“Ingleburn Star” : Lieutenant W A Woodger, 1 Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Training Battalion

Large brass six pointed star with a copper wash, edged with decorative twisted brass wire. A warrant officer’s crown and wreath is soldered to the obverse. The arms of the cross are engraved ‘1939/1945/CROSSROADS/ LIVERPOOL/ SYDNEY/ MINTO”. Reverse is engraved “NX141421 LT. W.A. WOODGER/ NOLLE BASTARDO CARBORUNDUM”. The star is suspended from a felt ‘ribbon’ in the green and yellow colours of Eastern Command Instruction units, with grey edging indicating service the Second AIF. An oversized safety pin has been fashioned from brass wire for securing to a garment or object.

Lieutenant William Austin 'Bill' Woodger was presented with this joke tribute medal while posted to the Ingleburn military training base, south west of Sydney in 1945.

Born in Queanbeyan in 1913, Woodger was educated at the local public school before completing his tuition at the Church of England Grammar School in Sydney in 1930. Woodger's family had played a prominent role in the development of the Queanbeyan district from the late nineteenth century, including the auction of the first land in the fledgling capital of Canberra in 1924.

With typical energy, he carried on the family tradition of supporting local community organisations, becoming a committee member of the Queanbeyan Pastoral, Agricultural and Horticultural Association shortly after matriculating. This was just the beginning of lifelong associations with community groups and organisations including the church, rugby union and league, golf, the theatre and the Citizens’ Military Force.

Within two years of leaving school, the eighteen year old formed a stock and station agency partnership with his father and brothers, becoming the youngest auctioneer in NSW at the time.

His marriage to Jean Mary Hambly in 1938 was interrupted the following year with the outbreak of the Second World War. By September 1939 Woodger was an acting sergeant in 3rd Battalion (Werriwa Regiment), initially training in the Wollongong area. By March 1942, the now Lieutenant Woodger was a platoon commander with the battalion when it embarked for New Guinea on 18 May 1942, arriving in Port Moresby on the 27th.

In September he was attached to Maroubra Force, later dubbed 'the men who saved Australia'. At Ioribaiwa between 13 and 16 September 1942, Maroubra Force fought a bloody fighting withdrawal that sapped the last of the Japanese strength and finally forced the beginning of the Japanese retreat along Kokoda. On the afternoon of 15 September at Ioribaiwa, Woodger’s platoon came under intense enemy mountain gun, machine gun and rifle fire and he was wounded in the left hand, effectively ending his front line service.

The wound prompted Woodger’s return to Australia in November where he was placed on the Permanent Supernumerary List with restricted duties. In March 1943 he was attached to the 14th Australian Infantry Training Battalion before being posted to the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers recruits' training battalions at Ingleburn where he was presented with this 'medal' sometime during his final weeks of military service. He was discharged from the AIF on 7 April 1945.

Following the war Woodger’s involvement in the community continued. In 1980 he was honoured with an Order of Australia Medal for his services to rugby. That same year he was patron of the ACT Rugby Union and Queanbeyan Rugby Union when he died on 28 September, aged 67 years.