The Wangaratta Lodge of St John and Sir Dallas Brooks Daylight Lodge of Wangaratta are hosting a presentation of the finding of the wreck of the Montevideo Maru from 6pm-7pm on Wednesday 1 July at the Wangaratta RSL.

The Montevideo Maru was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942 with over 1000 Australian troops and civilians losing their lives.

It will be presented by Captain Roger Turner (Retd), the search director for the expedition which found the wreck.

Also at the same event will be Dr Julie Campbell, a member of Friends of Bangka Island, which plans the annual memorial service for those who died there with the family members of the Australian Army Nurses and civilian internees and the Australian Embassy

Dr Campbell is also a member of the Heritage Committee of the Australian Nurses' Memorial Centre and and a co-founder of the Muntok Peace Museum, http://muntokpeacemuseum.org.

Dr Campbell has visited Bangka Island each year since 2011, where her grandfather died as a civilian internee in August 1944.

The presentation at the RSL is also related to the recent unveiling of the memorial at Oxley for two of the nurses killed at Radji Beach, Bangka Island by the Japanese in 1942.

Dr Campbell will be talking of the Bangka Island annual memorial visit and fundraising during the evening.

Limited seats are available by contacting the Wangaratta RSL on 0408 389 136 or email matt@denatris.id.au.