Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I speak on the Prime Minister's motion regarding 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, I congratulate my friend, colleague and electoral neighbour, the member for Wannon, for his fabulous contribution.

More than 60,000 Australians lost their lives during the First World War. The survivors met the war's end with a mixture of relief that the fighting was over and deep sorrow at the loss of so many friends and comrades. At the time, Australians celebrated; but in homes across the country people reflected on the terrible losses and mourned those who would not be returning. Today, I wish to highlight the contribution to that operation at Gallipoli of three individuals who came from my electorate of Barker.

Born in Mount Gambier, Frank Edmund Allchin worked as a clerk before enlisting on 21 August 1914, at the age of 20, in the Australian Imperial Force's 10th infantry battalion. Prior to leaving for the war, Allchin was sent off by the local community, including the local football club and boy's institute, which presented him with hairbrushes and a wallet. On 20 October 1914, he embarked from Adelaide aboard HMAT Ascanius as part of the first convoy to depart Australia for the war. He wrote home about his experience on the troopship and in Egypt prior to landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

Allchin recounted the morning of the landing in a letter published in a local Mount Gambier newspaper. He wrote: 'You have no doubt heard all about our landing. It was early morning, and what a baptism of fire we had. All day long the battle raged, the din being awful. By nightfall, we had taken up a position which entitled us to say we had established a footing.' Just over a fortnight after the landing at Gallipoli, Allchin was promoted to sergeant. Later in the campaign, Allchin also wrote home in October to thank the Red Cross Society for parcels of socks sent to the troops. He added that: 'We here at the front are cheered and encouraged when we know you are all doing so much to help us, and so while everyone is doing their little bit there can be no doubt that the ultimate result will be victory for the Allies.' Allchin remained on the peninsula with the 10th Battalion until 22 November.

Having moved to the Western Front in early May 1917, Allchin was serving near Bullecourt in France and at great personal risk spent many hours under enemy fire repairing communication lines between the battalion and brigade headquarters. His commanding officer especially noted that: 'His courage and cheerful devotion to duty at all times was a splendid example to his men.' Accordingly, he recommended Allchin for the military medal, which was conferred on 17 July 1917. Thankfully, Allchin returned to Australia on 27 January 1919.

Born in Kersbrook on 26 March 1890, Avelyn Clarence Dunhill spent his early years in Orroroo before making his way to Renmark, where he was employed as a bookkeeper. Prior to the war, Dunhill was an active member of the community brass band and a competitive rifle shooter. Dunhill was reportedly one of the first recruits from Renmark in 1914 and formally enlisted on 26 August as part of the AIF's 10th infantry battalion. Less than two months later, he embarked aboard HMAT Ascanius and left Adelaide as part of the first convoy.

Dunhill wrote back to the local Renmark newspaper from the troopship describing the journey and then later from the AIF camp in Egypt, where he noted that: 'So far all the Renmark boys … are in very fair trim, and I think have managed to keep their end up pretty well.' Having landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, he was wounded by a bullet in the thigh less than two months later and was evacuated to Alexandria. Writing back home from hospital there, he noted that he had been looked after 'tiptop' and mentioned that the Sultan of Egypt had recently made an inspection tour of the hospital. Having rejoined his Battalion in mid-July, he remained on the peninsula until late December. While in the final months of the Gallipoli campaign, Dunhill reported back in a letter of the custom of distributing care packages among the platoon, including in one instance a pound of Australian butter that was described as 'luxury from the gods'.

In early 1916 Dunhill transferred to the 50th Battalion and commenced the rest of his campaign on the Western Front, having been promoted to lieutenant the previous November. In early July 1918 Dunhill was leading a patrol at Hamel which embarked on attacking an enemy post. Despite a failed first attempt Dunhill regrouped to lead a second charge, in which he himself was wounded. His commanding officer praised Dunhill's initiative, through which 'the success of the enterprise was entirely due to this officer's gallantry and tenacity'. For this action he was also awarded the Military Cross.

Having been transferred to hospital in England, Dunhill wrote letters of thanks for a care package received and especially recognised the role of Australia's women on the home front, stating that 'they are the ones who are having the greatest influence in this European show.' He acknowledged that:

The sitting still, waiting and wondering is considerably harder to stick than the life we lead with its constant change and excitement. Ours is really a poor part alongside of that borne by the women whose spirit is the thing which to a very good extent keeps all going with a good head.

Dunhill, thankfully, returned to Australia again in June 1919.

On 17 December 1915, the Southern Cross Adelaide newspaper reported the experience of military chaplain Reverend Daniel Francis McGrath while at Gallipoli. Born in Tipperary, Ireland, in February 1873, Reverend McGrath lived in Naracoorte, where he had been a member of the defence club since 1906. He embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Karroo on 20 October 1914 and served at Gallipoli attached to the AIF's 3rd Light Horse Brigade. Within the Southern Cross newspaper article, Reverend McGrath specifically describes his unique experience of celebrating mass in the Gallipoli trenches prior to departing to Alexandria for hospital duty.

The war correspondent and journalist, CW Bean, is credited with helping create the Anzac legend that has gone on to become the cornerstone of our national identity. His dispatches from Gallipoli gave vivid insight into the comradeship, tribulations and humour that pervaded the lines in this terrible battle, and allowed those mothers, fathers, sisters and younger brothers back home a window to view the character of the men who fought bravely on that thin strip of land in a faraway place. It is almost exclusively through his firsthand, eyewitness reporting that we know so much about the nature of the conflict we participated in.

That would have been an important legacy in its own right, but Charles Bean made another important contribution to Australia: he was a driving force behind the establishment and design of the Australian War Memorial and the deeply-held belief Australians have to this day that those who have made the supreme sacrifice in war should be honoured and remembered forever more.

Bean had hoped that there would never be another conflict of the order of the First World War. Sadly, this was not to be the case. Since the end of that war in 1918, Australians have time and again gone to faraway places to fight tyranny and oppression, and to protect our way of life. Instinctively, we are suspicious of grandiose schemes that seek to put our men and women in harm's way. This is a suspicion resulting largely from our searing experience on the Gallipoli Peninsula a hundred years ago, where our men made an enormous contribution for seemingly little gain.

Unlike some of the countries we have fought alongside, our nation is not one born of calamitous conflict but of peaceful democracy. If given our preference, the most intense of our clashes would occur on the sporting field rather than the battlefield; yet we have never failed to play our part to help defend the freedoms we enjoy, and which we hope to see others enjoy as well.

Regardless of our views on the merits of particular conflicts, the Australian community must always recognise that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and women and nurses who go forward to defend our nation do so because they earnestly believe it is in the best interests of our nation that they do so, and because they want to ensure that their families and the communities in which they live are safe from whatever peril may threaten our shores. By continuing to remember those who have served in the past and by honouring those who are serving today, we ensure that their legacy will live on forever.

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