Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this motion on the Anzac Centenary, and I thank the Prime Minister for putting it forward. At dawn on 25 April 1915, some 16,000 Australians and New Zealanders, the first ANZACs, surged ashore at Gallipoli, in north-western Turkey, in a place we now call Anzac Cove. The journalist Charles Bean—who narrowly outpolled Rupert Murdoch's father, Keith, to be elected Australia's first official war correspondent—described the troops who came ashore that morning as being from 'the outer states': Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and my home state of Queensland. Famously, or should I say infamously, the troops landed about a mile north of where they planned. Charles Bean, in his first report to then Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, offered this description of the landing area:

... a small bay about half-a-mile from point to point with two much larger bays north and south...the hills rising immediately from the sea to 600 feet. To the north these ridges cluster to a summit nearly 1,000 feet high.

One ridge comes down to the sea at the small bay and ends in two knolls about 100 feet high, one at each point of the bay. It was from these that fire was first opened on the troops as they landed.

Bullets struck fireworks out of the stones along the beach. The men did not wait to be hit, but wherever they landed they simply rushed straight up the steep slopes.

So ends the quote. This initial fire from the Turkish defenders soon intensified. By mid-morning, the Anzacs were enduring withering rifle and machine gun fire from above as well as constant shelling. What a hell it would have been. Private Edward Boughen from the township of Rosewood, in Ipswich, in my electorate of Blair, was one of those thrown into battle that day.

Thanks to the Ipswich Historical Society, we know a little of Edward Boughen's story. We know he had attended Rosewood State School. We know his father was a carpenter. And we know that on 20 August 1914—just 16 days after Britain declared war on Germany—Edward Boughen enlisted in the 9th Battalion, the Queensland battalion, of the Australian Imperial Force. Edward was assigned the rank of 'Bugler' and travelled from Brisbane to Melbourne and then to Fremantle for the voyage to Egypt. On 25 April 1915, the 9th Battalion was first ashore at Gallipoli as part of the 3rd Brigade. In the hours that followed, likely as he sprinted along the firing line, carrying a message forward, Edward Boughen from Rosewood was killed. He was just 20. Private Edward Boughen was one of the 650 Australians who lay dead at the end of that first Anzac Day. Many more lay wounded, suffering terribly, and hundreds in the hills were beyond the reach of help. On the beach, the injured waited all day for space on the barges to carry them to medical treatment. You see, there were no spare boats to carry them to the hospital ships until all the troops and stores had been landed. At the end of that first Anzac Day, our troops had fought and died to advance scarcely a kilometre inland and secure a shaky foothold of land.

We celebrate Anzac, not because Gallipoli was Australia's first foreign battle; nor was it uniquely an Australian experience. There were many comrades from other countries. The Gallipoli campaign is not significant because it ended in victory. It didn't. Despite the bravery, sacrifice and unselfish devotion of our men and women at Gallipoli, none of the campaign's vague objectives were met. And when our forces were withdrawn in late December 1915, some 11,448 Anzacs were dead and many more wounded. Perhaps the enduring legacy of those Anzacs and their endeavours at Gallipoli is their courage, mateship and selflessness—the values that we consider fundamentally Australian. Our stamina, courage and good humour when the chips are down was exemplified at Anzac. Our sense of community and selflessness when we see others in need was emphasised and epitomised at Anzac.

On Anzac Day every year we honour our fallen, when we do our best to live by the values they demonstrated in their final moments. They were ordinary people who did ordinary jobs. They were people from every town and city in Australia, including many from the area I represent—the Ipswich and Somerset region, which contains the RAAF Base Amberley, where army and air force personnel are stationed.

People like Private Edward Boughen from Rosewood served at home and abroad, on land, at sea and in the air. Many followed him in the wars afterwards in Korea, Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf—not to forget the two world wars. There are peacekeeping operations around the world. As the federal member, I at times go to see the troops departing from home. They continue to serve in the Middle East and Afghanistan. All too often their lives are lost or sadly affected. We remember the families they left behind, whose grief never dimmed.

This year on Anzac Day itself, I had the privilege of attending seven Anzac Day services in Blair, to stand with members of my community and reflect on the courage and sacrifice of those who have defended our nation. I am pleased to report that Anzac Day services in Blair were attended in record number this year.

When Labor was in government, we created the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program, and I am pleased that the current government has continued it and extended it. I want to report on a number of successful projects in my electorate. The Toogoolawah RSL Sub-branch has received $5,500 to support a historical re-enactment of the Charge of Beersheba—the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade's famous mounted charge at the third Battle of Gaza on 31 October 1917. The re-enactment will take place at the Toogoolawah Showgrounds. Many members of the Light Horse were drawn from Toogoolawah and surrounds, and many decedents of those original soldiers continue to live there today.

The Bundamba Anzac Observance Committee received $6,539 to create a living memorial to the 12 Bundamba boys who gave their lives in the First World War, and for a plaque and tree honouring the centenary of the Dungaree March—a recruitment drive that stopped at Bundamba State School in 1915. It was the only 'snowball march' in Queensland during the First World War—a march of 270 kilometres from Warwick to Brisbane, gathering volunteers along the way, including 42 at Ipswich.

The Ipswich Adventist School at Brassall received $5,447 to update and relocate the school's Memorial Stone and flagpole to provide more room for the ever increasing numbers at the school's Anzac Day service. Brisbane Valley Heritage Trails received $2,633 to produce a book entitled The Colinton Boys, which will share the history of the 42 young men from the town of Colinton who enlisted in the First World War. There are only about 55 people on the electoral roll at Colinton, which shows the contribution that that little country town made at that time. St Edmund's Christian Brothers College Old Boys Association received $1,921 to publish a book about the 72 men listed on the Woodend Honour Stone and to commemorate those who died in the First World War.

Brisbane Valley Uniting Church received $2,168 to refurbish its First World War Honour Board and produce a related booklet. The Pine Mountain and Districts Historical Society received $10,000 as a contribution toward the Pine Mountain honour stone memorial project. Despite a rich history of service and sacrifice, Pine Mountain has had no official memorial to local service personnel. The Eastern Suburbs Anzac Day Commemoration Committee received $2,860 for the design, production and dedication of a marble Anzac Centenary stone at Cameron Park, Booval. I opened it officially with other members of the committee last Anzac Day. The Military Brother Incorporated received $250 for the Dungarees Recruitment March Centenary Ride 2015 commemorative plaque.

The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce received $20,000 to assist with the establishment of the Springfield region's first permanent military memorial at the Robelle Domain Parklands, Springfield. I commend the chamber for the work they have done. St Brigids Catholic Primary School received $10,000 to construct an Anzac Memorial Garden in the school and church grounds. Ipswich City Council received $14,808 to assist with the redevelopment of the popular Ipswich Memorial Garden in the heart of Ipswich City. The Esk RSL Sub-branch received $11,990 to erect a memorial at the main cenotaph in Ipswich Street, Esk, that depicts the centenary of the Gallipoli landings.

In Blair, I was pleased to work alongside a local volunteer committee which reported on grant proposals for commemorative projects in Ipswich and the Somerset region. I extend my warm thanks to that committee including: its chair, Jim Runham OAM; then Somerset regional councillor and now the member for Ipswich West, Jim Madden MP; Ipswich City councillor Andrew Antoniolli, former National Party cabinet minister in the Bjelke-Petersen government Beryce Nelson, my good friend; Elizabeth DeLacy, a great local historian and psychologist; Phil Gilbert from the Ipswich RSL; former Bremer State High School principal Bruce Saxby; Ipswich citizen of the year and National Servicemen's Association president, Brian Hall; and the secretary, Kylie Stoneman, one of my electorate officers, who did great work in coordinating everything.

The projects funded by the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program will help ensure the continuation of the Anzac legacy in Blair, where so many military personnel have lived and made sacrifices in their own person and family life in war and in peacekeeping around the globe.

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