Help honour tunnellers

TOWNSVILLE military buffs can now get their hands on limited edition medallions honouring the contribution of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company to the Battle of Messines Ridge .

A scene from 2010 film 'Beneath Hill 60'.

NORTH Queensland military buffs can now get their hands on limited edition medallions honouring the contribution of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company to the Battle of Messines Ridge.

The first batch of 250 80mm bronze Commemorative Centenary Medallions have been minted in Brussels, Belgium by world renowned medallion creator, Paul Huybrechts and are finally available in Townsville in a presentation box.

Barbara Woodward, 93, was presented with the first medallion at a special ceremony in Melbourne.

Her father, Captain Oliver Holmes Woodward of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company, was the man who threw the switch to fire both the Hill 60 and Caterpillar mines, heralding the famous infantry attack to take Messiness Ridge from the Germans in June 1917.

The medallion has an exact replica of Michael Meszaros’s memorial sculpture to the Australian Mining Corps at the entrance to the Army Museum North Queensland on one side and the Australian Army Rising Sun on the other.

Peter Yoxal chairman of the Kissing Point Millitary Foundation, Beneath Hill 60executive producer Ross Thomas and Major John Lavery.

The memorial, opened in 2012, was a spin-off from the connected successful film, Beneath Hill 60, which was shot entirely in Townsville in 2010.

Sets, props and costumes from the film were also donated to the museum for the creation of a simulated underground environment at Hill 60 on the Western Front during the Great War.

A replica of the memorial is also displayed at Ploegsteert’s Plugstreet 14-18 Experience museum in Belgium, which was donated and unveiled by Beneath Hill 60 executive producer Ross Thomas.

Mr Thomas will travel to Belgium next month with a small number of the medallions to distribute there and in the UK to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the famous fight.

But he said he wanted a majority of the medallions to find homes in North Queensland.

“It’s a commemoration to all tunnellers of Australian origin in the Great War,” he said.

“I think it’s something the public can get their hands on and feel an association with the memorial.

“We like to think Townsville is the national home of the forgotten tunnellers so we would like to sell most of them to their family members and people in North Queensland.”

Tthe Commemorative Centenary Medallion, honoring the contribution of the 1st Australian Tunneling Company for its contribution to the Battle of Messines Ridge.

The Army Museum North Queensland at Jezzine Barracks will exclusively sell the medallions in Townsville.

It’s open Sundays, Fridays and Wednesdays from 9am to 1pm. Entry is free. Those outside the garrison city can purchase one by calling 0405 504 332.

The final cost is yet to be confirmed but the museum has confirmed it will be under $80.

Postage will be an additional fee. They will be available until stocks run out.

Originally published as Help honour tunnellers