THE Custodian of the Wallan Memorial and Avenue of Honour Major Tony Gill has condemned the “utter disrespect and ingratitude” of vandals who have damaged Wallan’s war memorial sites in recent months.
Bollards around the War Memorial have been bent while several name plaques on the Avenue of Honour have been tampered with, including one being uprooted from the ground.
Major Gill said he was “extremely disappointed” to come across the damages.
“Both the Memorial and the Avenue of Honour were funded by the community at the time, and … it’s a generational responsibility for the community to continue to never forget the service and sacrifices of our young men and women, past, present and future,” he said.
“It is disappointing because we’ve never had the problem before.”
The plaques have only recently been re-installed following a 2021 grant which helped replace existing damaged name plates with more robust, stainless steel plaques meant to withstand decay and vandalism attempts.
“We tried to come up with something that is vandal-proof and, quite obviously, it hasn’t been vandal-proof,” Major Gill said.
“To the vandals who are responsible for their wanton actions, chances are it is highly likely that you have a relative who served.
“You demonstrate an utter disrespect and ingratitude, not only toward all Service men and women, but to the Wallan community.”
The Memorial and Avenue of Honour were funded by the Wallan community more than a century ago in remembrance of the 53 young men from the district who served Australia in the First World War.
Several of the men never returned home.
Major Gill said donations may be sought from the community in the future to reset the Avenue of Honour name plaques and restrengthen the Memorial’s bollard rails.
“We’re going to apply for another grant through the RSL, but it’s going to cost in the vicinity of $10-12,000 to have all the plaques taken out, straightened or repaired, cleaned up and put in proper pier footings in the ground so they just can’t kick them over,” he said.
“In the event we can’t get government funding to fix the issue, then we’re going to have to put it out publicly and see if we can get donations from within the public.”
