Narrandera will be the starting point for a re-enactment of the 131st celebrations of the Riverina Light Horse Association on the last weekend in March.
Photo supplied.
Riders will mark the occasion by taking their mounts in a trek from Narrandera to Wagga to raise funds for a bronze statue.
With events planned over three days, the riders will start arriving at Narrandera Showground on Friday March 25 and conduct a training day.
Narrandera RSL sub-branch secretary Neville Wortlehock said the public was invited to attend the training day.
“People will be arriving in town from far and wide with the horses and be camped at the showground,” he said.
“On the training day, anyone can come and watch them charge with weapons and have a chat with them.
“On Saturday March 26 at 5pm a ceremony will take place at the Narrandera Memorial Gardens.
“The service will be more about people meeting the riders who will re-enact when the Light Horse left Narrandera in World War 1 and picked up riders on the way to Wagga and there’ll be a blessing and the ode and I believe the Light Horse will present a slouch hat with a plume to the sub-branch.”
Donations can be made to help raise money for the statue which will feature a “charging horse with a digger on its back”.
“The riders will leave early on Sunday morning and head to Wagga via Grong Grong and Coolamon,” Mr Wortlehock said.
Mr Wortlehock is calling on locals to help the sub-branch reach its goal of creating a plaque with the names and units of Narrandera’s residents.
“If anyone knows of relatives who served in the Australian Light Horse, Boer War and World War I and World War II and paid the ultimate sacrifice, contact me on 0417 09 5587 or 02 6959 9980 to help form a list of names of the Narrandera people who served in the Light Horse units,” Mr Wortlehock said.
“It would be helpful, even if we got an army number to help track them down. If we can get all the names of people that were in the Light Horse from Narrandera it would be a wonderful thing.”
This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 10 March 2022.
