Salute for VC heroes
Jacka heads Walk of Honour
WINCHELSEA’S favourite son, Albert Jacka, will be honoured by the town he was born in 100 years after the heroics that earned him Australia’s first Victoria Cross.
The Barwon River will be the backdrop for a Walk of Honour being created in the town to recognise Captain Jacka and the 63 Australians who have since joined him as recipients of the VC, the highest award for acts of bravery in wartime.
Jacka was born in Winchelsea and lived in the town until the age of five when his family moved to Wedderburn, in north-central Victoria.
At 22, he entered Australian folklore on May 19 and 20, 1915, less than a month after he was among the first Australian soldiers to storm Turkey’s Gallipoli beaches.
Jacka, then a Lance Corporal, used his rifle and bayonet to almost singlehandedly hold the Anzac trench at Courtney’s Post in a bloody battle with seven Turkish soldiers.
His VC for “most conspicuous bravery” was confirmed within two months and he quickly became a pinup boy for Australia’s war effort.
Later he received other bravery awards for his efforts on the Western Front before returning home in 1919.
The Winchelsea RSL has teamed with the town’s historical society, primary school and the Surf Coast Shire to develop the idea of the Walk of Honour to spread knowledge about Australia’s most courageous service people.
Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson announced this week the Winchelsea project would receive $20,000 through the Anzac Centenary Local Grants program.
“It is wonderful the Walk of Honour will allow Winchelsea residents and visitors to learn about the VC recipients’ valour in the face of the enemy,” she said.
“Students will be able to use the memorial as a learning tool and it will become a permanent reminder of the sacrifice of those who served in the First World War.”
The Government is providing $125,000 in each federal electorate this year to mark the centenary of Anzac Day. Details at anzaccentenary.gov.au