Mackay Historical Society backs Mackay RSL Club revival
Hub for our Heroes: ‘The entrance to the RSL will be absolutely lathered in history and memorabilia so nobody has any mistake of where they are’
Mackay
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Custodians of Mackay’s history say reviving the city’s RSL Club will create a public platform to appreciate the region’s military involvement stretching back to the Boer War.
Mackay Historical Society’s Judy Stewart and Steven Pritchard have joined the ranks behind the Hub for our Heroes campaign to revive the RSL Club along River Street.
The campaign is also asking Mackay residents to get behind building a dedicated veterans and first responders treatment hub at Kinchant Dam.
Mr Pritchard said the club would be a way to honour the service of Mackay veterans like his grandfather who was a World War II Spitfire pilot.
“When the RSL club closed here in Mackay, he wasn’t at all happy about it,” Mr Pritchard said.
“Cairns, Townsville, Bundaberg and Maryborough have RSL clubs, so why not Mackay?
“War memorials and cenotaphs are important things to have but I think we need to have something else as well.”
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Ms Stewart said a display at the RSL club would be an accessible and visual connection to Mackay’s rich military history including those who served in the Boer War in South Africa in the late 1800s.
She explained Boer War veterans became the training and recruitment officers for Mackay’s WWI soldiers who signed up at the former drill hall that is now the Mackay Regional Council Sir Abbott Administration Building between Gordon and Alfred Streets.
“(Mackay’s veterans) are not just names on a cenotaph,” Ms Stewart said.
“They were grandfathers and fathers and they’ve got relatives still living in Mackay.
“That’s what history is, it’s just a connection to those people who came before us and their stories.”
Mackay RSL sub-branch president Ken Higgins said he would like the club to feature the name of every Mackay person who ever volunteered to serve or had served their country.
“The entrance to the RSL will be absolutely lathered in history and memorabilia so nobody has any mistake of where they are,” Mr Higgins said.
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