Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sparrow Force, 2nd/40th Australian Infantry Battalion, the Battle of Timor—this is for them:

Scorched earth and sorrowed jungle gloom,

The hope you held like precious flame

Within a world of fear and doom.

You marched beside your weary mates,

Enduring loss the soul can't name,

Yet through the darkest, hardest days

You never let them break your flame.

Brave soul—unyielding, gentle heart,

You bore the weight with silent pride,

Dreaming of home through bitter nights

With memories of love your guide.

Your courage carved through pain and loss,

A legacy that lives in me,

A whisper from the Burma tracks

Of all you hope one day to see.

Grief lingers in the things unsaid,

In moments only you would know,

I bear the longing, year by year,

As seasons come and seasons go.

But love endures, undimmed by time—

A thread that binds each night and day,

And though you've gone from sight and sound,

Within my heart you always stay.

So rest now, Dad, your journey done,

No more the hardship or the fight—

May peace enfold your gentle soul

And lift you softly through the night.

Eternal love remains, unbound—

A child's devotion, strong and true.

Until we meet beyond the dawn,

I'll always keep remembering you.

This is for the Tasmanians who made up the majority of the 2/40th Battalion in the Second World War. This was attributed to Michael Polley, TX5313, for the sacrifice that they made and for their being able to survive the Burma Railway and come home.