Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

This year marks 100 years since the landing at Gallipoli, a day that history will never forget. On 25 April 1915, thousands of Australians, some quite young, landed on the shores of Turkey at Gallipoli. It was a place then unknown to most Australians but it is one of great significance today. There were 60,000 men who went off to war and never came home. Today, in this place, I take this time to remember those men who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation. I remember their families too—parents, siblings, wives, husbands and children who lost someone they loved. It is also important to remember the ones who returned wounded or carrying the hidden scars of the traumas of war. Their story, their Anzac story, will always be our story, a part of who we are. The First World War shaped our identity as a people and as a nation.

World War I, and the Gallipoli campaign in particular, has come to exemplify powerful Australian values of mateship, sacrifice, loyalty and pride in being Australian. The Anzac Centenary is one of the most important commemorative events to take place in the lives of current generations. It is important to pause and reflect on the courage and immense sacrifice of those who fought in defence of our nation It was an honour to join the Melton community for the dawn service on Anzac Day to pay tribute to those men and women who have fought and died in the service of our nation, during not only the First World War but all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. It was encouraging to see so many people there—around 500, with hundreds and in some cases thousands at other events around and beyond my electorate— to pay tribute to our Anzacs, particularly during the Centenary of Anzac, a time of special significance.

I spent the remainder of the morning at the Caroline Springs RSL, enjoying a breakfast with veterans and the families of veterans from my electorate as we remembered the brave individuals who have served, and continue to serve, our nation during times of war and peace. Both in my local community and in services like these across the nation, Australians gathered together to give our eternal gratitude to the sailors, soldiers, airmen and women, past and present, who have given so much for us and our country. Particularly on this 100th anniversary we remember the bravery and sacrifice of all who served in the First World War. To honour those men and women, I held a morning tea in my electorate office to honour local veterans from my community. I was able to recognise 20 local veterans and relatives of veterans to honour their service to Australia and remember the sacrifices they have made and the courage it takes to defend our nation. I was able to present certificates to the veterans and their relatives that have served in the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the war in Afghanistan and the Indonesian Confrontation and peacetime operations in Timor Leste. The military experiences of the recipients spanned across decades and continents, but the constant is the honour, recognition and gratitude their service deserves.

I was also proud to be able to provide 12 organisations from my electorate with grants to commemorate the service and sacrifice of Australian service men and women in the First World War. I was pleased to be able to open and launch some of these projects, funded through the Australian government's Anzac Centenary Local Grants program, with more still to come. Several local schools have built commemorative garden, and I was able to open the Anzac memorial garden at Brookside Primary last month.

I will be launching a DVD, entitled Our Community Remembers, put together by the Partners of Veterans Association of Australia, Victoria, Melton Sub-branch. I will also be launching the website 'Just Another Pair of Socks' by the Melton Family History Group, which provides information on those from the Melton area who enlisted during the First World War. And just last week I opened a new war memorial in the appropriately named Diggers Rest. The name Diggers Rest for this community came from the prospectors who were heading to the Goldfields in the mid and late 19th century. What an appropriate term, Diggers Rest, and how appropriate to have a memorial there to reflect on the sacrifice and to provide an opportunity for people to visit that memorial. The names of those who were lost are enshrined on that memorial. We had a remarkable day; I was privileged to be part of that.

I would like to note that one of the people inscribed on the Diggers Rest memorial is Nurse Helen Bowie, born at Jacksons Creek, Diggers Rest. She was one of the first women to join Lady Dudley's first Australian field hospital in France. She was a surgical nurse and, I am told, a golfer of repute. The Age from 21 December 1915 quotes her as saying:

We all worked at top pressure.—

This is in the field hospital in France.

We all worked at top pressure.

We scrubbed, swept washed and polished without any thought of rest or food...

We did over 70 major operations in the hospital in the first week. We began work at 8 o'clock in the morning, and worked until one o'clock the next morning. There was no time to leave the theatre to have a meal, so we had to be content with cocoa and sandwiches which were hastily eaten at the door of the operating theatre.

Her story forms part of our shared history. And the story of the others noted here—their Anzac stories—will always be our story, a part of this nation's history.

This year, we remember not only the original Anzacs who served at Gallipoli and the Western Front, but commemorate more than a century of service by Australian servicemen and women in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. Australians have fought and fallen in Europe and Africa, in Papua New Guinea through to Korea, Malaya, Vietnam and, more recently, Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, defending nations and keeping us safe. We salute their service. We honour their memory. And, at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we repeat Australia's solemn promise: we shall remember them. Lest we forget.

See this speech in context