Rod Sawford (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He worked on a fruit block at Berri. He came back and joined the 2nd/48th, probably the most famous battalion in World War II, and served in the Middle East. He should have been given, according to everybody, a Victoria Cross. He was not. He was given a significant award but not a Victoria Cross. He won the Victoria Cross in Sattleberg in New Guinea. In the latter part of the war, he was asked by the authorities to come home, but he wanted to be with his mates.

His nickname was ‘Diver’. Here is another man whom we remember with some nondescript street and a nondescript little park—I opened the park and there is a memorial there—yet he is the greatest military person in this country. We have not effectively remembered him. We have an infrastructure project beginning at the moment, an important one, with a battle of the bridges—open bridges over the Port River. I suggested to the community that we name the bridges the Diver Derrick bridges and give him a permanent memorial, but unfortunately that is a battle still to be won.

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