Honouring the memory of our ANZACS

WHETHER you dance at the Anzac Centenary Ball, feast your eyes on exhibits or pause quietly to remember before memorials and honour boards, your ability to honour our ANZACS has been enhanced by a series of Anzac Centenary Local Grants.A number of RSL branches and one of our schools are among the second series of local commemorative projects to be announced, and I would like to congratulate them on their successful funding applications.I look forward to seeing the finished product at some of these locations around the region in the near future.Projects like these demonstrate the enthusiasm of our local groups for undertaking special Anzac Centenary commemorations.They also ensure we honour the efforts of our ex-servicemen in a fitting fashion.More than $48,000 in federal funding has gone towards the following local commemorative projects;

•  The creation of a mosaic backdrop at the St Francis Xavier Catholic School War Memorial Garden;
• A Mackay Anzac Centenary Ball and military museum exhibit hosted by the Mackay RSL sub branch;
• Restoration of the First World War Honour Board and creation of a permanent display box by the Kuttabul RSL sub branch; and
• The replacement of the First World War Memorial at Farleigh by the Farleigh and Northern Beaches RSL sub branch.

Earlier this year, the Proserpine Historical Museum Society was awarded almost $7,000 in funding to publish a book commemorating the service of Proserpine and Whitsunday locals to the Great War.Other projects that have been successful in receiving Dawson Anzac Centenary Grants programme funding include;

• The purchase and fit out of two World War One display cabinets by the 122nd Army Cadet Unit;
• The construction of an artistic mural to commemorate the First World War at Mercy College;
• A First World War exhibition at the Bowen Historical Museum;
• A special fly-over of the Mackay by two Tiger Moth bi-planes by the Mackay Tiger Moth Museum. The fly-over will incorporate Farleigh, Kuttabul, Mackay, St Helens, Seaforth and Bucasia for this year’s special centenary Anzac Day.

Funding of up to $125,000 was made available through the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program to each of the 150 Federal electorates to support projects commemorating the First World War.Omce again I would like to thank the Dawson Anzac Centenary Grants committee, especially Chairman Keith Payne VC, John Zimmerman and Col Benson for their efforts in selecting an array of diverse local commemorative projects to celebrate 100 years of Anzac Day.