World War One MonumentPrint Page

The monument commemorates those from the District who died in service or were killed in action during World War One.

Junee Reefs came into being as a mining centre some 40 years ago, and some good returns were won from the locality, particularly from the Dust Hole Reef. Today, like most of the goldfields of the early days, mining has ceased, and the settlers follow the plough or tend their flocks of sheep. Sunday saw 500 people assembled within the school ground of the old mining village to pay homage to the memory of the fallen heroes from that district who gave their lives in the great European war. It was fitting that the day chosen was Sunday, and that the ceremony of unveiling the handsome piece of statuary was a religious one. At 3 p.m. the open air service was begun after a few introductory remarks by the president of the Parents and Citizens' Association (Mr. M. J. Nash), by the Rev. Mr. Staples, assisted by Commandant M'Clure, of the Salvation Army.

The chairman then called upon Mrs. A. M. Middlebrook, widow of the late Mr. C. W. Middlebrook, who was master of the Junee Reefs school for so many years, to unveil the monument. The boys and girls of the Junee Reefs Junior Red Cross, neatly dressed, stood at attention as their former school mistress in a few well chosen words spoke of what the unveiling of the monument stood for. Then as she stepped forward the two Union Jacks were lowered revealing the handsome monument of five sections, the lower one broken then the centrepiece with its four sides of polished grey granite, surmounted by a life size marble statue of an Australian soldier standing at ease facing the east. As the veil was drawn a boy and girl in red cross uniforms stepped forward and placed a wreath at the base of the monument in memory of the fallen ex pupils of their school. The monument was prepared and erected by Turner and Sons, monumental masons of Goulburn.
Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW), 16 March 1921.

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