Police have appealed for public help after historic documents and war medals belong to an Australian WWII hero were stolen from a property in Toorak, Melbourne, this week.
Investigators have been told a property on Williams Road was broken into sometime between 7.30pm on December 18, and 11pm on December 19.
Once inside the property the thieves have removed a safe which contained numerous letters and documents belonging to and written by Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop.
The safe also contained medals and honours presented to Dunlop, along with jewellery and electronics valued at over $30,000.
Detectives have released images of the medals and correspondence in the hope that the items will be handed in to police.
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Dunlop, who died aged 85 in 1993, was a surgeon and a WWII veteran renowned for his leadership as a prisoner of war in the infamous Japanese labour camps.
The Wangaratta-born man led a group of Australian POWs who were forced to build Imperial Japan’s Changi railway, working under appalling conditions.
Nonetheless, after the war, Dunlop forgave his captors and worked hard to promote relations between Australia and Asia.
Among his other distinctions – including numerous overseas honours – Dunlop also played for the Wallabies before WWII, and remains the only Victorian inducted into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame.
