Local legends awarded

from Moorabool News 31 January 2023

Get into the Summer of Glory Letters to the Editor

By Lachlan Ellis

This year’s Moorabool Shire Australia Day Awards were officially handed out last Thursday 26 January, honouring the hardworking locals who make Moorabool the place to live, work and invest.

As reported in last week’s edition of the Moorabool News (24 Jan 2023), Judy D’Attoma was the Citizen of the Year for her work with food relief program Bacchus Up to Pay it Forward (BUTPIF), with the Young Citizen of the Year, Community Event of the Year, and Mayor Award winners unveiled on Thursday.

12-year-old Noah Barlow was awarded the Young Citizen of the Year award, for his work advocating for people with disabilities. Mr Barlow has raised over $100,000 as the Captain of ‘Noah’s Ninjas’, raising money for the Mito Movement in The Bloody Long Walk.

The Mito Foundation supports people affected by mitochondrial disease (mito), funding research into prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cures of mitochondrial disorders, and increases awareness and education about the devastating disease.

The 791 members of Noah’s Ninjas have raised over $236,000 for the Mito Movement. Mr Barlow is also a co-founder of Voices Podcast, in which children share stories for children in hospital or hospice to listen to, and he also helped set up the first ever junior wheelchair AFL team, currently playing for Richmond, and playing powerchair soccer for Melbourne City.

Noah said that winning the Young Citizen of the Year award was an honour.

“It felt really good to be recognised as Moorabool Young Citizen of the Year…I feel like I’m just getting started. There’s so much more we can do as a community to make things better for people with disabilities,” he told the Moorabool News.

“The inspiration came from being disabled myself, and seeing how hard it is for me and all my mates to do things people do for granted. I want to help other kids like me know they can do anything with the right support, that anything is possible. Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported me from the start, and everyone who sees me for who I am.”

The Community Event of the Year went to the Blackwood Woodchop & Easter Festival, which celebrated its 120th year in 2022, welcoming around 5000 people on Easter Saturday.

The event celebrates Blackwood’s history, and includes longstanding activities such as the gumboot throw, treasure hunt, pet show, and of course the woodchop.

The Bacchus Marsh Christmas Festival and Carols also received a Community Event of the Year award.

Glenda and Jeff Jones took out the Mayor Award, having both played a major role in promoting tourism and local food festivals in Bacchus Marsh. For over 15 years, the couple worked as volunteers for the Bacchus Marsh Tourism Association (BMTA), and have hosted garden parties and ‘meet the grower’ events on their farm.

As part of the BMTA, the Joneses contributed to organising the Bacchus Marsh Strawberry & Cherry Festival, and the Bacchus Marsh Harvest Festival.

A Certificate of Achievement was also awarded to Ophelia Fernando, who was nominated in the Young Citizen of the Year category.

The winners were formally awarded at a ceremony at the Mechanics Institute in Ballan, where 86 new Australian citizens were also welcomed, from countries including but certainly not limited to India, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States, Philippines, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, Fiji, Singapore, the Netherlands, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.

The Moorabool News would like to issue a correction to our article ‘Soldiers Avenue explored’ (Pg 5, 17 January edition).

While the information supplied by Blackwood & District Historical Society historian Margot Hitchcock was correct, the photo, believed to be the ‘Soldiers Avenue’ in Barrys Reef, is in fact a photo of the Blackwood Mineral Springs Avenue of Honour.

Ms Hitchcock has compiled and supplied the following information on ‘The History of the Blackwood Avenue of Honour and the Honour Boards’.

In 1919, the Avenue of Honour from the main road to the Mineral Springs area was graded and formed and 60 pine trees were planted, which were provided by Bill and Ken Matheson and Tom Vigor. The lower parking area was then levelled through a working bee. The Avenue of Honour was erected to honour all the men from the Blackwood area who enlisted in the 1914-1919 1st World War. Some were lucky enough to return to resume their lives in Blackwood. Others made the supreme sacrifice by losing their lives in some far distant country from their beloved Blackwood. The Avenue of Honour had a significant entrance marked with two solid column constructions with a timber sign above attached to the top of the columns with the words “Avenue of Honour”. Inside this entrance on either side were two monuments with a small cannon mounted on each monument. Leading down to the mineral springs were the Pine trees planted to honour the men who died for their country, each tree had a name tag to honour one of those men who died.

Have you ever looked at the two boards hanging in the Blackwood Hall and wondered about the men behind the names? The second board hanging in the Blackwood Hall is the Barrys Reef board.

The 48 names of these men who enlisted for active service on the 1914 – 1919 “Roll of Honour” board, mounted in the Blackwood Hall which states “Past Scholars of the Mount Blackwood State School No. 1074, who enlisted for Active Service Abroad - in a small list in the middle is written -In Memoriam - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” this is for the eleven men who died during active service whose names are in the first list.

Men whose names appeared on the Blackwood Honour Board at the Mineral Springs were:

Armstrong A.M.*, Armstrong T.M., Armstrong W.E., Byrne J., Broad W.J., Byres W., Carruthers G.R.*, Carruthers H., Cherry H., Cocciardi A., Davey R., Davey L., Downing A., Downing G.T., Downing R., Hall R.W.M., Lawrence W.*, Morrish H.C., Marshall A.S., Murphy T.*, McCracken J.N.*, Nelson S., Nelson H., Perry G., Gribble.V.V., Derrick.E.H., Pattinson A.O., Pattinson J.H., Pattinson W.B., Pearce R.L., Pearce L., Pincombe J.R., Rae F., Speary N.J.W., Skinner W.F.*, Saunders G.*, Shebler G, Smith M.H., Smith T., Smith E., Seymour E., Seymour J.*, Suffern G.E., Sweet H., Stephens I.*, Stephens C.R., Vigor A.J., Whatmough R.H.*, Whatmough W.J., Webster T., Whitford.L., Langford. B.D.*. * = died on active Service.

Blackwood has been honoured to have two Honour Boards and two Avenue of Honours to commemorate the Soldiers who served in WWI. One Avenue of Honour is at Barrys Reef, and the other Avenue of Honour was on the road down to the Mineral Springs at Blackwood.

An excerpt from the Bacchus Marsh Express from Saturday 26 July 1919 from The National Library’s Trove website was also forwarded on, detailing the establishment of the Blackwood Mineral Springs Avenue of Honour.

To read the Express article, visit trove.nla.gov.au/ newspaper/article/262260812.