By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A part-time World War II militia unit who went beyond the call of duty in New Guinea has been permanently honoured at a footbridge across Monash Freeway at Narre Warren.
The bridge at Prospect Hill Drive was re-named the Gippsland Regiment Bridge as part of a ceremony on Remembrance Day, 11 November.
The event included veterans and family from the Gippsland Regiment – otherwise known as the 52nd Battalion.
Organiser Kevin Walsh said it was fitting to recognise the regiment – a group that was formed and based in the Dandenong district.
The original battalion fought in the famous battle of Villers-Bretonneux on Anzac Day in 1918.
In World War II, the regiment’s members who were the equivalent of a part-time Army Reserve were called up to fight in desperate circumstances.
While the first-choice soldiers were engaged in Europe, the regiment was deployed to New Guinea to defend Australia from a Japanese onslaught .
“These guys served the community and were from the community,” Mr Walsh said.
“They came to the aid of the community in its hour of need.”
On the regiment’s return in 1944, its bravery was highlighted by the then-Army Minister Francis Forde.
“These men have done all that has been asked of them,” Mr Forde said.
“They have been asked to do more than we could rightfully expect.”
A former Dandenong mayor and retired army major, Mr Walsh included an array of community groups at the ceremony.
Attendees such as 97-year-old regiment veteran Wally Whitmore, as well as a parade of defence force cadets.
Indigenous elder and Vietnam veteran Graham Atkinson, Japan’s Consul-General Kazuyoshi Matsunaga, Colonel Mike Kalms of the 4th Brigade, and the mayors of Greater Dandenong and Casey were also part of the presentation.
Peninsula Aero Club made a fly-over in the Missing Man formation during the event.
There was also a performance by With One Voice Choir and a Remembrance Day service that commemorated the end of World War I.
