His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret'd), Governor of New South Wales and his wife Linda Hurley have enjoyed their time in the Narooma district.
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The Governor performed an official duty on Wednesday, August 16 of collecting soil from near the Narooma War Memorial to be featured in a new state memorial honouring First World War veterans and their hometowns.
The soil from Narooma and other town around NSW will form part of an art installation in a new exhibition space at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney.
His three-day visit to the Eurobodalla Shire also saw him visit the Tilba Real Dairy farm and cheese factory, and then meet with community groups at the Narooma Red Cross hub.
The day before on Tuesday he was in Batemans Bay, attending a school assembly at St Bernards Primary School and he also met with staff at Katungul Aboriginal Medical Service. He also officially opened the new wheelchair accessible pavilion at the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens.
On Thursday, he will spend the day in Moruya, first meeting the Eurobodalla Youth Committee at the council chambers before checking out new development plans at Moruya Airport and also a proposed oyster hatchery site nearby.
But on Wednesday, he started his day at the dairy farm of Nic Diben at Tilba Tilba and heard about the success of local small business Tilba Real Dairy. He got to see cows being milked before heading to the cheese factory to sample some of the cheese.
“It’s a great story about a small business resurrecting themselves despite the challenges facing the dairy industry,” he said.
He then attended the Red Cross office in Narooma where he met representatives from different organisations doing important community work, including the community visitor and youth empowerment schemes.
The Governor was then assisted in collecting the soil at the War Memorial at Club Narooma by the oldest member of the Narooma RSL sub-branch, 100-year-old George Findlay. Deputy mayor Anthony Mayne was the MC for the collection event.
After the ceremony, he met with members of the public and representatives from both Narooma Public School and Narooma High School, whom he asked if they were studying maths and science.
The Office for Veterans Affairs is overseeing the soil collection program, which is getting samples from almost 1,700 WW1 enlistment locations across NSW. Narooma is one of 15 Eurobodalla locations identified for the program.
When complete, memorial visitors will be able to learn about each location via their digital devices. Information will include details on the soil collection, the names of enlistees who gave that location as their home address, and pinpointed maps showing the local area and its surrounding memorials and schools.
More information on the Anzac Memorial Soil Collection Project is at www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/anzac-memorial-centenary-project/soil-collection-program
The Governor said he and his wife travelled to a different regional location every month for three or four days and he really enjoyed meeting people that were doing good things for their community.