At the Anzac Day ceremony at Stroud last week, Great Lakes Councillor Karen Hutchinson took the opportunity to officially open the new ex-servicemen’s rotunda.
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The finishing touches to the rotunda were hastily added in the lead-up to Anzac Day, so that it would available for veterans and community members to sit under and view the ceremony.
While Cr Hutchinson said it gave her great pleasure to see the rotunda in its present form, in use for Anzac Day, she pledged her support for its improvement.
She said, by the 100th anniversary of the Anzacs landing in Gallipoli, she would like to see panels around the side of the rotunda, so that it becomes an all-weather shelter.
Cr Hutchinson said projects that supported ex-servicemen and women were close to her heart, in part due to her father’s work in as part of a flight squadron in World War II, in which he flew solo over France on D-Day, and her husband’s years of National Service.
She told the crowd she was happy to facilitate funding for the project, and asked individuals and organisations interested in contributing to approach her.
In opening the rotunda, she paid tribute to local returned serviceman John Bowen, who was “an Alsatian at our heels”, making sure the project was completed by Anzac Day this year.