New memorial set to immortalise local residents

By Contributed

Oct 5, 2024

Brothers Alexander and Norman Levings of Koonoomoo served in World War I. Alexander was killed in Poziers, France, aged 19, while Norman returned home. Photo: Australian War Memorial. Photo by Contributed

The lives of residents who lived in the Yarroweyah and Koonoomoo districts before the world wars are to be commemorated by a new memorial.

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Led by local amateur historian Peter Sutton and building on research by historian Margaret Fleming, the memorial will sit alongside an existing memorial dedicated to the lives of those who settled in the district under the government’s Solider Settler scheme.

Margaret Fleming and Peter Sutton at the launch of the book, Yarroweyah and Koonoomoo — Soldiers who fought in WWI and WWII, in 2022. Photo by Contributed

Mr Sutton said the Yarroweyah and Koonoomoo communities were close.

“The village was known as Koonoomoo and the area Yarroweyah North until the 1970s,” Mr Sutton said.

Under the Soldier Settlement Act 1945 (No. 5107), the Victorian Government acquired arable land across Victoria either through agreement with the existing owners or through compulsory acquisition.

The RAF Hospital outside Barooga housed some of the soldier settlers before their blocks of land became available.

From 1947, the land was then leased to returning soldiers who had fought in the two world wars.

The new memorial seeks to immortalise those who lived in the Yarroweyah and Koonoomoo districts before the arrival of the soldier settlers.

Mr Sutton would like to express his thanks to Glen Willis, Cobram Barooga RSL Sub-branch President Barry Clarke, Secretary Rosa Perri and Grants Officer Lesley Lindsay for their support and encouragement.

He would also like to express his thanks to the Yarroweyah Hall Friends group and State Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy for their support.

The memorial will be unveiled at 11am, on Thursday, October 24, at Yarroweyah Memorial Hall.