Westmeadows War Memorial
6 March, 2024
Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (19:12): My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Veterans. The action that I seek is for the minister to join me at the Westmeadows war memorial to see firsthand the important role this beautiful monument plays in my community and to meet with students from Westmeadows Primary School who are such passionate advocates for this important local monument. When it was erected in the years immediately following the First World War, the memorial was in the heart of old Broadmeadows. The centre of Broadmeadows shifted somewhat closer to the railway line in the years that followed and the area around the war memorial came to be known as Westmeadows. The memorial remains integral to our community.
Of course it has immense local historical significance, but it is also a focal point for contemporary commemoration. Each Anzac Day the Tullapark Scout Group run an overnight vigil at the memorial, with dozens of young people doing their bit with reverence and respect. At dawn hundreds of community members come together for a moving service. It is a simple memorial but deeply moving. It demonstrates the extraordinarily high level of volunteerism which characterised small rural communities across Australia, as old Broadmeadows, a hamlet nestled in a valley along the Moonee Ponds Creek, then was. It is worth recalling that these local memorials were incredibly important for those families who never had any prospect of seeing where their sons, their brothers or their fathers were buried in France, Belgium and Türkiye.
Veterans like those whose names are recorded on the Westmeadows war memorial have given so much to our state and to our nation. That is why I am proud of our government’s Restoring Community War Memorials and Avenues of Honour grant program, given it is assisting with the restoration and upkeep of war memorials across our state. As I say, Westmeadows Primary School, which has been serving our community for over 150 years, does an outstanding job of commemorating our shared history and imparting a deep respect for the service and sacrifice of generations that have gone before us. When I met recently with a delegation of Westmeadows Primary School students to discuss their local war memorial I was so impressed by their passion for their community and its history and their compelling ideas for the restoration of the war memorial and its surrounding precinct. That is why I look forward to the minister joining me in Westmeadows to meet students and to visit our beautiful war memorial.