Terry Flynn has upgraded the Willawarrin war memorial site after raising money over five years of meat raffles

A small gesture some might think, but it comes from a big heart.

Every cent raised on meat raffle night has been poured into the upgrade of the Willawarrin war memorial.

Terry is humble and not in it for praise, he says. This is all about remembering the people 'who should be remembered'.

As a veteran himself, Terry always wanted to find a way to pay respects to fallen soldiers. He served in the Special Air Services (SAS) from 1969 to 1974.

His mission started when Terry turned up to the Willawarrin ANZAC service in 1988 and there were four veterans sitting on a bench.

"They saw me and my friend coming over and said 'oh young people, take this,' and handed over a cassette player for the music. And from that day on I have been running the service," Terry said.

Thirty-three years later, the attendance numbers on ANZAC Day have been growing each year.

"Instead of ANZAC day dying out, it is becoming bigger and better," he said.

In 2016, after watching the old memorial gradually decay for years, Terry had a chat with the Willawarrin Hotel publican Michelle O'Neill, to devise a way to raise some funds for an upgrade.

"The publican at the time wanted to do something for the community, and I put my hand up for the memorial and she started donating two meat trays a week," Terry said.

He has been able to raise over $20,000 through the meat raffles, received council grants, and has had volunteers work on the project for free.

"Over the years we started collecting money, and most of the work has been done by volunteers, most of the concrete work was done by a local builder and the painting by a local painter. The meat is from a local butcher in town, so it's a great community effort all round," Terry said.

He got in contact with the Australian Army and was able to acquire a Lone Pine seed from one of their bases in Tasmania.

"The seed was brought home after World War 1 from Lone Pine, it's a descendant from the ones in Gallipoli," Terry said.

But in 2019, the Black Summer bushfires hit Willawarrin. As Terry was at the pub hosting one of his meat raffles, he got a phone call from his wife.

"My wife rang me up and said 'the police are here, we've got to go', and I thought why, and she said 'the fires are coming,'" Terry said.

He said he had seen that the fires were near Taree, but never thought the inferno would reach them that quickly.

"We had about five minutes to get out."

Unfortunately, the Flynns lost their house and all of their belongings that day.

"It's still a bit raw and we basically got out with the clothes on our back. We couch surfed for a while, that might be fun when you're 20, but it's not so good when you're 70," Terry said.

He said he was overwhelmed by the support from the community, donations from Sydneysiders and assistance from Team Rubicon, a group that is comprised of active and returned service members.

"They turned up to my place, and sifted through the ashes of my house to see if they could find anything, and that was incredibly touching," Terry said.

The Flynns have decided not to re-build their house on the property, but have set up a caravan and amenities block for a weekender,

"We might not live here, but it's still our home," Terry said.

And as soon as Terry and the town got back on their feet, he went right back to fundraising for the memorial.

"It's unbelievable, we took a big hit in 2019, but we came through, and everyone I talk to says 'what's new with the memorial?' it's something for them to work towards," Terry said.

The current publican of the Willawarrin Hotel, Gordon Henderson, embraced the meat raffles and said everything is starting to look up.

Terry hopes to keep raising money so he can purchase a solar powered spotlight for the memorial, and he also wants to get the service members' names who haven't been recognised, engraved onto the plaques.

"I'm not doing it for self glory, I just want to remember people that should be remembered," Terry said.

"It's the people here that make my job so much easier because they just line up to buy tickets."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: