The first Rathmines Memorial to WWII RAAF personnel
This memorial and roll of honour are understood to be the first Rathmines memorial to WWII RAAF personnel. The Catalina Memorial in Rathmines Park was built in 1972. The Memorial Wall inside the former Officer’s Mess, now the Rathmines Memorial Bowling Club, was installed in 1984.
The Latin motto on the memorial reads ‘per ardua ad astra’ which is sometimes translated as ‘through trials shall we reach the stars’. This motto was shared by the British Royal Air Force and airforces in Commonwealth countries during WWII. It remains the motto of the British and Australian airforces today.
The Roll of Honour book records the names of those lost from RAAF units during WWII, including those who served with 9 Squadron.
This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License