Calling for volunteers

RSL visiting service hopes to expand

FOR 13 years, Trevor Fuelling has visited returned servicemen during their stays in hospital.

Always up for a chat, the Toowoomba United RSL subbranch welfare officer is a familiar figure wandering the halls of St Vincent’s Private Hospital Toowoomba, where he does his rounds for the Returned Services League.

But with only three volunteers covering St Vincent’s and St Andrew’s Hospitals, he’s now heading a push to get others involved in the program.

Yesterday, he made an impromptu visit to St Vincent’s, handing over care packages to veterans courtesy of the state branch of the RSL.

“We want to get into the Toowoomba Hospital, and see more people around the region,” he said.

“There’re little hospitals around (the region) and if someone wants to go there from time to time as well, that’d be fine.”

Mr Fuelling’s first call yesterday was to 96-year-old RAAF serviceman Keith Dwyer, who was living in Darwin at the time of the bombing in 1942.

He later joined the RAAF in 1945.

“The raid started very quickly. The planes came over and we were on the wharf ... and the bombs dropped straight down on the wharf and we had nothing after that,” he said.

“(Shrapnel) was all around us, there was wood and everything coming around. We were covered with it.

“It was just, at the time you couldn’t describe it. The bombs, they let them down in salvos. One lot down, then they pass on and then when the smoke clears they let the next lot go.”

Mr Dwyer said it “meant a lot” to have Mr Fuelling pay him a visit while he was in hospital.

For Mr Fuelling, that’s all the encouragement he needs.

“I get a great apprecation for calling bym and I get a fantastic story from them that I love listening to,” he said.

“That’s why I’m still doing it after 13 years.”

Mr Fuelling said the subbranch would welcome expressions of interest from exservice personnel and the public to expand the much-appreciated visiting service to all hospitals in the Toowoomba region.

For more information contact the RSL on 4632 3506 between 8am and noon on weekdays.

Photo: Nev Madsen VETERAN CARE: Visiting returned servicemen at St Vincent’s Private Hospital yesterday is Toowoomba United RSL sub-branch welfare officer Trevor Fuelling (left) with 96-year-old World War Two veteran Keith Dwyer.