By Michael Doran
Healesville Library has mounted a Remembrance Exhibition, curated from the personal collection of local resident, Rod Wilson.
With the centenary of the end of World War 1 in mind, the exhibition is focussed on the bonds forged between the Australian and New Zealand forces.
Mr Wilson said “Here we often forget about the kiwi side of Gallipoli and over there the focus is rightly on their soldiers.”
“It was on the battlefields of Gallipoli that today’s close friendship between aussies and kiwis first began.”
The exhibition contains many items related to the legacy of the war and how returning service people were commemorated.
For example, there is a book produced by the Education Department that contains the war service record and photo of all the teachers and departmental personnel who served in WWI.
There are grave cards, which were sent to the families of those killed. These cards contain details of where their relative is buried, details of their death and a photo of the grave.
“This was the only way families could grieve,” Mr. Wilson said. “Australia was a nation swamped with grief and people had no way of visiting the graves, that’s why these cards mattered.”
He also has on display what became known as the ‘dead man’s penny’, a circular plaque sent to families of the deceased along with the war medals of their relation.
There are original items from both sides of the conscription issue and the yes or no referendums that caused so much bitterness in 1916 and 1917.
The exhibition also looks at the transition from war to peacetime and how the nation came to terms with what it had been through.
He recalled how William Dunstan, of Ballarat, was on a tram when a woman handed him a white feather, as a sign of cowardice, and berated him for not having the courage to serve his country.
Little did she know that Dunstan was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1915 for gallantry at Lone Pine, badly wounded and repatriated to Australia, all before his 21st birthday.
This symbolised the legacy of bitterness the war left on those on either side of the debate around Australia’s involvement.
Rod Wilson developed his passion for collecting these items as a 10 year old, his interest piqued from talking to his grandfather, a WWI veteran.
He now regularly provides items to the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance, an association that started more than 20 years ago. He has previously provided exhibitions in Healesville Library and at other locations in the Yarra Valley.
The exhibition runs for the month of November and is a great place to visit for anyone wishing to go a little deeper into what ended, so far from our shores, 100 years ago.
