The Bandiana Army Base is broadcasting a call-out far and wide for family members of those killed in Australia’s worst rail-road level crossing crash to attend 75th anniversary commemorations.
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A bus full of soldiers on leave, on their way to a night out in Albury, collided with a locomotive on the Tallangatta Road level crossing in Wodonga on May 8, 1943 at 6.30pm.
The civilian bus driver and 24 military personnel were killed.
A plaque bearing the names of the victims on Thomas Mitchell Drive marks the site, and a large ceremony was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary.
Chaplain Richard Whereat, based at the Bandiana Army Logistic Training Centre, has been researching further into the stories of the servicemen and servicewomen who were killed, including to find out if any had served overseas.
He will help lead the ceremonies taking place in May.
“There’s the huge loss of life for service members; I’m not sure how many, if at all, the members who were on that bus actually served overseas,” he said.
“I’d imagine Wodonga would have been small then, so the heartache of mass casualty like that would have been massive.
“I read an article about a witness who tried to wave them down but didn’t have time.
“At the 50th commemoration they had names of families, but that’s sort of been lost in time, and we want to reach out.”
There are two ceremonies planned; at 2.30pm on May 8 at the War Graves Cemetery in Albury, where the soldiers were buried, and at 6.30pm at the memorial cairn on Thomas Mitchell Drive at Wodonga.
Mr Whereat said there were plans to read a poems written in the wake of the accident, and to share personal stories.
“The Regimental Sergeant Major will do a short introduction, I will say a short prayer and then we will have a Commandant give an address as well as the mayor, at both Albury and Wodonga,” he said.
“We’re laying wreathes at the crash site, but at the grave site a soldier will carry a rose and place it on each tombstone.
“We would hope to give family members opportunity to give them as well.”