By Tania Phillips
Warwick/Stanthorpe Today historian John Telfer has raised $4050 – the most for the Downs Region and one of the higher Queensland-wide totals – as part of the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay.
The experience has made John, who had already been part of a Commonwealth Games relay run, keen to carry on and put his name up for the Olympic Games torch relay for Brisbane.
“I’ll be 95, maybe I can do it in a wheelchair,” he quipped.
John was one of just 275 torch bearers to take part in the legacy relay as the event moved across Queensland in the past month.
The Legacy Centenary Torch Relay 2023, presented by Defence Health began its journey in Pozières France on 23 April, with an official Opening Ceremony, then travelled to Menin Gate, Belgium and onto London before arriving in Australia, taking in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory before moving on to Queensland as part of a six-month journey visiting all Legacy Club locations around the country, before culminating in Melbourne later in the year.
John Telfer was one of 21 runners who took part in the Toowoomba leg on 14 June as part of it’s 90km journey throughout the state. The relay started it’s Queensland leg in Cairns on 24 May before moving south to Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Maryborough, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Toowoomba, Ipswich and finishing on the Gold Coast on 20 June.
The event has now moved on to NSW, on it’s journey south.
John said he was honoured just to have been chosen to take part in the relay aimed at celebrating the centenary of this Australian group as well as raising awareness and money to help with everything Legacy does for the widows and children of ex-servicemen.
“It was pretty good,” he said of the honour of becoming the only Southern Downs and Granite Belt person picked to carry the torch.
“Because it was the middle of the week in Toowoomba we didn’t have many viewing it but the organisation and the service people there, everything else went perfectly and it was really good. It was a bit cool but other than that it was really good.
“I walked about 500 metres with the torch, I think what happened they must have got a couple of extra people and gave us a shorter distance. It didn’t worry me, 500metres is enough. We walked it, we didn’t run it.
“My friend who took part in the relay on the Gold Coast, was talking to the guy who organized it and he thought my $4000 might have been one of the best totals in the state, it was in the region here.
“I ended up with $4050, I got $2000 in one hit from a woman who wanted to remain anonymous, she just said take this from a grateful legatee, her father died in the war, she was an elderly woman but she wanted to give back to legacy.”
John volunteers to sell for Legacy every year and sometimes goes to visit sick soldiers or exservicemen in the hospital sometimes, that’s about it he says.
“I have my fingers in a few pies, it keeps me busy,” he said.
“Writing the history keeps me busy, it takes me a week to research and write one story. To do them properly.”
Twenty-one people took part as torch bearers in Toowoomba, walking for 5.7 kilometres, the total distance from Picnic Point to the townhall where the Lord Mayor was on-hand to meet them.
“They lit a caldron there just outside the town-hall to keep the flame going, then we had a little reception in the Townhall with the Lord Mayor,” John said.
“It was an honour to be selected. They said there were 2500 applications in Queensland so to be selected out of that was pretty good.
“I don’t know who thought it up but coming from France, from the battle fields, that added a historical context to it and then over to London to King Charles at Buckingham Palace. He had a little service outside the palace and then the Victoria Cross winner Kerrigan carried the first baton from London.
“It was quite a good experience, having done the Commonwealth Games baton and now having done this I’m aiming towards the Brisbane Olympics with the torch. I’ll be 95, I might be able to do it in a wheelchair, one fellow did this one in wheelchair up at Toowoomba.”
As someone who still walks and swims and has completed marathons, John reckons his chances of the Olympic relay might be pretty good.
The torch is now making it’s way through NSW on it’s way south to Victoria.
During the Centenary tour, the torch will travel 50,000 kilometres, with 100 stops over 75 days, and be carried by 1300 Torch Bearers, all with a personal connection to Legacy Australia according to Legacy Australia Chairman Eric Easterbrook OAM.
“The torch relay is a fitting commemoration of a century of service,” he said.
“Over the decades, Legacy has had a significant impact on many spouses, partners and children of veterans in the state of Queensland. From Cairns to the Gold Coast and everywhere in between, we hope this relay will raise awareness of the important work Legacy does across the sunshine state in supporting our veterans’ families.”
Legacy Australia has been supporting Veteran’s families since 1923 and was founded on a Promise made from one digger to another.
Today, Legacy supports over 40,000 partners and children of veterans’ who put their health and lives on the line for this country. At the start of the Queensland leg, torch bearers had raised $130,000 for Legacy. Donations allow Legacy to keep the promise to veterans’ families.
To donate visit legacy.com.au/donate.
