Vietnam Veterans MemorialPrint Page

The monument commemorates those who served in the Vietnam War.

In 1988 local conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, Paddy Jacobs, asked the then Bacchus Marsh Shire if he could install a private memorial to Vietnam Veterans in Maddingley Park.  The council organised the labour to lay the plaque and plant a peach tree, chosen by Paddy as its flowering every spring symbolised renewal. Because no authority took responsibility for the plaque and tree, they were neglected until 'rediscovered' four years later by jogger John Fenech, a Vietnam veteran and at the time office holder in the Bacchus Marsh RSL, who believed that his comrades deserved a better memorial than the one consigned to an obscure corner of the park.

With the co-operation of Paddy Jacobs, in 1994 the memorial in Maddingley Park was replaced by an official, RSL-sanctioned Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in the native garden at Darley Park.

Australia's military involvement in the Vietnam War began with the arrival of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) in South Vietnam during July and August 1962.  Australia's participation in the war was formally declared at an end when the Governor-General issued a proclamation on 11 January 1973.

However, the end-date of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War has officially been amended to 29 April 1975 to reflect Australia’s further involvement in the war during the fall of Saigon in 1975.  The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Australian War Memorial, in Canberra now recognise this new date.

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Dedication