Member for Blair, Shayne Neumann MP, has congratulated five local organisations in Ipswich and the Somerset Region who received a combined $46,021 in funding under the Armistice Centenary Grants Program.
Rosewood RSL Sub-Branch received $10,000 to recognise servicemen and women from the region in a Roll of Honour, also recognising those who gave their life while on active service in the First World War.
The Roll will provide information about why local service personnel enlisted, their cultural backgrounds, service life, where they served, if they were wounded or killed, where they are buried and other biographical information that forms part of the new Local and National Curriculum that will be used by the local primary and high schools.
Rosewood RSL Sub-branch has established strong links with their local schools. Students from local primary and high schools attend Anzac Day Services, and school captains play significant roles in those services.
The Eastern Suburbs Anzac Commemorative Committee Inc was awarded with a grant of $6,000 to alter their memorial to recognise servicemen and women who had been discovered through research, to correct names which were incorrectly recorded, and to identify personnel who were killed in action or from wounds.
The Committee provide information to local school students to support the study and understanding of Australian history through local service personnel, and the corrected records will enhance this information exchange.
Lowood RSL Sub-branch received $16,112 to develop a memorial drive, with trees planted to recognise local servicemen, as a living memorial of their sacrifice.
On Remembrance Day on 11November this year, children will wear the medals of a particular soldier, and when that soldier’s name is announced the student will plant an Anzac Grevillia tree in their honour.
The Lowood community as a whole will benefit from this place of remembrance and reflection.
Kilcoy RSL has been granted $3,820 to restore the mural and surrounding fence at Anzac Park in Kilcoy.
The money will go towards refreshing the painted mural and correcting the direction of the rifle which supports a Digger’s slouch hat.
Toogoolawah and District History Group were granted $10,089 to construct an Armistice Centenary Memorabilia Display, and to host a Commemoration event.
The theme of the event will be "Celebrating a just and secure peace" and will be held in the grounds of the Toogoolawah War Memorial in McConnell Park.
The Memorabilia Display, themed “An End to Conflict” will be hosted by the Somerset Regional Art Gallery – The Condensery – in Toogoolawah, and will be open to the public from November to December.
The project aims to remember and appreciate the significance of what occurred during WW1, celebrate some of the local heroes of that time, interest younger generations in the history of Australia's role and achievements in WW1, and show what it was like to be living in the early 1900s with our country at war.
Mr Neumann said the success of local groups was testament to the region’s history and continuing recognition of Australia’s efforts in WWI and peace missions and conflicts since.
The Armistice Centenary Grants Program supports projects or activities that commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War, on 11 November 2018.
