Led by local amateur historian Peter Sutton and building on research by historian Margaret Fleming, the memorial will sit alongside an existing memorial dedicated to the lives of those who settled in the district under the government’s Solider Settler scheme.
Mr Sutton said the Yarroweyah and Koonoomoo communities were close.
“The village was known as Koonoomoo and the area Yarroweyah North until the 1970s,” Mr Sutton said.
Under the Soldier Settlement Act 1945 (No. 5107), the Victorian Government acquired arable land across Victoria either through agreement with the existing owners or through compulsory acquisition.
The RAF Hospital outside Barooga housed some of the soldier settlers before their blocks of land became available.
From 1947, the land was then leased to returning soldiers who had fought in the two world wars.
State Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy said the sacrifice of the young men who went off to Europe to fight in World War I should never be forgotten.
“Nor should we forget the impact upon the many small towns in regional areas who lost the next generation in foreign lands.
“Congratulations to Peter Sutton and all those involved in getting it across the line.”
The new memorial seeks to immortalise those who lived in the Yarroweyah and Koonoomoo districts before the arrival of the soldier settlers.
Mr Sutton would like to express his thanks to Glen Willis, Cobram Barooga RSL Sub-branch President Barry Clarke, Secretary Rosa Perri and Grants Officer Lesley Lindsay for their support and encouragement.
He would also like to express his thanks to the Yarroweyah Hall Friends group and State Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy for their support.
The memorial will be unveiled at 11am, on Thursday, October 24, at Yarroweyah Memorial Hall.
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