A unique feature of this year’s Kalari-Lachlan River Arts Festival will be the arrival of the “Boomerangs” World War I recruiting march re-enactment at lunchtime on Saturday 31 October.
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The re-enactment of the march will commence in Parkes in the morning and travel by motor rail to Forbes, where they will be met by the Forbes Town Band.
The contingent will march to the cenotaph for a short service, then proceed to the festivities at the lake.
The re-enactment celebrates the role volunteers play in our communities. The original marchers signed up for military service and headed off to a war that was no longer an unknown adventure.
Communities and families throughout the region had already felt the dreadful impact of casualties from Gallipoli.
Knowing the chances of being wounded or killed were high, these men stepped forward to support the allied war effort.
Coordinator of the Boomerang March re-enactment, Kim Templeton, said that using the re-enactment of this unique event in our history was a great catalyst for communities to celebrate the spirit of selflessness that underlies all volunteering.
“The quality of life in our rural and regional communities is heavily influenced by the work of a huge range of volunteer organisations and their members,” Mr Templeton said.
“It is nearly inconceivable in modern Australia to think of the social upheaval that far-off war caused. A generation of young men left small communities, never to return. Who stepped in to help families whose fathers and sons did not come back? The answer is – the neighbours, the community, the volunteers.”
The original marchers left Parkes on 19 January 1916, picking up recruits along the route through Forbes, Eugowra, Gooloogong, Canowindra, Billimari, Cowra, Woodstock, Lyndhurst, Mandurama, Carcoar, Blayney, Newbridge, Georges Plains and Perthville. The contingent of 202 men that marched into Bathurst on 5 February 1916 included nearly 30 men from Forbes, with more joining as the march passed through the district.
Although this re-enactment will commence in Parkes on 31 October and finish in Bathurst on 10 November - a few months earlier than the historically correct dates, the route will still pass through each community visited on the original march.
On 11 November the marchers will travel by train from Bathurst to Sydney and join with participants of six other recruiting march re-enactments to attend the Remembrance Day service in Martin Place.
Local organisers are Michael Walker 0427232877 for Forbes, and Max Swift 02 6859 2256 for Eugowra. Both gentlemen have a small committee and would be grateful for any additional volunteers.
For more information on ways to become involved in the march visit www.cooeemarch.org.au or contact kim@cooeemarch.org.au
