Fish Creek RSL wants Rock to “stay just where it is”

A SUGGESTION to move Fish Creek’s war memorial, the Rock of Remembrance in Falls Road, has been meet with strong opposition from the Fish Creek Returned and Services League (RSL) Sub-branch.

South Gippsland Shire Council recently approached the Fish Creek RSL to discuss the idea of shifting the Rock, and its associated flagpole and rose garden bed, a short distance away from its present location on the southern edge of Falls Road.

One new place understood to have been proposed by the Shire for the Rock was beyond the existing circular asphalted parking area adjacent to its current spot and within the grassed and treed reserve near the children’s playground.

Another possibility that was canvassed was to set the Rock outside the Fish Creek RSL rooms in Lorimer Street.

The Shire has since advised that it does not want to go against the wishes of the wider Fish Creek community in regard to moving the Rock of Remembrance.

Fish Creek RSL secretary Ros Bryan said she “can’t see why the Shire should touch the Rock of Remembrance at all.

“That Cenotaph is for the people of Fish Creek and it was put there after World War One during the mid-1920s I believe, to honour and to remember those from this community who served and those who lost their lives in that war and the wars since,” she said.

“The Fish Creek RSL wants the Rock of Remembrance to stay just where it is.”

Mrs Bryan said she thought that “more car parking and widening the road” were the rationales behind moving the Rock of Remembrance and that both were “disrespectful”.

A Shire spokesperson said that “Council has spoken with the Fish Creek RSL and the Fish Creek Community Development Group about the potential to relocate the cenotaph as part of the Fish Creek Streetscape.

“Initial conversations indicated that relocation could be possible, which would help with the design process and parking,” the spokesperson said.

“If, however, the relocation is not supported by the community, it will not be pursued further.”

The Fish Creek Community Development Group is currently working with the Shire to improve traffic management within the town and is hosting a community meeting in the Fish Creek Hotel’s Oberon Room on Wednesday February 28 at 7 pm.

Comments are closed.