ONE of Warrnambool’s newest residential streets has been named to honour the memory of two local men from the one family killed in separate world conflicts.
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Warburton Way, in the Riverside Estate off Wollaston Road, has been named after Oswald “Ossie” Warburton, who died as a prisoner of war during World War II on Ambon, in Indonesia.
The road is also named after Ossie’s nephew Graham, who was one of the first Victorians killed in the Vietnam War.
Estate developer David Stapleton said the Warburtons lived a few doors down from his family and he remembered the tough time a lot of people in the area went through when Graham was killed, aged just 21.
“My brother, Peter, was a good mate of Graham’s, so our family knew him quite well,” Mr Stapleton said.
“The family were pretty well known. They ran the milk bar where the dive shop is now on the corner of Raglan Parade and Japan Street. So naming a street for them was something we could do to commemorate both Ossie and Graham.
“Pete went to Vietnam a few month’s after Graham. It was scary time knowing what had happened to his good mate.”
Graham’s sister, Judith McKenzie, said her brother loved army life and relished the mateship and camaraderie.
“He was a conscript. He was one of the first lot to go to Vietnam in May 1966,” Mrs McKenzie said.
“Graham was a forward scout in the fifth battalion. He’d lead them out.
“He was a good marksman and had been offered a promotion, but he refused. He just wanted to be one of the boys.”
Mrs McKenzie said her brother celebrated his 21st birthday in the jungle and was part of the clean-up team after the battle of Long Tan.
Graham was killed by a sniper on October 1, 1966, near Nui Dat. The hills where he was killed are still know as the Warburton Hills. Mrs McKenzie said he was due to return home in April of 1967.
“It took three weeks for his body to be returned to Warrnambool,” she said.
“I remember an army major coming to the house saying they wouldn’t bring him home and it was best he be buried where he died.
“He was quite adamant about it, but my mother said to him ‘you took him away, you can bring him back’.”
Mrs McKenzie said it was a shame her parents weren’t alive to see their son commemorated.
