The Ballarat RSL is hoping two Korean War medals can be reunited with their rightful owner, two years after they were found in the middle of the road in Ballarat.
The medals, The Queen's Korea Medal and the UN Korea Medal, were handed into police in 2022 and passed onto the Ballarat RSL to start the search for the owner or their family.
The medals are inscribed with the name F.S Anderson and a service number of 30374.
The RSL wanted to make the medals a bit more presentable and asked Ballarat medal mounter Dave Wright to help.
"The RSL in their wisdom love to have things redone and made nice and presentable for when they present it back to the family or the digger, and so they came to me to have all that work done," Mr Wright, who owns a militaria and collectables shop in Ballarat Central, said.
"I restored them, remounted them with new ribbons, gave them a good clean, new bar on the back ready for wearing so if and when the family or the digger gets them back they can wear them on ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day with pride."
Mr Wright said it took about an hour to do, but restoring old and damaged medals can be a delicate job.
"You have to be careful that you don't destroy the metal when you're cleaning it," he said.
"You've got to clean it with the right products and take care of it, know what the metal is made out of, (and) know which ribbons go with which medal, which way the ribbon goes because there's different colours to represent different things in the military for those ribbons."
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when the Korean People's Army in the north invaded the south. An armistice was declared on July 27, 1953.
Australia committed troops to the war within three days. More than 17,000 Australians served with 340 killed and more than 1,216 wounded.
For more information on the medals, phone the Ballarat RSL on 5332 3300.
- This article first appeared in The Courier.
