Honor Auchinleck, Corryong Courier

As only a High Country town can, the people of Tumut turned out in force last week to welcome the Chauvel Australian Light Horse Memorial Ride to their war memorials in Richmond Park.

About 100 students from five different local schools came to join a similar number of Tumut’s citizens and visitors. Some of the smallest students, probably from the local kindergarten arrived in their little hi-vis jackets and sat listening like mini angels!

Like General Sir Harry Chauvel himself, the Memorial Ride is about the Light Horse and far more. As rider Ewen McLean explains in his poem ‘The Pledge’, the ride honours everyone who served in all of Australia’s wars and who continue to serve their country and communities in some of the world’s trouble spots.

Many of us will recall Australian Army personnel coming to help our communities following the 2020 bushfires that hit our communities so hard.

Former journalist and Federal Member of Parliament for Riverina, Michael McCormack, took time out from his election campaign to talk about General Sir Harry and the Memorial Ride. Following the short commemorative formalities he mingled with the students, local residents, visitors and riders alike sharing stories of military service with old soldiers, students’ aspirations for the future and stories about their horses and sport.

Given the breadth of the Memorial Ride and before he left to resume his election campaign, Mr McCormack gathered with the riders at the memorial statue of Private John Ryan VC. When he was Deputy Prime Minister, Mr McCormack had unveiled this memorial on October 3rd, 2018.

A student group from one of the local schools is visiting Italy and France for two weeks during their forthcoming school holidays. When they attend Anzac Day’s Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneux, their thoughts might turn back to the war memorials in Richmond Park and to the stories which they have heard from the families who have told them about their ancestor(s).

I hope that when these students return home they will share their memories and observations with their family, friends and classmates.

Only a couple of days after Tumut’s event I heard that a group from a local aged care facility had missed attending the commemorations as their bus had broken down.

Highlighting its commitment to the community, a small group of the Chauvel Australian Light Horse Memorial Ride returned with their horses to Tumut so that the oldies didn’t miss out.

Rider Pat Leary remarked, “The oldies are rapt!”

Pat went on to say, “I love visiting the oldies. They have the real stories.” How good is that?

I hope the Memorial Ride will be able to visit more aged care facilities. Too often the oldies are all but forgotten. If my mother Elyne were still alive, she would have loved such a visit. Nobody had thought of it back in the late 1990s and early 2000s when she was still alive. Thank you, Pat, for thinking of it now.

At 2pm on Thursday April 10th, the Memorial Ride will be visiting the Corryong aged care residents.

For me, there was another family connection drawcard. For more than thirty years prior to the construction and filling of the Blowering Dam, my aunt and uncle farmed at Blowering Station. Their share farmer was a Light Horseman and Miles Franklin relative, Rolfe Bridle. Appropriately, his son Noel was to lead the Chauvel Australian Light Horse Memorial Ride into Tumut.

Noel reminded me that when my aunt and uncle had to move before they were flooded out, Rolfe travelled with them and helped them settle at Taminick before returning to his own family. This was mateship at its very best.

Given our shared history, I was not going to miss seeing Noel and sharing the commemorations and stories.

The Memorial Ride has given us all an opportunity to rekindle old friendships, to meet more people and make new friends among other descendants of some of the WWI Light Horsemen and others who have served. For some of us who live within a couple of hours’ drive it was an opportunity to renew links between communities and to talk and share news of extended family and community events.

It is important anywhere, but more specifically in our hills and valleys which unite us, weather and circumstances of geography sometimes isolate us, as indeed they did during the 2020 bushfires and the pandemic. Commemoration does not glorify war; rather it highlights lessons learned in war and the value of peace. Importantly, it is about the need to look out for one another and to make a difference to others in our communities. It is no different from our deeply valued quality of mateship.

This article appeared in Corryong Courier, 10 April 2025.
Related storie: Commemorative ride visits twin cities, Avenue of Honour extension opening coincides with Chauvel’s Anniversary Light Horse Memorial Ride