{"id":673543,"date":"2026-05-15T23:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673543\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T23:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:15:12","slug":"vietnam-war-battle-of-coral-balmoral-memorial-unveiled-in-gundagai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673543\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam War Battle of Coral\u2013Balmoral memorial unveiled in Gundagai"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Stan Barrett thinks back to his time in Vietnam, his mate Richard Norden is always front of mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For what Dick done that day, if you weren’t there and didn’t see it, you wouldn’t believe it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While fighting in the Battle of Coral\u2013Balmoral, Mr Barrett witnessed an act of bravery from his comrade Richard Norden, who was later awarded the Victoria Cross, <\/a>during an ambush by the North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) soldiers.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Stan Barrett fought in the Battle of Coral\u2013Balmoral alongside Victoria Cross recipient Richard Norden. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)<\/p>\n

During the battle, 19-year-old Private Richard Norden went into enemy territory to retrieve his section commander, Joe Kelly, who had been injured in the ambush.<\/p>\n

Private Norden went back twice more, once to check on another soldier, Chris Nisbet, who was killed in the attack, and the third time to bring his body back.<\/p>\n

Private Nisbet was one of 26 Australians killed in the battle, marking it as Australia’s deadliest encounter in the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

After the war, Richard Norden worked for the AFP and died in a motorcycle accident while on duty in Canberra in 1972.<\/p>\n

He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross in 2024 after a long-fought battle by his peers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

A statue depicting Richard Norden VC drag-carrying his section commander Joe Kelly back from enemy lines. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)<\/p>\n

Mr Barrett thinks about what he witnessed as a young man at least once a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know too much, I’d only been in the army 10 and a half months. It was on-the-job training in one of the most hostile environments on earth,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was a bloody bank johnny, and then the next minute I’m in Vietnam.”Long-awaited memorial\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although not as well-known as the Battle of Long Tan, Coral\u2013Balmoral was a more protracted battle.<\/p>\n

“It was the biggest and the longest, and with the most blokes killed and wounded,” Vietnam War veteran Jim McDonnell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Private McDonnell, in Charlie company, Private Norden, in Bravo, and another man, Neil McInerney, were all from Gundagai in Southern NSW and served in the 1RAR at Coral\u2013 Balmoral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Jim McDonnell fought in Vietnam alongside two other Gundagai men, Richard Norden and Neil McInerney. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)<\/p>\n

This week, Gundagai unveiled the only memorial recognising the Battle of Coral\u2013Balmoral, besides a plaque at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.<\/p>\n

“I’m just so proud and honoured that our battalion had a brave young fella that rose to the challenge on the day,” Mr McDonnell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coral\u2013Balmoral soldiers feel the battle has been overlooked in Australia’s war history, despite being the largest battle Australian soldiers fought in during the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We as a battalion felt it probably should have been [more recognised],” Mr McDonnell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Stan Barrett (right, in the foreground) stands alongside the other four surviving 1RAR men. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)<\/p>\n

The Vietnam War’s reception in Australia, being the first war televised, also complicated how the battle was to be remembered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The first 20 years was pretty hard, because it wasn’t a popular war. I don’t think many of us went out and proclaimed we were ex-Vietnam diggers,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr McDonnell said there was a lot of pressure put on young troops, especially to not leave their mates behind, but he saw bravery every day on the battlefield.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Peter Fushtel retrieved six wounded and pulled the bodies back to the medic \u2014 that was a very brave thing to do,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He received a military medal for his efforts, but he was never the same since.”<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Governor-General Sam Mostyn cut the ribbon to unveil the statue. (ABC Riverina: Jess Scully)<\/p>\n

At the ceremony in Gundagai this week, Governor-General Sam Mostyn and former governors-general David Hurley and Sir Peter Cosgrove were in attendance alongside the families of Private Norden, Nesbit and Kelly, Keith Payne VC, hundreds of current and ex-service military, and hundreds of children from the local schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Addressing the crowd, Ms Mostyn said the memorial would be a longstanding tribute to his actions and the soldiers who fought alongside him.<\/p>\n

“To ensure the extent and importance of the Battle of Coral\u2013Balmoral would never be forgotten,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Mostyn, whose father is a Vietnam veteran, awarded Private Norden the Victoria Cross in 2024. She described the monument as a “gift to Australia”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“A story of extraordinary courage and gallantry has etched Private Norden’s name forever in our nation’s history,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Stan Barrett thinks back to his time in Vietnam, his mate Richard Norden is always front of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,324942,324943,324945,6085,44,324946,324944,48618],"class_list":["post-673543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-battle-of-coral-balmoral","tag-gundagai","tag-jim-mcdonnell","tag-memorial","tag-news","tag-richard-norden","tag-stan-barrett","tag-vietnam-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}