Griffith War Memorial Museum Full Of Activity

The Griffith War Memorial Museum was a hive of activity on Sunday, following the main ANZAC Day service.

There were children trying on uniforms and pointing at various displays, asking questions and genuinely interested in what there was on offer.

President of the Griffith War Memorial Museum Inc Garry Smellie was happy to show off many of the artefacts on display.

“My grandfather was in World War I before he came here in 1919 as a soldier settler,” Mr Smellie said.

“The government, in its wisdom, said that anyone who had been there (in the war) since the beginning could go home.”

“About 6000 veterans came back and on the way, the war ended.”

Mr Smellie’s grandfather had first looked at the settlers’ blocks that had been made available in Mildura, but he hadn’t liked the look of them, so he and a mate rode pushbikes up to Griffith in 1919.

Mr Smellie said that he and his grandfather were very close. “He taught me to drive,” Mr Smellie said.

“I was driving around the farm when I was 12 until Mum found out.”

He recalls that his grandfather never really spoke about the war, but he said that wasn’t really that unusual.

Most of the veterans never spoke of the atrocities of war when they returned from serving, and some of the postcards and letters that make up some of the artefacts on display tell a story of censorship around what the soldiers were able to send home to loved ones.

A lot of hard work, research, collecting and collating have gone into the displays currently on show at the museum.

One of the men involved with this is museum member Theo Bollen, who has been with the group since its inception.

The call went out asking anyone who lived in Griffith with some connection to the war.

Mr Bollen’s father, Peter Martinus Bollen, was a field officer in the Dutch Army when Germany invaded the Netherlands.

His father sent postcards home to his wife. Those postcards are available to view at the museum.

“We found them 20 years ago in the attic in the Netherlands,” Mr Bollen said. “My sister was unaware that they were there.”

“I translated them from Dutch to English.”

The Netherlands is about half the size of Tasmania and they had to hold off the Germans for as long as they could in order for the queen and the royal family to flee to England.

The Germans estimated it would take them a day to push through, but the Dutch were able to slow them down for five days, giving the royal family enough time to escape.

Mr Bollen has been instrumental in cataloguing much of the historical notes on display at the museum, including an account of the Indigenous Australians who fought for their country.

He said that he had had a lot of help from the late Roger Penrith, who had become a good friend.

• Topics:

• History
• ANZAC Day