After a life of service Jeff Jackson is passing on the flame to the next generation
In 2012 then RSL Victoria State President Major General David McLaughlin AO (Ret’d) knocked on the door of the Welfare and Compensation Manager, Jeff Jackson, and said “You’re a Queenslander – you must like rugby.”
It was a statement more than a question and one that would lead Jeff to an association with the Melbourne storm rugby league side for fifteen years.
Jeff is indeed a Queenslander, and in his youth the separation between Australian rules and Rugby league was much clearer than today, with Victorians strictly on the Australian Rules side of the fence and Queenslanders on the rugby league side.
Jeff spent the first 18 years of his life in Brisbane before joining the Australian Army in 1970, the start of a 45-year career in the Australian Army. He joined 4RAR and went into training across Australia for deployment to Vietnam, finally embarking on HMAS Sydney in May 1971.
While he was there the Australian government made the decision to withdraw from the war and his battalion was assigned with the task of providing protection for the logistics team packing up the Australian base at Nui Dat as the North Vietnamese army moved further and further south.
On 21 September 1971 he was caught up in the Battle of Nui Le when 4RAR and The Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment came into contact with the 33rd Regiment of the North Vietnamese Army in an enemy bunker system. Five Australian soldiers were killed and around 30 injured. Fortunately, Jeff survived the fighting uninjured and returned to Australia as the Australian commitment to the war was finally brought to an end in December 1971.
Jeff remained in the Army over the following decades. He rose to the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1 before being elevated to Temporary Captain as part of a deployment to Israel and Syria with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNSTO) in 1994/95.
Jeff manned the United Nations observation posts over a one-year period, looking out over the demilitarised zone between Syria and Israel in the region known as the Golan Heights. It was the role of the UN observers to ensure that no one entered the demilitarised zone, including everything from lost shepherds on the Syrian side to Israeli fighter jets flying from the other direction.
In his final years in the regular army he served as a Regimental Sergeant Major based at Victoria Barracks in Melbourne, where part of his role was organising flag parties for RSL Victoria. Just before Jeff left the Army the State Secretary of RSL Victoria, Brigadier John Deighton MC, (deceased) offered him a role as an advocate for RSL Victoria, which he was pleased to accept.
Jeff would go on to take over as Manager of the Welfare and Compensation team for RSL Victoria, initially working out of the Department of Veteran Affairs office before moving to ANZAC House in 2006.
It was there that his reputation as a rugby fan had then State President David McLaughlin AO ask him if he would be interested in taking part in a commemorative service at the Melbourne Storm NRL match on ANZAC Day.
“It was a great honour and privilege to be asked,” Jeff said. “The NRL had a traditional ANZAC Day game in Sydney but had never done anything in Melbourne before. In the early years it was a genuine ANZAC clash, Melbourne taking on the New Zealand Warriors, so involving both the Australian and New Zealand sections of ANZAC.”
Jeff says he admires the way the Storm has presented the ANZAC Day message at the game each year.
“After they introduce the players, the stadium goes dark except for a single spotlight which falls on me as the I come out with the flame and light the cauldron. Then the players line up and the catafalque party does their drill before the reading of the ode and the bugler sounds the last post.”
Melbourne Storm fans have grown to appreciate the significance of the event more with every passing year. Jeff says the way Melbourne Storm has presented the event has been pivotal to its success.
“Rugby fans tended to be impatient and in the first couple of years there would be fans calling out during the minutes silence. But the Melbourne Storm have imparted on their fans the significance of the occasion. Now the fans abide by the minutes silence after the sounding of the Last Post and there isn’t a sound.”
56 years after enlisting in the Australian Army and 28 years after starting to work for RSL Victoria Jeff Jackson is retiring. The 2026 ANZAC Day match will be the last time he represents the RSL in the commemorations, but he is passing the baton on, literally, to the next generation in the form of Stacey Bernardin, an Australian Army veteran who has been working with veterans in northern Victoria through Wodonga RSL Sub-Branch.
This year when the lights go out the Melbourne Storm will play a 90 second video on the work Stacey, who is also a psychologist, has been doing with veterans through the Wodonga RSL. After the video both Jeff and Stacey will appear and light the cauldron in front of the packed stadium and on the live broadcast on Fox TV.
“I am very grateful to the Melbourne Storm to highlight the work Wodonga RSL Sub-Branch does supporting veterans and to light the cauldron on this special occasion.” Stacey said. “I look forward to representing the next generation of veterans paying tribute to all our service men and women.”
RSL Victoria expresses its gratitude to Jeff Jackson for almost three decades of dedicated service to the veteran community in Victoria.
