JULY 2017 Vol 40 - No 2 POST the CENTENNIAL EDITIONS 2014-18
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Listening JULY 2017 Vol 40 - No 2 POST THE CENTENNIAL EDITIONS 2014-18 ANZAC DAY photos ‘A hell of a day’ - the story of Troy Simmonds (Ex-SASR Sergeant) The Official Journal of The Returned & Services League of Australia WA Branch Incorporated 2 The Listening Post JULY 2017 We’ve moved! RSLWA staff are located at: Level 3 66 St Georges Terrace (beside London Court) Come and have a cuppa on us! Book a room for a Sub-Branch meeting or gathering. There are two committee rooms, two meeting rooms and an event room suitable for up to 30 people. To book, contact Matthew Holyday on 9287 3714 or [email protected] There is no booking charge for RSL events. Although staff have relocated, our phone numbers have not changed. You can find our updated email addresses on Page 3. We’re closer to the bus and train services. ANZAC Club has closed permanently clearing the way for the development of a ‘Veterans’ Centre’. In the meantime, while there is no bar facilities in our temporary premises, Members are always welcome to visit us until the new ANZAC House is opened. Google map showing location of new offices LEVEL 3, 66 ST GEORGES TERRACE, PERTH (beside London Court) www.rslwa.org.au The Listening Post JULY 2017 3 Listening JULY 2017 Vol 40 - No 2 POST contact cover THE CENTENNIAL EDITIONS 2014-18 contents Writing and Advertising Information: A Reporter’s Memory of Pictured are members 4 Royceton Hardey the Vietnam War Online and Social Media Coordinator of the 10th Light (08) 9287 3700. [email protected] Horse – Esperance 7 From the President’s Pen Writers: Troop Inc heading 8 CEO Report Gavin Briggs down Andrew 9 Canberra bound Royceton Hardey Street towards Graphic Design: TypeExpress the Esplanade in 11 Minister for Veterans’ Issues Printer: Rural Press Esperance. 12 Poppy ladies weekend Contact Details ANZAC DAY photos ‘A hell of a day’ - the story of Troy Simmonds The Returned & Services League of Australia – This magnificent sight (Ex-SASR Sergeant) 13 Queen’s Birthday Honours The Official Journal of The Returned & Services League of Australia WA Branch Incorporated WA Branch Incorporated was a part of the towns 14 A medical discharge Level 3/66 St Georges Terrace ANZAC Day Parade and was PERTH WA 6000 16 Remembrance Round PO Box 3023, EAST PERTH WA 6892 captured by photographer Email: [email protected] Lex Porebski. 18 A hell of a day Website: www.rslwa.org.au Accompanying the Australian and New 21-22 In Memoriam Facebook: www.facebook.com/rslwahq Zealand Flags is the black and yellow colour Telephone: (08) 9287 3799. 23 Capital Community Radio Fax: (08) 9287 3732. patch of the 10th Light Horse Regiment which 25 Graham Gaunt – Building WA Country Callers: 1800 259 799. formed in Western Australia during WWI. Support Officer (Landline only) [L-R] Ian Mackenzie, Graham Maitland, 27-28 ANZAC House demolition Contact Directory Kymberly Roberts, Peter Hough (NZ Flag) and Chief Executive Officer 30 One good turn deserves another… John McCourt JP, MBA, FAIM, MPRIA Scott Lawrence. Uniforms were kindly supplied (08) 9287 3799. [email protected] by the Army Museum of Western Australia and 33 Exercise Executive Stretch Executive Assistant to the State President and members of the community. The troop now has 34 Sunset Services their own set of replica uniforms, thanks to a Chief Executive Officer 36 The AE2 helped build Nola Keen Lotterywest grant. (08) 9287 3799. [email protected] the ANZAC legend This edition of The Listening Post reports on Operations Manager 38-55 ANZAC Services 2017 Martin Holzberger AM CSC a number of ANZAC Day Commemorative (08) 9287 3799. [email protected] Services from around our state. 56-59 Sub-Branch News Advocacy We hope you enjoy this magazine. 60 Commemorations Morgana Ramsey 61 Books (08) 9287 3799. [email protected] Welfare RSL Statement of Purpose 62 From the archives Rosalind Howat 63 Unit and Kindred listing (08) 9287 3799/0417 905 742. [email protected] The RSL was founded in 1916 to provide 64 Notices ANZAC House Manager comradeship and support to Australia’s Veterans Matthew Holyday 65 Crossword and Sudoku (08) 9287 3714. [email protected] and their families. 66 Last Post Membership That core mission has never changed but has Andrea Hunt continued to evolve to meet the needs of each (08) 9287 3705. [email protected] Deadline for the next edition: generation of servicemen and women. Financial Services Friday, 6 October 2017 Peter McGlade We have a branch network that covers Australia State Accountant and any Veteran who needs help will get it – The preferred method of receiving (08) 9287 3718. [email protected] every serving ADF member and Veteran will be submissions is via email. Photographs should Helen Beech be attached separately and a minimum of Financial Services Officer warmly welcomed at their local RSL Sub-Branch or club. 1Mb. This is your magazine and contributions (08) 9287 3703. [email protected] and letters are welcome. Events Coordinator We advocate for the best possible conditions for Wendy Moss Address to: The Writers, (08) 9287 3701. [email protected] our serving men and women and for those who The Listening Post have served the nation in the past. Social Media Coordinator PO Box 3023 Royceton Hardey We foster respect and thanks from the nation for EAST PERTH WA 6892 (08) 9287 3700. [email protected] all those who have made sacrifices in Australia’s Receptionist Email: [email protected] Rowena Bush name and we will provide a strong voice on issues of national unity and security. Opinions expressed by contributors in articles (08) 9287 3799. [email protected] and reproduced articles are the individuals’ Records and Information Manager: opinions or the authors of such reproduced Helen Starkie (Tue & Wed) Previous Editions (08) 9287 3713. [email protected] articles and are not necessarily those of the Copies of The Listening Post published since RSL. Board 2017 March 2017 are available on our website: State President: Mr Peter Aspinall Reproduction of articles (or extracts) Vice President: Mrs Donna Prytulak www.rslwa.org.au contained in The Listening Post are State Treasurer: Mr Phillip Draber Copies published before that date – going welcomed, provided the source is Greater Metropolitan Region: back to 1921 – are available via the National acknowledged. The writers reserve the right Mr Bill Collidge RFD, Mrs Gabby Ryan, Library on http://pandora.nla.gov.au/ Mr Rob Cashman to accept, reject, sub-edit and re-arrange pan/142460/20140626-1414/www.rslcentenary. material submitted for publication. Great Southern Region: org.au/index.html Mr Chris Mayfield OAM Infringement of Copyright Laws: Eastern Region: Publishing We cannot accept Newspaper clippings for Mrs Donna Prytulak publication without express approval from Mid West Region: Publishing of The Listening Post: Published the Newspaper Editor as we may infringe on Mr Ross Davies three times a year with a readership of over Copyright Laws. Pilbara Region: 25,000. Mr Stuart Simpson Trustees To all sub-branch Presidents and www.rslwa.org.au Mr Don Blair OAM RFD Secretaries: Send photographs (1Mb plus) Mr Wayne Tarr RFD ED and a short article on special activities at your www.facebook.com/rslwahq sub-branch to The Listening Post. 4 The Listening Post JULY 2017 A Reporter’s Memory of the Vietnam War by Royceton Hardey “Vietnam was one of the few wars with no censorship, something the Americans came to regret,” Geoffrey Murray. The term embedded journalism is a relatively new one. It came to prominence during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and described the role of a journalist being attached to a military unit directly involved in combat operations. However, while the term itself is new, embedded journalism has been around since the start of World War I. Charles Bean has been described as the nation’s first ‘embedded’ journalist for his role as Australia’s official correspondent to the war. While Vietnam is remembered as the first ‘television war’, not only Geoffrey Murray. for America but also for Australia, me’, because, with the assisted passage in Lithgow. The first occasion was a newspapers continued to report scheme, if you were under 21, it meant night exercise in the local sewerage dutifully on our involvement. a free passage, and I was 20 at the treatment plant where we crawled When English-born Geoffrey Murray time,” he remembers. around in the pitch black hoping not accepted a job offer as a junior “I thought: ‘this is great…I can go to fall in. The second time was a reporter on his local newspaper, The halfway around the world for free’.” weekend exercise in the bush where Cheshire Observer in August 1958, he I carried a weapon and learned the He was accepted and spent five weeks could have had no idea he would end rudiments of jungle warfare,” he on a boat heading to Sydney, via Port up reporting on Australia’s military remembers with a laugh. involvement in Vietnam – or indeed Said, Suez, Aden, Fremantle and scale the journalistic heights as a Melbourne. “I had no idea these skills I was foreign correspondent. “I left school “It was the last day of the learning would be used for real one at 16 with no qualifications, and joined Commonwealth Games in Perth in day.” the Observer located in a town called December 1962. Fremantle was pretty While he liked Lithgow very much, Chester just across the River Mersey quiet that day but I had a very good it would not be a long-term career from Liverpool,” he recalls.