Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise and speak on behalf of Corangamite residents on the Prime Minister's motion on the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli.

The Centenary of Anzac is the most significant period of commemoration in our nation's history. The 25th of April 2015 marked 100 years since that first fateful landing at Gallipoli. It was a very special time but a very challenging time for every Australian, young and old.

I have been incredibly proud to have represented the people of Corangamite at this incredibly important time in our nation's history, principally through the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program. I want to join my parliamentary colleagues in commending the work of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Senator Michael Ronaldson, for the way this program has been delivered to all electorates and to all people right around Australia.

As we know, the government is committed to ensuring the Centenary of Anzac is community focused; it helps locals commemorate, remember and pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of Australians who have served their nation. This resonated everywhere I went, as we made many announcements under the Anzac Centenary Local Grants program. It was a great joy, I have to say, to join with so many communities across Corangamite to celebrate the work of local RSLs, local schools and local organisations, in their various activities to commemorate our national service and sacrifice at this very significant time.

I think for many people at this time this is also very personal. So many families around the nation were directly impacted by those who went before them in the service and sacrifice they gave on behalf of our nation. For my family, it was also personal. Private Raymond Sullivan was a member of the 7th Australian Infantry Battalion. He was particularly special of course because he was a great great uncle of mine. He was actually one of 750 Australians to die on the day of that fateful landing at Anzac Cove. It is a very sad story. He, like so many others, arrived on the beaches and within a matter of hours this young 24-year-old butcher from Brunswick lay on the fields, shot in both legs and within 24 hours he was dead due to blood loss or exposure. It destroyed his family.

For many months, Raymond's parents did not know whether he was dead or alive. In 1916 the Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau of the Australian Red Cross took evidence about Raymond's death and reported that a witness said he believed he was about the last man to see Sullivan on the day of the Anzac landing. He was lying on the ground. He thought he was pretty well even though he was shot in both legs and the witness gave him some cigarettes and drink from his water bottle and then heard nothing further. As we know, he was one of hundreds of men who died on that day. In World War I, from an Australian population of just under five million, 417,000 enlisted, 332,000 served overseas, 152,000 were wounded and more than 61,000 never came home.

These stories have affected so many families. It was with a great deal of joy that I joined with so many communities in the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Anzac. I would like to reflect on some of the local grants. The Bannockburn Primary School was awarded just over $3,000 for a beautiful remembrance garden. I am a big supporter of Bannockburn Primary School and their move to a new bigger school. They did an amazing job.

The Belmont Fire Brigade received just over $3,000 also to support a memorial commemorating the service and sacrifice of brigade members during World War I. On Sunday 19 April I officially opened the First World War Memorial Gates in Ceres, which had been restored with a $10,000-grant. That was one that really had been championed by the local community and was a fantastic project. The Belmont Primary School, another fabulous primary school in my electorate, received a grant to renew a memorial garden. The Colac RSL Sub-Branch received a grant to support the Cressy community with a new flagpole and some other restoration work at the Colac RSL Sub-Branch in Cressy.

In Torquay we had some fabulous announcements. In January, in fact, the Prime Minister announced funding for a new memorial plaque at Point Danger to honour residents who served in the First World War. That was certainly a wonderful day. Point Danger is an incredible part of Corangamite where this year some 15,000 or more people gathered for one of the largest Anzac Day services in Victoria. It is very reminiscent of the beaches of Gallipoli looking over the cliffs to the east as the sun rises. We were also incredibly proud to support the Torquay RSL, which does such an incredible job with that service, through a grant for a memorial garden.

There was another fantastic project that was supporting the Military Historical Society Geelong. And the Geelong military re-enactment group did an amazing job at their Gallipoli Before and Beyond event, which received a $15,000 Centenary of Anzac local grant. There were many more grants as communities from right across the very large electorate of Corangamite, some 7,500 square kilometres, did so much to work together to commemorate this very significant day.

The Lorne RSL and Historical Society unveiled a fabulous project. They celebrated and honoured 32 soldiers who enlisted from the Lorne area. They too have a memorial garden and they have done an incredible job to honour those who served from the Lorne area. The Surf Coast Shire is supporting a memorial walk along the Barwon River where we are actually upgrading the Princess Highway—a fantastic project that the federal government is working very hard on. It is a new walk of honour commemorating 64 Australians who received the Victoria Cross during the First World War, including Albert Jacka. Albert Jacka was a famous local resident. He was a great Australian and received a Victoria Cross for his heroic acts in Gallipoli in 1915. Some say that Albert Jacka was such an incredible soldier that he could have been honoured three times over.

The Golden Plains Shire received a grant for a wonderful project that they are doing, a local publication. There is a Teesdale photographic restoration project, a publication—the Meredith Soldier's Historyand also the restoration of the Teesdale War Memorial. We supported the Borough of Queenscliffe with its fabulous Anzac Day service and also the Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads RSLs with a number of grants to support both their activities in terms of reaching out to local school children through an education program and also an upgrade of the cenotaph in Barwon Heads.

I want to finally thank the great work of the Corangamite electorate committee—Graham Rawlins, Councillor Bob Merriman and Keith Hankin—who did an incredible job. It has been a great honour to join with the Corangamite community to commemorate this very important time in our nation's history. Lest we forget.

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