Freemasons commemorated a deadly Vietnam War battle with a field of 5000 red poppies in Keysborough.
The South Eastern Masonic Centre hosted a Battle of Long Tan remembrance service on Tuesday 8 November.
The event marked 50 years since the encounter in a rubber plantation in Phouc Tuy province in South Vietnam on 18 August 1966, in which 18 Australians were killed and 24 wounded.
D Company members were outnumbered 20 to one but fought against the odds to kill about 245 Viet Cong and win the battle.
Freemasons Victoria with Vietnam Veterans Memorial Lodge staged the service, which included a wreath-laying ceremony and hand-knitted poppies from the 5000 Poppies Project.
Vietnamese community members were among the attendees, as was Freemasons Victoria grand master Don Reynolds.
The Ceremony of the Vacant Chair took place inside the lodge room.
A replica of the cross erected at Long Tan was placed on the lodge pavement and flags of respective nations were placed on the corners of the pavement.
Nine veterans formed a ‘hollow square’ around the pavement as a reference to ‘holding ground’ in the military sense – guarding that piece of ground.
The Master of the Lodge then placed a wreath on a vacant chair.
Lit candles on the pedestal in front of the master represented the soldiers who died in the battle.
The room lighting was dimmed, leaving only the lights on the cross, the vacant chair and the candles.
As the roll of honour was read out, giving the name, age and town of the soldiers who died, a candle was extinguished.
A piper slow marched around the pavement as a final mark of respect.
