By JESSE GRAHAM
AUSTRALIAN military history will be on display at the Healesville Library until the end of the month, with a cabinet of Vietnam War memorabilia and artefacts erected to mark the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.
Healesville’s Rod Wilson, who collects military artefacts, set up the Vietnam War display at the library, behind the Healesville Memorial Hall, at the start of the month.
Combining items from Australian and Vietnamese soldiers, such as uniforms, helmets and badges, the exhibition was organised to mark the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.
Though each of the pieces gives a glance back through time to the war, Mr Wilson said one of the standout items was an Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (ATTV) badge, given to him by a veteran and former Toolangi resident years ago.
Mr Wilson said the AATTV was one of the longest-serving units in the Australian Army, running from 1962 to 1973 – its members received four Victoria Crosses during that time.
He said the exhibition also featured so-called Ho Chi Minh sandals – which were made from truck tyres.
“The ever-resourceful Vietnamese, fighting the mighty American army, cut down truck tyres and made sandals out of them, with the inner tube’s strapping to hold them to your feet and underneath were the cut-out truck tyres,” Mr Wilson said.
He said a North Vietnamese red scarf, given for bravery in combat, was also part of the exhibition, as well as rations and a newspaper poster for the day the war ended.
Mr Wilson said he picked up the newspaper poster from his newsagency when in January 1973, he was 15 years old.
The Battle of Long Tan occurred on 18 August, 1966, in a rubber plantation near Long Tan in South Vietnam, with 108 Australian soldiers fighting against about 2000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers.
Despite being outnumbered, the Vietnamese forces retreated after being fought off.
The exhibition will be in place at the Healesville Library, at 110 River Street, Healesville, until the end of August.
The Yarra Valley and Outer Eastern Melbourne Vietnam Veterans Day will hold a march and service to mark the 50th anniversary at the Knox War Memorial at the Tim Neville Arboretum in Dorset Road, Ferntree Gully, from 10.45am on Sunday, 14 August.
For more information about the exhibition, call 9800 6497.
For more information about the service and march, call Aff Binnoore on 0409 365 210.
