Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rockingham is home to Fleet Base West. Rockingham produced a proud son awarded a VC in World War II and we are home to many of the 2,000 young Australian men and women who serve in our forces overseas. We are home to some of the brave young men of Western Australia’s own 11th Battalion, whose distinguished service began when they received enemy fire as the first ashore at Gallipoli, providing cover for the Anzac landings 93 years ago.

One of the tragic mysteries for Australia has been the disappearance of and the search for HMAS Sydney. Today we are closer than ever to discovering what happened on 19 November 1941 when all hands were lost, 645 brave men of the Royal Australian Navy. Sydney’s loss created a lifetime of mixed emotions in our community, the unending devastation to family and friends, lives destroyed and dreams of youth lost forever, and lifelong struggles over whether the Sydney would or should ever be found.

It took some time for family members to know that HMAS Sydney was lost. Telegrams were being received as Pearl Harbour was bombed on 7 December. Ten weeks after that, Darwin was bombed. The war was at our front door. In Rockingham, Leslie Taylor told me about losing his 21-year-old brother, Able Seaman Kenneth George Taylor. In November 1941 Les was a 17-year-old serving with the coastal guns stationed at Rottnest Island. The loss of his brother was crushing. He knew the Sydney had gone down after a fierce battle but how could his brother have gone with it? Les says it left a hole in his life. Sadly, Les’s mother Charlotte, who clung to the hope of one day finding out what happened to her son, died just a few months before her 100th birthday. Les Taylor is 84 this year. He donated $100 towards the search effort when he heard they were looking for the Sydney: ‘I wanted them to find her,’ he said. Les describes the finding of the Sydney as the best day of his life. He described it as being a relief to know at last where they are.

Barbara Woods was the 14-year-old little sister of Ray, who also served on the Sydney. Barbara remembers her mother getting the telegram. She remembers the confusion and the search for her 22-year-old brother. She remembers never having closure. Barbara told me of her sense of relief at seeing the pictures of the Sydney in the newspapers and on TV and of now knowing what happened to her brother Ray.

War creates loss, uncertainty and unending devastation for families. It creates many stories like that of the Sydney. But for Les and Barbara 19 November 2008 has special meaning. Now they know what happened, where and how. In Rockingham on 19 November we will hold special commemorative ceremonies and also two public information lectures to describe to the residents of Rockingham, a Navy town, what happened that day in 1941—so not only will closure be created; the people will also have more knowledge about those events.