How we are dishonouring the dead at Wonthaggi

“THEY shall not grow old…” yadda yadda yadda!

It’s all just words unless we follow through on the two most important lines in that time-honoured poem, ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon:

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

Because, here in Wonthaggi, we haven’t remembered them, not properly anyway.

But following the efforts of two local Vietnam Veterans, Rod Gallagher, and Greg Lloyd, together with countless hours of volunteer research work by Friends of the Wonthaggi Cemetery Trust,

Noelene Lyons and Renee Loeckenhoff, they’ve identified the graves of 640 veterans in the Wonthaggi Cemetery, at least 50 of which remain unmarked, some potentially unknown.

“Of great concern to me, as a veteran whose grandfather landed at Gallipoli, are the more than 50 veterans interred in unmarked graves,” Mr Gallagher said in a ‘Letter to the Editor’ this week.

“Of even greater concern is that at one of these veterans, from WW1, was awarded the Military Medal for uncommon bravery.”

Mr Gallagher, who was drafted in at the last moment to take charge of the Remembrance Day ceremony at Wonthaggi on Friday, said the event had prompted him to say it was now time to finally put it right.

“The whole cemetery needs work, but now that we have most of the information, I’d like to see us get on and at least have those veterans’ graves marked.

“I’m confident we’ve got most of the details about where the veterans are buried, most of those 50 that is, but even if we don’t, there should at least be a suitable cross or headstone to the ‘unknown soldier’.”

Mr Gallagher said such work was beyond the resources of an RSL sub-branch, and while he believed the Bass Coast Shire Council had “removed themselves from supporting this important work of correcting seriously deficient burial records” in recent times, he urged them to step up now and at least show some leadership, including making a call for funding.

But, as important as the veterans’ work is, Bass Coast Shire Councillor Les Larke believes the response needed at the Wonthaggi Cemetery goes well beyond that.

“I was up at the Wonthaggi Cemetery last Friday, for a personal visit, and to present the cemetery on Remembrance Day the way it was done, was absolutely shocking and you can quote me on that,” Cr Larke said today.

“The state of the cemetery is just appalling, and you can’t use the wet weather as the sole reason.

“Some of the grass was cut, a lot wasn’t, and there were grass cuttings all over the graves. There’s just a total lack of care.

“The Office of Australian War Graves has a role in maintaining veterans graves, I believe, and they have done some work refurbishing graves at Wonthaggi but more needs to be done.

“There was a masterplan prepared for Wonthaggi, but we’ve just got to get on and do it now. It’s in a shocking state. We’ve got to acknowledge that,” he said.

Rank, uncut grass, graves under water, many areas impassable… the state of the Wonthaggi Cemetery has been a problem for years and Cr Larke says it’s time to act.

An annual finance report on the Wonthaggi Cemetery Trust and San Remo Cemetery Trust, both managed by council, is being tabled at the Bass Coast Council meeting this Wednesday, but there’s no mention of the master plan.

The report lists proposed works including ‘drainage’ (project costing in progress), ‘new lawn grave burial section’ (project costing in progress), ‘tree removal’ (project costing in progress) and ‘new toilet/storage facility’ (project costing in progress).

While ‘works’ costing $30,465 were undertaken in the year to the end of June 30, 2022, there’s no financial entry next to ‘building’ in the accounts.

It notes that information on the “total number of bodily remains interred since the establishment of the cemetery” is “unavailable” but it does include details that occupied plots cover 1.3087 hectares of the 8.19 hectares available.

The Wonthaggi Cemetery Trust had expenditure of approximately $165,000 in the year to June 30, 2022 and income of $213,000; recording a profit of close to $50,000.