Dean from Waler Walks in Junee.
Last Saturday, Waler Walk, which is an initiative that aims to honour veterans across Australia, went through Junee. Each Saturday, Dean Franklin travels through a different town to highlight local stories of courage, connection, and mateship.
Dean said that the “walk took me to the heart of Junee — a town whose legacy of service lives on in the names etched into its War Memorial Clock Tower.
“I walked in honour of Private Gilbert Pratt, a local who served with the 55th Battalion during WWI. His name stands among so many others from Junee who answered the call, in the trenches of Gallipoli, across the fields of France, and far beyond.
“This memorial isn’t just a monument. It’s a promise that their stories will not be forgotten.
“If you’re in town, stop by and take a moment, and if you’re walking today too, walk for someone.”
During his stop, he was supported by locals, stopped to have a cuppa at Brew at 102 and spoke to local schoolchildren. He spoke to the Junee Independent about the walks and said it was a way to ease the burden of mental health issues.
“I’m a veteran of 20 years in the Air Force, two tours of duty and have ongoing mental health concerns. I started walking during lunchtime just to help me regulate things, and it prompted me to look at this as something that I can do. I’m with the RSL, and I’ve been trying to find things to help veterans out. When I was walking, I went, this is an easy thing for me to do, so I thought, I’ll get it started. I’ve been doing it now for about six weeks.
“Every day I just go for a walk, and I try to live-stream it through one of the social platforms. At the moment, I’m just doing it through my own Facebook because you need to have a certain amount of followers before you can do it through TikTok and Instagram and all this sort of stuff. Essentially, it’s just away of trying to get veterans to relate to each other and get up and move.That’s why the tagline is one step every day together. It’s about trying to get them up and moving. They don’t need to walk 5KMs, they might just walk to the letterbox, but it’s about building a community of like-minded people supporting each other, getting out and walking, doing things that get people out of the house and hopefully helps clear their minds, so to speak.
“Junee is a lovely place. I’ve been there a few times, with kids’ football and to the pool and the Licorice Factory and all that, but I’ve never really walked it. I walked down from Loftus Oval to the memorial and back. It was further than I thought it was. It’s beautiful. I’ve got so much support from Junee, the Junee RSL offered to buy me lunch, but I just didn’t have the time for that. Brew on 102 gave me a free cuppa as well, which is a wonderful thing.
“I’ve got shirts and stuff that on the back it says “Ask me why I walk”. The main reason I walk is that since 2001, we’ve lost 42 troops in combat and at the same time, we’ve lost 1,600 to suicide. It helps me, but if it also helps someone else, it’s a bonus.
“When I go to a different town, I’ll try to research a little bit on that. When I walked in, Harden the first time, the focus was on the light horse. The name Waler Walk comes from the Waler horse.
“It helps me, and if I could help one other person, then I’ve done something beneficial. I’m with the RSL. I’m in the Sub-Branch here in Boorowa, and there are lots of little things that we try to get done, but a lot of it is restricted by funding and availability, whereas this is something I can do by myself. I just need my phone, my dog, and get out and walk.
“We do some things in Boorowa. We’ve got a monthly veterans and first responder catch-up. They come in once a month, have a coffee, we invite the first responders as well because some of the stuff that they see is terrible as well, and so it’s about helping people with their PTSD and their mental health and all that sort of stuff.”
If you see Dean in your town, don’t be afraid to join him on his walk.
– Jack Murray
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