Chairman's message to Western Australian Members
We are first and foremost, a remembrance organisation, that pays respects to our fallen comrades every opportunity we get to remember them. Lest we forget!
We are a vibrant region with most of our activities taking place in and around Perth. We hold monthly meetings at the City of Belmont RSL in Ascot. Most meetings feature a guest speaker but we also have other activities such as the military history quiz evening, veterans ‘show and tell’ as well as our recent VC series and a number of medal parades where we have handed over long awaited SADF medals.
We have the largest private museum in Australia in including exhibits from the Union Defense Force (WW1 and WW2) and SADF eras.
We hold a number of events: an annual lawn bowls competition against our Belmont RSL rivals as the RSL has a bowling green. We host an annual Southern African Braai as well as a potjiekos competition where we share our cuisine with our Belmont RSL friends. We host many outings during the year, most of them are annual events that occur every year and include, the 4 x 4 campout at Wilbinga, family and friends bonfire at Casa Healy in an authentic African boma.
We attend the annual Anzac Day march and have been referred to as the most professional group of marchers on the day, as well as attending the Remembrance Day services at either Kings Park Flame of Remembrance, or Faulkner Park in the City of Belmont.
We are the biggest supporters of the annual Boer War Association service at the Boer War Memorial in Kings Park, where we lay the Emily Hobhouse wreath on behalf of the women and children that were incarcerated and died in the British concentration camps.
We round out our year’s activities with the formal mess dinner, recognized as one of the best dining in nights in WA, with many prestigious guest-of-honour in the past 9 years including Colonel Jan Breytenbach, Major General Roland De Vries, Major Wynand Du Toit, Sergeant Major Koos Moorcroft, and Major General Gert Opperman amongst other key dignitaries.
We also host a jolly good old social in December.
On the first Saturday of every month, came hail rain or shine, we meet at Kings Park to crawl walk or run 2.4km’s up and down ‘Heartbreak Hill’. One the way, we visit Riaan’s kopjie and Tim’s Tower in remembrance of our two veteran friends that passed onto higher service in the past few years. The run is followed by the ‘best and most hearty’ BBQ breakfast in WA where old friendships are renewed and new ones cemented.
As SAMVOA WA, we are also well recognized in the veteran community and we are friends with many other veteran organisations, often taking part in their events and activities - Rhodesian Services Association of WA, City of Belmont RSL, Airborne Forces Association of WA, SAS Association of WA, and members of RSLWA United & Kindred.
We actively recruit, and openly welcome new members to our group. We also have a monthly newsletter, Western Front, that call for contributions, and is now distributed to many countries across the world.
