Anzac Day will be a special affair in Terang this year.
Not only will formal services return after being limited last year due to COVID-19, but former members of the 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR/NZ ANZAC) D-company will also be visiting for a reunion.
While the 2nd Battalion is based out of Townsville, D-Company travels around Australia for Anzac Day and this year will join Terang for the service at the RSL hall from 10am and the march from the conclusion of the service.
In addition, an unveiling of a memorial stone which features the names of fallen 2 RAR members will also be unveiled at 10amon Tuesday.
Barry Humphrey, a Terang-based member of 2 RAR who was conscripted to the Vietnam War in 1966, said more than 40 members of the historic company are expected to visitthe town.
“It was the first time Australians worked with New Zealand after World War II, in 1967, when they joined us in New Zealand,” he said.
“We will be marching under the original 2nd Battalion banner, which is coming down from Townsville and is being loaned to us.
“We are so grateful to the Terang RSL for letting us join their club and opening their facilities so we can have a reunion.
“The Terang RSL gave us a home in Victoria, and the blokes coming having been saying how wonderful it is for the Terang RSL to join their march, and their service.”
Terang RSL president Terry Fidge, himself a 1970 Vietnam veteran, said the opportunity to be joined D-Company members will reinforce they, as with all returned men and women of service, are welcomed and appreciated.
The Vietnam War was deeply divisive among allied nations, and those who returned were not welcomed with open arms.
It was not until more than a decade later, in 1986, Vietnam veterans received a ‘Welcome home’ parade at a Sydney march in front of an estimated 100,000 Australians.
It is a day Mr Fidge and Mr Humphrey still vividly recall.
“I marched up George Street in Sydney, and I felt like the people were cheering for one bloke and that was me; and a lot of people felt the same,” Mr Humphrey said.
“It was an unreal feeling. "
“I think it was relief, just thinking thank God someone remembers.”
Mr Fidge said while the war was divisive for the nation, so too was the experience for those who served.
“When Vietnam veterans were discharged we were told to go home and forget about it, which created a lot of major problems with a lot of members” he said.
“Anzac Day went downhill because the Vietnam War divided Australia, and it wasn’t until the mid-80s that it started to come back."
“I vividly remember marching down George Street and seeing two World War II veterans standing in the crowd, and they were crying."
“You could tell they had bad feelings about the way we were treated.”
Mr Fidge said the transition back in to the community was polarising, and to this day remains a lingering wound for Vietnam veterans.
“My personal experience is within 12 hours I had left a combat zone and was then in a city street in Sydney, where it was unsafe to be seen in uniform,” he said.
“We were led out through the back door at Mascot Airport and told to get off the streets because of how dangerous it was.
“That was our welcome home.”
The Terang RSL will hold a dawn service at 5.45am at the Terang RSL Hall, with the Rotary Club supplying a gunfire breakfast with tea and coffee.
The main service in Terang will start at 10am at the RSL Hall on Shadforth Street, following which the march down to the Obelisk on High Street will begin.
A service will also be held in Noorat at the MacKinnons Bridge Road memorial at 8am.