Monument to mark soldier pioneers

JUST under a century ago, returned service men and women from World War I started moving onto land around Mannibadar.

Known as soldier settlements, their pioneering spirit is set to be acknowledged with a new monument at the Mannibadar Soldiers’ Memorial Hall.

The project is funded with $10,000 through the State Government’s Victoria Remembers Minor Grant Program and will see a brass plate mounted on a large stone that plots out the original parcels of land and the people who built a life on them.

“The money allows us to give recognition of the settlers who came here after World War I,” said Stephen Holding, member of the Mannibadar Soldiers’ Memorial Hall committee.

“We have local halls and tennis clubs and communities because of the settlement and the couple of hundred-acre properties, and everyone building a life.

“These are the people who built our nation.”

The Mannibadar soldiers’ settlement was carved out of the Mount Bute Estate, with the original homestead of absentee landowner Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill still standing to the north of the town.

The Estate ran from Mount Bute, south to Mount Elephant and Lismore – and went on to include other soldier settlements. The Mannibadar memorial will celebrate the 48 plots of land ranging in size from two to 350 acres in the local area.

Mr Holding can trace his family history back to the second wave of settlers who replaced original landholders who had been unsuccessful building a life on properties.

“Not all the settlers lasted, some only a year or two, and then defaulted on their leases and so forth, and were replaced by others,” he said.

“My grandfather was in the second-round of soldier settlers. It gave him a start after the war to make his way in life. They had to buy the blocks, they weren’t given them. It was a multi-decade lease, and it was quite hard for them. That’s why some of them didn’t succeed.

“There’s eight original families still here. In my family’s case we now own three of the original lots. A soldier may leave and his block was split three of four ways between the neighbours, year’s later they were split again, and then maybe consolidated.”

Member for Buninyong, and local MP, Michaela Settle can also trace her heritage back to the region.

Her great-great grandfather and great grandfather managed the original Mount Bute Estate and her grandmother was born at the site.

“Although my family left the property when it was subdivided, I feel a connection to the land and am glad it was divided up to help returning soldiers, many of whom would have fought at the Western Front or even Gallipoli,” she said.

Mr Holding said that recognising the impact of the First World War went beyond the fighting on battlefields.

“These are the men and women who survived that whole World War I experience but then came back and effectively built our nation and these communities we see today,” he said.

“This place went from a large pastoral operation, owned by some rich squatter, to the communities that have been built, just like Mannibadar and many many others across Victoria and the rest of the country.”

Along with the monument which will be made from a local granite boulder, the Soldiers’ Memorial Hall is set to install two information panels giving more context to the settler’s experience.

Mr Holding said the space could one day become a place for commemorations.

“For Remembrance Day and Anzac Day, members of this community would go to Skipton or Linton for those sorts of recognitions,” he said.

“Potentially this gives a focus point if they want to do them here.”