From left: Dandenong RSL project officer John Wells, Dandenong RSL president Alec Kowarzik, Andrew ‘Ziggy’ Gizycki de Gozdawa and Dandenong RSL treasurer John Filmer with the paintings donated to the Dandenong RSL.
By Shaun Inguanzo
RADIO presenter Andrew ‘Ziggy’ Gizycki de Gozdawa has fulfilled his late father’s wish by donating three locally produced paintings of the Vietnam War to the Dandenong RSL.
Mr Gizycki de Gozdawa presented the paintings on Monday to Dandenong RSL president Alec Kowarzik and a host of delighted RSL members.
The paintings were produced by Garfield artist Barbara Watts and were the result of Mr Gizycki de Gozdawa’s father Zygmunt’s dying wish.
“When my father was approaching the end of his life in the late 1990s he was formulating his will,” Mr Gizycki de Gozdawa said.
“He called me in and said, ‘my dear friend, I will leave money in the will for you to produce paintings from the photos I have chosen for you’.
“He said, ‘make sure you select a local Australian artist and then donate them to an institution which should be a shrine where they will hang for prosperity’.”
Mr Gizycki de Gozdawa said his father, a Polish migrant, was heavily interested in history.
“He was driven by heritage values, and believed that Australia being a young nation needed to preserve its heritage values as a prime goal,” he said.
“So I fulfilled his wish.”
The paintings contain a young Mr Gizycki de Gozdawa and colleagues, inspired by photographs from the Vietnam War, where he served as a radio mechanic in 1967 with the Seventh Battalion.
“My role was to provide and maintain communication, and basically look after the radios,” he said.
“It was one of the few key roles that other corps had to provide (other than infantry).”
Mr Gizycki de Gozdawa is now a presenter of two programs – one jazz, one veteran’s affairs – on West Gippsland radio station 3BBR FM.
