Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Nothing compares to standing on the beach at Gallipoli. When you see the gravestones just by the water's edge, it really communicates itself to you—the sacrifice that Australians made in the pursuit of our national identity and in those terrible battles where 8,000 Australians died, in that salient that could not be penetrated in all of those months of 1915.

I toured Gallipoli with the great Turkish historian from Canakkale university, Kenan Celik, who the previous day had taken me to the nearby site of Troy. Professor Celik's lifelong support for all Australians who visit that part of the world is truly appreciated and is emblematic of the kind of friendship that has grown up between Turks and Australians. We ended the day at Cape Helles. Standing underneath the colossal statue that the Turks have erected at the point of Cape Helles, he gave me some long historical perspective of the events at Gallipoli. He said, 'Michael, close your eyes and think that 80 years ago there were boats full of Australians rowing their way slowly towards Anzac Cove; close your eyes and imagine, thousands of years ago, Greeks rowing their way from the other side of Cape Helles into the Bosphorus towards Troy.' That part of the world has been the scene of great historical drama, including for Australia. The Turks, rightly, venerate Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was under explicit orders of the Germans, who commanded the Turks in the field, not to do anything unless he received direct German military orders. Kemal Ataturk knew better the great military dictum that Marshal Grouchy should have listened to at the Battle of Waterloo: march to the sound of the guns. As soon as he heard reports of the Australians landing, the Turkish division that he commanded ran to the heights of Chunuk Bair. There are many tales of Australians on the second ridge who actually saw the officer commanding—the later President of Turkey. Had he been shot or had we got to the third ridge, the entire history of the First World War might have been different. I know these stories because my lifelong friend the President of the Turkish RSL in Melbourne, Ramazan Altintas, and I often reprise what might have been and I have certainly discussed with him my visit to Gallipoli.

My personal odyssey with the First World War begins with my grandfather many years before that. As a little boy I remember him marching to the St Kilda Army and Navy Club outside Luna Park, up that scary European-style grill elevator up to where we used to have the Christmas party for kids at the St Kilda RSL. Representing the opposition, my odyssey took me to the First World War battlefield at Villers-Bretonneux, and I remember walking up the hill and seeing a sandstone wall in which the names of 10,000 Australians who were killed in the First World War and who had no known grave were engraved. There is a big sandstone monument in the middle which is pockmarked, and I was shocked to see that. I said to the Australian ambassador, 'Mate, you ought to be sharper in your job and have that fixed up.' He said, 'You don't understand, Michael—in the Second World War all of the Australian statues that surrounded this monument were blown up by the Germans, and they used this one for target practice by the Messerschmitt's from the local airfield. We did find on that wall the name of my grandmother's brother, David Swan, who was one of the thousands of Australians butchered in the British-led military operations after the Battle of Pozieres—probably the most disastrous event for the Australian nation in the First World War.

Of course we have had many activities in my electorate to remember these events. With due respect to Fremantle, the largest troopships—and in fact all the troopships—left from Port Melbourne. The Orvieto left on 19 October 1914 to take troops to fight and train in Egypt and Lemnos and then land at Gallipoli. We are all very proud of the centenary grants, which we have dispensed with due care and solemnity to various worthy groups in all of our electorates to remember these events, and I think that has been a very good program. We have done projects with the Australian Turkish community and with the Australian Greek community, and for the nurses, which the member for Lalor and I attended on the weekend. I will return to that in a second. The departure from Port Melbourne is very iconic because you see in every RSL around the country pictures on the walls of the Australians leaving there, with all of the streamers being thrown at them and very big crowds on the dock down below. Port Melbourne in those days was pivotal to the war effort. Melbourne was then the capital of Australia, and war materials were shipped from Port Melbourne to the far side of the world. Around 126,000 servicemen embarked from Port Melbourne, and more than 19,000 of the 60,000 who died in the First World War were from Victoria. My grandfather John Peek, later commissioned lieutenant, left for training in Egypt and landed in the first reinforcement at Gallipoli. To the great pride of generations of our family, his commission—proudly framed at home on our wall—was received on the battlefield in France, just as General Sir John Monash received his. My daughter found a wonderful picture of him with the officers of the 11th Brigade in the photo archive at the War Memorial—again an institution which honours the sacrifices of Australians through conflict. It is improving all the time and I pay tribute to Brendan Nelson for all of the work that he does the there.

Gallipoli continues to impact on Australia—especially on how Australians see themselves. The Water Diviner is Russell Crowe's directorial debut, and it shows us to the world. Crowe's film is particularly sensitive and particularly typical of modern Australia, and a greater understanding of our Turkish friends is emblematic in the film. If I may say so, I believe the great Turkish actor Yilmaz Erdogan stole the show. He was by far the best actor—better than Crowe—in this wonderful production, which I urge people to go and see. The evocation of life in Turkey and the post-war difficulties are very important for Australians to understand.

Just this weekend we have commissioned a brilliant sculpture by Peter Corlett of Matron Grace Wilson and a recuperating digger. Of course ANZAC girls made Matron Wilson famous, and we now remember properly the role of Australian nurses stationed on the Greek island of Lemnos. It was wonderful to have my colleague the member for Lalor there with her two sisters, all three of whom were granddaughters of one of the great heroic nurses and one of the first Australian women to serve in a battlefield situation, on Lemnos. This project was the largest grant for the Port Melbourne Centenary of Anzac fund and the launch was attended by the Greek consul general and hundreds of other people. I think the program has been a worthwhile way of remembering those events that have forged our great country. I am very supportive of the War Memorial and Brendan Nelson's continuing work.

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