Red tape cannot be allowed to strangle Nowra's Waratah March

A local Waratah March Re-Enactment Committee has been established with the aim of replicating the recruitment march which left Nowra in 1915 and marched up the Princes Highway to Sydney, along the way picking up volunteers who were prepared to enlist in the army and fight with the allies on the western front.

Re-Enactment Committee chairman Clyde Poulton, himself a Vietnam veteran, said state government bureaucrats, who fear the march could pose a risk to public safety, have put in place a number of tight restrictions that would greatly reduce the significance of the march.

“Roads and Maritime Services don’t want us to march on any parts of the Princes Highway,” he said.

“In fact, we are being told we can’t march on any road that has a speed limit above 60km/h, so that will mean we will be restricted to towns and villages along the route.

“They say they’ll support the march and that is very welcome and will provide RMS services, but it will also have to have a full integrated emergency response team, including ambulance and fire vehicles as well as police escorts.

“So their support comes at a fairly high cost.

“It changes the whole concept of the march and what it was meant to represent – to honour the men who made the original march. Marching the whole distance is pretty important to the tone of the re-enactment.

“They want us to have small marches through each town and village and hold a service and then move onto the next town.

“Our plan was clearly to be able to use the length of the highway but not to take up whole highway.

“We are not asking for a march of hundreds of people – we really only want what they call a colour party, of probably 10-20 young men or women, dressed appropriately and carrying the Waratahs banner.

“Bureaucrats want to manage and organise events – and sometimes that impacts and impinges on the spirit of the event.”

There is not even a guarantee approval will be given to march over the old Nowra Bridge, for the retake of a famous photo taken 1915 as the volunteers crossed the Shoalhaven River.

“We will definitely want to march across the old Shoalhaven River bridge and replicate that stunning photograph of the Waratahs,” he said.

“The rules are certainly different in 2015 to what they were in 1915.

“At this stage we are marching and will march over the bridge.

“And we’ll be marching no matter how many restrictions they place on us and community involvement and support might prise open more opportunities.”

Mr Poulton said he would meet with Shoalhaven City Council and its traffic committee to discuss the matter next week, while a meeting was planned with the RMS in Nowra in October.

Organisers of the re-enactment of the Kangaroo March from Wagga through the highlands to Sydney have run into similar problems, and without access to the Hume Highway may have to use fire trails and private property.