WHEN Brett Wild received a phone call from Cessnock mayor Bob Pynsent, telling him his long-held dream of a memorial cycleway between Branxton and Greta was to receive a $1.95 million federal grant, the former army warrant officer was overwhelmed.
"I cried, to be honest," Mr Wild, the chairman of the Branxton Greta Memorial Cycleway charity, said.
The announcement of the money through the Federal Government's Building Better Regions Fund, along with $650,000 from Cessnock City Council, means the cycleway will become a reality, according to Mr Wild.
"We have enough to build the 4-kilometre cycleway from rotunda to rotunda," he said of the $2.6 million construction project.
The cycleway has been a project in the planning for more than a decade.
"It's been a lot of hard work over a long period of time," said the president of the Branxton RSL sub-branch, Brian Furner.
For Mr Furner, the memorial aspect of the cycleway struck him as he researched the local men who enlisted during World War One.
"There's really not enough recognition for these people," Mr Furner said.
Read more: Recalling Greta Army Camp
Brett Wild said a feature of the walkway would be a memorial wall etched with the names of 321 men from the Greta-Branxton area who enlisted, along with sculptures of a soldier and a miner.
"Roughly 40 per cent of the adult male population of the area enlisted, and nearly 40 per cent of those 321 were miners or mine-related workers," Mr Wild said.
The former military man said he reckoned those veterans would be "tickled pink" to know they were being remembered and honoured.
"In an era when they are now all gone, I think this is a perfect opportunity to say in a little part of the Hunter Valley, nearly 40 per cent of the men went to war," he said.
"And 60 of the 321 did not come home."
Brett Wild said the organisation now had to raise about $1.1 million from businesses for the memorials and "reflection points" along the route, commemorating all conflicts and peacekeeping operations that Australians had been involved in.
"World War One is the main driver, but it will be a memorial to all wars and conflicts, and to all people from the Hunter Valley who have served," he said.
Prominent Newcastle architect Barney Collins, who helped shape the Anzac Memorial Walk along the coast, said he was "very interested" in being involved with the project.
Bob Pynsent said the cycleway would provide a boost to Branxton and Greta.
"It's great for tourism, but it's also great for local people, from a safety factor [for riding between the two towns]," he said.
"The community has worked so hard."
Councillor Pynsent said the project was "shovel ready", and he expected work to begin within months.
Brett Wild is looking forward to people being on the cycleway, linking two villages and the past to now.
"It's going to be a living, breathing memorial to the 321 men," he said.
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