War Memorials in Australia
Wheatley VC Rest Area
Place:
Lake George, New South Wales, 2621
District: Southern
Tablelands
Orientation: Abt 35 km N of Canberra
Location: On Federal Highway overlooking Lake George
Position: 35 04 05 S 149 22 40 E
Ref: 20012
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The memorial is a boulder set in a traffic island in the rest area. It forms part of the Remembrance Driveway which extends along the Hume and Federal Highways between Sydney and Canberra and adjacent roads.
The Remembrance Driveway, inaugurated in 1953, was suggested by the Garden Club of Australia and trees were planted in various plantations along the two highways as a national memorial to men and women who served in World War II and the Korean War. In 1954 Queen Elizabeth II planted trees at either end of the new Driveway, a plane tree in Macquarie Place, Sydney and a snow gum in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. It was always intended to have a variety of trees, each selected for its suitability to local soil and climatic conditions. Each of the trees honours a serviceman or woman and some bear a plaque with his or her name.
The rest area is named after Warrant Officer Kevin.Arthur Wheatley who was posted to the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. On 13 November 1965 he and two other Australians accompanied a Vietnamese Civil Irregular Defence Group company on a search and destroy operation in the Tra Bong Valley, Quang Ngai Province. They came into contact with a Viet Cong force and one of the Australians,Warrant Officer R.J Swanton was badly wounded. W.O. Wheatley dragged W.O. Swanton from open rice paddies to a wooded area 200 metres away while under heavy fire and refused to leave him. They were overwhelmed by the Viet Cong and both men died of gunshot wounds. W.O. Wheatley was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Plaque on south face of boulder
REMEMBRANCE DRIVEWAY
THE TREES IN THIS PLANTATION ARE A LIVING MEMORIAL
TO THE FOLLOWING SERVICEMEN AND SERVICEWOMEN
| E.C. BRYANT | W.H. HEWSON | L.H. MOSSE-ROBINSON | R.L. STACY |
| P.F. BURROUGHS | G.A.M. HEYDON | W.A. O'NEIL | A.H. STEPHENS |
| R.B. CAMPBELL | L.A. JACKSON | H.H. PAGE | E.C. STEPHENS |
| H.P.CROFT | L. LEE | R.C. PAGE | A.E. TINKLER |
| W.G. CROFT | G.G. MACALISTER | J.B.H. PIERCE | A. TRELOAR |
| G.F. DAY | F.T. MACKINSON | C.R. REID | I. TRELOAR |
| E.A.J. EDWARDS | I.F. McMASTER | R.G. REYNOLDS | J.L. TRELOAR |
| H.W.EDWARDS | W. MILNE | L.M. ROBINSON | K.G. TURNBULL |
| A.H. FERGUSON | D.B. MORGAN | A.G. SAGE | E.H. VICARS |
| W. HERBERT | C.J.A. MOSES | C.H. SALLOWAY | S.G. WATERHOUSE |
AND OTHERS ASSOCIATED WITH THE FOLLOWING
| Z SPECIAL UNIT OF S.R.D. | COUNTRY WOMENS ASSOCIATION | UNITED COUNCIL OF MIGRANTS |
| CANBERRA BRANCH | FROM EUROPE | |
| JERILDERIE SUB-BRANCH R.S.L. | ROYAL VICTORIA LEAGUE, | ROTARY CLUB OF CANBERRA |
| CANBERRA BRANCH | ||
| RETURNED NAVY, ARMY AND AIR | R.M.C. WELFARE ASSOCIATION, | THE N.S.W. RUGBY UNION |
| FORCE SISTER'S SUB-BRANCH | DUNTROON | |
| R.S.L. |
Information current to March 2000
Sources: Australians at War 1788 - 1999 website http://www.iol.net.au/~conway/vicross/wheatley.html
as at 28 March 2000
Inglis, K. S., Sacred Places - War Memorials in the Australian Landscape,
Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, 1999
Remembrance Driveway Committee , Remembrance Driveway, W.A. Cooney, Sydney, 1953?