Tuncurry Memorial Hall Great War Honour Board

A timber honour roll, located inside the Tuncurry Memorial Hall. An accompanying story board tells the history of the memorial, followed by the stories of those listed.

From the story board:

In Kattung language, Daan.gaari (Tuncurry) means “when fish swim near the surface of the water and turn their bodies as they swim they make the appearance of silvery waters”, literally “plenty of fish”. 

This Story Board honouring local WWI Veterans summarises the creation of one memorial and the regeneration of another.

In 2009 William Paulson, Chair of Tobwabba Original Working Network (TOWN), with Elvina Oxley (Elvina Jean Paulson) as Secretary, supported by her husband Lewis Oxley, set out to revive family history and restore the sacred ground of Tobwabba Djaribaa (locally called Tobwabba Cemetery Hill) above the original Tobwabba Aboriginal Reserve land to make known the cultural history of the Tobwabba (White Clay) Yuri (People) Djaribaa (Spirit Place) i.e. White Clay People Spirit Place.

Research was carried out by TOWN to commemorate and respectfully acknowledge Tobwabba Ancestors and soldiers from all wars. In 2012 a memorial was erected on Tobwabba Djaribaa to raise awareness of their input to Australian life.

The WWI veterans James Alexander Slater, William Slater, William Simon (all 20th Btn) and Harry Cunningham (53rd Btn) are commemorated on the Tobwabba Memorial. They fought on the same battlefields as the soldiers named on the Tuncurry Hall Honour Board, though they remained unacknowledged anywhere until then.

In 2013 the Trustees of Tuncurry Memorial Hall were considering how best to commemorate the 2014 Centenary of WWI and the 2015 Centenary of ANZAC and decided an appropriate way would be to renovate the Hall’s Honour Board and to remedy the lack of recognition of the Tobwabba soldiers, as far as it was within their powers. They resolved to include input by the Elders (from Origine Commemorative ANZAC Day Committee [OCAD] which grew out of TOWN) on the renovated Honour Board. The Trustees applied for and were successful in obtaining a grant to update and correct the WWI Honour Board. This is the result.

This Hall, and its original Honour Board, were the result of the objectives of the locals. The instigator was John Henry Stephens, the licensee of the Bellevue Hotel. “Jack” donated the wood, presumably left over from the additions made to the 1890s hotel. It is likely to have been erected by public subscription, and that the names on the Board were connected with the major donors.

The original Honour Board was unusual. The names were painted directly on to the wall by a local artist to repay a debt owed to “Jack” Stephens. Unfortunately that wall was demolished when additions were made in the 1980s. The Trustees at that time wanted to preserve the Board and had a more usual version produced, but unfortunately by then the original names on the wall had faded and in the translation to the new board there were many spelling errors.