Mackay veteran Mark Preston designs memorial for post-Vietnam soldiers

Afghanistan veteran reveals his designs for the war memorial Mackay has been missing, honouring soldiers post-Vietnam.

East Timor and Afghanistan veteran Mark Preston says Mackay is missing a memorial commemorating those who served after the Vietnam War. Picture: Zizi Averill

After taking a stroll down Jubilee Park during the Vietnam Veterans Day last year, a Mackay veteran noticed something missing from the memorial garden.

“Looking around Jubilee Park, we’ve got the scimitar for WWI, there’s a memorial there for WWII, there’s one for National Servicemen and there’s also the one there for Vietnam vets,” Mark Preston said.

“There’s nothing there for anyone post-Vietnam.”

Mr Preston, who served in Afghanistan and East Timor, has sparked calls for a new memorial commemorating the thousands of service men and women from Dawson who served or continued serving post 1975 to present day.

“We need to have something in Mackay for veterans,” he said.

“You didn’t have to be deployed, you just needed to wear the uniform.”

Like many other veterans who served post-Vietnam, Mr Preston began his service on peacetime missions.

Mackay veteran Mark Preston. Picture: Contributed

Enlisting at the age of 19, he was first deployed to East Timor as part of Operation Citadel in 2003 as an aircraft communicator with peacekeeping forces in the south after the small island country of the coast of WA regained independence from Indonesia.

In 2006 he was then sent to Kandahar, Afghanistan repairing and building chinook helicopters to resupply and ensure aircraft were ready to go as Taliban rockets flew over his head.

“We had a lot of indirect fire,” he said.

“That was a very regular occurrence.”

But it wasn’t until talking to troops on the ground that he was able to put the work he had been doing into perspective.

“The role we had really supported the guys on the ground and kept them essentially in the fight with everything they needed from food, water, mail from home,” he said.

“There were certainly times when it was difficult and to some guys it still is difficult. Each person that was deployed had a different experience.”

But like every other digger, Mr Preston doesn’t want the focus to be on him

“You’ll notice about veterans, it’s not about them, it’s always helping other people,” he said.

“I have spoken to veterans around Mackay and they’re very keen for this to go ahead and these are veterans from more recent conflicts.”

The ADF was involved in many peacetime military operations after the Vietnam War and into the 90s though it didn’t rule out the violence of the battlefield.

In 1977, Australian forces carried out aerial mapping exercises over West Papua, known at the time as Irian Jawa, after Indonesia formally took over the region from the Dutch West Indies in 1969.

The new memorial will feature the ADF logo, a set of boots, a slouch hat and the Austeyr rifle on top. Photo: Mark Preston

Almost 1500 ADF troops served in Somalia between 1992 and 94 as part of the UNISOM II peacekeeping mission following the bloodbath of Somalia’s civil war.

Australian Defence forces also joined many other western countries on one of the most difficult peacekeeping missions ever undertaken by the UN, the Rwandan Genocide from 1994 to 1995.

Since the Iraq war in 1991, Australia has been heavily involved in the Middle East where a lot of the fighting remains today.

The last census data from 2021 revealed around 4300 people in the Dawson electorate had previously served and nearly 1000 were currently in the ranks.

“With what I’m doing today, this monument is basically for all troops, all service men and women to give them something to have as a monument,” he said.

“For them to pay respects to men and women they served with who paid the ultimate sacrifice or their demons got to them when they got home.

“My main focus is for anyone to have a place to meet, or go alone. A place of reflection for younger veterans.

“Each theatre of conflict, they’re all different.”

Mark Preston during the Mackay Anzac Day 2022 Dawn Service.

Mr Preston has been in discussions with Diggers Landscape Supplies.

Stonemason Justin Bondzulic said the sandstone sourced from a Gracemere quarry will be used for the memorial and stretch two metres tall.

The monument, designed by Mr Preston, would include the ADF logo on the front with the three service logos around the sides representing the army, navy and air force, and a set of boots, a slouch hat and the Austeyr rifle as the cherry on top.

The new memorial is for veterans who served since 1975 to present day.

“A large percentage of the service men and women have used the Austeyr as the rifle that they were deployed with,” he said.

He expects the monument to be around 2 metres cubed with a cost of up to $80,000, but he says he has council potentially backing the plan.

“I had the mayor say they’re keen to meet in the near future.”