Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great privilege to make a 15-minute contribution on a matter of public interest. I have the pleasure of being the patron of the Darling Range Sports College in Western Australia, which is out in Perth's eastern suburbs. For those of you who are not from WA, the eastern suburbs do not have streets lined with Mercedes Benz or BMWs—although there is nothing wrong with that; I wish I had one, but I do not, and neither do the residents Forrestfield and surrounding suburbs.

Last year, I was invited to—and made sure I turned up for—the Anzac Day service that the school holds in its brand-new gymnasium. When I saw the commitment and dedication of the school population through the songs being sung, the wreaths being laid and the respect being given to our fallen diggers, I approached the Principal, Mr Peter Noack, about it. Peter supports me in the leadership programs that I run through the college and that predominantly involve tracking through the Kimberley. I said to Peter, 'What if we divert from that program and do something different? If I go out and put in my best effort to tap the business community—put on the big sad eyes, put out a good speech, put on a dinner—and raise a few bob, we could take a group of students on a World War I Anzac remembrance tour on the Western Front.' He emphatically supported me on this idea. So, to cut a very long story short, after numerous phone calls and me pestering as many people as I could, we raised nearly $70,000. This gave me the opportunity to accompany Peter, his able deputy Ms Kaye Valencia, and another teacher Lyndall Andrews in taking 21 students—predominantly 17-year-olds, with a sprinkling of 16-year-olds—on a tour to France and Belgium.

Very quickly, so that I can put some context to this, when I was a kid at school, back in the sixties, my knowledge of Australia's involvement in World War I was sadly limited to Private Simpson and his donkey at Gallipoli. I never knew of or learnt about anything else about World War I. I will give my teachers the opportunity—because they are not here to defend themselves—to say whether or not I was paying attention to anything else they said. That is another argument; but I do not recall learning anything else about World War I.

For those out there listening to this discussion, at the time of World War I, Australia's population was four million and 416,809 Australians enlisted for service in World War I. This number represented 38.7 per cent—it is hard to imagine—of the total male population between the ages of 18 and 44. Approximately 300 Australians served on the Western Front. By the time the war ended, 46,000 of those boys had died or were lost; 131,000 had been wounded. The Australian casualty rate was the highest in the war, which sat at about 65 per cent. Australian soldiers are honoured at over 500 cemeteries and memorials around the world, which feature the names of no fewer than 1,000 Australians who have a 'no name' grave.

We visited a number of sites. For the majority of the students, this was their first venture out of Australia, let alone to Europe at the end of a very cold winter! Our travels took us to many war graves and sites, but I will name just a few. Our first visit was to Fromelles; the Pheasant Wood there is the actual memorial and VC Corner is the cemetery. It honours the 5th Australian Division. Sadly, there were 5,533 casualties over 48 hours of fighting in July 1916 at Fromelles. It brought home to the students that, here they were, thousands of kilometres from home, on foreign soil and for our boys there is no good story; there is no great story immediately. There is a great story later on the contribution that the Australian soldiers made here.

I made sure that the students got off the bus. It was freezing cold, but I said to them: 'Let's get off the bus. You've got to walk. You've got to experience this. You've got to look at the headstones'—and they did. These are Commonwealth war graves, which are an honour to the Commonwealth and to our Belgian and French counterparts who look after them. The students went through them, looking for family names. The students had programs and projects to do. They had to find some soldiers, and they had to find some family—it was all part of the tour. I made sure that the students got to see the headstones that had the very pointed words inscribed at the bottom of them: it was an Australian soldier 'known unto God'—meaning, we did not know who that was; the family did not know. I found a particular headstone, and said to the kids, 'Come and have a look at this one.' It was the grave of a 16-year-old soldier. This brave young man, Private Cecil Morgan, also known as Colin Meyers, from the 31st Battalion Australian Infantry. He died on 19 July, 1916—aged 16. These students were aged 16 and 17, and so this was very moving for them; it sunk in.

We followed the tour and went on to other military cemeteries like Ploegsteert. We went into VC Corner, as I said. We went to Messines Ridge. We went into the St. Symphorien Military Cemetery, through Belgium. We also went to one called Hill 60, where we were met by a wonderful human being, Mr Didier Pontzeele. Didier was provided to us by the Belgian war graves commission. He was to be our tour guide. To have Didier with us was just magnificent, because he was a walking encyclopaedia of World War I. Didier's role is that of a military man, but he looks after Australian war graves. Didier refers to these graves as 'his boys'. He goes around Belgium day in, day out—that is his job—checking the graves to make sure that they are in good shape. I acknowledge Senator Cormann in the chamber. May I tip my hat to you, mate, because your government were brilliant. They were a fantastic help. Senator Cormann, although you and I may exchange a few barbs in jest and sometimes not so much in jest, the friendship and relationship between our two countries is magnificent, is long and will not be broken. This gives me the opportunity to say to you that you and I might disagree on a few things, but isn't it a wonderful thing that our relationship as countries goes back that far?

Didier took us to Hill 60. It is an amazing place. Hill 60, to cut a long story short, was where about 1,000 Germans were in a perfect position to see across the fields. They had a brilliant position to, unfortunately, get to our soldiers before we could get to the hill. But the Australian tunnelling division, predominantly boys from Kalgoorlie, came in and used their skills in mining to dug some 20 or 30 tunnels. They put massive amounts of ammunition in them and eventually blew up Hill 60. Didier gave us this tour that captured the attention of the kids for the hour or so we were there. He said that there were 19 bombs that went off all at one time of the 21 that were set. He said it was reported that the shock waves were felt as far away as England and Ireland. He also told us that two of the bombs did not go off. He said that one was set off back in the 1960s when they found it and the other one has a farmhouse on it. The old Belgian gentleman who lives there says it is not worrying him. He has no intentions of putting a swimming pool in, so he will leave it there.

We also spent time, with Didier escorting us, in that wonderful town of Ypres. Ypres has a really sad World War I history. Three times it was attacked and three times the Australians came to their aid, as did other Commonwealth armies, to save them from German invasions. We visited the Flanders Fields Museum. We also went to the Somme and visited the Somme museum. I could talk underwater with a gob full of marbles for an hour on this, but I know I have to get moving. The highlight of the tour, the kids told me, was the privilege of attending the Villers-Bretonneux dawn service. When you sit in Villers-Bretonneux and it is about two degrees and freezing cold honouring our soldiers it is a great feeling because the crowd of some 4,000 people are predominantly people from all over Australia who have headed to Fromelles. There is nothing better than seeing the Australian flag and also the odd Geelong Football Club hat. There were also North Melbourne hats, some Eagles hats—they were all there. Their wearers were proudly honouring our fallen soldiers. The students also had the wonderful opportunity to work at the dawn service, handing out pins and guiding people to their seats.

Everywhere you go in Villers-Bretonneux there are Australian flags. Australians are loved, and why wouldn't we be? We are always welcome, to the point where there is even a Victoria school and a Victoria cafe. I think maybe the Victorians played a big role in Villers-Bretonneux. After there, we were invited to attend the French memorial in Bullecourt where once again we had the privilege of standing with the French and honouring their fallen. Then we walked about 1.2 kilometres to the Australian memorial once again for a service and to lay wreaths.

This could not have happened without the fantastic support of the wonderful human beings who did not knock me back. They realised that if they said no, I would be back again next year! To those sponsors, on behalf of the students and their parents, I cannot thank you enough. Your generosity to kids you do not even know is heart-warming and I thank you for that.

I would also like to acknowledge some very special people with the short time I have left. I thank the Ambassador of Belgium, His Excellency Mr Patrick Renault, for his fantastic assistance to us. As some people might know, the King of Belgium—have I got that right?—

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Crown Prince.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Cormann. The Crown Prince of Belgium visited Australia last year and was kind enough to provide a couple of people for me to meet with to talk about our tour. I would like to thank Mr Jean Corleone, the director of remembrance and communication at the Belgian National Institute for Veterans and Victims of War, and Mr Paul Breyne, the commissioner general for the coordination of the commemoration of World War I and former mayor of West Flanders. They were absolutely fantastic to us. You can take this back, Senator Cormann: the Belgians were wonderful. They are wonderful people. Their memories of and thanks to Australia are not forgotten. They treated us like royalty, I can tell you. They escorted us around Ypres. They could not do enough for us. I warned them. I said, 'If you get too good at this, I will be back next year.' Hence that is what is happening. I am going back. I am just giving a heads up to the sponsors. I will be back, knocking on your doors, saying, 'Here we go again.'

I must say a very special thankyou to Didier Pontzeele. I have invited Didier to come to Australia. I will be funding the trip for Didier. I am going to do a function with Didier so that Western Australians can hear of the fine work that he does. Didier has a wonderful story to tell about his family in World War I. I am not going to spoil that. You will have to buy a ticket and come to the function. Didier will also explain his role. As I said, he refers to those fallen soldiers as 'his boys'.

We were with Didier on the last day in his hometown of Ghent where we had a couple of hours to explore that wonderful town. Didier and I were talking when his phone rang. He took the phone call, spoke for about three minutes and then hung up and said, 'Sorry, I had to take that. We have just found another set of remains. I'll let you know.' A couple of days later he said, 'It is a British soldier.' About a week or so later when we were back in Perth, he rang and said, 'You are not going to believe this: we have just found another Australian.' So Didier will be coming. To Didier I say, 'Mate, we can't wait to have you out here. We will spoil you. We will show you the same hospitality that you afforded us. You will be directing us around Belgium again next year I can guarantee you, mate, because we will be there.'

I would also like to make a very quick plug for the Department of Veterans' Affairs. I have sat through senate estimates where I have heard the Public Service attacked for going off to ceremonies overseas. If it were not for the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the 4,000 Australians who were at Villers-Bretonneux would not have received the fantastic service they did. Congratulations to the department. I want to thank the minister, Minister Snowdon, for his assistance too. I congratulate the department. When it was three degrees in Villers-Bretonneux, that cup of coffee was very warm, and there were 4,000 on the day—thank you. (Time expired)