Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was my great pleasure to attend the opening of the Time of Conflict exhibition at the Mallala Museum yesterday, Sunday. It was a wonderful event that honoured all of those who served both the nation and the town and district of Mallala. Mallala is a lovely town. It is a town of about 800 or so. It is famous, I think, for its World War II flying base and for its motor sports facility which is situated on the site that the Air Force base was on.

The Time of Conflict exhibition really highlights the service of the townspeople who served in the Boer War, World War I and World War II, Malaysia and Vietnam. It particularly focuses on the role of No. 6 Service Flying Training School, which trained many of the pilots in World War II, particularly those on bombers and in antisubmarine warfare, and it has something in common with the Edinburgh air base, which now has the P3 Orions, which also do antisubmarine warfare.

The exhibition features many medals, documents, souvenirs from conflict zones, uniforms and the honour boards from the local institutes and local schools. Those honour boards often tell a story in themselves. There was one individual who was named who had served in both the Boer War and World War I, which is quite a tremendous service. The exhibition also has portraits of soldiers in their uniforms prior to their deployment overseas. Nearly all of these have been donated by local families or rescued from local areas, from the institute or whatever. I am always struck by the portraits and the honour boards—just at the number of names from these small towns and the magnificent contribution of these small rural communities that gave up their young farmers, shearers and bush workers, who volunteered to serve to protect not only this nation’s liberty but of course the liberty of others.

The statistics are quite staggering. During the First World War, 421,809 people enlisted and 331,781 of them served overseas. In the Second World War, 993,000 enlisted and 575,799 served overseas. Those are unbelievable figures in terms of people answering the call to war. In relation to casualties, during the First World War there were nearly 60,000 deaths, 137,013 wounded in action, 16½ thousand gassed, 3½ thousand or so prisoners of war and 109 prisoner of war deaths. In the Second World War, there were 19,235 deaths, 20,000 non-battle deaths, 23,477 wounded, 28,000 prisoners of war and nearly 8,000 deaths of prisoners of war. Those are staggering figures, terrible figures—especially from a nation with such a small population: five million at the time of World War I—and when you go to these country towns, like Mallala, and you go to these exhibitions you really do see the terrible personal cost to these small rural communities and the families behind the figures.

In the exhibition there are 10 portraits of young men who were lost in World War I, which is a terrible cost for a town like Mallala. In World War II two young men were lost. One was from the Cameron family. The Cameron family sent five sons, out of 12 children, to serve in World War II. The son that was lost was killed at Buna in the last days of the battle of Kokoda. So it was a terrible loss for the town and it was not their only loss; they also lost a young man called Max Peters. He was one of three brothers to serve and he was lost on HMAS Sydney. It is in these personal stories that the terrible cost to the nation and to these towns by those who either fell in battle or returned wounded or damaged by war really becomes apparent. I think it is true to say that Australia would be a far different place today had they not been called to make that sacrifice. We would be a far different nation today.

I would like to thank the Mallala and District Historical Committee and all the volunteers and local businesses who participated. In particular I want to thank the Mallala and District Historical Committee with Councillor Marcus Strudwicke as the chair, Gwenda Griffiths as the secretary, Margaret Tiller as the treasurer, Lois Wasley, Chris Boril, Maureen Heath, Roger Davies, Ray Earl, Jim East, Brian Verrall and last but not least Mark Wasley. All of those individuals have put together a very good museum and an excellent exhibition. We should also acknowledge the local businesses that were involved. There was Peter Templeton of Peter Templeton Designs and the District Council of Mallala. In terms of World War I service records there were Trevor Maynard and Maria Leonard of Another Kitchen, and John Mueller, an electrician. In terms of painting there was DB and VE Veitch and T Redden. The carpet was given by Barry Stone’s Carpet and Vinyl. The building was done by Irvine Smyth, paving by Robert Bushell, ceilings by David Knight and David Gameau also made a contribution.

This is really a labour of love for this little town. It is a tremendous display. Tomorrow at the museum there will be a Remembrance Day service which will feature the service personnel of RAAF base Edinburgh from No. 1 Airfield Defence Squadron; the Uniting Church minister, Reverend Geoff Graetz of Gawler; and of course all the school children of Mallala will be present and will assist with the service. So it will be a fitting acknowledgement of all those who served and of those 10 young men whose portraits hang in the gallery who were lost in the fields of France and other World War I battlefields. It really does touch the heart.

On the front page of the November-December Christmas edition of the Dublin Dispatch is a picture of the Long Plains Soldiers Memorial Hall. The fundraising for this town hall began in 1913, was suspended during the war and the hall finally opened in 1923, obviously fittingly dedicated to those who fell. It was opened at the 11th hour of the 11th day in 1923. There is a terrific picture of about 200 townspeople out the front of the hall for the opening. It is a tremendous bit of local history in the Adelaide Plains, the towns of Mallala and also Long Plains. I want to thank the editor of the Dublin Dispatch, Pat Thompson who is a great local historian, a person who has a lot of passion about our local history. I would like to commend all those who were involved.