The highlight of celebrations of the 150th Anniversary of the death of General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, was a modest, yet very moving ceremony in Perisher Valley in the mountains, 11 miles from the summit of Mt Kosciuszko. The ceremony was held on 15 October 1967, on the Anniversary day of the death of the General. The ceremony was oganised by the Executive Committee of the Polish Community Council in Australia – with the co-operation of the Cooma Chamber of Commerce, the head of which is Andrzej Kleeberg, son of the President of the Polish Community Council. 300 people from various states of Australia met together on this occasion, amongst them many of considerable note in the community.

A special mass was held at the alter of the beautifully-located Church in Perisher Valley, by Father Karol Warzecha from Canberra, assisted by three Polish missionary priests, one of whom gave an uplifting sermon about Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Kosciuszko’s patriotism for his country. Next to the altar is a monument of an emu dedicated to President F J Kennedy. A 20-strong choir called „Krajan” (meaning „countrymen”) from Canberra and Queanbeyan sang throughout the special mass.

After the service, on the steep mountainside, a guard of honour formed by Polish scouts and guides from Sydney, stood in front of three flags flapping in the wind – ie the national flags of Poland, the United States and Australia being the three countries which have been associated with General Tadeusz Kosciuszko and his Legacy. Representing the NSW Government and addressing the gathering, was MP Tom Lewis. Edwin Cronk, Chancellor of the USA Embassy, saluted General Kosciuszko, and spoke of his service and achievements in the American War of Independence, and Kosciuszko’s concern for negro slaves, and their liberation.

The President of the Executive Committee of the Polish Community Council, General Juliusz Kleeberg, ended what was a superb speech with the words of Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki in which he explained the reason as to why he named the highest peak of Australia after the General – ie Mt Kosciuszko.

An address was also given by M. B. de Plater of Brisbane, a descendant of the Kosciuszko family, appealing especially to the youth to not forget their ancestors and the history of their ancestral country (Poland) and to nurture Polish traditions.

Amongst those present was Lieutenant Daniel Ziemniak – Attache of the US Navy, representatives of the Kosciuszko Park Trust, Cooma Shire Council, Lions Club of Cooma, virtually the whole of the Executive Commitee of the Polish Community Council and representatives of the Polish Community of Sydney (what a pity there weren’t representatives from the whole of Australia!). There was also 8-year old student representative of the Kosciuszko Polish School of Melbourne – Wojtek Ostrowski.

After a short prayer for the souls of Kosciuszko and Strzelecki, we heard the national anthems of the 3 countries represented. At this special moment, against a beautiful blue sky rare at this time of year, a red and white recreational aeroplane flown by a Polish veteran pilot of the 2nd World War – Captain Stanislaw Birtus appeared. The plane circled the gathering and descended into the Valley, and, as if taking the thoughts and wishes of the people gathered there at that moment, flew subsequently in the direction of the barely-visible Mt Kosciuszko in the distance, where it ceremoniously dropped a wreath of white and red flowers on the snow-capped summit.

The above symbol replaced a planned hike to the summit which was not possible due to large amounts of melting snow in the mountains, making the area inaccessible. Despite this setback, the ceremony in Perisher Valley left a deep impression on all the participants who attended and will undoubtedly be remembered as a special historical event.

On the day before, Saturday, as part of the „Festival of the Snow” we enjoyed a performance in Cooma by a Polish Dancing Group from Cabramatta. Polish scouts from Sydney, led by Scoutmaster R. Treister, marched in the Festival Parade. In the evening, the „Kosciuszko Ball” with over 200 people was held in the Cooma Civic Hall. In addition, prizes including Polish-English dictionaries were given out to school children from the Cooma district.

The local Cooma Monaro Express acknowledged the Anniversary Celebration of Kosciuszko’s death by a four-page feature article entitled „Kosciusko Commemoration Supplement” based mainly on reference materials provided by the Executive Committee of the Polish Community Council. Further to an introductory article, there were articles by Andrzej Gawronski, Andrzej Kleeberg, W. Noskowski (the former Consul of Poland in Sydney) and Lech Paszkowski, as well as a large image of a reproduction of Jozef Chelmonski’s painting „Kosciuszko at Raclawice”.

J. Chelmonski: Prayer before battle

This article must mention a ridiculous letter to the Editor of „The Express” from one Mr Bob McCarthy, who, on behalf of a group called the „Namatjira Fan Club” of Cooma, demanded the change of the name of Mt Kosciuszko to an Aboriginal name, either „Targangil” or „Namatjira” and embellished his letter with some rather coarse language aimed at both Kosciuszko and Strzelecki. Whilst we appreciate that the letter was published because everyone has a right to freedom of speech and expression, it deserves to be completely disregarded and ignored by the Polish community. I reccommend this course of action to both the Executive Committee of the Polish Community Council and to the organisers of the Kosciuszko Celebrations in Cooma.

I believe that the feature article, and the works written by Australian schoolchildren on the subject of Kosciuszko, will go a long way towards improving a surprising lack of knowledge amongst the Aboriginal community regarding the history of Mt Kosciuszko. I found evidence of this in a range of interviews which I conducted with around 15 Australians, of various ages, varying education levels, and from various walks of life, who attended the Festival. I will further elaborate on this interesting point in a subsequent article on this subject in The Polish Weekly.

One matter does concern me considerably though - if locals living in this area are so poorly-informed regarding Kosciuszko, despite knowing about the Festival and being exposed to all the information which has been published in preparation for and as part of the Festival, how much do Australians in the rest of the country know?

Its not good enough to blame Australians for their lack of knowledge. We should ask why, 20 years after coming to this country, we Poles have not been able to teach Australians about Kosciuszko? A once-off celebration, and a four-page feature article in the local newspaper, is just not enough to resolve this problem. Its the responsibility of EACH AND EVERY POLE in Australia to promote knowledge about Kosciuszko and his Legacy. There is even more responsibility on the youth to carry this forward into the future. I wonder just how well-prepared they are for this task?

Tomasz Ostrowski
Polish Weekly Number 19/24 October 1967
From the Archives of the Polish Australian Community