By Callum Ludwig
A stalwart of the Warburton RSL Sub-Branch is stepping away from the committee to focus on his health and a different volunteer opportunity.
After 15 years which have included stints as president, vice president and secretary, Lindsay Fisher has relinquished the presidency and retired from the committee over the last few months.
Mr Fisher said being part of the RSL helped him a lot and kept him busy.
“I used to sell Anzac Day badges and Poppy badges, down at the Bunnings in Lilydale making money for the RSL because that was our main support because we don’t have alcohol, we don’t have the pokies and we don’t have meals at Warburton,” he said.
“The biggest achievement we had (during my presidency) was the Vietnam March we held in Warburton and the other one was probably building the memorial wall, the big circle wall with poppies all over it.”
Mr Fisher is himself a veteran of the Vietnam War, having served for a year (and an extra day due to a delayed flight) as part of Australia’s reinforcement strategy. He served six years total in the infantry of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
Mr Fisher said not having many blokes from Vietnam in the area once he came home was the hardest part for him.
“I was president at the time we held the march and it felt good to be part of it and also to get (former Deputy Prime Minister and Vietnam veteran) Tim Fischer to come up, he’s a very hard man to catch, but he spoke the truth about Vietnam, saying how much it was rigged,” he said.
“The way we got treated when we got back, that killed a lot of Vietnam vets, because we were told when we got off the plane to take our uniform off and put civic clothes on otherwise we would get bashed up, and we were just doing our job,”
“It was years and years and years before I even would walk into an RSL.”
Vietnam veterans drew the ire of large parts of the Australian public, including other servicemen and women who had served in the two world wars or Korea previously, upon their return to Australia. Often veterans of the World Wars particularly shared the view that the Vietnam War was ‘not a real war’, a sentiment Mr Fisher was upset by himself.
Mr Fisher said he walked into an RSL with his World War Two veteran father when an old digger came up to him and asked what he was doing there.
“I told him that I was with my dad John Fisher and he said ‘Oh nice, I know John, he’s a good darts player but what do you do’ and when I told him I’d just come back from Vietnam he said it wasn’t a war and I told Dad that I had to go, and he ended up resigning from that RSL,” he said.
“It was tough, the Vietnam War when you think of it, because it was Australian people knocking Australian diggers. They didn’t do it in the Second World War, they didn’t do it in the first and they didn’t do it in Korea.”
Public resentment against Australia’s involvement in the war had grown due to a common belief shared that the war was against Australia’s national interests and the country was solely involved in the conflict to serve the interests of the United States, with people also often shocked by the graphic imagery shown in news coverage at the time.
Nowadays, Mr Fisher enjoys heading to the Upper Yarra RSL in Yarra Junction for a meal of his life and volunteering for the Second Bite program and LinC Yarra Valley.
Mr Fisher said volunteering for Second Bite makes him feel good.
“I’ve got a van that I use to pick up food from Woolies in Seville and Yarra Junction on a Thursday,” he said.
“I’m meeting more people coming in, getting thor food and you don’t realise how many people are struggling up in this area.”
LinC’s Fresh Food program operates throughout the Upper Yarra on Fridays helping distribute fresh food and other groceries to members of the community.
Mr Fisher said he would like to see the Warburton RSL retain its identity.
“There’s rumours going around that we might have to merge with Upper Yarra, and if that happens we would lose our ID and I’m against the pokies because I’ve been a security guard once, and I’ve seen people come in and lose their whole pension,” he said.
“We don’t have many young members up here, and if they are young, they don’t want to go to the RSL because they are for old people who just talk about war, but we can offer them friendship, a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit and to have a good sit down and talk to them.”
The Warburton RSL Sub-Branch Committee would like to wish Lindsay well and thank him wholeheartedly for his years of service not only at the RSL but also to all veterans and the local community.
