Borella Park
Borella Park KORONG VALE, LODDON SHIRE
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
This record has minimal details. Please look to the right-hand-side bar for any further details about this record.
-
-
Veterans Description for Public
Borella Park - Veterans Description for Public
Borella Park was opened on Anzac Day, 25th April 1988, by the Shire President C.R. L.E. The park is dedicated to the memory of Victoria Cross winner of Lieutenant Albert Chalmers Borella (1881-1968) of the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion A.I.F.He was awarded theVC for most conspicuous bravery in attack on 17 to 18 July 1918 at Villers- Bretonneux. The citation reads:
Whilst leading his platoon with the first wave, Lieutenant Borella marked an enemy machine gun firing though our barrage. He ran out ahead of his men into the barrage, shot two German machine gunners with his revolver, and captured the gun. He then led his party, now reduced to ten men and two Lewis guns, against a very strongly held trench, using his revolver, and later a rifle, with great effect, causing many enemy casualties. His leading and splendid example resulted in the garrison being quickly shot or captured.
Borella was born at Borung, Victoria, and educated at Borung and Echuca districts; he also served for eighteen months with the Victorian Rangers. In 1910, he was a fireman in Melbourne, resigning in January 1913 to take up a pastoral lease, drawn by ballot, on the Daly River.
In 1915, Borella was a cook for a survey party in Tennant Creek and set out for Queensland to volunteer for active service. At the outbreak of the war, volunteers from the Northern Territory were not being accepted. With Charlie, an Aboriginal man, he walked 88 miles (140 kilometres) and swam across flooded rivers. After borrowing a horse at powell Creek, just north of Renner Springs, Northern Territory, he rode to Katherine, where he caught the mail coach to the railhead at Pine Creek. He sailed from Darwin to Townsville on 8 March 1915 with four other men who were among the first fifteen volunteers for active service from the Northern Territory.
Borella enlisted in the 26th Battalion in March 1915 and served at Gallipoli before proceeding to the Western Front. Lieutenant Borella received the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery in the attack on Malt Trench, north of Warlencourt on the night of 1 March 1917, winning the Victoria Cross a year later in 1918.
At the end of the war, Borella was invalided back to Australia. From 1920, he farmed a soldier settlement block near Hamilton in Victoria. In 1924, he stood for the seat of Dundas in the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the National Party candidate, but was narrowly defeated.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Borella was appointed lieutenant in the 12th Australian Garrison Battalion with which he served until 1941 when he was attached to the Prisoner of War Group at Rushworth. Promoted to captain on 1 September 1942, he served with the 51st Garrison Company at Myrtleford until discharged in 1945. He then moved to Albury where he died in 1968 and was buried in North Albury.
-
-
-
-
-
Korong Vale War MemorialVic. War Heritage Inventory
-
Korong Vale Boer War Honour RollVic. War Heritage Inventory
-
Korong Vale State School Honour Roll (First World War)Vic. War Heritage Inventory
-
-