Anzac Day 2025: Book honouring those who served from Dumbleyung plays fitting role in town’s remembrances

The launch of the collaborative war memorial book Dumbleyung And Districts Those Who Served played a fitting role in the town’s Anzac Day remembrances on Friday. The book details 460 stories of those in service connected to the town and its surrounds. It was launched at the Dumbleyung District Club on Anzac Day. For the book’s instigator, Jill Clarke, and her four collaborators, it was the conclusion of a five-year journey from concept to launch. Sue McDougall, Beth Bartram, Yvonne Height and Helen South worked with Ms Clarke collecting personal memoirs, diary entries and official records. Ms Clarke said the launch had been wonderful and it was great to see more than 50 people marching. “It was a fabulous day with a great crowd,” she said. “I marched for the first time in memory of my father and grandad, we had the lunch and the launch, and I spent the day talking to people and families who are mentioned in the book.” Ms Clarke joined around 50 current and former service men and women and their families in the march. She said her grandfather fought at the Battle of the Somme in World War I and her father flew as a wireless operator in a Lancaster bomber in WWII. Both came home to their farms. “I sometimes just like to have a bit of quiet contemplation to remember them but I enjoyed the march and probably should have done it before,” she said. While she does not want to write another book herself, she said that since publication last December she had found another 400 names of service people from Dumbleyung and its surrounds. “I’m in no rush for another project but those 400 names could be a project for someone else out there,” she said. The book covers accounts spanning across the Boer War, WWI, WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars, national service, army, air force, navy and volunteer defence corps, including those serving in the present day.