Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I also get the opportunity to talk on the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. I congratulate the other members for their fine contributions. I had the great pleasure of being involved with a panel which selected so many great projects in the electorate of La Trobe. I thank all those panel members for what they achieved.

I had the great pleasure of being involved with the Emerald RSL president, Peter Maloney. Peter was very instrumental in deciding, with his team at the Emerald RSL, that they wanted to remember the Anzac spirit with something very special. They engaged a local artist. Her name is Ronnie Sexton. Ronnie produced a beautiful statue of the Unknown Soldier, carved in perfect detail in wood. This is something which the Emerald community will remember and see for many, many years to come. We also had Senator Michael Ronaldson, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, come out that day for the official unveiling in Emerald. The Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, also attended. This will be one of those events which, for many, many years to come, will be recalled and admired by our local community of Emerald.

I also had the great opportunity to work with Bob Richards and company from the Dandenong Ranges RSL to reopen the Ferny Creek memorial. What was so special about this? I grew up in Ferny Creek. At the time of World War I, Puffing Billy had only been in operation, I believe, for 15 years or so. The main trade up in the hills was tourism, and it was also logging. There was a place nearby called One Tree Hill, and we could actually see this on the day of the memorial launch. But now, obviously, it is a different time, where the forests have grown back. In Sherbrooke Forest, where the memorial is located, sadly, over so many years local residents did not even know that it was actually an Anzac memorial. So I congratulate the Dandenong Ranges RSL for the amazing work they did in the restoration to get it back to its former glory. They worked with Parks Victoria to remove the foliage which had been hiding this beautiful stone memorial. It was great to see a relative of the initial stonemason who built this beautiful memorial.

We also had an amazing event. It was called the Bells of Peace. The Bells of Peace was an event put on by the Dandenong Ranges Music Council. The Dandenong Ranges Music Council wanted to remember all those Anzacs who served and the history of our local area. They put this amazing performance on, and I congratulate Bev McAlister and her team at the Dandenong Ranges Music Council. I congratulate her for everything she did for that event, and I have to congratulate the entire team. It showed an amazing musical tribute to and history of the Anzacs. It showed how most of the young soldiers believed it was an incredible journey that they were going to be involved with. Secondly, it showed how they realised that they had to fight for their country. That was something that they were very proud to do.

They talked in this musical about the local football players. In particular, what was most moving was that they spoke about the Lilydale Football Club and how 25 young men went over to fight in the war. They had photos of those football players. I should point out that the Lilydale Football Club actually falls within the electorate of Casey, with their fine member of parliament being Tony Smith. What was most telling about this was that, out of those 25 football players, only five returned. It was incredibly sad. It was a different time without so many people there. When I was at the Emerald RSL, I learned that 32 young men there did not return—again, very, very tragic.

But also during the Bells of Peace they had a performance highlighting that, at that time, Dame Nellie Melba, who had a beautiful place down in Coldstream, was one of the key fundraisers and supporters of armed services fighting overseas. She used to put these performances on in town, raising money in support of our soldiers. One thing which came out of that, which I was not aware of, was she got very annoyed because during all these performances she could constantly hear the tapping of knitting needles. All the women there were knitting socks for soldiers, supporting our soldiers overseas. It is amazing to think of this time, when all of this was actually occurring.

I had another event at the Gembrook Primary School, and I congratulate all the RSL members in Gembrook. What was amazing about this was that the young children at the Gembrook Primary School wanted to present a letter to the local RSL. Amazingly, the letter was written in 1916, had disappeared for 40 years but was found in a pair of socks. Lo and behold, it was actually from the Gembrook Primary School students, writing to an unknown soldier fighting in World War I. Basically it said, 'Dear Unknown Soldier, we have knitted these socks for you, socks for soldiers, wanting to recognise our great support for your contribution to our nation.' It really shows and highlights how important and how big this was to Australians at the time. Right from the start at all the events that I went to, I mentioned the figures of the 60,000 Australians who did not return.

We had another event in Officer. The memorial gates were reopened in a dedication to 10 soldiers who paid the ultimate price. This was a really nice event. The old memorial had to be moved to help some roadworks to be built, and the great thing was that the Officer community, rather than looking at this as a negative, turned it into something amazing. They moved the memorial gates, built beautiful surrounds with gardens and did an incredible job. I must congratulate Rob and Carol Porter for all their hard work in getting involved in this event, and all the Officer community for their dedication.

Finally, like we have heard so many people say in this chamber, Anzac Day was something very special. I started at the Emerald dawn service, dropped into the Gembrook RSL and the Cockatoo RSL, went to the fantastic 11 am service at Berwick and made my way over to the Upwey RSL. I congratulate the members of Upwey RSL for all the fantastic work they have done. Then I went up to the Dandenong Ranges RSL. It was a fantastic day. It is a day of respect and a day of remembering all those who have served this country and in particular the 60,000 soldiers who lost their lives and are buried overseas. We always pay respects to their descendants, who were there out in force on Anzac Day.

See this speech in context