Cooroy Pomona Lions, helping to shape Pomona’s identity since 1972
Cooroy Pomona Lions Club Brian Dale – President Speech
Welcome everyone, especially our guests – Llew O’Brien MP, the Federal Member for Wide Bay, our state Member Sandy Bolton MP, Frank Wilkie, Noosa Shire Councillor, and Counsellors, Cooroy Pomona RSL Sub Branch representatives.
We are here today to dedicate this Remembrance Seat, funded under the federal government’s Saluting Their Service Commemorative Program. The Cooroy-Pomona Lions Club took on this project, with the support of Llew O’Brien and Sandy Bolton, who both backed the grant application to allow this seat to be created and placed here with the assistance of Noosa Council.
Thanks go also to Heather Manders and Brian O’Connor for preparing that application, especially Heather for her role as project manager on behalf of Lions.
We are standing in Joe Bazzo Park on land that in 1939 was then known as the Soldiers Memorial Park. The significance of the Pomona Rotunda War Memorial is that it was the last World War I memorial completed and dedicated in Australia before the outbreak of World War II.
The memorial was refurbished and rededicated in 2018 on the 100th Anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that officially brought to an end the Great War that was supposed to end all wars. It was seen back then as part of a community progression towards reminding ourselves of who we are and where we have come from … and honouring our forebears.
Recently, Pomona has been the subject of consultation around Placemaking – how we might use our public spaces, our streets and parks to be better connected to our town and to each other. The need to recognise and acknowledge Pomona’s history featured very strongly in the feedback to Noosa Council.
The Remembrance Seat and its associated plaque are in keeping with that sentiment. It has a unique design, featuring the face of one of our district’s sons Private John William Hempsall who gave his life for his country. When we sit here, facing the memorial, we can reflect on the sacrifice he made, of his mates who did not return and all those in subsequent conflicts who died in the service of their country.
The nurse portrayed on the memorial seat symbolizes the esteemed community member and volunteer, Valerie Lawrence-Slater.
It is fitting, therefore, that the memorial and the Remembrance Seat should be at the heart of our historic town. There are those who would like to see additional commemorative elements installed here, such as the restoration of a flagpole that’s normally associated with commemorative plots such as this. That’s for the future, maybe.
The seat and the community effort to have it placed here is an example of placemaking – where our past and our history are re-emphasised in new ways that preserve Pomona’s character. It reminds a new generation, and newcomers, of those who have gone before … and of their deeds.
We shall remember them.
Now I would like to invite Llew O’Brien to say a few words, Sandy Bolton MP, and after which Frank Wilkie will give a vote of thanks.
Photo Credit Peta Hempsall 
