By Dongyun Kwon
Healesville Jewellers’ front window is once again filled with the heartfelt feeling of Anzac Day.
Shop owner Sally Piper and the Healesville Jewellers team are showcasing the Anzac Day commemorative window display.
Sally said the Anzac tribute window started by honouring her dad, Gerald Flanagan, the Second World War veteran, many years ago.
“It features everything from the Boer War right through to the Vietnam conflict,” she said.
“Each year, there’s been a different feature in the lower section, and this year, we decided to feature the Vietnam conflict.
“Most young people think it was only in the 70s, which was when Australia was involved, but the Vietnam conflict started right back in 1946 and multiple countries were involved in it until such time as the Whitlam government decided there would be no more conscripts going off to the Vietnam War.”
There is also a section commemorating the Aboriginal soldiers who served Australia in different wars.
“Even it took ages to find a replica doll that was absolutely representative of our Aboriginal army,” Sally said.
“There were over 4000 of them who actually fought in those wars.
“We were finally able to put that missing piece into the conflicts of how all Australians served under this one flag, and the different personalities who were involved in that.”
Sally’s dad was a Lancaster crewman who flew over Europe with the British Bomber Command during World War 2.
Sally’s brother Michael Flanagan, who had done the research for the window and added new items each year, said his dad was a wireless air gunner.
“The little memorial that we’ve got there in the front up on the top of the window is his crew, and what happened was his crew was shot down in March 1945 by a German night fighter ace named Hoffman Dietrich Schmidt,” he said.
“Fortunately for myself and Sally, my father, who was the normal wireless operator on the Lancaster, was in hospital recovering, having one of his kidneys reattached. The gentleman who took his place was Pilot Officer Trotter. He was an Englishman, and he unfortunately was killed.”
Not only their dad but also many family members served Australia in different wars.
Michael, himself, was also conscripted to the national service but didn’t get sent off to Vietnam.
“I was conscripted in intake four of 1971, and by that stage, there were no longer sending conscripts or anyone to Vietnam,” he said.
“I did basic training at Puckapunyal, infantry training at Singleton, and then I was posted back to Victoria doing administrative stuff in the Central Army Records Office.”
Sally and Michael’s great uncle Wilfred Flanagan, on their father’s side, fought at the Western Front in World War 1 as a gunner.
“He wasn’t wounded, as far as I could ascertain from his military record. He came back to Australia and lived a normal life after the war,” Michael said.
Their maternal grandfather, Frank Butler, was in the infantry serving on the Western Front in World War 1.
“He got a version of the flu and it was so severe, so he was repatriated back to England from France, and he was in hospital in England for at least three months, and they, finally, sent him back to Australia in about 1917,” Michael said.
Jeweller and business partner Bruce Damman’s grandfather served in New Guinea fighting against Japan, and his great-grandfather served in the Navy for both World War 1 and 2.
Sally remembered her dad having lots of nightmares when she was a little kid.
“There were times when I’d asked Dad about war as I grew up, and he said, ‘Nobody wins wars. We just survive.’,” she said.
Michael said Anzac Day is to recognise the sacrifices that past, today’s and future generations have made in military service.
“It’s something someone’s got to do. If someone doesn’t stand up, you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.
“It’s always not a nice thing and never has been, and there’s no nice way of killing someone, but you’ve got to protect your own country.”
Michael is not a member of any local RSL sub-branch.
Although he lives in Mooroolbark, Sally has been trying to persuade him to sign up for the Healesville RSL.
