By Anthony Mcaleer
Roger was born in 1945 and grew up in Bentleigh West. A good sportsman, he played football for East Brighton and in late 1965 was chosen to train with St Kilda. Things were looking very good for him to join the team in 1966 but suddenly his birthday marble was pulled out of the conscription lottery and as a result he was taken out of the football arena and sent off to serve with the army at Puckpunyal. He was pretty disappointed with that as that year St Kilda won the grand final – their last flag.
At the age of 20, he undertook basic training at Puckpunyal and was then appointed to Artillery and was eventually attached to 106th Field Battery, 4th Field Regiment and trained as a Forward Observer. In April 1967 he received word his unit was going to Vietnam and the following month he joined the Battery at Nui Dat.
Roger’s role in Vietnam was as a Forward Observer, which meant that most of his time he was out on patrol with infantry units, mainly men from 7RAR. One of his classic stories from this time came from when he served with a New Zealand Rifle Company.
In Roger’s words – “This one time we were to go out in the jungle with New Zealanders and a large proportion of those men were Maoris. When I went over to them before the operation with one of my Sigs, this Maori Captain, he came and asked me if I was the Artillery support and I said ‘yes I was’. He said ‘well we are very pleased to have you with us – you’re European, you’re a foot taller than us and you’ve got red hair – they’ll shoot you first!’ I told him what I thought of that”.
Most of Roger’s time in Vietnam he was in the thick of it and it wasn’t only the enemy he had to contend with, the jungle had its own unique issues to deal with as well.
On one occasion he was bitten by a snake, on his rear end, a story that has delighted a generation of Mount Evelyn Primary School students who he regularly told the story to, and on another occasion he contracted malaria, so severely that he spent eight days in intensive care at the Vung Tau Hospital and was lucky to survive.
Roger returned to Australia in March 1968.
By his own admission he found it hard to re-adjust back to civilian life. As Roger said – “I think we were all mentally disturbed by it, nothing surer. In fact, it took me a whole year at least to even start and become normal again. A lot of my mates were feeling the same, we were all going through the same thing, weren’t coping”.
Soon after returning to Australia he met the love of his life, Julie, they married, moved to Birmingham Road, Mount Evelyn and raised two children, Stuart and Alice.
He involved himself in his community, played football for Mount Evelyn, was involved with the tennis club and joined the RSL, although he didn’t become active until he retired. He had a beach house at Venus Bay where he also became involved with the local Surf Life Saving Club.
As a career he worked for the Board of Works and then as industrial officer for the AWU and then the CPSU. What he learned here while fighting for the rights and benefits of workers he later used in good cause also in fighting for the rights and benefits of local ex-service people and their dependents.
He and Julie often enjoyed travelling together including on one occasion back to Vietnam, although he found this experience disappointing.
Then in early 2011, Laurie Hollier invited Roger and Anthony McAleer around to his house to discuss the issues facing the Mt Evelyn RSL club, which was then in a slump.
Laurie produced a bottle of scotch and before the end of the night it was decided Roger would be president and Anthony secretary.
This marked a new era of much needed rejuvenation for the Mt Evelyn RSL sub-branch.
From the start Roger set out to make the club a part of the community and get the community involved with the club. He was also dedicated to improving the wellbeing of the club members and their dependents.
One of the first things he targeted was the Thursday social afternoon, actively seeking out retired members and getting them to get out of their homes to come along to experience an enjoyable time mixing with others. As attendances grew, he gave many older members a better quality of life and assisted many with their welfare needs. He served as the club’s welfare officer for 12 years.
He also set up strong ties and community partnerships with so many groups in Mt Evelyn and restored its hall and its facilities, making it a community asset that was used by many local community groups including a local youth theatre group.
In a very short time – membership of the club increased, poppy and Anzac token sales increased, attendance at the services grew and the club forged a strong reputation in the community.
During his time as president, he was committed to preserving and highlighting our Anzac heritage.
He oversaw the complete makeover of the local war memorial park to make it more accessible for the growing crowds at services and as a reflective space for the community to enjoy. He installed the howitzer, the lighting, the honour roll plaque and the 18 individual WWI plaques there as well.
He coordinated the committee for Anzac Day and Remembrance Day events that increased attendances during his time from 150 to 3000 at the Anzac Dawn service. He organised for local school children to write to one of the members serving in Afghanistan and made a group of teenagers from the Youth Shed custodians of the war memorial, which inspired them to paint an Anzac mural on their building.
He regularly gave talks to local groups about his military service and the stories he told the young folk from Birmingham Primary School on their visit each year were legendary.
During his time as president he focussed all his energies into turning the Mt Evelyn RSL Sub-branch into a force for making a better community at Mt Evelyn and for improving the wellbeing of the club members.
Roger appeared on the front pages of the local newspaper so often he was known around the place as ‘Front Page Roger’. One local wag said the only reason the local papers had him in it was so that their readers would know the paper was about Mt Evelyn.
He was also known as the ‘Award winning Roger Boness’ and rightly so, for all he achieved.
Including –
Mayoral Lifetime Achievement Award – Shire of Yarra Ranges – 2015
Volunteer Award – Electorate of Casey – 2014
Victorian Senior Citizen (Veteran) of the Year – 2017
Howitzer named ‘Boness Gun’ and plaque unveiled in his honour – 2022
RSL Life Member – 2019
RSL Meritorious Service Medal – 2022
Although his last few years were a struggle for Roger as he fought the illnesses associated with cancer and the passing of his beloved wife Julie, he continued to spend time with good mates, ex-army comrades and his family, especially his grandson Riley who was a great joy in his life.
Although this community owes a great debt to Roger, he leaves it a better place and with a long list of achievements to his name.
