Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the work currently under way at the Australian War Memorial on the Post-1945 Conflict Gallery. The Australian War Memorial was founded by Charles Bean, the famous Australian World War I historian. Bean’s idea was to set aside a place in Australia where families and friends could grieve for those buried in places far away and difficult to visit—a place that would also contribute to the understanding of war itself.

The War Memorial has flourished since its opening in 1941 and has become the most popular museum in Australia. With annual visitors numbering over 840,000 last year, the memorial provides more than just a tourist attraction. It is a place of commemoration and reflection and, most importantly, a place of learning where Australians can come to better understand our military history and the sacrifices made by earlier generations of Australians.

While the Australian War Memorial generally provides an excellent level of representation of Australia’s military history, there have been some concerns expressed recently on the adequacy of the post-1945 exhibitions.  It was these concerns that have prompted the current remodelling which is set to begin in March 2006 and conclude in October 2007. The new Post-1945 Conflicts Gallery will be arranged in chronological structure to reflect six decades of involvement from 1945 and will cover the Cold War, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation, the Vietnam War, peacekeeping, and post-Cold War conflicts.

Some of the larger feature attractions of the new gallery—which are representative of the three services—will include the bridge of the HMAS Brisbane, an Iroquois helicopter and a M113 personnel carrier. The HMAS Brisbane, nicknamed ‘The Steel Cat’, was a Charles F Adams class guided missile destroyer. The ship was launched on 5 May 1966 and commissioned on 16 December 1967. The HMAS Brisbane undertook two tours of duty in Vietnam, the first from 20 March to 13 October 1969, and the second from 16 March to 11 October 1971.

The HMAS Brisbane was also one of four Australian warships to serve in the first Gulf War, operating in the Persian Gulf between 20 November 1990 and 26 March 1991. Her duties included providing anti-aircraft and anti-surface ship protection, plane guard duties, intercepting merchant vessels and escorting replenishment vessels. The Brisbane not only provides an impressive visual attraction but also represents two very distinct generations of post-1945 operations. The new gallery will open in October 2007 and will coincide with the 60th anniversary of the first peacekeeping mission to Indonesia in 1947, the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam, and the battles of Kapyong, Maryang San and the Hook in Korea.

Today’s generation have not known war in the traditional sense of World War I and World War II. They are, however, attuned to the role of peacekeepers and peacemakers and their efforts in the more localised operations which Australia has been involved in since the end of World War II. The efforts of  the thousands of Australians who served in Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and in a number of other conflicts—to name just a few examples—deserve to be recognised and to be better portrayed so as to help in our understanding of their sacrifices and achievements over the past 60 years.

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