The Gayndah community will come together in late August, staging a memorial walk to honour Australia’s soldiers – including one of their own – who died during the war with Afghanistan.
Gayndah’s RSL sub-branch held a community meeting at its Warton Street headquarters on 21 June to discuss hosting the walk, deciding on the date of 30 August and choosing the town’s Peter Dunn Oval as the location.
Saturday’s meeting followed an initial community forum on 24 May to discuss the idea.
Gayndah RSL sub-branch secretary Keith Wrench explained the memorial walk will pay tribute to Australia’s 41 soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014.
The walk will also recognise the country’s 42nd casualty: returned service personnel who have since died by suicide.
Mr Wrench explained the walk will be named in honour of Gayndah local Jacob Moerland, an Australian Army sapper who died on 7 June 2010 after being caught in the blast of an improvised explosive device while on patrol. He was just 21 at the time of his death.
The Jacob ‘Snowy’ Moerland Memorial Walk will consist of a 42-kilometre trek broken up by 500-metre stretches – two circuits per fallen soldier.
At the start of each new kilometre, members of veterans’ not-for-profit organisation 42 for 42 will present a photograph of one of the war dead, reading their biography before taking the picture with them on the walk.
Participants may take on the entire trek or choose to walk for specific soldiers.
The entry charge of $42, Mr Wrench explained, will go toward the maintenance of Brisbane’s Afghanistan Memorial Garden, a place of remembrance next to Suncorp Stadium constructed by 42 for 42 and opened in 2021.
