The Greater Shepparton City Council, known for its Campbell’s Soup giant can, will investigate the cost to erect a memorial structure in Lemnos, Victoria, due to its historical link to the Gallipoli campaign in World War I.
According to the Monash University public website Victoria Places, which has digitised historical sources and information about the state, Lemnos (in Victoria) was “named after the island in the Aegean Sea to which Australian soldiers were evacuated after the Gallipoli campaign in World War I”.
Lemnos in north-east Shepparton is a rural locality and village with the irrigated orchard and dairying country of the Goulburn Valley. It was named Lemnos after the island in the Aegean Sea to which Australian soldiers were evacuated after the Gallipoli campaign in World War I, the website describes.
During the 1950s, migrants were increased in the area taking up farming, orcharding and vegetable growing.
A soldier settler and later a Shepparton Shire councillor, Major Ernest Hill, proposed the name Lemnos, tying it back to the island in Greece.
Read more: Henry Gissing’s diaries vividly recount ANZAC life on Lemnos and Gallipoli
According to Sheppnews, current Shepparton councillor, Dinny Adem believes the council should erect permanent memorial to honour ties between the two places.
“I believe we have an obligation to fulfil Major Hill’s legacy by completing the story he began over a hundred years ago,” Mr Adem said in the August council monthly meeting.
“It is the very least we can do to tell the story in the one and only locality in Australia that was named in honour of and to honour that name and the life-changing experiences it represents.”
The Shepparton council passed the motion unanimously and a report will be prepared by October 2023 to outline the estimated costs erecting a memorial locally in Lemnos.
“I’m certain our local Greek Australian community members would take pride in their ancestors’ humane actions who supported Australian doctors and nurses,” Mr Adem said.
There has been some recognition in recent years in Canberra and other unexpected places, Mr Adem explains, reiterating the “Greater Shepparton have a duty” and “responsibility to honour” the Lemnos name which was “adopted about a hundred years ago.
Read more: Bill Evangel on why WA needs a designated war memorial for the Battle of Crete
