Diagonally opposite the Seven Creeks Hotel in Euroa is a small rise in the corner of parkland that leads up to Tarcombe Road. In its corner stands an Algerian oak. Officially, it is simply a corner of Euroa's memorial parkland but one is hard-pressed to find it appearing on any map. It is a name with value, not because it is official. But because it is unofficially official. Every town has places that never appear on a map, that surveyors never named, nor councils ever gazetted, but places everyone somehow knows. Generations of locals have named it Fosters Hill due to the halcyon days when the town's youth, perhaps in folly, would back their cars in and share a tinny or two of a popular lager. The lack of an official name has always aligned nicely with what has recently been returned to that very corner: Euroa's original plaque dedicated to the Unknown Soldier. The idea of the Unknown Soldier became significant across Australia after the repatriation and entombment of Australia's Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in 1993. The remains had been recovered from a cemetery near Villers-Bretonneux in France and now represent all Australians who died in war and whose identities were lost to history. The plaque in Euroa similarly commemorates those soldiers who fell and were buried unidentified in distant lands. The story of the plaque's restoration, however, is not really about the plaque itself, nor Foster's Hill, nor even the oak standing behind it. It is simply the story of a forgotten piece of history being returned to its place after passing through several caring hands. Euroa RSL secretary Neville Mawson said when former Euroa RSL president Phil Munt died earlier this year, the plaque was among items he had planned to restore. "It was extremely damaged," Mr Mawson said. Following his father's passing, Phil Munt Jr returned the plaque to the RSL. Mr Mawson then commissioned Longwood metal sculptor Steve Tobin to undertake the restoration. "My wife went into the Euroa Newsagency and Lorraine asked if I could fix it up," Mr Tobin said. "I was happy to do it. "They trusted me to do it, and it was an honour." Mr Tobin straightened the plaque, cleaned it, and brought it back to life, and it is now secured back into the ground. The restoration comes as Euroa's Avenue of Honour, which was dedicated in 1935, edges closer to its centenary. This is the sort of history that would have disappeared if it was never written down or, in this case, acted upon. Foster's Hill may never appear on a map, but in Euroa it remains exactly where it has always been, and with it the dedication to the Unknown Soldier once more keeps watch beneath the old Algerian oak.
