Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I rise to emphasise the importance of the nation's moment of reflection at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month every year. Remembrance Day is the day we commemorate the end of World War I and the loss of over 60,000 Australian lives. Our thoughts go to those 16,900 Australians who remain unknown or unaccounted for on the Western Front, those whose memories we honour and continue to honour through the body of an unknown Australian soldier laid to rest in the Hall of Memory. Every community in Australia has its own story, its own legacy and its own connection to the men and women who served and sacrificed in World War I.

The electorate of McEwen has one of the oldest and longest military histories in Australia. I work closely with our community to uphold the legacy founded in McEwen ensuring that we remember our rich military heritage. On Remembrance Day last year, the World War 1 memorial park at the Seymour District Memorial Hospital was unveiled after extensive efforts to preserve and refurbish it. We worked with the Seymour RSL to redo the gates at the entrance to the beautiful park. The park brings together people from all over the region including 11-year-old Sarah Moad whose poem sits proudly on a bronze plaque in front of a lone pine. I had the privilege of reading Sarah's poem in this chamber recently and was amazed by her bold words in honouring Lone Pine.

McEwen is home to so many reminders of our Australian soldiers, with our Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk, the Light Horse Memorial Park and the almost completed Craigieburn Centennial Park making just a few of our memorials. Of course, we cannot forget our military training facilities at Puckapunyal in Seymour which have served Australia for over a hundred years. Seymour has a military history starting back in the late 1800s and it continues to be its crowning glory even today. The Seymour camp was used as a training, holding, isolation and overflow camp during the build-up of the Australian Imperial Force. The camp was used throughout World War I to form and reinforce both infantry battalions and Light Horse regiments. The men of the 8th Light Horse Regiment became soldiers in Seymour before sacrificing themselves on the Nek at the attack in Gallipoli.

Some of those troops whose legacy lives on through the story of the charge of Beersheba in 1917 started their journeys in Seymour. To anyone who has had the chance to go to Beersheba and see the graves that are there, it really sticks in your throat when you start looking at young boys from the ages of 16 right through to men in their 40s lying in graves a long way from home, and I guess a long way from where they planned to be in their lives—I do not think anyone expects to go to war and not come home. This is a magnificent place of reflection and I appreciated the opportunity to go there and have a look for myself. As I said, the Seymour camp served as our largest military base in Victoria until Puckapunyal was built before the beginning of World War II. So both of these locations were at the heart of Victorian and Australian military training making McEwen home to so many soldiers past, present and into the future.

I have been lucky to be part of this history, observing a one hundred year strong friendship between the French towns of Villers-Bretonneux and our own town of Strathewen. On April 24 1918, 1,200 brave Australians fought to liberate the town of Villers-Bretonneux from the Germans. Our Aussies saved the town but the fighting destroyed the local school, so the children of Victoria started a campaign: 'By diggers defended, by Victorians mended.' The campaign raised 10,000 pounds sterling to rebuild the Villers-Bretonneux school which was matched by the Victorian education department. Above every blackboard in the French school, a simple phrase reminds us of the importance of the history we share: 'Never forget Australia.' It is a symbol of a promise made long before the current students were born. The loyalty between those two towns was shown again in 2009 when disaster struck in our own backyard and the school at Strathewen was burnt down by the Black Saturday bushfires. To express their gratitude and to strengthen the connection between our two towns, the people of Villers-Bretonneux raised $20,000 for the Black Saturday bushfire appeal. They were deeply humbled that the Villers-Bretonneux school along with two other schools, a kindergarten and a town council pledged to help fund the rebuilding of Strathewen Primary School.

The legacy of this war goes on in the hearts and minds of all those in our community. Only recently in July 2016, six formerly unknown soldiers were given headstone dedications at the Fromelles military cemetery as sign that we have never forgotten and we will never forget. We, as Australians, will never forget those who fought for our country. In this Century of Service, we pledge wholeheartedly to honour the sacrifice of all those who fought during World War I. Lest we forget.

Honourable members: Lest we forget.

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