Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to support the member for Pearce in this very noble motion. I would like to join with her—and I am sure others would too—if the member for Pearce would like to, to write a bipartisan letter to the parliamentary secretary to put before the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal. I would be more than happy to support her to do that.

The Kokoda Track or Kokoda Trail campaign is infamous for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, it is infamous for the nature of the combat that took place on that stretch of Papua New Guinean soil in July and particularly August 1942. I believe up to 4,000 people lost their lives in that campaign, not to mention the many that were wounded. You only need to look at Damien Parer’s films, particularly Kokoda Frontline, just to try and appreciate for a moment the degree of difficulty of the area and the nature of the warfare that took place there. The trail itself is infamous for its physical nature. Very quickly: the track was approximately 100 miles, or 160 kilometres, long and folded into a series of ridges which rose to 7,000 feet and then declined again to 3,000 feet. It was covered in thick jungle, with short trees and tall trees tangled with vines. From looking at Parer’s pictures, I know it constantly rained and then they would be knee deep or ankle deep in mud. It is a very difficult piece of physical terrain. It is also infamous for the controversy over whether it is a trail or track. I hate to disappoint the trackers, but I think the official Australian War Memorial conclusion is that ‘trail’ appears to be the most widely used. However, most people call it the ‘bloody track’, so that is what we will use.

It is infamous for the courage, heroism and sheer effort of those who campaigned there. It is infamous for the extraordinary story of two groups in particular. The first was the 39th Battalion, which was effectively a militia force and known as the chockos. They were much maligned until Damien Parer’s films came out and showed the extraordinary effort they made as a group of young men, young militias. They basically would have just learned to clean a rifle before they got up there and faced the onslaught of a most hardened, very difficult and very courageous enemy. Then they were reinforced by the 53rd Battalion, 21st AIF Brigade and the 2nd/14th Infantry Battalion.

The other group—and this is important for the motion that the member for Pearce so eloquently put—was an equally remarkable group of Papua New Guinean people affectionately dubbed the ‘fuzzy wuzzy angels’. Again, in seeing Damien Parer’s film—and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in this area, and we should be—you really do appreciate what they did. He filmed on site and he lived the same life as the soldiers and the fuzzy wuzzy angels. The film illustrates quite clearly that for 40 wounded they used groups of eight bearers. There were four carriers and four resting—if you could call it resting—and then they took over. The persons carried were literally carried by groups of eight. You had 350 natives, fuzzy wuzzy angels, supporting the wounded as stretcher bearers. They carried heaps of equipment. They carried messages. They appeared to never complain and to be ever careful. I think this is demonstrated most poignantly—for those who would like to have a look at it—in the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels poem by Sapper ‘Bert’ Beros, who wrote in on the trail in 1942. It gives a great demonstration. What is terrific about it, too, is the mother’s reply, saying thank you to them all.

We have had ample description by people who witnessed firsthand what the fuzzy wuzzy angels did. There is plenty of literature to show you that. The most important thing is that, like the Nashos in the past and a pet of mine, Teddy Sheean—but unlike Teddy in this sense—they have not been recognised formally. It is quite extraordinary that all those to a person who partook in the campaigns said, ‘We want to recognise them; we should recognise them.’ The motion of the member for Pearce does that directly. I would like to write, with her and others here, to the parliamentary secretary, a letter to be put before the awards tribunal to ask that the fuzzy wuzzy angels get what they duly deserve—that is, our true recognition. (Time expired)

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