WHILE Anzac Day celebrates the contributions that many fine people have made to this country’s safety, there are some generations who were particularly touched by war.
The late Jean Willox (nee Rowland) was one of those brave individuals who gave so much in her life and visitors to the Catalina Flying Boat Museum out at Lake Boga can find out about her and other local heroes.
Mrs Willox passed away on March 2 at the age of 97 in Moulamein.
Along with her sister Ethel Pfeiffer, she served in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), stationed at Lake Boga during World War II.
An old article from The Guardian on display at the museum notes that the two women served at the RAAF No. 1 Flying Boat Repair Deport “working eight-hour shifts in the underground signals and cypher bunker, sometimes coming on or off duty at 3am”.
Both proficient cypher and decoding exponents, Mrs Pfeiffer recalled at the time successfully “talking” an RAAF captain of a disabled flying boat into the area when one of the engines went out.
Ruth Holmes, from the Swan Hill Cemetery, has done a mountain of research on veterans from the region and she commended that the public watch the Swan Hill Remembers Documentary on YouTube.
The project was an initiative of the Swan Hill Regional Library and was created to commemorate 75 years since the end of World War II in 2020.
The feature-long film includes some stellar photography, and was supported by the Swan Hill Rural City Council, The Guardian, Smart 99.1 FM, the Lake Boga Flying Boat Museum, Mallee Roots, the Swan Hill and Woorinen RSL sub branches.
People from all over the community collaborated and supplied information, photographs and stories to enable the story of the Anzacs and other veterans, to be preserved and remembered for generations to come.
