Ready: Moama RSL sub-branch president Ken Jones, Moama RSL finance manager Jonathon Keele and Moama RSL member Rolly Griffiths.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
A memorial garden for all Echuca-Moama war veterans and their families will be dedicated at Moama RSL on Friday, September 23.
Respect: The cross pays tribute to those who gave their lives during the Battle of Long Tan. Photo: Steve Huntley
Photo by
Steve Huntley
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Moama RSL president Ken Jones said the garden had been designed and installed as a focus for servicemen and women who lived in and around the twin towns.
He said it had taken a few years to complete the volunteer-driven project because of the pandemic setback, which brought work to a “screaming halt”.
Outstanding: The sculpture of a infantry soldier firing a 50-calibre anti-aircraft machine gun. Photo: Steve Huntley
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Mr Jones said it had now reached the point where all arms of the military were represented in the garden, the information displays were almost complete and it was time the people for whom it was designed came to have a look.
“The opening next Friday has already received acknowledgement from local Members of Parliament, the RSL, veteran associations such as the Vietnam Vets and we even have a busload of veterans coming from Bendigo,” Mr Jones said.
“Major William ‘Yank’ Akell, one of the heroes of the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam, will be performing the dedication.
“During that battle the 10 Platoon radio controller had been wounded, a bullet going straight through his body and damaging his radio set. Akell, a then-21-year-old army private, and signaller for Delta company, was ordered to try and find the platoon to re-establish radio communication amid the mud and shattered trees of the rubber plantation in which the battle was being fought.”
Magnificent: The new memorial garden at Moama RSL.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Major Akell, whose Vietnam War heroics were included in the movie Danger Close, has always insisted he was doing nothing other than his role in his platoon.
“People have asked me about what I did but I didn't think anything of it, simply because it was my role,” Major Akell said.
“I was a signaller, and I knew the platoon had no communication, it was as simple as that.
“It wasn’t until I left headquarters that I thought, ‘where is the 10th platoon?’ ... I knew roughly where they could be. All I could see was the backs of guys who were fighting ... it’s something you just do automatically. My job.”
Check it out: The memorial garden at Moama RSL will be officially opened on Friday, September 23. Photo: Steve Huntley
Photo by
Steve Huntley
The memorial garden has also included several significant pieces of military history, from an armoured personnel carrier to artillery, machine gun and pieces from a Catalina flying boat and training aircraft.
Mr Jones said it was the culmination of a lot of work by RSL members for several years and the end result was something of which “they and the twin towns should be proud”.
“You don’t quite expect to bump into a setting like this at the far end of the Moama RSL car park, but when people do see it, they all comment on how good it is,” he said.
The garden also includes a Vietnam Cross as well as recording key moments in the sub-branch’s own history, such as the visit by the family of Victoria Cross recipient Corporal Cameron Baird.
Corporal Baird received a posthumous VC in February 2014 after being killed in a firefight with rebels in the Afghan province of Uruzgan on June 22, 2013.
The commando was the 100th Australian recipient of the military’s highest honour and his parents Kaye and Doug visited the Moama RSL sub-branch to present it with information about their son.
“This garden will resonate with people who have served, and their families and we invite everyone in the local communities — both sides of the river — to join us next Friday at 2pm for the dedication and to join us for afternoon tea following the formalities,” Mr Jones said.
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