Western Bulldogs and their partnership with Ballarat a success

[NBates]

I agree, even North managed to make a tiny profit in 2020 and a bigger profit last year to finally retire it's debt. The club's hit hardest in the pandemic were the bigger clubs that get a great deal of revenue through gaming.

North are not charging for VFL games either nor forcing ppl to book these tics online.

As previously posted, I paid $25 per ticket for GA standing at Ballarat. The codes that we'd clarified in person down at the club didn't work on the ticketing site, so I just assumed that it was because we didn't have home & away membership. Then I found out that ppl were putting in their codes and getting $10 GA standing. So I emailed the club yesterday and was told that I was using the wrong codes (!!! they've worked previously) and given the correct ones. Nothing I can do about claiming my $15 per ticket back unless I contact the ticket contractor - and we all know how that would go, so I won't bother.

 

[Roogal]

North are not charging for VFL games either nor forcing ppl to book these tics online.

As previously posted, I paid $25 per ticket for GA standing at Ballarat. The codes that we'd clarified in person down at the club didn't work on the ticketing site, so I just assumed that it was because we didn't have home & away membership. Then I found out that ppl were putting in their codes and getting $10 GA standing. So I emailed the club yesterday and was told that I was using the wrong codes (!!! they've worked previously) and given the correct ones. Nothing I can do about claiming my $15 per ticket back unless I contact the ticket contractor - and we all know how that would go, so I won't bother.

That is definitey a Ticketmaster stuff up. Report this to your Membership Department as it will be used by your club as ammunition when the time comes for clubs to provide feedback. Trust me, North Members are experiencing exactly the same issues too. Go and read some of their chat threads. I empathise.

 

[MYOB]

Weather for Saturday is 17 degrees, partly cloudy, with 0% chance of rain

 

[BallaratBulldog]

Weather for Saturday is 17 degrees, partly cloudy, with 0% chance of rain

That’s pretty much perfect for Ballarat.

 

[dogwatch]

That is definitey a Ticketmaster stuff up. Report this to your Membership Department as it will be used by your club as ammunition when the time comes for clubs to provide feedback. Trust me, North Members are experiencing exactly the same issues too. Go and read some of their chat threads. I empathise.

I keep hearing this sort of thing over and over. I also experience it occasionally (not every time) when I am backed into a corner and have no choice but to use TM. Something I try to avoid.

There has got to be a business opportunity for some bright entrepreneur here. Someone like Mike Cannon-Brooks perhaps. But TBH it doesn't even have to be someone with a social conscience or a deeply held belief in fairness. There's big money to be made if you can break the TM-TK duopoly. And you can do that by understanding what the public are screaming out for and providing some decent service.

The only reason people like us can't do it is you need some deep pockets or a sympathetic venture capitalist to get it started. You also need to be able to win a few big signature accounts (like the theatres, major concerts or the AFL/NRL etc) so you have to be well-connected and have credibility in the world of business. There are smaller outfits around but none with the scope, coverage and ambition of TM-TK.

Who will be our knight in shining armour?

 

[Nath09]

I keep hearing this sort of thing over and over. I also experience it occasionally (not every time) when I am backed into a corner and have no choice but to use TM. Something I try to avoid.

There has got to be a business opportunity for some bright entrepreneur here. Someone like Mike Cannon-Brooks perhaps. But TBH it doesn't even have to be someone with a social conscience or a deeply held belief in fairness. There's big money to be made if you can break the TM-TK duopoly. And you can do that by understanding what the public are screaming out for and providing some decent service.

The only reason people like us can't do it is you need some deep pockets or a sympathetic venture capitalist to get it started. You also need to be able to win a few big signature accounts (like the theatres, major concerts or the AFL/NRL etc) so you have to be well-connected and have credibility in the world of business. There are smaller outfits around but none with the scope, coverage and ambition of TM-TK.

Who will be our knight in shining armour?

Not sure if it applies here DW but I know in the US Ticketmaster has exclusivity agreements with most of the major venues, which means new event promoters are forced to use less desirable spaces and just can't compete. Pearl Jam famously tried to go against Ticketmaster in the 90s and it didn't go well.

Interesting article on the matter from way back in 1995: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu...erer=&httpsredir=1&article=1417&context=jcred

 

[NBates]

That is definitey a Ticketmaster stuff up. Report this to your Membership Department as it will be used by your club as ammunition when the time comes for clubs to provide feedback. Trust me, North Members are experiencing exactly the same issues too. Go and read some of their chat threads. I empathise.

I did report it to the membership dept....they were the ones that said it's a Ticketmaster responsibility to refund (but I'm not going to waste my time!).

 

[NBates]

Weather for Saturday is 17 degrees, partly cloudy, with 0% chance of rain

Is that for Ballarat tho?

 

[NBates]

Not sure if it applies here DW but I know in the US Ticketmaster has exclusivity agreements with most of the major venues, which means new event promoters are forced to use less desirable spaces and just can't compete. Pearl Jam famously tried to go against Ticketmaster in the 90s and it didn't go well.

Interesting article on the matter from way back in 1995: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu...erer=&httpsredir=1&article=1417&context=jcred

Yeah, it stinks.

 

[MYOB]

Is that for Ballarat tho?

Yes it is, straight from the BOM

 

[dogwatch]

Not sure if it applies here DW but I know in the US Ticketmaster has exclusivity agreements with most of the major venues, which means new event promoters are forced to use less desirable spaces and just can't compete. Pearl Jam famously tried to go against Ticketmaster in the 90s and it didn't go well.

Interesting article on the matter from way back in 1995: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu...erer=&httpsredir=1&article=1417&context=jcred

Thanks. I skimmed through it. Interesting article and you make a good point.

As any savvy company will do, they try to eliminate the competition and fence off any opportunities for anyone else to encroach on their territory. It's can-do capitalism at its finest. We have the ACCC to try to stop that sort of thing preventing any genuine competition here. With quite limited success. Perhaps we should be grateful that we have Ticketek offering some strong competition to Ticketmaster.

Our problem here is that the market (25 million people) isn't considered big enough to provide endless opportunities for startups so we tend to tolerate dominant duopolies in those consumer businesses that are capital intensive (Telstra/Optus, Qantas/Virgin, Coles/Woolworths, Ticketmaster/Ticketek etc). This doesn't always work. The unfortunate truth is that those companies don't have to literally collude - they just need to watch and match each other. There's usually a tacit understanding that neither will start a protracted war that will seriously hurt their respective bottom lines. But watch what happens as soon as a Compass airlines or something similar comes along threatening to upset their cosy business model - they react with savage competition until the newbie is forced out of the market. Then it's back to business-as-usual for the dominant duo. The consumer is the loser, whether it's on price, or quality of service, or both.

I should add there's nothing magic about the number two, except that it tends to be easier to arrive at this tacit agreement among competitors when there are only two parties. In some retail industries (eg banking, media, fuel outlets) we have more than two dominant companies (usually 3-4) often with a similar effect. Also it should be noted that there ARE some smaller companies or franchises that manage to take a percentage of the market (eg IGA/Supa-Valu/Aldi, Rex and other regional airlines, and so on) but for structural or legislative reasons these companies don't usually upset the comfortable dominance of the big two. They just nibble away at the edges and rarely make the transition to the big time. Aldi with its big German backing is one that might. It is making life a bit uncomfortable for Coles (28%) and Woolies (37%). Aldi (11%) has now overtaken IGA (7%). Notably it has come into the market with a different business model to the big two so it is providing customers with choice on the basis of more than just price. I make a point of shopping at Aldi or IGA in preference to the big two whenever I can.

 

[Roogal]

In the spirit of the Anzac Day, this weekend. If readers are planning a trip to Ballarat to watch the game this Saturday then I recommend leaving home a little earlier to visit and pay homage to some of Ballarat's stunning war memorials. Ballarat has a marvelous collection of statues and monuments to Kings, Queens, poets, Prime Ministers, war heroes and people who shaped our nation.

I do recommend taking the time to see these monuments because they aren't just of Ballarat significance, they are nationally significant and a visit to each will touch your heart in some way to give thanks to these amazing people.

Albert Earnest Coates: A Ballarat surgeon who signed up to the Australian Army Medical Corps in WW2. He was attached to the 8th Division of the 2nd AIF at Singapore and subsequently was taken POW during the fall of Singapore along with 900 of his fellow Ballarat citizens who had the misfortune to be allocated to the 15,000 strong 8th Division. LT COL Coates continued to serve as doctor and surgeon under the most primative of conditions imaginable operating to save thousands of lives (even those of his Japanese captors). He was Ballarat's answer to Edward Weary Dunlop. Albert survived the war having also saved countless lives of Australian and British POWs. He held no malice toward the Japanese and returned to become Victoria's Chief Medical Officer in the 1950s and one of Australia's leading cardiac specialists, teaching his craft at Melbourne University for many years after the war.

​

MAJ GEN Pompey Elliott: This guy today would be the poster boy for PTSD. Ballarat born and raised he was a fully qualified Barrister before WW1. During the war he enlisted into the Infantry and became one of our most aggressive but extremely effective commanders. He characteristically led from the from front and notably would be severe on the soldiers who dragged the chain but equally empathetic to their fears. He wrote extremely detailed letters of all of his battles during the war and also of the conflict within himself and the depth of guilt for the loss of each one of his soldiers to his wife. Those letters are now in the possession of the Australian War Memorial. He served all of the way through from Gallipoli to the Western Front. During the battle to liberate the village of Villiers Bretonneux he actively commanded his troops (not from a command post, but on the ground) as the Commander of the 4th Victorian Brigade that finally drove the Germans out of the village for the last time. It was a battle that impressed the people of Villiers Bretonneux so deeply that they never forgot the Australians. After the War the children of Victoria raised money to rebuild the school in Villiers Bretonneux which the towns people named "The Victoria School". A placard over the blackboard in each classroom states "Nublion Jamais l Australie" (Never forget Australia). In 2022 the children in that village still repeat that every Monday morning.

Sadly the grief of loss that he felt for the soldiers who served under him and the grief of their families weighed deeply on him after the war and he committed suicide in 1928.



The Arch of Victory and Avenue of Honour: Ballarat's oldest 20th Century war memorial was built by funds raised from the 700 girls and ladies who worked in the Lucas Clothing Factory on the site of where Ballarat's Target store presently stands. During the war practically every woman who worked at the factory had a husband, brother, uncle of father who was serving. These ladies worked double shifts through the war turning out uniforms and garments for the Army and Navy. Throughout the war the ladies (led by a formidable boss Matilda (Tilly) Thompson) actively raised funds toward a permanent memorial realising that the efforts of their loved ones should be duly commemorated after the war. By 1918 they had raised enough money to build not only the Arch but to fund a tree with a bronze plaque to be positioned for 15 miles west of Ballarat with each tree to represent the 4000 servicemen from Ballarat and the bronze plaques baring their name and regimental number. The effort was so fantastic that 80 years after the Arch's 1920 dedication in 2000 it would take 10 years to raise just enough money to restore the arch to its original condition in time for its 90th birthday in 2010. The cost today to replace each tree is about $700. The Ballarat Council have had a program in place to replace each of the trees which will take about 30 years.

In honour of the Lucas Girls and their legacy, the City of Ballarat in 2010 named it's newest suburb (2km West of the Arch) "Lucas".

​

The Grieving Mother: This is Ballarat's most recent addition and is situated on an axis so that she faces toward the arch as if she is walking toward it. It is a 1.8 metre high statue that depicts a woman in her 70's still grieving the loss of her son perhaps 30-40 years after the First War. The pain of loss still raw on her face, she bows in grief. This statue is about enduring love, the love that goes on beyond the grave, beyond the loss of a loved one. It's a highly emotional memorial that is an acknowledgement of the trauma, grief and anxiety felt by the families of Australian servicemen and women. It was dedicated on the 75th Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore by the Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

The wording at the foot of the statue etched into the stone reads:

I had no skill to offer
I had no wealth to spend
Mine was a greater glory
I had a son to send


​

The Australian Ex Prisoner's of War Memorial: This one is really stunning. Situated in Ballarat's Botanic Gardens at the Western end of Lake Wendouree. If I asked any reader today, "Did you realise that up until 2004 Australia had no central roll or record comprehensively listing its ex POWs?"

You all might be surprised to know that there is no permanent memorial for our prisoners of war in Canberra, yet there are memorials to absolutely every other aspect of military service, even our war animals (Sniffer and explosive detection dogs, carrier pigeons, horses, camels). But not a single rock to commemorate those captured as POW. Okay, there's a deep story here but I will try to keep it as brief as I can folks.

Earlier in this post I stated that Ballarat endured a heavy loss of people who endured capture and many death in Changi and on the Thai-Burma Railway. Those that survived promised their mates lost that they would not be forgotten. In a nutshell, the Ballarat RSL petitioned the Federal Government on no less than seven occasions between the 1950s to the 1990's for money to establish a monument of any description. They didn't ask for much, but each time they were told, "We will build a monument in Canberra when the time is right". It never happened. Finally in 1992, the Ballarat RSL and local POW branch got fed up and started raising money to get the monument built to honour the commitment that they had made to their mates that they would never be forgotten. These people were getting into their 70s and 80s at the time and they knew that their time was running out. They commissioned a local sculptor to come up with something. The sculptor encouraged them to think "grand".

The sculptor presented a model of a 150 metre walkway that was formed by railway sleeper sized blue stone laid as a pathway. On one side would be two angled polished granite walls baring the names of every Australian POW from the Boer War to the present. The middle portion would consist of several obelisks with the names of countries and regions where Australia's were held prisoner. One stone would lay on its side to represent the "Fallen". The obelisks and the granite walls would be surrounded by reflective pools of water to symbolise Australian's being cut off from home. The plants surrounding the monument would be representative of each continent where POW camps were.

Fund raising began in Ballarat in 1994 to build a memorial that was costed at $1.8 million. The people of Ballarat directly contributed $780,000 while the rest was contributed by generous benefactors, RSLs and Tattersalls. The Federal Government didn't cough up one cent! The memorial was built using volunteer labour as Ballarat building companies donated their labour working on the project during the evenings. Local building companies donated much of the material used from concrete to stone.

The saga of getting the list of names came down to a small group of dedicated veterans and one stand out lady in particular Mrs Liz Heggerty. It took them 10 years to gather the 35,000 names from the central Army Records Office, the Australian War Memorial, RSLs, Legacy and Veteran Affairs. Not one of those organisations had a list of any kind that readily identified our Ex-Prisoners of War. It was a complete labour of love for Liz who's father was an ailing POW veteran. 10 years of compiling the roll, cross checking, de-conflicting, confirming details and finally contacting the stone masons to have each name recorded.

The day of the dedication was attended by over 12,000 Ex POWs and their families. There really is nothing else like it in Australia - Certainly not in Canberra.

This weekend, if you can make the time to visit any of these wonderful memorials I solemnly urge you to do so.


LEST WE FORGET
​

 

[VL3OJ]

Thank you Roogal for articulating something that must be close to your heart. The rural contribution to the ANZAC name on both sides of the Tasman is profound and without their ingenuity, guts and resolve, we may be in a different world today. I shall attempt to seek out a few of these sites.

We shall remember them!

 

[MYOB]

I have 1 spare (free) ticket to tomorrow's game. It is a reserved seat in the main grandstand.

Let me know if you are interested.

 

[Roogal]

On ground report at Mars Stadium this morning. The local lads from the 8/7 Battalion, Royal Victorian Regiment were rehearsing for tomorrow's game.

The oval looks amazing. It looks like carpet, in pristine condition. Workers were beaverishly putting final touches to the new Gate 1, mowing the grass on the outer, installing cameras etc.

 

[MYOB]

I now have 2 free reserved seats in the main grandstand. Let me know if you would like them

 

[Roogal]

Final attendance at yesterday's game: 10,412

A new ground record and only 588 off full legal capacity. Despite the final score, the weather God smiled kindly on Ballarat for near perfect playing conditions. The vibe among the crowd was great from both sides, and the place was rocking in the final quarter. We get to do it all again for the last game in Ballarat for this season in about four weeks time against the Suns. I can forgive the weather God though if he decides to give the Suns a much chillier Ballarat welcome in late May

Given some of the behind the scenes turmoil for individual Bulldogs players and staff over the preceeding week that came to light after the game, I thought that the Dogs held up well to fight back and to almost take the game against a beleagered Adelaide who actually brought their best game to yesterday's match. I saw North Melbourne last week string together passages of brilliance and teamwork where they had the Dogs running in circles. I consoled myself after that game thinking that if North had pulled together over the four quarters as they did in the second that the final scoreline would have been much closer either way and befitting of playing a team like the Dogs.

I have to admit that while I hate going to football games and watching my team get trounced (happened quite a bit the last couple of seasons), there's no real joy in seeing my team demolish another team (well that hasn't happened in a while ). I go to the footy to be entertained, and really what is more entertaining than a very close game with two closely matched teams on a given day?

 

[Freshwater]

There really was a good atmosphere and the weather and conditions were perfect. The oval is a perfect shape too, unlike Geelong’s long cigar shaped ground.
But the health department is too strict these days if that was capacity. There was generous amounts of room around everyone in the outer. I went to a game at the Western Oval in the 80’s that had over 33,000 people, it was also a sunny day in April, we were all standing a lot closer.
Obviously we would all like to see the main grandstand replicated around the whole ground in the next ten years and get some big crowds.
As a Geelong resident who travels to Ballarat at least ten times a year I am always impressed by the continual tree plantings now and beautiful old trees and buildings that make us in Geelong look like a desert with crap buildings. If you were to travel from Point Cook or Truginina etc you get to experience a completely different looking town to your own. I know this is not Marvel with 50,000 capacity but I have never got the negative stuff from some supporters when these games used to be in Darwin or Cairns, and this is a more beautiful town than those two, about an hour away for most fans. And we make the same money. It’s also immediately West of our heartland. How could we not invest in such a venture? For those saying we should be investigating time in our heartland, 100% we still should be, it is possible to do both. My nieces do Auskick in Werribee and their sponsor AFL club is North Melbourne! That is the problem, not going to Ballarat.

 

[footscray1973]

Final attendance at yesterday's game: 10,412

A new ground record and only 588 off full legal capacity. Despite the final score, the weather God smiled kindly on Ballarat for near perfect playing conditions. The vibe among the crowd was great from both sides, and the place was rocking in the final quarter. We get to do it all again for the last game in Ballarat for this season in about four weeks time against the Suns. I can forgive the weather God though if he decides to give the Suns a much chillier Ballarat welcome in late May

Sadly I couldn't fill one of my purchased seats in the main stand due to a sick child, but you're spot on Roogal

Also, a few of our posters in the match day thread said the wind was a factor. That's probably the mildest breeze I've seen at Mars, and given our players train at VUWO, I'd expect professional footballers to adapt to that (Crows certainly did).

Apart from the result and events on the ground, was a great day with as good playing conditions as you'll get in Ballarat.

 

[Freshwater]

It was an easterly wind which has been our summer pattern this year but very rare for winter time in Victoria. It was very gentle but blowing from the least protected side of the ground. Hardly enough to affect suburban footballers let alone professionals.

 

[Roogal]

It was an easterly wind which has been our summer pattern this year but very rare for winter time in Victoria. It was very gentle but blowing from the least protected side of the ground. Hardly enough to affect suburban footballers let alone professionals.

Dead right. Easterly winds in Ballarat are very rare indeed. Besides irrespective of what weather conditions are like on any given day at an outdoor venue, the other team has to play and deliver performance under exactly the same conditions too.

 

[NBates]

In the spirit of the Anzac Day, this weekend. If readers are planning a trip to Ballarat to watch the game this Saturday then I recommend leaving home a little earlier to visit and pay homage to some of Ballarat's stunning war memorials. Ballarat has a marvelous collection of statues and monuments to Kings, Queens, poets, Prime Ministers, war heroes and people who shaped our nation.

I do recommend taking the time to see these monuments because they aren't just of Ballarat significance, they are nationally significant and a visit to each will touch your heart in some way to give thanks to these amazing people.

Albert Earnest Coates: A Ballarat surgeon who signed up to the Australian Army Medical Corps in WW2. He was attached to the 8th Division of the 2nd AIF at Singapore and subsequently was taken POW during the fall of Singapore along with 900 of his fellow Ballarat citizens who had the misfortune to be allocated to the 15,000 strong 8th Division. LT COL Coates continued to serve as doctor and surgeon under the most primative of conditions imaginable operating to save thousands of lives (even those of his Japanese captors). He was Ballarat's answer to Edward Weary Dunlop. Albert survived the war having also saved countless lives of Australian and British POWs. He held no malice toward the Japanese and returned to become Victoria's Chief Medical Officer in the 1950s and one of Australia's leading cardiac specialists, teaching his craft at Melbourne University for many years after the war.

View attachment 1380059​

MAJ GEN Pompey Elliott: This guy today would be the poster boy for PTSD. Ballarat born and raised he was a fully qualified Barrister before WW1. During the war he enlisted into the Infantry and became one of our most aggressive but extremely effective commanders. He characteristically led from the from front and notably would be severe on the soldiers who dragged the chain but equally empathetic to their fears. He wrote extremely detailed letters of all of his battles during the war and also of the conflict within himself and the depth of guilt for the loss of each one of his soldiers to his wife. Those letters are now in the possession of the Australian War Memorial. He served all of the way through from Gallipoli to the Western Front. During the battle to liberate the village of Villiers Bretonneux he actively commanded his troops (not from a command post, but on the ground) as the Commander of the 4th Victorian Brigade that finally drove the Germans out of the village for the last time. It was a battle that impressed the people of Villiers Bretonneux so deeply that they never forgot the Australians. After the War the children of Victoria raised money to rebuild the school in Villiers Bretonneux which the towns people named "The Victoria School". A placard over the blackboard in each classroom states "Nublion Jamais l Australie" (Never forget Australia). In 2022 the children in that village still repeat that every Monday morning.

Sadly the grief of loss that he felt for the soldiers who served under him and the grief of their families weighed deeply on him after the war and he committed suicide in 1928.

View attachment 1380061

The Arch of Victory and Avenue of Honour: Ballarat's oldest 20th Century war memorial was built by funds raised from the 700 girls and ladies who worked in the Lucas Clothing Factory on the site of where Ballarat's Target store presently stands. During the war practically every woman who worked at the factory had a husband, brother, uncle of father who was serving. These ladies worked double shifts through the war turning out uniforms and garments for the Army and Navy. Throughout the war the ladies (led by a formidable boss Matilda (Tilly) Thompson) actively raised funds toward a permanent memorial realising that the efforts of their loved ones should be duly commemorated after the war. By 1918 they had raised enough money to build not only the Arch but to fund a tree with a bronze plaque to be positioned for 15 miles west of Ballarat with each tree to represent the 4000 servicemen from Ballarat and the bronze plaques baring their name and regimental number. The effort was so fantastic that 80 years after the Arch's 1920 dedication in 2000 it would take 10 years to raise just enough money to restore the arch to its original condition in time for its 90th birthday in 2010. The cost today to replace each tree is about $700. The Ballarat Council have had a program in place to replace each of the trees which will take about 30 years.

In honour of the Lucas Girls and their legacy, the City of Ballarat in 2010 named it's newest suburb (2km West of the Arch) "Lucas".

View attachment 1380057​

The Grieving Mother: This is Ballarat's most recent addition and is situated on an axis so that she faces toward the arch as if she is walking toward it. It is a 1.8 metre high statue that depicts a woman in her 70's still grieving the loss of her son perhaps 30-40 years after the First War. The pain of loss still raw on her face, she bows in grief. This statue is about enduring love, the love that goes on beyond the grave, beyond the loss of a loved one. It's a highly emotional memorial that is an acknowledgement of the trauma, grief and anxiety felt by the families of Australian servicemen and women. It was dedicated on the 75th Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore by the Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

The wording at the foot of the statue etched into the stone reads:

I had no skill to offer
I had no wealth to spend
Mine was a greater glory
I had a son to send

View attachment 1380056
​

The Australian Ex Prisoner's of War Memorial: This one is really stunning. Situated in Ballarat's Botanic Gardens at the Western end of Lake Wendouree. If I asked any reader today, "Did you realise that up until 2004 Australia had no central roll or record comprehensively listing its ex POWs?"

You all might be surprised to know that there is no permanent memorial for our prisoners of war in Canberra, yet there are memorials to absolutely every other aspect of military service, even our war animals (Sniffer and explosive detection dogs, carrier pigeons, horses, camels). But not a single rock to commemorate those captured as POW. Okay, there's a deep story here but I will try to keep it as brief as I can folks.

Earlier in this post I stated that Ballarat endured a heavy loss of people who endured capture and many death in Changi and on the Thai-Burma Railway. Those that survived promised their mates lost that they would not be forgotten. In a nutshell, the Ballarat RSL petitioned the Federal Government on no less than seven occasions between the 1950s to the 1990's for money to establish a monument of any description. They didn't ask for much, but each time they were told, "We will build a monument in Canberra when the time is right". It never happened. Finally in 1992, the Ballarat RSL and local POW branch got fed up and started raising money to get the monument built to honour the commitment that they had made to their mates that they would never be forgotten. These people were getting into their 70s and 80s at the time and they knew that their time was running out. They commissioned a local sculptor to come up with something. The sculptor encouraged them to think "grand".

The sculptor presented a model of a 150 metre walkway that was formed by railway sleeper sized blue stone laid as a pathway. On one side would be two angled polished granite walls baring the names of every Australian POW from the Boer War to the present. The middle portion would consist of several obelisks with the names of countries and regions where Australia's were held prisoner. One stone would lay on its side to represent the "Fallen". The obelisks and the granite walls would be surrounded by reflective pools of water to symbolise Australian's being cut off from home. The plants surrounding the monument would be representative of each continent where POW camps were.

Fund raising began in Ballarat in 1994 to build a memorial that was costed at $1.8 million. The people of Ballarat directly contributed $780,000 while the rest was contributed by generous benefactors, RSLs and Tattersalls. The Federal Government didn't cough up one cent! The memorial was built using volunteer labour as Ballarat building companies donated their labour working on the project during the evenings. Local building companies donated much of the material used from concrete to stone.

The saga of getting the list of names came down to a small group of dedicated veterans and one stand out lady in particular Mrs Liz Heggerty. It took them 10 years to gather the 35,000 names from the central Army Records Office, the Australian War Memorial, RSLs, Legacy and Veteran Affairs. Not one of those organisations had a list of any kind that readily identified our Ex-Prisoners of War. It was a complete labour of love for Liz who's father was an ailing POW veteran. 10 years of compiling the roll, cross checking, de-conflicting, confirming details and finally contacting the stone masons to have each name recorded.

The day of the dedication was attended by over 12,000 Ex POWs and their families. There really is nothing else like it in Australia - Certainly not in Canberra.

View attachment 1380062

View attachment 1380063

View attachment 1380171

This weekend, if you can make the time to visit any of these wonderful memorials I solemnly urge you to do so.

View attachment 1380186
LEST WE FORGET
​

OMG. I didn't know this existed and wish I'd visited yesterday. I wore my poppy and rosemary badges specifically for my uncle who was shot and killed in Bougainville in 1945 - about a month before the war ended. He went to save a soldier under his care. He was from Ballarat. My mum (in her teens at the time) was the person who came out of the house to receive the tragic telegram. My uncle is buried in the Australian War Cemetery in Port Moresby. I visited on the centenary of Anzac in 2015, but apart from Ballarat's avenue of honour, I wasn't aware of the other memorials.

My dad was posted to Thursday Island in WW2, but fortunately never saw action. I heard many stories from him and uncles about their service (many seeing action) and from my mum as to how life was in Australia during WW2. Her family hosted US servicemen. The rationing etc. I think that's why I got a little annoyed about covid struggles - if only people were aware of prior generations plights.

And we must never forget that Australia WAS invaded in WW2. Not only Darwin, but subs in Sydney harbour. We must thank them all for their service and for the freedoms we all enjoy. Were it not for them, this beautiful country would be a lot different.

Not living in the past. Time moves on. But Lest We Forget to give thanks for their service. Men and women. Service animals. Loved ones suffering at home.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention and next time I visit I will have it on my list.

 

[VL3OJ]

It was an easterly wind which has been our summer pattern this year but very rare for winter time in Victoria. It was very gentle but blowing from the least protected side of the ground. Hardly enough to affect suburban footballers let alone professionals.

Thanks for picking this up Roogal (and both detailed refreshing posts) and Freshwater. The number of out of bounds on the full by both teams was appalling. At Ballarat airport winds were ~20kph gusting 30kph from the south east but much lighter at the ground and I cannot fathom the lack of skill in a number of instances with limited pressure on the kicker. Any local team would have less howlers and perhaps the Doggies need to play some intraclub practice games in the country to hone their skills where grand stands are just aspirational.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

Prehaps the first game should always be on Anzac week. Just have it a bit later on when lights come in. Record crowd.

 

[footscray1973]

Thanks for picking this up Roogal (and both detailed refreshing posts) and Freshwater. The number of out of bounds on the full by both teams was appalling. At Ballarat airport winds were ~20kph gusting 30kph from the south east but much lighter at the ground and I cannot fathom the lack of skill in a number of instances with limited pressure on the kicker. Any local team would have less howlers and perhaps the Doggies need to play some intraclub practice games in the country to hone their skills where grand stands are just aspirational.

I don't have stats, maybe Oliver Gigacz does, but I think this game had less OOFs than other Mars games. One of the early games had an OOF, the player who took the kick then kicked OOF, and the next kick was in play, but to a team mate who also kicked OOF. So 3 out of 4 consecutive kicks

Edit: may have been one of our VFL games.