Students from Tingoora, Wooroolin and Crawford State schools … sports captain Deseray Murray, student council rep Abigail Warner, school rep Lochy Jukes; sports captain Caidence Litzow, vice-captain Griffin Calvert, school captain Sophie Weller, environmental captain Zayden Horne; sports captain Daniel Draper, school captain Jake Roberts and vice-captain Natrell Cobbo
November 10, 2023
Remembrance Day falls on a Saturday this year, but that wasn’t going to stop the students from some of the South Burnett’s smallest schools marking the important occasion.
Students from Tingoora and Crawford State Schools joined fellow pupils at Wooroolin State School for a solemn commemoration on Friday morning, led by Wooroolin State School Captain Sophie Weller.
“In all, 57,705 Queenslanders elisted for service (in World War I) out of a total 328,642 listed on the embarkation rolls,” Sophie said.
“Locally, Wooroolin accounted for 32 of these, of whom eight were killed in action, another died of wounds while yet another died of natural causes.
“This was a very high price for a small community of only 205 people.”
From the greater Wondai District (ie. Proston, Tingoora and Proston), 290 men and one nurse enlisted; 56 were either killed in action or died of their wounds or other causes.
Ninety-two were wounded and six were taken as prisoners-of-war.
The Wondai District population at the time was about 1600 adults.
Wooroolin State School captain Sophie Weller led the commemorationAmateur historian and bandmaster Noel Selway with the histories of four local residents who are buried at the Memerambi Cemetery – Thomas Birt, George Champney, Josephine McNicol and John Wicks – which were researched by the studentsStudents laid wreaths during the commemoration serviceCr Kirstie Schumacher gets some help to lay a wreath at the commemorationWooroolin student Caidence Litzow read the poem “In Flanders Fields”Wondai resident Noel Selway, bandmaster at Wooroolin State School, played the Last Post and Rouse on his trusty Korean War-vintage bugleAfter the service, Year 6 students – accompanied by Noel Selway – attended Memerambi Cemetery to lay poppies on the graves of World War I and II veterans (Photo: Kirstie Schumacher)
Well done. The young scholars are a credit and it was a hot day. The effort was worth it.