Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Saluting Their Service Commemorative Grants program ensures that Australia's wartime history is preserved and that those who have served during wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations are commemorated, as they should be. Today I want to acknowledge the Latrobe Council, which has been successful in its application under the program's last round. The iconic Australian Axeman's Hall of Fame in Latrobe celebrates the role that the timber industry and the sport of woodchopping have played in forging our nation's identity. This funding will create a display to commemorate the specific contribution made by Australian service personnel with connections to the forestry industry. This is something that hasn't been specifically honoured anywhere else in Australia thus far.

The display will honour those who served in the 2/1st, 2/2nd and 2/3rd Australian Forestry Companies of the Royal Australian Engineers, Australian Imperial Force, during the Second World War; employees of the forestry industry who served; Australian servicemen who took part in competitive woodchopping events in England, Scotland, PNG, New Britain, the Northern Territory and Queensland, or as returned amputee servicemen during and after the Second World War; and Australian servicemen of the AIF who took part in competitive woodchopping events on the battlefields in France in the First World War and the Second World War.

Thank you to Mayor Peter Freshney and everyone within the Latrobe community for your passion to preserve our wartime history for generations to come.

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