A new white marble plaque commemorating the Australians who served in Greece during both World Wars has been unveiled at the Oberon RSL, in memory of Private David Oram, a local from Porters Retreat who was killed in Kamena Vourla, northern Greece.
The plaque was donated by Hellenic Village Ltd, a coalition of Greek Australian community associations, and presented during Oberon’s ANZAC Day service — this year drawing its largest-ever crowd, including around 50 attendees from Sydney.
In a speech on the day, Nick Andriotakis, Secretary of the Joint Committee for the Commemoration of the Battle of Crete and Greek Campaign, paid tribute to Oram and also acknowledged three nurses from nearby O’Connell—Evelyn Clara Louisa Wilson, Ida Annie Burns, and Edith Victoria Agnes Purdon—who served on the Salonika Front in 1917.
He also noted the symbolic naming of Crete Street in Oberon and reflected on Lemnos as “the last paradise… the last smile of a child, last coffee,” before the horrors of Gallipoli.
The upper part of the plaque features an ancient Greek inscription commemorating Athenian warriors who died at the Hellespont—modern-day Gallipoli—in the 5th century BCE, with an English translation below.
The text was admired in 1932 by Charles Bean, founder of the Australian War Memorial, for its resonance with the ANZAC spirit. Though a plaster replica was once on display at the Memorial, it has since been placed in storage.
The new plaque’s design was a collaborative effort by historian Dr Panayiotis Diamadis, Mr Andriotakis, and Dr Stavros Kyrimis, former Consul-General of Greece in Sydney.
A limited number of these plaques remain available for donation to councils, RSL clubs, libraries, schools, and other institutions across New South Wales, honouring the many Australians from towns and villages statewide who served in Greece in the 20th century.
