Members of the Kalangadoo and wider community will pause on April 23 to honour the wartime service and sacrifice of three late soldiers with ties to the local community.
Mourners will gather at dawn at the Kalangadoo Cemetery as they remember Private Ian Robinson, Corporal Des Osborne and Private Allan Victor Mattner.
For many years the Kalangadoo Remembers committee has arranged a public commemorative ceremony on the Sunday preceding Anzac Day. It has been the custom to honour particular Kalangadoo service personnel each year.
Born in Penola, Private Robinson was a 20-year-old when he was called up for National Service in 1969.
He served as an infantryman with 3RAR in Vietnam in 1971.
Private Robinson was living in Mount Gambier at the time of his death in 2019 and was buried at Kalangadoo.
Corporal Osborne was born at Pinnaroo in 1920 and was still in his teens when he enlisted at Tantanoola in the Australian Imperial Force.
At this time in 1939, he was living at Kalangadoo.
Corporal Osborne was discharged at war’s end in 1945, while Private Mattner was born in Tanunda and served between 1942 and 1945.
He is now buried with other family members at Kalangadoo.
Due to COVID protocols, some of the usual elements of the commemoration in 2022 had to be modified.
Among the official mourners expected to be in attendance this year are parliamentarians, Wattle Range Council representatives and the presidents of the RSL sub-branches at Mount Gambier, Millicent and Coonawarra/Penola.
