Family recalls its luck on a day to remember

By Kath Gannaway
PATRICK Dunne was one of four brothers who went away to war.
“Fortunately, they all came home,” said his daughter Lorraine Green.
Mr Dunne, 98, and now a resident at Yarra Valley Aged Care in Yarra Junction, laid a wreath on behalf of Yarra Junction RSL at the Remembrance Day ceremony on Saturday.
Mr Dunne served in World War II in the Middle East and in New Guinea.
He is Yarra Junction RSL’s oldest member.
“Dad is the last surviving servicemen of the 12 Dunne siblings and there was also a sister who was in the Land Army,” Mrs Green said.
“The fact that they all returned home is what I really appreciate about this day.
“They were the lucky ones. They survived where so many never came home,” she said.
Like many of his time, Mr Dunne has never been one to talk much about the war.
He moved from his home town of Yarram to Powelltown in 1945 and worked all his life in the local timber mill.
He and his wife, Edna, raised their seven children in the valley.
Mrs Green said she felt moved by the ceremony and very proud of her dad.
“I was a bit disappointed to see such a small number of people at the cenotaph but those who were there were there for the right reasons,” she said.
Geoff Trood, president of Warburton RSL, said numbers were also down at Warburton.
“We had a small group of regulars at the ceremony this year,” he said.
“Remembrance Day is quite different to Anzac Day, where we get a very good turn-out and you can have people 10 thick.
“Remembrance Day is more a time for quiet reflection than for ceremony,” he said.