Royal Australian Armoured Corps Association Inc. (Victorian Branch) A0023458C
Welcome to our Association’s website. We invite all past and serving RAAC soldiers and members of attached corps to join us and help make this website a conduit for all members to keep informed with Association events and formal functions throughout the year. We also welcome input of stories, anecdotes or any relevant news or information that could be of interest to our members and readers. We have a regular newsletter "Track" that is available here electronically by selecting the button below or by email or surface mail to our members. We look forward to hearing from you.
The Purposes of the Association are
To foster a continuing condition of camaraderie for all serving and former members of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps including attached personnel and members of the armoured forces of our allies and family of members as Affiliate Members.
The Association may provide welfare services to its members and scholarships to their dependants from time to time as appropriate.
Charlie Walsh RAACA (Vic) Scholarship
The first of the new Charlie Walsh scholarships for secondary school attendance was formally presented by the wife of the late Charlie Walsh, Alleyne Walsh, with a cheque for $300 to Ethan Branagan, grandson of our President, Peter Branagan OAM. Applications for the scholarships have closed for the year but if you want more information, go to the Scholarships tab on the Administration page here on our website.
Alleyne Walsh, wife of the late Charlie Walsh presenting the certificate and cheque for $300 to Ethan Branagan, grandson of Peter Branagan OAM for the first of the new Charlie Walsh Memorial Scholarships. Photo provided by Tim Branagan.
The Australian Army Tank Museum closed on 14th Dec 2022. It is due to re-open late in the financial year 2024-25 as The Puckapunyal Combined Arms Heritage Learning Centre (CAHLC) which will encompass both the Armoured & Artillery Heritage Collections.
BREAKING NEWS: An inside source tells us that the new museum is to be one of the projects affected by the cut from defence spending announced recently and that the old museum is likely to be refurbished and reopen in 2024. Does that make the fact sheet in the above link a "Fiction Sheet"?
Thought of the week: I never argue, I just explain why I'm right.
Tanks for the memories
With 75 years just passed since the establishment of the RAACA, it is a fitting time to make available a collection of photos donated by the Fogarty family. For those who don't know who the Fogarty family is or their connection to the RAACA, Mike Fogarty is a current member of the association and his father, Tom Fogarty, was one of the original committee members and Vice President when it was started in 1946.
You will find the photo collection on the Gallery page or you can click on the button below.
One of our members, Tyrrell McGeever, has putt together an album of original photos of the 11th Australian Light Horse Regiment taken by the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Percival John Bailey DSO, and donated by his daughter, Miss M Bailey in memory of her father. The unit was raised in the Darling Downs area of Queensland where Tyrrell's unit is based and he plans to present the album when he visits later in the year. There are additional photos taken in areas where the 11th ALH operated in the Middle East during 1918 and 1919.
Tyrrell has offered us the opportunity to scan the photos in the album and these have been uploaded to our website and available to be viewed. You can find the link to the album on the Gallery page or click on the link below.
In 2021 the Army Knowledge Centre published a short book on the Military History of Seymour and Puckapunyal which was authored by Captain David Adams. The book has been distributed to all of the units on base at Puckapunyal and to several other external agencies such as the RSL, Historical Society and local newspaper. The book has also been distributed via electronic format to several other ex-service associations.
An electronic copy of the book was distributed via email to RAACA (Vic) members and is available here for download through clicking on the button below. This has been made available through the author:
CAPT David Adams S5 Plans School of Armour Hopkins Barracks Puckapunyal VIC 3662