Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to add my words to the motion recognising a significant milestone in our nation's history: the 100-year anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. There have been many fine words spoken in this place and others about that milestone. It is interesting to note that the battle at Gallipoli, while ultimately unsuccessful, is the defining moment in time when Australia became an independent nation. The reputation of the Australian soldiers was laid down and has been built upon in generations since.

I would like to speak on behalf of the constituents of the Parkes electorate who contributed much in that conflict. The men from the bush were ideal candidates to be soldiers. At that stage they had great skills in horsemanship, bushmanship and survival in the bush, and they were mostly crack shots, so they were ideal people to sign up and, indeed, did so in large numbers. Right across my electorate, in towns, villages and in places where villages have disappeared, their memorials still stand. Some of the more significant incidents that happened in the First World War started in my electorate and are now legends. I cite the Cooee March, which started at Gilgandra. About 36 local men started walking towards Sydney to join up. Along the way, where they camped and stopped and at public ceremonies and meetings, other people joined them. By the time got to Sydney, their numbers had swelled to over 200. I ask people to go back to that time. Can you imagine the son of a family one day, as the Cooees came to town, joining up on the spot and marching off to war, basically with that much notice? Many of them did not come back. The Cooee March will be re-enacted in a month or two. I recognise the work of Brian Bywater and others in Gilgandra who have worked so tirelessly on this re-enactment. The Lions Club of Gilgandra organised fundraising to purchase a statue—a wonderful work of bronze by Brett Garling—to commemorate the Cooee March. It now stands proudly in the town square of Gilgandra as a permanent reminder of the great significance that Gilgandra and the Cooees had in the First World War.

Right across western New South Wales and the area I represent, on memorials there are sad reminders of great sacrifice. In my home town of Gravesend, a small village where I grew up, there are the names of the three Heath brothers who were all killed in the First World War. Can you imagine in this day and age having three brothers going off to war and none of them coming home? In Bodangora, which 100 years ago was a much more thriving mining community—now there are just a couple of houses—is a memorial with 60 names of people who signed up for the First World War. Nineteen of those men lost their lives. Can you imagine that, in a small rural community, 19 of the people who signed up did not come back?

With a grant from the federal government, the people at the Great Cobar Heritage Centre wrote a book about the soldiers from the Cobar area. Once again, like stockmen, miners made ideal candidates for soldiers in the First World War. Several of the miners from Cobar who joined up ended up joining the tunnelling squad that was made famous in the movie, Beneath Hill 60, a couple of years ago. Some of the soldiers who tunnelled and were part of that infamous World War I history came from Cobar. There are stories of the effects on those men from the battlefield and the issues that they had when they returned home.

Some got on with their lives and thrived and got married and raised families. Sadly, many of them could not adapt. Many of them came back without any real support. Sadly, many of them became victims of alcoholism and other things, and quite a few of them took their own lives in the years after the First World War. It is a salient reminder that we need to keep in mind when we are talking about our current returned veterans.

The other group of soldiers that we do not talk much about are the Aboriginal soldiers. There was a large number of Aboriginal people who joined up in the First World War. It is interesting, because 100 years ago these men had no rights as Australian citizens. They were classed as 'fauna' by the country at the time. But during their time as soldiers, for the first time in their lives they were treated as equals. In the accounts that I read, there was no colour barrier in the armed forces. These men were well regarded as very good soldiers. Sadly, when they returned things had not changed, and it took many years after that before we got some form of equality.

In Bourke there is the grave of a decorated Aboriginal soldier. I think his cousin, who did not make it home, is buried in a cemetery in England. I would like to commend the work of Councillor Vic Bartley, himself a Vietnam veteran—an Aboriginal man—who has worked tirelessly to recognise these soldiers of the First World War and to restore their graves to the prominence that they deserve.

This was a tragic moment in Australia's history. Out of a population of 3½ million, 60,000 deaths and 160,000 casualties are statistics that are hard to comprehend. How, as a nation, we got back on our feet when the cream of our young people were taken from us in a faraway land is another story in itself. It has been my privilege to speak here tonight on behalf of the people of western New South Wales and to acknowledge the sacrifice of previous generations.

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