Don’t destroy the honour

KONGWAK’S Avenue of Honour was first planted during the Great War by the people of Kongwak as ‘a living memorial’ to those who enlisted from the district. The Avenue was extended after the Second World War to recognise again those men and women who served both at home and overseas: those who returned and those who died overseas. 

For over a hundred years this iconic piece of South Gippsland’s heritage has been maintained by Kongwak’s people. It is often visited by the descendants and friends of the people honoured. Many admire its beauty and value its significance.

In 2009, in the spirit of care and renewal, local people with assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs extended the Avenue of Honour into Church Road in order to especially remember the eight local men who gave their lives in service to their country during World War Two. Eight trees and a memorial cairn were dedicated on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2009.

Recently I learned that there is a plan to create a road through the Avenue of Honour in order to provide access to accommodation cabins for the proposed Butter Factory Development. This road would dissect the line of trees creating two separate islands and disturbing the commemorative area where visitors stand to read the cairn and reflect on those lives commemorated. Neither the cairn nor the fact that the trees are an avenue of honour are shown on the architect’s plan for the project.

The war is a long time ago, but the families of these servicemen still live here; there are still those alive who knew them. Three were members of the RAAF: Lawrence Scott, Alan Bell and Arthur Grabham who lost his life on June 8, 1942, two days before his 21st birthday flying his second mission over the North Sea. Three were prisoners of war: James Elmore, Keith Wylie and Wesley Williams, each one suffering and dying at the hands of the Japanese in Ambon and Burma. Two men, Arthur’s brother Christopher Grabham and Norman Rippon were members of the local militia and accidentally killed on their way to training in Korumburra. Lives so full of promise never to be fulfilled.

A road cutting through the Church Road Avenue of Honour destroys its integrity and purpose. Such a proposal is disrespectful to the men who died and those who seek to remember them: Lest We Forget.

Jillian Durance, Moyarra