The Exeter Village War Memorial has been given a new lease on life thanks to funding and a group of dedicated volunteers.
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Exeter Village Association committee member Ruth Spence-Stone said that without the support and contributions from volunteers over the past 18 months the project would not have been successful.
"It's heartwarming that people put their hands to the wheel to do these things for the community. You can really see the effects of efforts in communities like [Exeter]," she said.
The project was finsihed with a grant from the Veolia Mulwaree Trust after an earlier application to the Commonwealth War Memorial Fund was unsuccessful.
"The big funding bodies just ignore the little guys. I went to Goulburn to accept the grant and it was just so uplifting to see all these tiny groups across all southern NSW recognised. Not just the money, but all the work that they do," Ms Spence-Stone said.
There were 171 applications for this round of the Veolia Mulwaree Trust, with just 21 successful recipients including the Exeter Village Association and Moss Vale Pony Club.
"We were thrilled to have received the full grant we requested," Ms Spence-Stone said.
The Exeter War Memorial was originally established in the 1920s with five elm trees planted to honour men from the village who died in the first world war.
The elm trees were removed because of disease and an extensive refurbishment of the neighbouring Village Hall left the memorial "vulnerable to traffic and lost in the scale of its new sitting."
A curved stone wall was designed by architect and village association president Simon Bathgate in a "garden of Gallipoli rosemary."
Volunteers Ross Hawke, John McNamara and many others then "worked tirelessly levelling, putting down turf, and other intensive labour. It really was a joint effort," Ms Spence-Stone said.
The wall was completed with stone capping etched with the words: LEST WE FORGET.
Ms Spence-Stone said this final part of the project, funded by the Veolia Mulwaree Trust, "completes the war memorial with the respect and reverance it deserves."
There has been substantial interest in the ANZAC Day service in Exeter in recent years with numbers increasing from around 30 a deacde ago to more than 100 this year.
“[The upgrades] now provide a secure setting with greater visibility and public access for the laying of wreaths at commemorative services. It has improved it dramatically," Ms Spence-Stone said.