After many years of research and lobbying for the Deniliquin Methodist Church honour roll to be refurbished, it’s now back in its rightful place at the Deniliquin Uniting Church.
One of the region’s official war memorials, an unveiling was held at the church on Friday.
Originally planned as a quick unveiling for the Pastoral Times, project leader and Deniliquin RSL Sub-branch president John Harris said it garnered much more attention.
A group of about 20 people - consisting of local historians, church members, Edward River Council councillors and other interested parties - were in attendance.
Mr Harris said the refurbishment attempts were started by Joy Mann from the church, and were continued by Bruce Driver.
With the permission of Edward River Council - which is in charge of the heritage list including war memorials - the sub-branch took over and used its connections to progress the project.
This resulted in just more than $6000 in NSW Government funding being awarded to the project last October, when then Deputy Premier Paul Toole was in Deniliquin for the Deni Ute Muster.
The honour role was initially unveiled in 1918, but due to its age many of the names were illegible.
“Shellac, at some time, had been administered to the honour board in an attempt to preserve it. Instead, the shellac acted badly with the original varnish and the gold leaf lettering causing both to blister badly, crack and move across the surface, rendering the board unreadable,” Mr Harris said.
“Nick Marandola, or 'Nick the Signwriter' as we know him, from Wheelers Hill in Melbourne took on the job of restoring the honour board to its original condition.
“This laborious task involved tracing the lettering and flourishes that were originally on the board, recording it with photographs and referring to names provided by the Deniliquin Uniting Church.
“Bruce Grisold from Ramon’s Fine Furniture - a wood worker known for restoration projects - then took over, entirely stripping the honour board back to the original raw timber.
“He then totally dismantled, repaired, and sanded the board back to its original state, before returning it to Nick to add all the inscriptions.
“Nick is a skilled letterer, who uses a brush to apply the lettering by hand. Computers cannot deliver the same degree of finesse as the craftsman can.”
The honour roll sits on the right hand side wall of the original church building, directly opposite the Presbyterian honour roll of 64 names.
“Our war memorials are important to us, and we need to take good care of them,” Mr Harris said.
“Other registered war memorials include the Lone Pine near the Deniliqun Cenotaph, the cenotaph itself, the Boer War Memorial on the Edwardes and Cressy St roundabout, the Memorial Park gates, the Wanganella memorial and the general and war cemeteries.
“If you have time, it is well worth a drive to go and look at them all, and be proud of them.”
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