Dear Victorian Scheyvillians, as part of the Commemoration Program of the 50^th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, a Vigil is being arranged throughout Australia at the gravesides of those who lost their lives in that conflict. This is being done through the auspices of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA).

2Lt Len Taylor was one of the eight OTU graduates killed on Active Service. A Platoon Commander with B Company, 3RAR, Leonard died of wounds in an enemy contact on February 8^th, 1968, in Long Dien, Phuoc Tuy Province. He is buried in Box Hill Cemetery.

His vigil is to take place at 11:am on Thursday 3^rd August at the Box Hill Cemetery. It will take the form of a short service followed by the laying of a wreath. A luncheon will follow at the Box Hill RSL.

Timing: 10:45 Assemble outside the office of Box Hill Cemetery, 395 Middleborough Rd, Box Hill, then head to the graveside for the service.

Dress: Lounge Suit or Reefer Jacket, Tie (OTU if possible).

Medals: Scheyvillians are encouraged to wear their medals.

Please advise Andrew Guest by COB 27 July of your intention to attend the service and whether you will be having lunch at the Box Hill RSL.

Andrew Guest    Andrew.g.guest@gmail.com

Phone  0455 866 300

 

Frank Miller

Chairman, OTU Association.

 

 

In 1966 the government realised that country lads who lived away from major centres, where there was a CMF ‘Drill Hall’, could not take up the option of serving in the CMF for six years in lieu of going in the Ballot, so each mainland state raised a ‘Special Conditions’ Infantry Battalion. Each CMF ‘Nasho’ had to serve 33 days a year, minimum, for those six years. The days could be done in a 33-day block, or a split into two periods of 16 and 17 days. Victoria’s ‘Special Conditions’ Battalion was 22 RVR. Tasmanians trained with 22 RVR. Originally 22 RVR was based in Richmond, in Melbourne, but held its two annual camps at Puckapunyal. However, in 1969 22 RVR moved into a permanent home at ‘S’ Block, Puckapunyal, just across the creek from C Company, 2 RTB. 22 RVR closed in June 1975. Scheyville graduates Paul Ford and Neil Leckie both served with 22 RVR Post-NS.

In 1988 an Ex 22 RVR Association was formed. The association still runs and holds an annual weekend on, or about, 22 October each year.

This year the annual weekend will be held in the Geelong area. The association is looking for a Guest Speaker for its dinner on Saturday 21 October. It would be good to have a Scheyville graduate, especially one who served on and attended the nearby Queenscliff Command and Staff College, as the Guest Speaker.

Anyone who would like to take on this task, please contact Neil Leckie on 0400 573 802 or at nkaleckie@optusnet.com.au

Dinner will be provided for any Guest Speaker and his partner.

Scheyvillians and friends

 

After a number of successful memorial activities in its home area of the Hunter, The Hunter ANZAC Memorial Limited (HAML) has taken on the challenge of ensuring the some of the Scheyville site is retained as a reminder of how the site has been used within the recent history of Australia.

 

Under the former government, the Scheyville Site was selected to be one of twenty ‘Veterans Hubs’. The incoming government in 2022 scrapped the ‘Veterans Hubs’, but later reinstituted ten sites to become ‘Veterans Hubs’. Scheyville was one! However, the government has been very slow in actually transferring the funds to HAML, and although HAML, with the NSW State Government through National Parks, has financed some works, further works have stalled awaiting the promised funding from the Federal Government.

 

Attached is a letter drafted by HAML that members are requested to forward to various parliamentarians in the hope that some early action may occur with the transfer of funds to HAML.

 

Recipients of this email are requested to forward the letter to:

 

Mr Matt Keogh, the Minister for Veterans Affairs, and your local Federal Member

 

 

For NSW Scheyvillians, please also forward the letter to:

 

Mr David Haris, Minster for Veterans Affairs, NSW, and Ms Robyn Preston, Member for Hawkesbury, (Deputy Opposition Leader), NSW

 

 

The preferred method of forwarding this letter is my ‘snail mail’ as a ‘pile of letters’ is harder to ignore than emails, which as we know can disappear quickly off a screen and never be read again.

 

The Hon Matt Keogh MP, Minister for Veterans Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel

 

PO Box 6022, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, 2600 or Matt.Keogh.MP@aph.gov.au

 

For your local federal member, contact details can be found at:

 

https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Members

 

https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Guidelines_for_Contacting_Senators_and_Members

 

The Hon David Harris MP,

 

Shop 4, 142 Pacific Hwy, Wyong, NSW, 2259. Email: wyong@parliament.nsw.gov.au

 

 

Ms Robyn Preston MP,

 

PO Box 505, Richmond, NSW, 2753. Email: hawkesbury@parliament.nsw.gov.au

 

Your support for HAML, by sending the following letter to the parliamentarians would be appreciated.

 

Address

 

Dear Minister (or Member),

 

I am a writing to you regarding the Scheyville Veterans, Families and Community Centre (or “Veterans’ Hub”), which is now part of the Scheyville National Park, located in the Hawkesbury Region of NSW.

 

Scheyville has a rich history, starting with Aboriginal occupation dating back thousands of years, to more modern times when it has seen:

 

1. A Labour Farm,
2. The Dreadnought Scheme (teaching boys farming): 1911-1915 and 1917-1930s,
3. An Army Camp: (World War II) 1940-1944,
4. A Migrant Camp: 1950-1964, and
5. The National Service Officer Training Unit: 1965 – 1973.

 

In the early 1960s, in response to the need to expand the Australian Army to allow a deployment to Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation, the Federal Government introduced Conscription. Shortly after this decision was made, Australia deployed units to the war in South Vietnam.

 

The Officer Training Unit (OTU) was opened at Scheyville in 1965 where it trained National Service Officers and Army Air Cadets in a gruelling 14-hour day, 22-week course in military leadership skills as an infantry platoon commander.

Between 1965 and 1973, 1,881 officers graduated from Scheyville OTU. The course was a combination of classroom-based training, extensive field exercises and tough physical fitness.

Facilities at OTU included the quadrangle buildings, which formed the administration block on the northern end with the southern end the dining room and kitchen for the Officer’s Mess. The dormitory huts on the east side were used to house the Army staff who provided the training, while the dormitory huts on the west side were used to house the Officer Cadets.

The Commandant and family were housed in the old Farm Manager’s house while the Regimental Sergeant Major and family were in the Overseer’s cottage. Two ‘SAAR’ huts were converted to provide gymnasium facilities and the Officer Cadet’s dining and recreation facility. A Parade Ground was established to the south-west of the quadrangle and adjacent to that on the east of the Parade Ground, an “E” shaped teaching facility was constructed.

In addition to reusing existing buildings, OTU made extensive use of the surrounding farmlands and scrub, establishing obstacle courses, a small arms range, challenge (or obstacle)courses and a tough route march trail.

 

Over 360 OTU graduates served in the Vietnam War, eight of whom died in action. Other OTU graduates served in Malaysia, Singapore and Papua New Guinea. Many who trained at the OTU, such as Jeff Kennett and the late Tim Fischer, reached

 

positions of importance in civilian life and attribute their success to their training at Scheyville.

 

The Hunter ANZAC Memorial Ltd (HAML) is a Charity determined to make a difference by supporting our proud military history and embracing ways to better educate current and future generations of Australians. HAML is working closely with the Veteran community to embrace programs that improve mental health, self-worth, and respect of veterans.

Sadly, many of the buildings at Scheyville, a place that has given so much to the fabric of the Nation, have been left to deteriorate. All the Cadet accommodation, classrooms, stores and medical buildings have been demolished.

To preserve what is left of the OTU buildings at Scheyville, HAML has taken extensive steps to gain control of the building precinct and return the site to its previous prestige befitting its history including the sacrifice of so many Australian young men of the period. This includes turning the site into a “Veterans Hub”.

As HAML marches on ANZAC Day, recites the “ODE”, “Stating we will remember them” and “Lest We Forget”, it is determined to retain the unique period of military history at Scheyville.

 

HAML has been successful in obtaining several Federal Government grants to enable the establishment of the Scheyville “Veterans Hub”. Much of this money will be spent on building a disabled toilet, preserving remaining buildings, building new paths that will cater for mobility devices and establishing the facilities to assist veterans, their families and the local community.

 

However, much more needs to be done if we are to achieve the potential of the Scheyville site, including the development of the sporting fields, once used by officer cadets, for use by the local community.

 

As stated by HAML; Australian Veterans “Past, Present and Future” should never be forgotten as they have always gone to fight for the “Rights and Freedoms of Others”, “in places they never knew existed, for people whose faces they have never seen and names they have never heard”. If we do not remember the past, we have no future.

 

HAML requests Members of Parliament to ensure that the “Veteran’s Hub” funding already allocated is quickly forwarded to them so that the redevelopment of the site continues, and it also requests that further funding be given to HAML to help restore and preserve the Scheyville site.

 

Flor further information, contact HAML Chairman Mr Brett Wild on

0488 255 666 or at chairman@hunteranzacmemorial.org.au