Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I wish to highlight some of the Centenary of Anzac local grant recipients in my electorate. As members would know, the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program provides up to $125,000 per electorate to enable communities to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac in their own way. These can be small projects or large projects. Each of us had to pull together a committee to assess local grant applications. The challenge for the committee for Bendigo was incredibly tough. We had an overwhelming number of applications. Some of the ones I wish to highlight today have already found out the good news that they have been successful. This includes the historical society in Maldon, who received a small grant to update and restore a photo memorial. The memorial has the photos of seven sons—seven sons who enrolled to fight in the First World War. When we met with the committee they shared some of the stories of these sons. Tragically, one of the sons was killed at Gallipoli. He was a stretcher-bearer. One of the sons had an interesting journey. He dropped out, met a French girl and came back to Australia under his brother's name, and then re-enlisted only for it to be discovered that he was the older brother. He then went back to the war. This story reminds us that it was families—ordinary people, people with stories, real people of our communities who had lives—that were sent to war.

Another one of the successful grants was for the Woodend RSL, who received almost $22,000 to construct a wall of remembrance on the Woodend Avenue of Honour. Anyone who has driven into Woodend from the north side, the Bendigo side, would recall this amazing avenue of honour and its trees. Unfortunately, because the trees have grown over time, all of the copper plaques that were hanging around the trees have since fallen away. This wall is a way to put back the names so that people who may go for a walk along the avenue will be able to identify the tree and the fallen soldier.

When I met with RSL members recently to celebrate their success at receiving this grant, they talked to me about the next phase of the project and the work that they are doing with the council to have built along side the avenue a footpath so that it can become a place for family members to walk along and remember the sacrifice of the soldiers.

Another project that has been recognised and will receive a grant of just under $1,000 is the Pioneers & Old Residents Association of Castlemaine. This grant will be used to update an honour board that was made in the 1920s. It has the names of 70 people and their families who were involved in the First World War through the Navy. As many would know, these boards were painted in gold leaf. Whilst gold leaf lasts a while, it does not last for centuries. So this funding will enable the organisation to update the gold leaf on this honour board.

These are just some of the projects that have been recognised in my electorate. Bendigo is an old electorate. A number of projects did miss out, so if the minister has extra funding that perhaps other electorates have not been able to allocate, we would gladly take it off their hands. Bendigo, as I said, was one of the first places in Australia where volunteers signed up. They went to the town hall and signed up within days of the Prime Minister declaring that Australia would be involved in this conflict. Throughout the electorate we wish to honour and remember and to never forget their sacrifice for our country.