Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to both acknowledge and celebrate the centenary of the Doncaster RSL in my electorate. As all honourable members will know, the Returned and Services League was formed in June of 1916 by servicemen returning from the Great War. Throughout Australia, there are RSL clubs which continue to serve veterans of the various engagements over the past century or more. The Doncaster RSL is one of those traditional—old-fashioned, you might call it—RSLs, one of three I have in my electorate. The other two are at Templestowe and Warrandyte. When you visit these RSLs and look at cenotaphs, you see the names of the then young men who didn't return from the Great War.

In the case of Doncaster, a rural, fruit-growing and vegetable market-gardening area about 20 kilometres outside Melbourne at that stage, you see etched on the cenotaph the number of young people who didn't return from the Great War, who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Congratulations to all involved in the Doncaster RSL, particularly President Charles Collins and Secretary Joan Brown, on the work that they continue to do in the footsteps of those who came before them, serving the veterans community locally for the past century.