Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Federal Government

0 (0%)

State Government

0 (0%)

Local Government

0 (0%)

Local Community

0 (0%)

Descendants and relatives

0 (0%)

Community service clubs

0 (0%)

Local RSL Sub-Branch

0 (0%)

All of the above

1 (100%)

Total Members Voted: 1

Voting closed: June 26, 2011, 06:58:01 PM

[diggerdave]

More Media Snippets
From “The Newcastle Herald” (online)
Remember war's cost - calls for overhaul of Hunter war memorials

25 Apr, 2011 04:00 AM

Editorial
Remember war's cost

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/remember-wars-cost/2143411.aspx
CALLS for an overhaul of Hunter war memorials deserve serious consideration.
The Newcastle Herald's publication last week of the most comprehensive list to date of Hunter men and women killed in war demonstrated community interest in preserving this information. And the continuing growth of public enthusiasm about Anzac Day supports the idea of creating and maintaining an up-to-date memorial in each local government area.
Historian David Dial, who created the published honour roll, has pointed out the generally ad hoc nature of many existing memorials.
Many examples can be furnished of older memorials - often on redeveloped or demolished buildings - that have been lost, put into obscure storage or moved to inappropriate locations divorced from their original context.
It is also the case that many existing war memorials only relate to a specific conflict (usually World War I) and often only commemorate people connected to certain workplaces or organisations. Without diminishing the historical importance of these, it is clear that scope exists to draw their disparate threads into newer and more comprehensive memorials.
As researchers like Mr Dial know well, the compilation of honour rolls can be enormously complicated. Differences of opinion arise over the proper treatment of the names of people who may have been born in one place, lived or worked in another and enlisted in still another.
It is not unknown for people resident in an Australian town to have served in the armed forces of an ally.
Keeping these confounding factors in mind, the exercise of assembling complete rolls of honour is nevertheless rewarding and worthwhile.
Regional database
The initial response to Mr Dial's call for comprehensive memorials to the war dead in each Hunter local government area has been positive, with some reservations about cost.
Chances are they wouldn't be enormously expensive and it's probable that the community would consider the project worth the contribution of private funds.
In this digital and networked age the opportunity also exists to create virtual memorials that could contain vastly more information about the people named than could ever fit on a bronze plaque.
Newcastle Regional Museum has already assembled a large amount of information and photographs, and individuals like Mr Dial - who maintains an impressive website of his own - have done much of the hard work needed to create a definitive central database of Hunter war dead.
Indeed, the relatively unlimited scope of cyberspace means such a database need not be limited only to those killed in action. Hunter households contain - in frames on walls, in drawers, albums and shoeboxes - thousands of documents and photographs capable of shedding fascinating light on the region's multifaceted experiences of armed conflict over time.
Remembering war is - or ought to be - the strongest possible argument for peace. Hence the exhortation: lest we forget.