The City of Greater Bendigo welcomed back more than 350 former members of the Royal Australian Survey Corps at a civic reception hosted by mayor Peter Cox on Saturday.
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The corps was based in Bendigo between 1942 and 1996 and celebrated its 100th anniversary at the weekend, having come into being just a few weeks after Australian troops first landed at Gallipoli.
Topographical surveyor and 22 year survey corps veteran Wally Chilcott travelled all the way from Bunbury, Western Australia to catch up with old friends and comrades.
Mr Chilcott said he had fabulous memories of his long career with the corps, which included work using airborne cameras and laser equipment to map areas of Papua New Guinea.
“There was something like 300 ex-survey members here and honestly I can say I know about 200 odd,” he said.
Mr Chilcott said the comradeship he remembered from his time in the corps, which included three years in Bendigo, was on show again at the reunion.
“This is probably a once in a lifetime reunion, we’re getting on and the average age now has got to be probably 65 plus,” he said.
“I have been travelling for the past six years and I call in and see my mates on the way around, (but) I don’t get to see them all.”
Ex-Fortuna Survey Association president Gary Warnest explained the chance encounter that led to the survey corps’ move from Melbourne to Fortuna Villa in Bendigo, rather than Mildura as planned.
“What happened is that in the UK one of the mapping organisations was bombed in World War II and they realised the impact of that, so in the Australian context orders were given to move the mapping facilities in Melbourne out of the capital city so there was less chance of it being bombed,” he said.
“(The officer commanding the Land Headquarters Cartographic Company) Bill Saryll was on his way to Mildura to look at that as a site, but he stayed overnight at the City Family Hotel in Bendigo and someone said to him ‘why don’t you go up and have a look at Fortuna’.
“So he went on a guided tour and although the building itself had been quite dilapidated he realised the potential for it.”
The reunion culminated with the unveiling of a brass plaque and storyboard commemorating the soldiers who served at Fortuna Villa.